How to Embrace Spring, Based On Your Enneagram Type

Besides summer, spring is the season I look forward to the most; primarily because it’s synonymous with fresh beginnings and feeling clean. We’re clearing out our spaces and making them more open with spring cleaning days. But what feels even better is spring cleaning our mental spaces!

With that in mind, I thought of one thing each Enneagram type should consider doing to brighten up their mental spaces this spring.

Not sure what your Enneagram type is? Take our free questionnaire here

Type One: Change up your routines

Many type Ones began the year with a set of goals and routines to help them stay on track. These goals worked at the beginning of the year, because they aligned with where you were back then. But do those goals and habits still align with who you are? Are there any habits that are overwhelming your life rather than bringing you joy and contentment?

This spring, sit down and consider the things you do every day. Ask yourself if it’s time to create routines based on a new goal, or if the routines have gotten in the way of really “living”. Many people can fall into a rut of “status quo bias”. This is a phenomena where you stick with what you know even if it isn’t productive or enjoyable. According to this article on Medium, shaking up your routine can increase your focus, improve your memory, enhance creativity, and help us re-evaluate our values and lifestyle.

For example, perhaps every night you watch the news to stay informed. But if it’s causing more worry and stress than joy, making conscious effort to step away from your routines this spring could help you realign with what matters to you most.

Find out more about Ones: 21 Signs That You’re an Enneagram One Type

Type Two: Take a break from social life

Even though I’m a Four, we start to look like unhealthy Twos in times of stress. So while I cannot speak exactly to the experience of being a Two, these past few months have given me so much insight to what they go through in times of insecurity.

Unhealthy Twos can develop a mindset when there are just two characters in their lives: themselves and “Other People”. It’s them against the world. Each day is another chapter in their love-hate relationship with “Other People”. Many times they come home from social situations feeling either accepted or rejected.

Insecure Twos can become sensitive to the reactions of other people, seeing every interaction as either adoration or complete rejection. This is because they are especially sensitive to outside opinions. In the end, they just want to be seen and affirmed. But this sensitivity and longing for any kind of affirmation can make social life an emotional roller-coaster.

This spring, Twos should take a social break. This does not mean closing yourself off from your loved ones. It means taking some time to step away from social activities and social media to reflect.

Tell your loved ones that you’ll be spending some more alone time over the next few days and spend those days examining your life. Check in on yourself, because you need it. Look up journal prompts for growth and type responses in your Notes app. Define your core values. If you already have them, re-examine them. Think about what you want from relationships. Ask yourself why you stay in relationships that don’t work.

Social breaks don’t close you off from the world — they give you the tools to re-enter it with a strong sense of self.

Find out more about Twos: 21 Signs That You’re an Enneagram 2 Type

Type Three: Replace a commitment with a wellness practice

If anybody expects more from themselves than they do of others, it’s type Threes!

Threes place so much of their worth into being able to not just juggle all of their responsibilities, but keep adding more. As they move through life, they are eager to keep growing and taking on more goals — but they feel guilty about letting past ones go. To many Threes, quitting a commitment or task can feel like a sign of weakness.

However, Threes must realize that nobody else expects them to be superhuman and keep up with an impossible amount of tasks. That’s because it is not possible.

To keep your workload realistic this spring, replace a commitment that you have outgrown with a mindfulness practice.

I know that it can be scary, but stop going to that club that you joined solely for the sake of your resume. Say “no” to extra activities for work that are draining your energy levels. Take care of your body and mind by practicing meditation, deep breathing, yoga or other wellness activities. Learn to rest your body and replenish your soul.

Remember that there is no need to keep up with the world’s expectations when it comes to what you should be doing with your life. Put aside any feelings of guilt for letting go of commitments and trust that you will find something more fulfilling to replace it.

Discover more about Threes: The Enneagram 3 Child

Type Four: Expand your identity

Because they long so much for a stable identity, Fours are prone to building their identities around a set group of interests.

This can look like committing to a sport and then allowing their identity as an athlete to define them, or seeing themselves strictly as people who read, paint, or play music. A Four who is more into intellectual pursuits than sports will recognize this and use it as a major component of their identity.

However, this can close Fours off from experiences beyond the circle they have drawn around their interests. Fours who are artists could miss out on finding a sport they really like because they tell themselves, “I’m not an athletic person. I am an artist.” This fixed identity leads to fixed routines, which will make life seem cyclical.

But imagine if, instead of putting yourself in the same box, you were open to trying new things?

What kind of experiences would you gain?

What new flavor would be added to your life?

This spring, expand your identity by picking up a new hobby. Think of something you have always wanted to do, but never felt you could because you’re “not the type of person”. It could be kickboxing, earring-making, or anything that challenges your perception of yourself.

Staying open to new things and refusing to see yourself as a stagnant human being will bring new joys into your life.

Find out more about Fours: Enneagram 4 – The Individualist

Type Five: Pick up a relaxing exercise

If there’s one thing that type Fives are known for, it’s thinking too much.

Overthinking is usually characterized by anxious conclusion-drawing and over analysis of situations. While Fives can struggle with this, overthinking for them usually just looks like spending too much time in their brains. They aim to understand the world, and think from multiple points of view at the same time. This is a beautiful trait, but it leads to Fives dissociating from reality. Because they spend so much of life in their heads, they often look back on experiences and find that they do not remember what should have been precious memories, because they were not present.

