How To Encourage The Enneagram 2?

This article will focus on the enneagram type 2 and how they can be encouraged to improve themselves. The enneagram type 2 will be discussed in quite some detail and its fears and desires will also be described so the audience has a better understanding of the topic.

How To Encourage The Enneagram 2?

Here are some tips you can give to the type 2 enneagram to become a better version of themselves:

• Understand your own needs
• Learn to accept help from others
• Analyze their thoughts and feelings
• Your value is more than you think
• Give others space

Before we take a look at these tips, let us introduce the type 2 enneagram and how they become when they have the blues!

Who Is An Enneagram Type 2?

An enneagram type 2 is also known as the Helper because of their desire to help others and make their tasks easier or remove any burden upon them.  They are very caring and have great interpersonal skills that allow them to interact with people to help them and understand their situation and needs. Personality traits used to describe type 2s include possessive, demonstrative, helpful and people pleasing.

People with this type are very empathetic and have profound emotional intelligence thus it makes them more approachable and appealing to people who are in need of help and find it difficult to ask. They are friendly, generous and self sacrificing hence they overlook their own needs to fulfill those of others!

However, such closeness with others results in feelings of possessiveness. Also, they force their own self to forgo their feelings and need to make sure they are available to others for help; this may seem pretty good in the short term but they will end up pretty frustrated in the long run and their feelings may erupt like a huge volcano does!

Basic Fear.

Type enneagrams are scared they will be left alone and unloved. They want to belong somewhere, especially in someone’s heart. They feel that the only way they can do this is to feel worthy. How do they feel worthy? Well they have this innate core belief that they must be helpful in some way to another person – they must be able to help them get work done, provide the resources they need or be there for them in their difficult times.

This is why such people are often in the pursuit of trying to get close to others to find out how they can be of use to them! They will sometimes be too nosy and may become a source of irritability for others as they wonder why they are always around them!

If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.

Basic Desire.

The desire of enneagram type 2s stems from their fear that they will be left alone and unloved. Also, they feel they will be worthless not only in their own eyes but those of others too. Hence they want to be in a position where they can help other people and they will strive persistently to do so. They want to be recognized and appreciated for the help they provide and also be loved in return. This is the basic desire of enneagram type 2s that drives them to work hard to become close to others – a bit too close sometimes!

Type 2s & Stress 

In this section, we will take a look at the more frequent behaviours this enneagram exhibits when they are in stress!

• Anger Outbursts: This is a common reaction when the type 2 enneagram is under stress. It is not characteristic of the type 2 but of the type 8 enneagram that becomes very reactive when they are in an unhealthy state of theirs. The type 2 enneagram can lose control and blow up and hence turn on people who are near or around them.

• Manipulative: This type will use clever tactics to get their work done especially if they are under stress and need to meet deadlines. They will prefer to work with the weak spots of people and pressurize them to achieve what is needed.

• Possessive: Type 2s will become possessive of the people who are near to them as well as of the resources they possess. This is because they want to exhibit the control and right they have over things.

• Suspicious Thoughts: In the state of stress, this enneagram has negative thoughts that are full of suspicion. They find it hard to trust others and hence will engage their mind in thoughts about their true motives.

• Blunt: Enneagrams of type 2 will become blunt. They do not mind becoming confrontational and will do so to exercise control and influence over others as well as increase their sense of security. They believe that by doing so they will be able to keep away threats and guard what is theirs or protect those whom they love. They will not hesitate to question or challenge anyone who dares to do so!

How To Encourage The Type 2 Enneagram?

This section will focus on how you can encourage the type 2 enneagram by advising the following behaviours to them!

Understand Your Needs.

It is very important for enneagram type 2s to not only recognize their own needs but fulfill them too. Our body has certain rights over us that we must tend to whether they are related to hunger, thirst, sex, rest or exercise. We must strive to fulfill these needs in the right way to ensure our physical and mental health remains ideal. Oftentimes type 2 enneagrams overlook their own needs and this causes them to deteriorate slowly in both spheres.

The type 2 enneagram must accept the needs that arise in their daily life whenever they do. If they are working and they feel hungry they should take a break and ensure they take care of themself. This will not only allow them to feel comfortable but it will satisfy them mentally – they will feel happy they treat themself well. Such an act will push them to expect more from themselves and not others.

Learn To Accept Help From Others.

Sometimes the type 2 enneagram needs to realize that others also have the resources to help them. They are not the only one who seem to have the ability to help others. This thought process will instill a sense of humility and appreciation for others. Furthermore, accepting this reality will allow type 2s to take help from others and they will be able to experience how it feels like to be able to allow others to grow by helping. This in its way is therapeutic!

Analyze Your Thoughts & Feelings.

The type 2 enneagram must be honest to himself! Is he helping the other person because they really need help or because he is looking for a way to feel good about himself and find an opportunity to be in a position of higher status? Helping others indeed makes one feel good about their own self but that should not be the purpose.

Yes it is inevitable that by helping others you will grow mentally, physically and emotionally as well as spiritually but if the intention is to feel good about your own self in an arrogant way then this can actually backfire. 

For practice, if an enneagram type 2 feels they are helping someone for a selfish cause they should step back and try to help someone who won’t benefit them in any way. They can take part in charity where no one knows how much they donated and to whom. This will inculcate the spirit of helping for the sake of helping.

Your Value Is More Than You Think!

The type 2 enneagram should not measure their worth on how helpful they are to others. There are many other ways they can see their worth for example the little things they do to improve their own self, the efforts they make to think healthy and eat healthy and how they are improving their skills to eventually contribute to the world. Yes we have the responsibility of contributing to the society we live in but everything happens through a process, step by step and not always simultaneously or in the manner we want!

Give Others Space.

Don’t go looking for people who need help! Even though that is a good thing there needs to be a balance especially for type 2 enneagrams in the habit! Also, give others space. Let them open up when they want to and ensure you are not too nosy! If they need your help they will let you catch on or simply ask.

Conclusion

This article took a look at the type 2 enneagram and how it can be encouraged to improve itself. For a deeper understanding of the topic, the article also shed light on how the type 2 enneagram becomes when it is under stress.

References