This is the second video on the Enneagram and in this one I’m going to talk to you about how to become the best you can be, meaning if you’re a Six, how can you be the best Six you can be?
I hope you watched my last video on the Enneagram and I hope you’ve taken the test to find out which Number or Style you are, because if you haven’t, this video isn’t going to make a lot of sense. So if you haven’t taken the test, stop now and take it here. It will take about 10 minutes.
Okay, so now that you know your number, or what I prefer to call Style, what do you do with that?
I’m an 8, we’re the fighters. The lie I’m wired to tell myself is “Life is hard, I have to do everything on my own. There’s no one to help. I have to fight for everything I have.”
Could that be any more depressing or any more rooted in the energy of Everything Is Wrong?
Eights are the fighters. They’re the ones that automatically get angry. They also always think they’re right. Now they’re also into justice and into fighting the good fight, but we are mainly just wired to fight.
My ex-husband, who I was married to for 20 years, is a 9. The peacemaker… peace at any price. So can you imagine, here’s me, an 8, fighting about everything, married to a 9, whose whole thing is peace at any price. It was sort of crazy-making because what always seemed to happen, is that all of our fights were never about the issue at hand, they were always about how it wasn’t okay for me to be angry. Nines don’t like anger.
The problem was, I actually bought into the idea that something was wrong with my anger. At this time in my life, I had decided I wanted to be a “spiritual person.” Somehow I had bought into the idea that being a “spiritual person” meant being sweet and compliant, and never getting angry. That I should be trying to act like a Goddess all of the time and speaking in a breathy voice, saying things like, “That’s so beautiful.” I never did any of that because I knew it would be completely phony – but I aspired to it.
I didn’t want to get angry.
I didn’t want to lose my temper.
Ironically, this was at the same time that I was becoming well-known as a divorce attorney. People would call me on the phone and say, “I hear you’re a real bitch. I want you to be my lawyer.” They actually meant it as a total compliment.
So hear I am on the phone, thinking “something is really off.”
When I finally found out about the Enneagram and realized that I am wired for this, I felt a kind of liberation. I realized that there was nothing wrong with my anger. That it was an important part of my life force. It had enabled me to survive a rough childhood, to build inner strength, and to take care of myself. I began to view my anger as an asset, not a weakness or something to be ashamed of.
Now with this knowledge, I also started working on ways to modulate my anger so that I wasn’t spewing it out all over everyone all of the time, but I also stopped trying to shove it down. I stopped being ashamed of it, and I stopped hating myself when I got angry.
And guess what happened? As soon as I stopped thinking there was something wrong with my anger, I stopped getting angry with everyone.
If we had been more consciously aware, the 8 and 9 combination could have been really great for both of us. Nines need to learn how to set boundaries and eights need to learn how to soften up their boundaries and just stop fighting.
The good news is that 6 years after my divorce, I met a 7 and we were married last year. He is so much fun, because he’s a 7. He also doesn’t ever want to be told what to do and there’s other stuff, because there’s always stuff going on in a relationship, but knowing all of this, we both step back all the time and go, “wait a minute – oh, that’s just your 8 stuff or that’s just your 7 stuff” and it makes such a huge difference in how we interact with each other and treat each other.
So how about you? What can help you best move into healing? Let’s go through each style
And remember, there are no good and bad styles.
The biggest thing is to focus on the parts you like. No one is completely healed or unhealed, we’re all a composite.
Style 1 – The Perfectionist
Style 2 – The Helper
Style 3 – The Achiever
Style 4 – The Romantic Adventurer
Style 5 – The investigator
Style 6 – The Loyalist
Style 7 – The Enthusiast
Style 8 – The Aggressor
Style Nine – The Peacemaker
The key here is to start taking yourself and everyone else off the hook. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have boundaries or that you don’t take responsibility for what you do. Quite the contrary, what I’m advocating is that you see how you’re wired and embrace all of it.
In our retreats here in Sedona, we use the Enneagram all the time because it gives people such insight, especially with couples. I can’t tell you the number of times that people get this information and they’re like “oh my gosh, this explains everything”.
