This ancient wisdom helps us to see the nine energies that manifest in the world and in ourselves. The Enneagram teachings help us to grow in self-awareness, enabling us to live in choice and not compulsion. Using the Enneagram for spiritual growth we recognize that we are actually not our number -- our number doesn’t define us, but is the energy that we find ourselves trapped in. The dominant space that we might identify with is actually the coping mechanism we learned early on to relate to others. Our “number” is like a hardened shell of protection that we have acquired to make sense of the world and patterns we use to relate to others.  Our true essence carries bits of all the spaces, and our work is to wake up to our true essence -- to love ourselves and start to shed that shell.