To get out of your mind, pick up a relaxing exercise.

Exercise not only boosts your physical and mental health, but also makes you more present and aware of your body. Relaxing exercises especially get you more in tune with your body.

If you don’t want to try yoga, try pilates — it has similar exercises and health benefits, but no spiritual aspect. Water aerobics is NOT just for the elderly and is very fun. Some of my friends signed up for daily spin classes at the local gym so that they could have routine and community.

Relaxing exercise is a great way to get yourself out of the same mind patterns. It reminds you that you’re more than your thoughts.

Find out more about Fives: The Enneagram 5 Investigator

Type Six: Reduce your technological stimulation

To stay focused on your goals and to protect your health, reduce how much technological stimulation is in your daily life.

Sixes are hardworking and practical. They foresee potential problems before anybody else does. Unfortunately, this often leads to major overthinking and anxiety. What makes it worse is constant screen time and audio stimulation.

This spring, dim your phone screen and reduce your screen time by one hour. Seeing that you have one hour less than usual will stop you from mindless scrolling, which is just an ineffective way to ignore your anxiety.

Turn off notifications on the apps that you never use — or better yet, delete the apps that you never use. Clean out your digital calendar and unsubscribe from spam mail instead of just deleting it. Notice how you feel after scrolling Twitter. Do you feel encouraged and joyful or drained and anxious? Use this assessment with all of your apps and delete the ones that are continually depleting you.

Don’t use your phone for the first hour after you wake up. Remind yourself that ultimately, there’s nothing there for you on your phone. So what if you get a text or have Instagram notifications? So what if you don’t? It doesn’t add to or take away from who you are.

Instead, replace looking at your phone every morning with stretching and repeating positive affirmations. Relax your mind instead of being in a constant state of underlying anxiety.

Find out more about Sixes: The Enneagram 6 Loyalist

Type Seven: Increase your self awareness

Something that my type Seven friend had to learn last year was that escapism is not a sustainable lifestyle.

Yes, keeping a positive outlook on life is good. Yes, it’s wise to not blow every small inconvenience out of proportion. But Sevens who are not in tune with their emotions tend to view hurts and challenges as interruptions to the fun time that is life. This means that they convince themselves that they’re fine and sweep “bad” emotions under the rug.

But this isn’t sustainable because those emotions don’t simply disappear. They fester and build until they explode later. To keep this from happening, Sevens should increase their self awareness and create healthy coping mechanisms.

This spring, do this through journaling.

Journal, journal, journal. You don’t have to buy a fancy notebook. If you don’t like writing and your hand gets tired easily, type on a Google document or your Notes app. Look up a list of journal prompts for emotional growth and thoughtfully answer one a day. Five minutes doing this in a day can positively impact the whole rest of your day.

Sit in your thoughts and teach yourself not to be afraid of them.

Find out more about Sevens: The Enneagram 7 Enthusiast

Type Eight: Realize the other emotions behind your anger

It’s a stereotype that Eights are inherently angry people. But it’s accurate to say that more than any other type, Eights more easily feel the injustice that leads to anger.

They react strongly to people wronging either them or their friends, and have a difficult time controlling that anger once it’s there. But one thing that helps dissolve anger is recognizing that anger always stems from another feeling. This spring, work on identifying the feelings behind your anger.

If a situation is bothering you, ask yourself why it makes you feel this way. Is it touching on your insecurities? Do you feel disrespected? Why?

I recently had to think about why a girl I knew was making me so angry. After talking it through with a friend, I realized that she made me feel insecure because she was better at school than me — and I base plenty of my worth in academic validation.

Identify the people who are making you feel angry and the reasons why you feel this way. And if you are consistently being disrespected, ask yourself what people and situations you need to distance yourself from.

Discover more about Eights: The Enneagram 8 Challenger

Type Nine: Trim your social circle

I respect Nines for their ability to put up with people they don’t like. More than any other type, they have the patience for handling difficult people and an affinity for mediating conflicts. This can be a very good thing, but it can also set them up for consistent disrespect.

Many Nines overlook mean behavior. Because confrontation is too unpleasant or risks creating disharmony, they put up with less-than-ideal treatment from people. However, this is no longer peaceful mediation. It’s people-pleasing.

People-pleasing to the point of accepting disrespect only hurts your self esteem. It sets you up to receive even worse relationships later in life, because you have conditioned yourself to accept bad treatment as normal.

The chances are, if you have to question whether someone’s behavior was okay, it wasn’t. This is why this spring, you should trim people who are consistently rude out of your social circle.

Of course, you should give people the chance to improve, because maybe they don’t know they are coming off as disrespectful. If you value the friendship, communicate how you feel and give them a chance. If they don’t stop hurting you, stop reciprocating their friendship.

I’m not naturally good at confronting people and ending things, but here are some things that worked for me:

• Not responding to text messages (you don’t disrespectful friends a response)
• Curbing efforts to hang out
• Standing up when it’s necessary and saying that you don’t want to continue the friendship.

This is your life, and you can’t consistently make yourself sadder or more insecure because you’re afraid to confront someone who doesn’t care about you. Be respectful, but be firm.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this article? Do you have any suggestions for other readers with your Enneagram type? Let us know in the comments!