Individuals of each Enneagram type can enhance their ability to be more empathic; here are some of the ways:

ONES

Consider and stay with both your own and other people’s feelings in depth in order to develop both more empathy and increased compassion.

TWOS

Examine your deeper motivations for needing to know exactly what others are thinking and feeling so you can better separate your need to know from what others are actually experiencing.

THREES

Spend time exploring your real feelings in-depth, even if you feel uncomfortable or impatient. Knowing how you truly feel will help you be more sensitive to the emotional states of others.

FOURS

Re-examine your perceptions of what others are feeling and explore your own feelings as well. This can prevent you from projecting your own feelings onto other people.

FIVES

Learn to feel your own emotions in real-time, not after the fact. This will enable you to be more empathic with yourself and to read other people’s feelings more accurately.

SIXES

Remain empathic even when someone’s behavior bothers, hurts, angers or scares you.

SEVENS

Examine your feelings and stay with them; reading your internal somatic cues can help. This will enable you to read others’ emotions better.

EIGHTS

Take the time to get a felt-sense of the feelings of others, and do this with family, friends, co-workers, strangers and even with people you don’t respect.

NINES

Make sure to maintain your empathy, even with people who are negative, pushy, aggressive or complaining.

Ginger Lapid-Bogda PhD, author of eight Enneagram books, is a speaker, consultant, trainer, and coach. She provides certification programs and training tools for business professionals around the world who want to bring the Enneagram into organizations with high-impact business applications. TheEnneagramInBusiness.com | ginger@theenneagraminbusiness.com