Just a few weeks ago we had two people come who had been fighting non-stop during their whole marriage. He felt like nothing he ever did was good enough, she felt like nothing he ever did was good enough, he was constantly angry with her and of course, she hated all that anger. It turns out she is a One (the perfectionist) and he’s and 8 (the Aggressor, the fighter).
When we discussed the two Styles with them, they both said, “Isn’t that how everyone is?” because we make this assumption that everyone reacts the way we do. She said “Doesn’t everyone want to have everything be perfect?” and he said, “Doesn’t everyone lash out in anger when they get upset?”
She really got it how her perfectionism was driving him away and he really got it how his anger was keeping them apart. With their other sessions, she was able to let go of some of her perfectionism (and also saw how it came from things that had happened during her childhood from her mother who was also a perfectionist).
We dug deep and found some of the core wounding that led to a lot of his anger and released it. Underneath the perfectionism and the anger, they discovered they really did love each other and when that happens, it really helps those things melt away. They took themselves off the hook and they took each other off the hook, and when you do that, everyone feels happier.
So that’s a lot! I hope you got some insights into who you are and how you can get happy and stay happy. And if you got value from this video, please like it, share the video with your friends and subscribe to our channel.

There are basic problems that seem to show up a lot when the nurturing factor isn’t there. And in my experience, there are things that seem unique to women and unique to men. This is also borne out in John Grey’s Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus series of books (so please don’t write me that I’m stereotyping — I’ve watched this for over 37 years!).
Let us help you get back into the Nurturing Zone. Come to Sedona and do a Couples Retreat. Give it to yourselves as a Valentine’s Day present. Wouldn’t that be the most amazing present you’ve ever had? Coming back into the love and connection that brought you together in the first place?
Call us and connect with one of our Angel Guides. They’ll connect with both of you separately and really dig deep to discover what’s keeping you out of the Nurturing Zone. Then they’ll put together a retreat that’s custom designed for exactly what you need and want, and to bring you back into the love, connection and sizzle that you crave.
The basic idea of the Enneagram is that there is Nothing Wrong with you and there’s nothing wrong with anyone else, we’re all just wired differently to behave the way that we do. This is a big one to wrap your head around and I can hear you out there saying, “No, Debra that can’t be true, this person is terrible and this person is a liar, and this guy is a jerk.”
And the concept that I’m talking about is that when we drop judgment about ourselves and others, it’s amazing what happens.
The Enneagram originated in the Middle East hundreds of years ago and was brought to the West by the Crusaders. Because monks kept the process alive during the Dark Ages, many Roman Catholics are aware of the Enneagram.
Each Style represents a deep belief that an individual uses to help navigate their life, but these beliefs are actually lies that are holding the self back from a connection with happiness, love, and contentment. You aren’t telling yourself this lie consciously; it’s an unconscious belief that is usually buried very deeply. When you discover the lies that you are telling yourself, it’s as though the entire world opens up. When you discover the lies other people tell themselves, it brings you to a deep level of understanding and compassion for them.You know if you are a perfectionist or if you have one in your life.
Style Two – The Helper
The lie they are telling themselves is, “I have to do things for people for them to love me.”
Healed Twos are fantastic friends — they will do things for you and care for you, but if they’re unhealed, they give with a hook… they’re always expecting something back and they won’t tell you what they’re expecting back. They’re the ones who say, “If you really love me, you know what I want and I shouldn’t have to tell you.”
And the Two’s out there are sitting there going, “Well, yeah,” and the rest of us are going, “No, tell us what you want, we love you, we want to give it to you.”
Style Three – The Achiever
The lie they are telling themselves is, “I must work hard, do well, and look good to be happy.”
These are the people who have to have designer everything, but they are also the most social and a lot of fun, and usually very, very successful, because they’re achievers.
Style Four – The Romantic Adventurer
The lie they are telling themselves is, “I must be different and special to matter.”
