Enneagram: "A Tool For Compassion" - Sleeping At Last
This. This. This.
SLEEPING AT LAST
Years ago, I was in the passenger seat of my friend Jason's car, and we were driving around in LA. He turns on music by this artist "Sleeping At Last". I tell him I've never heard of them. He tells me that when I listen to his songs, I'm gonna cry.
First of all, whenever someone hypes something up like that, even if I want to be impacted by it, I already start building up a wall and brace myself to be disappointed. He turns on the album "Yearbook". We sit quietly in the car in LA traffic, listening. And there I am, a few minutes into one of the songs, and I'm in tears. I immediately laugh in disbelief and say "HOW DID THAT HAPPEN"? 😭😭😭
ENNEAGRAM
Fast forward to a few months ago when I was introduced (for the 2nd time) to the Enneagram. Years ago, our friends in NY tried to turn my wife and I onto this personality test - and I immediately gave up trying to understand it. Probably because an example of the worst version of my enneagram type was OJ Simpson, and for Jinny, it was Woody Allen. I didn't want to know anymore. 😂
But this 2nd time around, it stuck (thanks to Doug and Adele Calhoun - who I also happen to work with!). In fact, I became OBSESSED about learning everything I can about it - because unlike other personality tests that merely assess you as you are and leave it at that, the Enneagram can show you specifically what steps you can take to become a BETTER version of your true self. Let me unpack that a little. There are a total of 9 Enneagram types, and out of the 9, everyone has a predominant type (and some would argue that we are born with this dominant type). I can either be a "healthy" version of that number, or "unhealthy" version (and there's middle of the road too). It depends on the state or season that I'm in, but the fact that I'm that number really doesn't change. If you take a good test, it tells you what you can do to become a healthier version. I don't know if that makes sense, but I'm really BLAZING through this because I don't want to really EXPLAIN the ENNEAGRAM here, I want to talk about what I'm excited to tell you about! (But if you want to learn more about the Enneagram, THIS IS A GOOD PLACE TO START)
NOW, PUT THOSE TWO TOGETHER
Late this summer, I found out that "Sleeping At Last" is going to start a new project where he's going to write songs from the perspective of each enneagram type! I already knew I was going to love it, and I couldn't wait! And finally, last month there it was in my inbox, an email from Sleeping At Last, with a link to the new song: ONE.
It's as beautiful as I expected it to be.
This is just so many of my favorite things coming together! Simply gorgeous music with rich insightful lyrics, diving deep into each personality type. And it gets better. I just realized there is a podcast that Ryan O'Neal (of Sleeping At Last) started just a few months ago where he explains his process of writing songs, and in episode 4, he dissects ONE for us. He starts going into all the reasons why specific musical choices were made, and how they help personify a Type 1 in musical form, and I'll tell ya... Mind. Blown. Seriously, the enneagram lover, the producer & the musician in me is just GEEKING OUT every single minute of this podcast (honestly, if I was still doing music - I would just give up after listening to this because it's literally everything I wish I would have done if I was genius enough to even think about doing it!), and I can't really do it justice by regurgitating everything Ryan talks about, so if you are any of the following (Enneagram lover, a Type 1, someone who cares about Type 1s, a music lover, a musician with studio experience, or producer) - trust me, and listen to this episode. It is chock-full of good stuff:
EPISODE 4 "ONE" & The Enneagram
But what I love the most, and what really brings it all together is how he describes what the Enneagram is to him. He called it "A Tool For Compassion". YES! I resonate so much with that description. I remember when I first began understanding how the Enneagram worked, not only did I obsess over learning more about myself, I started reading up on EVERY type. Then I started running through the Enneagram types of all the important people in my life, and if I happened to know their number - things began to click. If I didn't, I tried to take a guess at what numbers my friends/loved ones were (and a decent amount of times, I was right 😁). I started having empathy for those people as I began to understand better how they were wired. Then I started to wonder what my 2 year old son's enneagram type might be, and how I might be able to equip him for success to be the healthiest version of that type!
I want to be healthy. I want to connect with those I love. At the core, this is why I'm a huge fan of The Enneagram. And now, thanks to Sleeping At Last, we can all literally have a "soundtrack of our lives".
EDIT (11/17/17) - QUICK NOTE TO THOSE WONDERING WHERE THEY CAN HEAR THE SONGS:
The Enneagram songs are part of a series called ATLAS 2. You can find the songs on iTunes and on, SPOTIFY (they are the latest songs in the Playlist) BUT what I really suggest is that you listen to his podcast where he explains the song AND you can hear the song there as well (or if you're already a SAL fan or JUST became a fan - SUBSCRIBE to his mailing list and you'll get all the goodness before it's public!)
PS - Without cheating, since I have the info in my "About Section", if you know me, and know the enneagram - what would you guess my number to be? :)