Jeff Cook and TJ Wilson are joined by Brendan, an Enneagram Six living with chronic pancreatitis, chronic pain, PTSD, and life after a total pancreatectomy.

Alongside TJ's experience with fibromyalgia, they explore how chronic illness interacts with Enneagram type, revealing why two people facing similar pain can respond in profoundly different ways.

Together they discuss the invisible burden of chronic illness, the struggle to be believed by doctors and loved ones, how different personality types advocate for themselves (or don't), and why pain so often compounds our deepest patterns of fear, responsibility, identity, and control. The conversation also explores work, marriage, shame, recovery, grief, and the difficult process of accepting a "new normal" when life cannot return to what it once was. Along the way, they offer hope through meaningful connection, mindfulness, movement, and the possibility that understanding ourselves can help us navigate suffering with greater compassion.

Connect with us at aroundthecircle.org

#Enneagram #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #MentalHealth

"It's important that I'm not perceived as..."

The answers uncover the hidden identities each type works to protect—from the Four's fear of being ordinary or misunderstood, to the Three's struggle with competence and authenticity, the Two's desire to remain indispensable and easy to love, and the One's deep concern with integrity, intention, and being seen as fundamentally good.

We are wrapping up our dive into the experiences of shame for 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s.

#Enneagram #Shame #BreneBrown #SelfAwareness #PersonalGrowth

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Hope. Courage. Grief. Longing.

Continuing through Brené Brown's Atlas of the Heart, Jeff explores what happens when suffering changes not just how we feel, but how we imagine the future. Why does despair convince us tomorrow will look exactly like today? Why is being unseen in our suffering one of the loneliest human experiences? And why does returning to our center matter so much when life becomes disorienting?

At the heart of the discussion is a simple conviction: hope is not naïve optimism. It is the fuel that gives courage something to run on—and perhaps the beginning of every meaningful recovery.