Fours think they’re special and they think that nobody gets them; healed fours are very romantic and creative.
Style Five – The Investigator
The lie they are telling themselves is, “I must know everything about everything in order to be happy.”
Einstein was a 5.
Style Six – The Loyalist
The lie they are telling themselves is, “By being loyal to someone or something else, I will be taken care of.”
Sixes are the most anxious, I mean think about it – if you believe your happiness lies with someone else, that can put you in a state of constant anxiety. But if they’re healed they are wonderful team players; they are great employees.
Style Seven – The Enthusiast
The lie they are telling themselves is, “I must avoid pain to be happy.”
Sevens are the Happiest of the Styles. One of my good friends is a 7 and she is so much fun to be around.
Style Eight – The Aggressor
The lie they are telling themselves is, “I have to fight for everything I have.”
I’m an 8. I’ll talk more about that later.
Style Nine – The Peacemaker
The lie they are telling themselves is, “I must have peace at any price.”
Nines are doing everything they can to control situations so as not to disturb the peace
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So that’s a lot to take in. Sit with it a little while and in the next video, I’m going to talk to you about how all this can help you and I’ll tell you all about How I Went from Being an Unhappy Eight and Stopped Fighting with Everyone.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did and if you got value from this video, please like it, share the video with your friends and subscribe to our channel.
In my book, I talk a lot about Connection, because I believe that’s what’s causing a huge amount of problems that people have today. People feel disconnected from other people, even from their own families… they feel disconnected from the larger society… many people even feel disconnected from themselves, and I say that because so many people hate themselves or dislike themselves.
And then there’s the disconnect that results in all the negativity it feels like we’re surrounded by all the time.

I don’t know if this story is true, or just a teaching that I’ve heard many times, but I love this story… A monastery in Asia had a large, beautiful statue of the Buddha made entirely of pure gold. There was a war and the monks knew that their monastery was about to be invaded. They decided that to save the statue, they would cover it over with mud and make it look like a simple ceramic statue. Many years passed and after a few generations, everyone completely forgot that the statue was made of gold. One day the statue was being moved and it was dropped. The stucco cracked. And underneath was the beautiful brilliant gold!
But the truth is, sometimes that can be the most incredible place to start, being the cracked vessel, because it means you can allow your Divine Connection to get activated again.
And then we helped her to clear out all that hate, guilt and shame.
One of the people who used LSD in this way was Cary Grant, of all people, and he talks about how life changing it was for him. After LSD was outlawed, Grof believed there had to be a way to replicate the experience and he started studying the Vedas and other texts, and learned about the yogis in India who were able to do such incredible things with their breath. When he did this with his patients, they had absolutely remarkable experiences.Over the past 16 years, we have developed a process here at Sedona Soul Adventures that we call Inner Journey with Breath. It’s a very important process that we do with almost everyone who comes here to do a Soul Adventure because it’s so incredibly powerful.
We have had so many people over the years who have had such incredible experiences because for many of them, it is the first time in their lives that they have truly experienced the Divine – feeling like God is truly with them and part of them, and truly experienced their own Divine nature.
We had a medical doctor here a number of years ago and her breath journey was just out of this world! She saw visions, she actually communicated with her mother who had crossed over, and then she saw and felt and truly experienced the perfection that was her. She went home and told her other doctor friends about what had happened and they all said, “They must have given you a drug, did you drink anything during the session?” And she said yes, she drank water and they said, “Yes! They must have slipped LSD into your water.” Which, of course, we did not do.
Another woman got finished with her breath journey and at the end as she was talking about her experience, she said “I felt like I levitated.” Her practitioner teased her a little and said, “Yes, you were about 3 ft off the ground,” and she said, “I knew it!” She really felt that she had levitated.
Another person when she got done, lifted up the mat she was lying on and said where is the electrical cord that made the mat vibrate so much. She was vibrating so much that she was sure that there must have been electricity making it happen.
But for me, the most wonderful occurrences are those when people really experience that highest part of themselves, and when they really experience the Divine on all levels – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
Have you ever had an experience like that? There really aren’t words to describe it.
