The journey between knowing myself, thinking that I was a type and then going and discovering that I’m another type made me realize a lot of things about my childhood. It made me see a lot of sides of myself that I didn’t see before. I couldn’t see because I was basically hiding them, hiding behind another type.
Maggie Balbaa is an Integral Coach, Trainer, Family Constellation Facilitator, Enneagram Teacher and Writer.
She has also studied NLP and Reiki healing.
Maggie Balbaa points to type 8 and talks to Flemming Christensen in this interview in Ennegram Insights podcast.
She is the president of the International Enneagram Conference in Cairo in 2024 and talks about the intention for the conference, her personal Enneagram journey and what to expect, if you come to Egypt.
The Conference is called “Remember what you are”.
Interview with Maggie Balbaa
In a Enneagram Insights podcast interview by Flemming Christensen Maggie talks about her journey with the Enneagram and how the theme of the IEA Conference “Remember what you are” came about as a collective brainstorm and discovery.
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Did not like the Enneagram originally
Maggie Balbaa started studying NLP and different modalities of healing.
She has studied Reiki and Family Constellation and has just finished the Somatic Enneagram Certification with Marion Gilbert and is in the process of becoming a Narrative Enneagram Trainer.
But in the beginning Maggie Balbaa did not like the Enneagram.
Maggie Balbaa: “I thought it’s very labeling.
My introduction course was about what each type does and how they think and so on. It’s not really how I usually label people and I really don’t like boxes.”
But years later in early 2017 she started studying it again and now with Khaled Elsherbini.
“I started understanding the lens of developing yourself and understanding yourself more and that it’s all about motivations and fears and where you’re standing in your life, how you can develop and so on.
So I started really looking at it from a different angle.”
Interview with Rania Hussein on Enneagram Egypt 2024 and her Enneagram Journey
Wrong Enneagram type
In the beginning Maggie Balbaa identified as a type seven.
She had a long journey into discovering she was a type eight. It started with PhD Ginger Lapid-Bogda who told her that her energy is not that of a seven.
She should reconsider.
They were also discovering mental patterns, emotional patterns and so on. Something did not quite fit.
“And then, of course, as an angry type, I was so angry at the Enneagram because I had already sat on many panels and talked as a very conscious seven who has foregone a very long distance and is now living in the reality instead of in the future and so on.
The journey itself, I appreciated it a lot later because the journey between knowing myself, thinking that I was a type and then going and discovering that I’m another type.
It made me realize a lot of things about my childhood.
It made me see a lot of sides of myself that I didn’t see before. I couldn’t see because I was basically hiding them, hiding behind another type.
If I think about it now, it might actually be a very brilliant denial defense mechanism from my ego that I’m just hiding behind someone else’s ego.
And this was much easier for me.”
Enneagram Conference in Cairo
Maggie Balbaa is the president of the Enneagram Conference in Cairo in 2024.
Flemming Christensen is looking forward to attending.
They talk of what to see in Egypt.
Maggie Balbaa confirms it is safe to come in spite of the situation between Gaza and Israel:
“We want this conference to be a hub as a call for peace. This is actually real inner work. This is what the Enneagram is about.
I want the international community to trust us and know it is safe – we’re waiting to welcome you in our homes, in our home, actually, which is Egypt itself.”
The presence of a God and a Goddess
In the podcast interview, Maggie Balbaa explains the process behind arranging the conference in 2024.
35 people brainstormed and came with a long list of themes and ideas for the conference.
The facilitator of the process was Mustafa Abdel Mohamed.
“There was a general theme of calling the wisdom of Egypt land and calling onto our roots.
Remembrance was also a theme”, says Maggie Balbaa.
“There was a lot of presence to one of the Egyptian gods: The God Ra, he came up a lot.
Ra is the focal point of Egyptian gods and the Pharaonic culture. And then everyone comes down as a descendant from him.
His energy was very strong that many people wrote about him.
So it was very weird. We were divided into groups and yet many people mentioned something that has to do with him.
So we started reading about him.”
In Egyptian Egyptology the feminine energy is represented by the goddess Isis.
“She’s the protector, the nurturer and the support of the male figures in the gods, in the Egyptian gods. And we also felt her presence a lot.”
Remember what you are
The Conference is called “Remember what you are”.
It signifies the inward shift of coming in contact with life itself through all that exists.
The vision is to welcome all voices and opinions to provide a compassionate environment that enables the integration of our whole being.
Maggie Balbaa explains in the podcast:
“We were like six of us attending a course with Russ Hudson and Sandra Maitri like a few months earlier.
They had the loop game that Russ Hudson always does in his retreats. So this loop game that time was the question for type four.
It was: “Who are you?” And then you needed to explain.
And then you go again and so on for twenty minutes.
And then after the second rotation, when you start a new round, you say, “what are you instead of who are you”?
So we realized that this question has a very different answer.
Like when you answer, who are you is very different from when you answer, what are you? It hits directly into the essence.
In the end we all chose “Remember what you are.”
Exchange of knowledge and experience
IEA Egypt Conference 2024 wants to create a hub, where Enneagram experts as well as enthusiasts from across the world get to exchange knowledge and experience.
And promoting an integral approach towards the application of Enneagram across other different disciplines.
You can listen to Enneagram Insights podcast on alle podcast apps and listen to the full interview with Maggie Balbaa.
IEA EGYPT Conference 2024 26-28. January 2024 Crowne Plaza West Cairo-Arkan Keynote speaker: Khaled ElSherbini Endnote speaker: Marion Gilbert
https://ieaegyptconference.com/
