What stories do you tell yourself?

This last weekend I was interested to listen to a TED interview podcast on YouTube with Yuval Noah Harari in which he talks about some of the challenges facing humanity at this particular time in our history. He talks about the stories that have brought us together or driven us apart and he stresses the importance of knowing ourselves and of exploring ancient philosophical questions such as what makes a good life. He says: 'We have reached a point in human history where technology is forcing us to do this inner spiritual quest or we are going to pay a much higher price for not knowing ourselves than ever before - and this is not going to be easy''. He argues that taking the time to get to know ourselves 'often means getting to know the stories in your mind. If you really take the time to get to know the stories inside yourself and what they are doing to you, I think this is the best inoculation against the worst stories around because the stories that harm humanity usually start by harming you'.

This is a very succinct way of summing up what the Enneagram reveals if we take the time to study it. It illuminates our stories for us - stories that started in childhood and have been with us so long that we have taken them to be truths and yet, with some self-exploration, increased self-knowledge and understanding we come to realise that those truths are in fact.... just stories. Stories we have told ourselves and on which we have hung our identity. It can be a revelation to realise that, powerful though our stories may be, they are a product of our minds and not who we are.