I first discovered this back in 1989 at a really low time in my life. I had recently gotten divorced, I had jumped immediately into another relationship that was disastrous, I was working way too hard… but the biggest thing I suddenly discovered was my Co-dependency. One of my good friends actually staged an intervention and I entered a 12-step Co-dependency treatment program. It was an outpatient program that was supposed to go for 4 weeks, but at the end of 4 weeks they decided I needed to do at least 6.
It helped me a lot ,but at the end of the 6 weeks I just felt terrible. They kept telling us “you will always be like this” and that was just really depressing. I decided to treat myself to a massage with a new therapist I had heard about. I went for the massage and told her what had been going on with me and it turned out she was actually a Rebirthing practitioner. I did one session with her…I went into the altered state, I experienced the Divine and my own perfection, and I can hardly describe the Joy and Love that was just suddenly gushing through me.
Back then, it was felt that you needed to do the process once per week for 10 weeks with a certified practitioner – and I did that with her. Every week my joy and happiness was just increasing exponentially.
One of the after care things I was doing from my Co-dependency treatment was to go to meetings each week of Adult Children of Alcoholics. Every week we would each go around the circle talking about how we were doing and everyone every week had the same old stories, the same struggles and the same difficulties.
After the very first breathwork, I described my experience and then the next week I talked about it again. After the third week of gushing about all the love, joy and happiness I was feeling, the person next to me said, “Well, I’m not feeling as good as DEBRA is,” and after the next week, I realized I just couldn’t go back there again. Everyone else was still stuck; none of them were interested in even trying the breathwork, they were just interested in staying stuck. Which was fine, it’s a free country, everybody gets to be just as miserable as they want.
But I had found what seemed to me to be the path to everything I was looking for and that was over 25 years ago. I still do breathwork regularly, in fact I just did it again a few weeks ago. It’s amazing to me how different it is every single time.
But the best part is that this has become a cornerstone of the work that we do here at Sedona Soul Adventures. People have such incredible experiences and then we teach them how to continue to do it at home. I love it so much when someone emails me and tells me about an amazing experience they’ve had.
Don’t start doing this on your own. A breath journey is not something that you should do on your own. It’s not like the yogic breath or the breath of fire that many people are familiar with in yoga. It’s a connected breath and one that is designed to take you into an altered state, so doing it alone when you do it for the first time, is never recommended. In fact, Dr. Grof believes no one should ever do it alone because so many people have abandonment issues that come up, that when they come out of the altered state and they’re alone, that can be traumatic.
The most important is to do the process with someone who is specially trained in doing this process. If you want to find someone in your area, try searching “Breathwork practitioner” on Google and hopefully you can find someone.
Or even better, come to Sedona and experience the Breath Journey as part of your Soul Adventures. We have so many fantastic breathwork practitioners, they will lead you on an incredible journey.
When I first started on my spiritual path, one of the things that I was lucky enough to figure out was what I call, the 51% Rule. Simply stated, the 51% Rule acknowledges that, with all this stuff you’re trying to do and this energy you’re trying to move, if you just stay on the path of your Journey to Happy at least 51% of the time, you’re going to have an amazing, incredible life.
Pet your dog or cat. Petting my dog and feeling a huge surge of love for her always makes me feel great.What are things that work for you? Have an arsenal of things that you can use to keep you in the feel good energy most of the time.
And remember, take yourself off the hook. You don’t have to be perfect 100% of the time, you just have to get to 51% and stay there most of the time. That’s the Journey to Happy.
And that’s my prayer for you — that you have a happy, exciting, fulfilling New Year with everything coming to you that you want. If that doesn’t quite seem possible to you right now, then you need to do something about that. Because if you don’t believe you can have everything you want, then you can’t — it’s as simple as that!
And if you don’t know what you want — same thing. If you don’t know what you want, you can’t get it.
