Aaron Manes

The Enneagram offers each person a unique experience, which is part of what makes it such a powerful tool for self-awareness, growth, and transformation. For those who engage with it deeply, it becomes far more than a system of types—it becomes a map for understanding the energies that drive us and a guide for meaningful spiritual work.

As a Spiritual Director, I often accompany individuals as they encounter the deeply ingrained patterns that shape their lives. These moments—when someone begins to recognize and break free from the automatic behaviors tied to their Enneagram type—are both powerful and tender. However, this process can initially feel scattered. Many people bring bits and pieces of what they’ve already learned about the Enneagram through memes, online tests, or surface-level interpretations. My goal is to help clients move beyond simply identifying their type and instead begin their journey by engaging the energetic patterns that drive their experience.

In my Somatic Enneagram work and training with Marion Gilbert, I have come to understand the Enneagram as a wisdom tool that invites us into deeper awareness of our way of being. This approach focuses on the dynamic energies of the three intelligence centers—Head, Heart, and Body—and the universal emotions that arise within them: fear, shame, and anger. While these emotions are often mentioned in Enneagram teachings, their embodied experience is not always explored.

Through prayer, contemplation, and study, I’ve been exploring how to use the Enneagram more effectively in spiritual direction. One of the sources I’ve encountered is The Enneagram and Prayer by Metz and Burchill (Dimension Books, 1987), which bridges the Enneagram’s wisdom with contemplative formation. This article series builds on those insights, expanding the conversation about how fear, anger, and shame manifest in our lives and how we can engage these energies as pathways toward deeper spiritual transformation.

The Energetic Expressions of the Three Centers

Each intelligence center holds its own relationship with energy, and it is through these relationships that we begin to uncover deeper truths about ourselves:

  • The Head Center (5, 6, 7): This center carries inside energy. For individuals in this center, the internal world is a safe and familiar space. The experience of fear arises when they are invited to engage outwardly, to step beyond the safety of their thoughts into action and the unknown.
  • The Heart Center (2, 3, 4): This center carries outside energy. The focus is external, attuned to the emotions, expectations and energies of others. However, this outward orientation can create a sense of inner emptiness or lack. Shame arises here, as individuals may feel they lack an authentic internal grounding and instead rely on external validation.
  • The Body Center (8, 9, 1): The Body Center is unique in its ability to engage with both inner and outer spaces simultaneously. Anger emerges when there is a disruption in their sense of balance, autonomy, or connection to their instincts.

Moving from Energy to Transformation

To integrate this work into spiritual direction, we begin with an exploration of these energies—fear, shame, and anger—not simply as reactive emotions, but as pathways to transformation. By bringing compassionate attention to how these energies move within us, we create space for embodied curiosity. From there, the work expands into intentional spiritual practices that ground us in presence and connection.

In this article series, we will start with the Body Center—those who lead with Types 8, 9, and 1. The Body Center’s relationship with anger offers an opportunity to explore how this energy shapes both our inner and outer worlds. By learning to engage with this energy intentionally, we can transform reactive patterns into a deeper alignment with our true self, creating the conditions for healing, growth, and spiritual transformation.

This is where our journey begins: with the Body Center, where energy is grounded, present, and ready to move.

When Big Energy Meets Overwhelming Circumstances: A Story of an Enneagram 8

He teared up.

I’m always a bit apprehensive when I meet with a new client who identifies as an Enneagram Type 8. Eights tend to bring a powerful presence into any space, and that energy fills even the smallest room—or, in some cases, a computer screen during a virtual session.

In our first session, I often ask clients to “tell me what they want to tell me.” It’s an open invitation, designed to let them start where they feel ready, especially when they’re not sure where to begin. On this particular day, as my new client shared about several life circumstances that led him to seek inner work, one thing quickly became apparent: he was facing something he couldn’t control.

He described demands from every corner of his life—family, work, community responsibilities, and, most significantly, his own high expectations. These pressures were piling up, creating a familiar and ominous sense of overwhelm. He spoke about how, in the past, similar circumstances had led to bad outcomes, and he could feel that happening again. The strategies and approaches that typically served him well no longer seemed sufficient. The sheer number of tasks before him felt like an unruly force he couldn’t contain. This feeling of being out of control was unfamiliar—and deeply unsettling.

The Friction of the Body Center

For Eights, and for the other body types in the Enneagram (Ones and Nines), this kind of challenge often creates a profound inner friction. Body types instinctively sense a dynamic relationship between their inner energy—their vision of how the world should be—and the external reality they encounter. Sometimes, the world pushes back, resisting their energy.

This friction is at the root of the body center’s energetic anger. It’s the tension between who they want to be and what life seems to allow them to be. For Eights, this tension can feel like an opponent they’re constantly wrestling, a fight to assert their inner strength and vision in the face of external resistance.

