What is being Developed in Personal Development? Russ Hudson

The Enneagram work certainly can have an effect on the personality, but it’s really about working on a deeper part of us. When we’re looking at what the Enneagram is originally intended to develop, it’s more about the development of essence. It’s soul work. It’s like the raw material of what we are born with – and the part of us that can mature and develop for real. Not just be rearranged, but actually grow and develop.

Russ Hudson on Personal Development

 

 

We talk alot about Personal Development in the Enneagram World.

 

 

But what exactly is being developed in personal development?

 

 

This is the question that Flemming Christensen is asking Enneagram Expert Russ Hudson in “Enneagram Insights Podcast – On Awareness, Presence and Relationships”.

 

 

This interview has originally been published in Flemming Christensen´s Danish podcast Enneagrammet Next Level.

 

 

 

We can develop many things

 

Russ Hudson in Enneagram Insights podcast: “There are a lot of different parts of us that we can develop.

 

Obviously we can develop physically, you go to the gym and you get in shape and you’re developing your physical body and your capacities.

 

 

You can develop your mind by learning and learning how to learn. There are some methods that really work at restructuring the personality.

 

 

Some elements of psychotherapy aim at making the personality work better, less to get rid of some of the problematic parts of the personality so it functions better.

 

 

NLP is looking at restructuring the personality.

 

 

The Enneagram work certainly can have an effect on the personality, but it’s really about working on a deeper part of us.

 

 

The development of Essence

 

 

Now, if people have studied the Enneagram, they may have run into the terms of “personality” and “essence” and “being”.

 

 

When we’re looking at what the Enneagram is originally intended to develop, it’s more about the development of Essence. It’s Soul Work, as it were.

 

 

Let’s just say that soul or the part of us that develops is, in Gurdjieff’s language, the part of us that we’re born with.

 

 

It’s like the raw material of what we are – and the part of us that can mature and develop for real. Not just be rearranged, but actually grow and develop.”

 

 

A maturation of the Human Being

 

 

Russ Hudson:

 

 

“The Enneagram is really about developing a maturation of the human being, which is the part of us that can actually connect with another human being.

 

 

It’s the part of us that is able to receive new ideas or inspirations, new understandings.

 

 

It’s the part of us that can be courageous in the face of difficulties.”

 

 

A life worth living

 

 

Russ Hudson in Enneagram Insights podcast: “Even though we don’t spend a lot of time focusing on this part of ourselves, when we’re really looking at the things that matter to us the most, we start to see how many of those things have more to do with this aspect of being a human being.

 

 

The things that make life worth living, whatever we may be doing for our work.

 

 

If we don’t have this part going, it all becomes very empty, very meaningless, very unsatisfying.

 

That’s the part I’m interested in developing people. There are things you learn along the way, certainly things I’ve learned about psychology and ways to make that easier.

 

 

I think in the Enneagram work, at least as I see it, I try to help people work on the psychological parts of it so that those issues, those psychological issues, are not interfering with the development of the person’s soul or their being.

 

 

If you’re still going back to some kind of childhood trauma or wound, or you’re still caught up in a certain pattern, it’s very hard to sustain the kind of attention needed to really develop the soul.

 

 

 

 

The power of growing attention

 

 

Russ Hudson: “The other big thing that grows in us through this kind of work is the power of our attention. We’re able to sustain an attention. We can focus better.

 

 

We can be less distracted by life. We can notice what matters to us and give our time and energy to what matters to us.

 

 

And given that, really, we’re not on this earth as long as we’d like to think, life can go by very quickly.

 

 

And as you get older, you really start to realize how you don’t want to waste time.

 

 

You want to give your time and energy to the things that matter.”

 

 

Enneagram courses by Flemming Christensen: https://thinkaboutit.nemtilmeld.dk/