There are all kinds of scientific explanations of things that are going on right now, including an increase in the Earth’s frequency, called the Schuman Resonance. I’m not going to go into all the scientific stuff, I just want to talk about that feeling that most of us have, that everything is speeding up and going faster, is true. We experience it all the time with our technology, but we also just experience it in our lives, most notably with how quickly time seems to be passing.
I’m not talking about regular New Year’s Resolutions, which are usually too unspecific, too grandiose and not realistic. Get laser-focused on what you want this year. Work on all of these if you’d like, or maybe just take one or two to work on – that increases the likelihood of success. Really focus – that’s what will make all the difference.
After you have gotten laser-focused on exactly what you want to accomplish, then write this down somewhere where you will see it every day, so you can keep feeding it into your subconscious. Studies have shown that just by writing it down, you increase the likelihood of it happening by 50%… 50% just by writing it down!
Next, develop your game plan. What do you need to do on a monthly, weekly and daily basis to make this happen?
Some goals lend themselves better than others to this. But for example, if you want to write a book by the end of the year, you’re going to need to write X number of chapters each month to make that happen.
So, develop your game plan and then break it down into monthly, weekly and daily chunks.
Finally, and here is my favorite part – the part that I think is the most important one and the one that I know will give you the most bang for your buck: Spend three minutes each day Meditating about these things, Fantasizing about these things and Feeling and Knowing that they are happening.
Here’s the best way to do this:
Set the timer on your smartphone for 3 minutes. Doing it for only 3 minutes will help insure you do this every day. And setting it on your timer will stop you from thinking about how much time is left.
Close your eyes and put your hand over your heart with the intention of bringing in Heart Coherence. It’s not necessary for you to completely understand what that means and I’ll be talking about it in a later video, so for now, just set that intention.
Start breathing deeply into your heart. Think of something or feel something that makes you feel good.
Feel gratitude. Feel love for someone. Think about your dog or your cat – that always works for me.
Just do something briefly that is going to bring you into a peaceful, easy feeling.
Now start thinking about the things you want to have happen and start fantasizing about these things, and feeling and knowing that they are in the process of happening. See the energy, this faster, higher vibration energy that is speeding up everything on the planet right now, and see it feeding these goals and desires. See it amp them up as they come to you faster.
Next, see yourself as if these things have already happened. What do you look like? How do you talk? How does your body move? Feel the excitement that you’ll feel as they start to come true. Feel the gratitude that you’ll feel as they start to come true.
Ask yourself the question “What do I need to know right now?” Breathe and listen to the answers.
Just as the timer goes off, take a final deep breath and feel the knowing, the absolute knowing that this is happening. Open your eyes and write down any answers, thoughts or ideas that came to you.
Consistency is the Key. If you do this consistently, and I mean every day, I think you will be amazed at what will happen.
Because you are being focused and you’re energizing your goals and desires with this speeded up energy that is on the planet right now. And even better, you’re utilizing that energy to bring your goals and desires to you even more quickly.
So that’s my New Year gift for you. I hope you’ll do it and I’d love to hear your success stories as they happen.
It’s Christmas and one of the Christmas traditions that I’ve had for many years is to watch the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” each year. If you don’t do that, or especially if you’ve never seen the movie, you have to see it and I hope you’ll watch it again. There are 2 reasons why I want you to watch it or watch it again…
But here’s the other reason why I want you to watch it – it’s because of the backstory and of what happened with the movie and why it’s such a wonderful story about second chances.
The movie came out and it was a flop. It got mixed reviews and very little box office time. It went into that place of the forgotten movie. And then a weird thing happened – the copyright lapsed and the movie went into the public domain. That meant television stations could show it, at no cost. Suddenly this once-forgotten movie started to be shown every year at Christmas and for many people, myself included, it’s a Christmas tradition each and every year.
In these series of videos I’m talking about concepts from my book “The Journey to Happy — How Embracing the Concept that Nothing is wrong can transform your life.”
What I’ve found is that the more I drop my resistance, the more I am able to go with the flow, the happier I am and the more things have happened that are almost miraculous.