When the Armor Breaks

As we began to explore his situation further, I gently guided him to inquire into what was present for him about the expectations he was facing. At first, what showed up was a sense of unbearable weight—an image of carrying more than he could handle. And then, his big energy softened. Tears welled up in his eyes.

In that moment, something profound happened. The armor that Eights often wear, their instinctual drive to stand strong no matter what, cracked just enough to let something else through: vulnerability. This wasn’t weakness; it was the courage to face the truth of his inner experience, to name the overwhelm and acknowledge that his usual ways of being couldn’t resolve this situation.

Moving Forward

For a Type 8, this moment of surrender isn’t about giving up—it’s about transformation. It’s a chance to step into a new way of engaging with life, one that doesn’t rely solely on strength and control. By allowing himself to feel the weight and the tears, my client took the first step toward creating space for something new: a deeper connection to his true self and a path forward that integrates both his inner power and his capacity for vulnerability.

This is the gift of somatic work with body types. When the tension between inner and outer worlds feels unbearable, the body has wisdom to share. It’s in the tears, the weight, and even the anger that we find the keys to healing and growth. And for an Eight, sometimes the bravest thing they can do is let that energy soften—just enough to see what lies beneath.

The Body Types: Navigating the Inside and Outside

The Enneagram’s Body Center types (8, 9, and 1) offer a unique lens for understanding how individuals engage with internal and external energies. Unlike the Head and Heart Centers, Body types are rooted in an instinctual, relational comfort with life force energy. This rising energy, often linked to an inner truth, intuition or conviction, creates a dynamic interplay between the internal and external worlds.

For Body types, the “inside” represents their deeply held beliefs about how the world should be. For the 8, this is a vision of a more just world; for the 9, a more peaceful world; and for the 1, a more correct or perfect world. These internal drives shape their daily experiences and life decisions. Enneagram teachers may use various terms to describe this energy, but it consistently reflects a striving toward “more”—more justice, more harmony, more perfection—based on their inner energy.

Navigating External Reality

When Body types encounter the realities of the outside world—whether through individuals, groups, or systems—they instinctively read the energy of their environment and form a response. This response often aligns with the “fight” instinct within the Body Center, but what they fight for varies:

  • 8s fight for dominance, ensuring they maintain control over their environment.
  • 9s fight for comfort, seeking to avoid disruption or conflict.
  • 1s fight for righteousness, striving to align external reality with their internal ideals of what is “right.”

This inner drive to reconcile their internal world with external realities can give rise to anger, the emotional signature of the Body Center. When the external world obstructs their pursuit of justice, peace, or correctness, the resulting friction between inside and outside creates a reaction – anger. 

The Struggle for Integrity

In a conversation with a friend who identifies as a 9, she described her experience as a struggle to discern “integrity” in her surroundings. For her, fully engaging with a person or system requires sensing its alignment or congruence with her inner values. When this integrity is absent, it creates deep discomfort, as she cannot change the system to align with her internal sense of harmony. This struggle has been a recurring pattern in her life, a quiet but persistent tension between her internal longing and the external world’s incongruence.

While the pace of response may differ—8’s and 1’s often react more quickly than 9’s—all Body types ultimately face a decision: whether to remain in an environment where their inner drives cannot find external alignment or to seek a new space where their inner and outer worlds feel more congruent. For many, the resolution comes in the form of seeking a more aligned external situation or to do the internal work that allows for imperfect environments.

The Body Center’s interplay between inside and outside energies offers profound insights. It reveals the deep connection between our instinctual drives and our spiritual longings for alignment, justice, and peace. For those on a spiritual path, understanding these dynamics invites compassion for oneself and others, as we navigate the sometimes painful, always transformative work of bridging our inner world with the realities of the outer world.

Invitation to Reflection

As you explore the dynamics of the Body Center, I invite you to take a moment of quiet reflection:

  • What resonated with you about how you relate to the outside world?
  • How does it feel internally when you must push against a person or system?
  • Where in your life do you already experience a sense of belonging, where your inner and outer worlds feel aligned?

These reflections can offer a deeper understanding of how energy moves within you and how your instinctual responses shape your experience of the world. May this awareness open pathways for compassion, transformation, and spiritual connection.

In the next article, we will turn to the Heart Center, exploring its external energy and the experience of engaging with the world while feeling the undercurrents of shame.

Aaron Manes (he/him) is a trained spiritual director, a certified Somatic Enneagram facilitator, an IEA Accredited Professional and an inner work healing practitioner. He is the co-host of The Somatic Enneagram Podcast. He creates and holds space as a companion, guide and facilitator for people willing to do the hard and brave work of finding themselves in the world. Aaron’s current projects also include bringing to life “Creativa” which is community-making expression for public inner work. Learn more at www.aaronmanes.com.