The Journey Toward Wholeness: Enneagram Wisdom for Stress, Balance, and Transformation, By Suzanne Stabile

The Journey Toward Wholeness

Enneagram Wisdom for Stress, Balance, and Transformation

by Suzanne Stabile

The Journey Toward Wholeness
hardcover
  • Length: 256 pages
  • Dimensions: 5.5 × 8.5 in
  • Published: November 02, 2021
  • Imprint: IVP Formatio
  • Item Code: A0116
  • ISBN: 9781514001165

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Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist

In everything from health care and politics to technology and economics, we are experiencing feelings of loss, anger, and anxiety. In the Enneagram's wisdom, our number determines how we respond. We automatically move to another number when we're feeling stress and to yet another when we're feeling secure. Such moves may help us feel better temporarily but don't last.

For those who want to dive deeper into Enneagram wisdom, expert teacher Suzanne Stabile opens the concept of three Centers of Intelligence: thinking, feeling, and doing. When we learn to manage these centers, each for its intended purpose, we open a path to reducing fear, improving relationships, growing spiritually, and finding wholeness. Drawing on the dynamic stability of the Enneagram, she explains each number's preferred and repressed Center of Intelligence and its role in helping us move toward internal balance. Using brief focused chapters, this book provides what we need to deal with the constant change and complexity of our world to achieve lasting transformation in our lives.

"There are true voices of wisdom in the Enneagram field, arising from people who have really done their homework, and Suzanne Stabile is such a person. In The Journey Toward Wholeness she places the Enneagram in its correct context—that of healing, of transformation, and of integrating the different aspects of our psyches. Suzanne brings tremendous experience in working with this material and in seeing what aspects of it truly help others. This wonderful book offers clear and accessible insight into the inner workings of our souls. It gives kind and steady guidance on how we can more consciously cooperate with grace and create more balanced, compassionate, and authentically spiritual lives. I suspect this book will be treasured by Enneagram students for many years to come."

Russ Hudson, author of The Enneagram: Nine Gateways to Presence and coauthor of The Wisdom of the Enneagram

"The Journey Toward Wholeness is timely and wise. In these pages, you'll find language that will guide you through the lifelong process of becoming who you were made to be. You'll find hope and next steps so you can keep traveling these liminal times at a graceful pace. This book caused me to feel seen and understood, and also challenged me to go deeper, right here where I am. Suzanne Stabile really spoke to me with this book, and I will be returning to it often."

Morgan Harper Nichols, author of All Along You Were Blooming and Forty Days on Being a Five

"During a time when the popularity of the Enneagram is unprecedented and sound bites are plentiful, the depth of this ancient wisdom is often overlooked. Suzanne Stabile, using her uncommon understanding of the Enneagram, coupled with her gift of synchronicity and a deep appreciation for storytelling, offers The Journey Toward Wholeness. It will be a treasured companion for those who seek the kind of spiritual transformation that will add both peace and goodness to their own lives and to the world around them."

Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation

"Suzanne Stabile's book will free you to know that there are endless lanes and numerous ways to live your most expansive life. Like the grandson Suzanne introduces us to, as a One I grew up following all the rules working hard to be good. Whatever our number may be, Suzanne encourages us to focus on changing what we do with what we see about ourselves and others. Then we can enjoy the creativity and experimentation that we will find room for."

Juanita Campbell Rasmus, author of Learning to Be and Forty Days on Being a One

"The Journey Toward Wholeness moves us beyond our common overidentification with Enneagram type by leading us into a greater understanding of who we have the innate capacity to become as a whole and integrated person. Through expanded Enneagram teaching, poignant stories, challenging questions, and relevant best practices, Suzanne Stabile expertly guides us in the truth that life can be wildly complex, but that does not mean it needs to be complicated."

Jerome D. Lubbe, author of The Brain-Based Enneagram: You Are Not a Number

"Long before the Enneagram was a buzzword at parties, church staff retreats, and neighborhood gathering spots, Suzanne Stabile was studying the Enneagram and sharing her insights with others. In The Journey Toward Wholeness, perhaps her most ambitious project to date, she wove her love of a good story with her passion for the Enneagram and produced a work that students and practitioners alike will find both readable and challenging. The Journey Toward Wholeness moves beyond the traditional topics that fascinate Enneagram enthusiasts—relationships and endless descriptions of our various and predictable personality traits—to explore some of the weightier dynamics of this tool, offering both a hope and a challenge: Are we willing to abandon our habitual ways of showing up in the world to become more fully human as a gift to the world?"

Teresa McBean, executive director of the National Association for Christian Recovery and pastor of Northstar Community

"Living on automatic is one of the easiest things to do in life. If we are to become more intentional and conscious, kindness and honesty are two of the most important qualities we need for the journey of our soul. Longtime and highly respected Enneagram teacher Suzanne Stabile infuses her accessible writings with these qualities as she weaves her wisdom through stories and practices that will meet you on your journey. I highly recommend The Journey Toward Wholeness for readers seeking a guide of rare depth."

Roxanne Howe-Murphy, author of Deep Living with the Enneagram: Recovering Your True Nature

"Stabile explores how one can recognize and use one's enneagram type to forge a more secure, healthier future. . . . This will be most appreciated by those already all-in with the Enneagram."

Publishers Weekly Review, August 2021
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Read an Excerpt

CONTENTS

Introduction: Toward a Balanced Life

Part One: Triads: Naming and Managing Your Dominant Center of Intelligence
Overview: How We Are Broken . . . and How We Can Be Healed
Chapter One: What Do I Feel? The Heart Triad's Responses to Stress

2s: I Can Say No
3s: I Can Allow Feelings
4s: My Feelings . . . and Yours


Chapter Two: What Do I Think? The Head Triad's Responses to Stress

5s: Finding Comfort in the World
6s: Trusting My Experience and Myself
7s: I Can Choose to Be Satisfied


Chapter Three: What Needs to Be Done? The Gut Triad's Responses to Stress

8s: I Can Slow Down
9s: Decide More, Merge Less
1s: Two Things Can Be True



Part Two: Stances: Naming and Managing Your Repressed Center of Intelligence
Overview: The Soul Work of the Repressed Center
Chapter Four: The Withdrawing Stance: Moving Away from Others


4s: Choose the Ordinary
5s: Be Present to the World
9s: Make a Choice—You Can Change Your Mind


Chapter Five: The Aggressive Stance: Standing Independently


3s: I Am More Than What I Do
7s: All Feelings Matter
8s: Vulnerability Is Not Weakness


Chapter Six: The Dependent Stance: Moving Toward Others


1s: "And It Was Good"
2s: What Do I Need?
6s: All Shall Be Well



Conclusion: What Are You Willing to Give Up for Transformation?

Acknowledgments
Notes

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Suzanne Stabile

Suzanne Stabile is a highly sought-after speaker, teacher, and internationally recognized Enneagram master teacher who has taught thousands of people over the last thirty years. She is the author of The Path Between Us, The Journey Toward Wholeness, and coauthor, with Ian Morgan Cron, of The Road Back to You. She is also the creator and host of The Enneagram Journey podcast. Along with her husband, Rev. Joseph Stabile, she is cofounder of Life in the Trinity Ministry. Their ministry home, the Micah Center, is located in Dallas, Texas.