Connecting You with Yourself
Opportunities that inspire your highest way of being!
Connecting You with Yourself
Opportunities that inspire your highest way of being!
Opportunities that inspire your highest way of being!
Opportunities that inspire your highest way of being!
"When we have a solid relationship with ourselves, we can confidently go after the life we desire. The opinions and judgments of other people become irrelevant. Life opens up in ways we haven't even imagined possible. New people and opportunities present themselves. Magic unfolds."
Connecting You with Your Self (CYWY) events and offerings weave together science, Spirituality, and Metaphysics using yoga, Enneagram, meditation, connections, and more. Each offering illuminates the importance of a loving relationship with the Self. As a community, we can connect, share, and process together.
"The most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself. All other relationships will be reflected by it. You can't have a healthy relationship with anyone else until you have a successful relationship with yourself."
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January 2, 2024
Here is a bit about my journey using Enneagram and more.
The Enneagram supports me in seeing myself beyond my ego lens and how my fears and drives distort reality. The system provides me with layers of maps that expose choices, starting with the symbolism and its invitations to BE still, KNOW thyself and increase UNDERSTANDing.
Understanding the dualities the system exposes, like the Holy Ideas vs fixations, Virtues vs. passions, and balancing all three instincts is life-changing. I love how the system's never-ending truths align with other teachings. I value how it never ceases to be done, the more you learn, the more you realize there is deeper work to explore. I enjoy exploring new steps to awaken. I am currently exploring the idea of "enough" - for myself and in the world free of apathy and as a spark for desire.
I offer my experience to you as a guide for your journey for experiences that invite you to connect with your Self.
I began my Enneagram journey seeking a parenting tool when my now-adult daughters were pre-teens. This was about 26 years ago.
I am frequently accused of being obsessed with the teachings; they are so much a part of my thinking, feeling, and doing now.
A wise teacher in the Narrative Tradition, the late Maureen Murphy, came to our home, and in exchange for dinner and connection, she taught my family and me the Enneagram. Parenting with the Enneagram was like getting a magic wand. It exposed my own, theirs, and my husband's personalities giving me a new, more successful approach within interactions.
My husband and I gained clarity about each other that we never found in counseling. The Enneagram later supported us in an amicable divorce and our ongoing friendship to this day.
The Enneagram helped me see my fear patterns and find confidence and direction.
They were also a big part of me meeting my now beloved husband Paul, whom I have been with for the last fifteen years. The Enneagram has been a huge support in building our loving relationship - without the Enneagram wisdom, our personalities would have sabotaged our happiness. During hard times we have found answers to our disagreements within the teachings. The wisdom reminds us to be personally responsibile and to make wise choices.
I joined IEA-Colorado on its first inception in the 2000s and volunteered as a local event and membership chairperson. I organized events featuring many teachers from around the country.
I studied under several local Denver teachers, including Sandra Maitri, Ted and Kathy Hurley, Renee Rosario, Dee Marcotte, Terry Saracino, Andrea Isaacs, Margot Burns, Lori Ohlson, and others.
I formally trained within the Narrative Tradition (Helen, Renee, and Terry) but did not finish the program because it did not include what I came to find extremely important: the 9 levels of development.
I completed several Shift Network courses and found tremendous value in the teachings of Russ Hudson and Jessica Dibbs. Russ became a favorite teacher of mine, and I have taken many of his offerings, including ones he does with Catherine Bell.
I have been a member and volunteer with IEA-Global for many years. I attend many of the Global conferences and monthly presentations they offer.
I rejoined IEA-CO during its second and third revivals and am currently a board member. I facilitate weekly presentations in partnership with them under this umbrella called Connecting You with Yourself (CYWY). Events have featured Jennifer Joss, Mario Sikora, Tom Condon, Lynn Roulo, Sammatha Taroni, Ben Campbell, Peter O'Hanrahan, John Luckovich, Ron Esposito, Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Fredrick Coene, Michael Goldberg, and hundreds more I can't think of off the top of my head. I also offer workshops on this platform, including yoga, E-Chats and the Empowered Living Course.
I attended many workshops over the years with teachers, David Daniels, Jerome Wagner, Marion Gilbert, Deborah Ooten, Deborah Eggerton, Bea Chestnut, Uranio Paes, and many many more.
In 2005, I started assembling and sharing what I learned with others. I taught basic Enneagram to large groups as a faculty member of the Aspen Program and as a guest speaker in various churches, businesses, and other organizations by invitation. In doing so, my journey deepened. Teaching required deeper personal practices with the Enneagram wisdom.
