THE CENTRES
Western psychology elevates the mind as ‘the’ centre of intelligence, but we also have emotional and body intelligence.
The Enneagram acknowledges and values all three of these centres of intelligence and all types rely, to a degree, on all three centres. However, each of the types tends to rely more heavily on one of the centres—the heart, the head, or the body:
Types 2, 3 and 4 rely more on the Heart Centre - emotional intelligence or EQ
Types 5, 6 and 7 rely more on the Head Centre - the familiar IQ
Types 8, 9 and 1 rely more on the Gut / Body Centre - gut knowing
How does being from different centres affect our relationships?
These different ways of knowing can be mysterious and cause misunderstandings between people. For instance, when one person is used to relying on their gut intelligence and their partner, friend, colleague or boss is using a different Centre, each partner in the relationship may feel devalued or misunderstood. The phrase, "Don't talk rational to my emotional" (and vice versa) is another way of expressing this.