Belly as through a glass, darkly
This past year, I encountered the Enneagram for the first time–it’s a tool for, among other things, understanding human personalities, motivations, and life lessons. My type is 7. According to the book The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Ross Hudson, this suggests that the core fear that drives many of my actions on a subconscious level is the fear of not having enough.
This explained so much for me, so many themes — why I struggled so hard with jealousy for so many years, why I can’t drink alcohol, why I so often order more food than I actually need. It was just that combination of chagrin and relief that the authors said would mark the recognition of something true about myself within that particular body of wisdom.
So I overconsume. I’ve done it ever since childhood. And I have indeed had, for as long as I can remember, an underlying anxiety about not having what I need to be happy. I deeply fear not having enough — friends, love, free time, money, pizza, education, songs, attention, life experience, just about anything, really, could trigger this fear in me. On the other hand, having an enormous supply of anything (oatmeal, nails, socks, paper) has always been a great comfort to me.
It was actually quite helpful to have this pointed out to me. I did feel shame when I first saw myself in those terms. But I also felt the healing sting of letting some part of my shadow self come into the light. Yes, many of my most embarrassing moments arose from me being driven by this fear. Oh well. That’s part of who I am. It’s both part of my past and a potentiality of my present. To acknowledge this is sobering and also hopeful: once I allow myself to become conscious of my shadow, once I own it, I maybe start to choose something other than mindlessly acting it out.
On some level I have long thought of my belly as basically the evidence of my weakness or gluttony. Of course the feeling associated with thoughts like these is shame.
But it also occurred to me today that the belly is also a symbol of abundance.
It can remind me that whatever I fear, I HAVE been provided for throughout my entire life. I’ve never been homeless or friendless or without access to food. Seeing this, maybe I can relax a little, slow down a little, and celebrate my blessings a little, or a lot.
In fact, the older I get, the more I understand how much power I have to create my own life. I become more and more convinced that my highest happiness lies in being aligned with Divine will for my life, and that as I come closer to the right balance between action and surrender, I’ll receive absolutely everything I need to fulfill my soul’s purpose, nothing more and nothing less, exactly the perfect amount.
Yay belly! What a great teacher!
Heartland Soul 
I love your belly,oh yes I do.I love your belly,just as I love you.Whether naked or clothedit’s true,I love your bellyyes I do (cha, cha, cha) As we sing and dance tonight in Columbia,you will be in the circle of love and delight! halima From: Heartland Soul To: sschabilion@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 11:38 PM Subject: [New post] Day 13: Shadow Belly #yiv4045897980 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv4045897980 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv4045897980 a.yiv4045897980primaryactionlink:link, #yiv4045897980 a.yiv4045897980primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv4045897980 a.yiv4045897980primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv4045897980 a.yiv4045897980primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv4045897980 WordPress.com | heartlandsoul posted: ” This past year, I encountered the Enneagram for the first time–it’s a tool for, among other things, understanding human personalities, motivations, and life lessons. My type is 7. According to the book The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don ” | |
O So Happy that you’ll hold me in the circle of love and delight! 😀 I’ll tune in and send my love to you all, too!
A 7, eh? Funny, I’ve been pegging you as another 9, mostly because you never seem to grasp how awesome you are. 😉 But come to think of it, so many of the things I’ve always most admired in you are 7ish qualities– your spontaneity and quick wit and sense of fun– even this “I must be daring and do things that scare me!” stuff. Gluttony, shmuttony, I always liked 7s. 😀
Haha so glad you like 7s! 😀 Yes when I read it I was pretty much like, yep, that’s completely me, and it explains do much! Both “yikes” and “whew.” Interesting that you’d pegged me as a 9, too! 🙂
Yeah, I feel kind of embarrassed that I DID peg you as a 9, because when I look at it it’s such an obviously 9ish thing for me to have done: “Here is my dearest to my heart friend, she MUST feel the very same things as me because she is so kindred!” Although if there’s anything to the tritype concept, I AM going to guess that 9 is your gut-fix or whatever they call it. So I’m not, like, entirely wrong. Still, you were Elinor to my Marianne in high school! Which would have made me a 4 anyway. Although Elinor is far too practical to really be a 9, either, she’s just repressed. Well, anyway, my point is I always SAW the 7ish elements of you but I was so MERGEY that I just saw my own issues in things that you do instead. DUH.
Ahhhh….awareness. Such a scary and wonderous place to be…. it takes courage to stand in awareness for me…. sometimes i feel relief and my crazy behaviors make sense for the first time….
O Sandy, yes exactly! It makes my crazy behaviors make sense. Then sometimes I have more compassion for myself & others instead of self blame.