I developed what I call the "Choices Map," which simplifies the 9 levels of development into a tool where you ask yourself, "Am I above or below this line?" with above the line being the awakened choices and below the line being the personality caught in its blind spots - thus seeing choices within one's type and its wings and pathway points. I coined a phrase for these four connections - 4 Friends.
In 2008, I launched a six-session course, Empowered Living, sharing what I learned and experienced from using the teachings. I also integrated into the course other valuable teachings I found, like Byron Katie's "The Work," Louise Hay's "Mirror Work," Don Miguel Ruiz's "4-Agreements," and more. The course was influenced by studies in Religious Science, B.O.T.A (Tarot), the Berkley Psychic Institute, and more. It has been a "living" experience that I am deeply passionate about, and it continues to evolve as I learn more.
I completed yoga teacher training just before the 2000's began, after practicing for over 40 years. I find the core teachings fit with the Enneagram. Yoga and Enneagram are a big part of my daily living practices. Yoga supports my connection to my body, wisdom, a calm mind, and an open heart.
I met Lynn Roulo (a Yoga Enneagram teacher in Greece) around this time. I include her Kundalini Enneagram practices on the Enneagram types in many of the intentional yoga classes I guide today. Paul and I are attending her Yoga-Enneagram retreat in Greece this fall!
I was one of the founders of the Enneagram Prison Project affiliate in Colorado and participated in their pilot training of 9 Prisons 1-key and Path to Freedom. After the Colorado affiliate disbanded because of a strong disagreement around announcing people's type and then giving them "time outs" (kicking them out) if they did not agree, I took a very back seat in the organization. I value EPP teachings and the great work they do. I use some of their material in the Empowered Living course. I occasionally participate in their morning "Connect Sessions" and have many friends in EPP. I see the disconnect as being more about human-ness and blind spots.
I also became interested in the Gurdjieff Fourth Way teachings along the way. Learning about the Fourth Way has helped me deepen my practices and answer deeper questions posed by those who participate in the offerings I share. It supports a deeper understanding of Enneagram wisdom.
I am attending the B.I.G Enneagram retreat this spring in Minnesota with Milton Stewart, Chelsea Forbrook, Jessica Dickson, and Ben Campbell. I enjoy learning from others and deepening my own experiences.
I hope this gives you a feel of my unfolding path.
In appreciation,
Nancy
Business Week "You've never heard of the Enneagram? This system of personality analysis, once faddish pop psychology, is becoming a personnel tool for corporate America."
Esquire "What sets the Enneagram apart is that it contains such detailed, useful information about what drives us to behave as we do. It's valuable not just for those seeking to understand themselves but also as a source of insights into one's friends, colleagues, and even enemies."
Newsweek "Now after lurking on the fringes of mysticism and pop psychology for more than 20 years, the Enneagram is turning mainstream and respectable. Last year the Stanford University School of Business course called "Personality, Self-Awareness, and Leadership" focused on the Enneagram for the first time; the class proved so popular that it will be expanded from 40 to 50 students next winter. The CIA now uses the Enneagram to help agents understand the behavior of individual world leaders. The U.S. Postal Service recently turned to the Enneagram to help employees resolve conflicts. Clergy from the Vatican signed up for an Enneagram seminar last year. And the First international Enneagram Conference, with 1,400 participants who came to Palo Alto, Calif., from as far away as Japan, was cosponsored by Stanford Medical School's department of psychiatry."
Working Woman "A hot new management idea has just arrived on the scene, Introduced to the West around 1940 by Russian mystic G.I Gurdjieff, the Enneagram is a personality typing system that groups people into 9 categories. Executives from companies such as Motorola and Marriot have attended workshops devoted to the Enneagram system, and it’s part of the continuing education program at Silicon Graphics. The CIA has even held Enneagram briefings on the behavior of world leaders."
Yoga Journal "The apparent universality of the Enneagram is a big part of its attraction. People use it to improve themselves and their relationships. Many psychologists and marriage counselors swear by it. Members of the clergy and business managers use it to understand their congregations and subordinates. It is even accepted by academics." - Contra Costa Times "As a guide to human character, behavior, and motivation, it has no equal. More practical than typologies derived from conventional psychology, the Enneagram provides a clear and easily recognizable map of nine distinct personality patterns. For most people, it simply rings true."