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You are here: Home / Participant Publications / Forty Days on Being a Four

Forty Days on Being a Four

July 17, 2023 By Collegeville Institute

Christine Yi Suh

Downers Grove, Illinois , InterVarsity Press, 2021

"Visit this title on the publishers website"

“How are you feeling?”

Christine Yi Suh says that this has always been a hard question. She writes: “The more accurate question for a Four may be, ‘What aren’t you feeling?’ I can grab my prevailing emotion and tell you how I’m doing from that emotion’s point of view (joy, elation, sadness, grief, confusion―you name it!). I live and breathe a kaleidoscope of living, feeling, conflicting emotions.”

Many times Fours are labeled “emotionally intense” or “too much,” but for a Four this is just how life is. This is why Fours are ideal companions in the midst difficult times: the death of a loved one, the birth of a baby, transitional seasons in career, relational conflict, and so on.

The Enneagram is a profound tool for empathy, so whether or not you are a Four, you will grow from your reading about Four and enhance your relationships across the Enneagram spectrum. Each reading concludes with an opportunity for further engagement such as a journaling prompt, reflection questions, a written prayer, or a spiritual practice.

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