A love of joy and fun – that comes with challenges

 Sevens are impulsive, fun-loving, enthusiastic and accomplished people. They are deeply curious, and love exploring new knowledge, places, people and experiences. 

At healthy levels, sevens savor the pleasures of the world deeply and enthusiastically, and love to share their joy with their peers. As they grow unhealthy though, their quest for joy and action turns into a desperate run away from self, and they can become scattered, desperate and aggressive. 

This essay is written partly based on the description of type seven as it appears in the book “Personality Types” by Riso - Hudson, and partly based on my personal experiences from studying and contemplating the Enneagram since 2017.

I. The seven from healthy to unhealthy

At their best, sevens are spontaneous, joyous, lighthearted, creative and adventurous beings. Healthy sevens feel deeply, and are not afraid of their depths! They experience life deeply and intensely, and are filled with gratitude for all the pleasures the world offers them. They have moments of ecstasy, and an intimate connection to abundant spiritual realities.

Healthy sevens move in life with ease and joy, and inspire everyone else to do so too. They love to include and share of their joy with everybody around them, and are lovely contribution to any gathering of people. They are an ocean of creativity, have plenty of talents, and are born entrepreneurs, artists and entertainers. 

At average levels, sevens become materialistic, and can fall prey to intense consumption of goods and experiences. Their fear of boredom leads to intense and superficial multitasking, but they rarely complete what they start. Average 7s can be hyperactive, and are often unable to set boundaries or say no to themselves. They just want more and more and more, and no matter how much they get - they still feel unsatisfied. As they loose their ability to appreciate what they already have, sevens grow shattered, needy, self-centered and often: Greedy.  

Unhealthy sevens can be highly offensive, and even abusive, in their quest to satisfy their yearnings. Using their powers to destroy instead of create, they can be very selfish and childish: If I don’t get it, nobody will get it! Their agile minds run out of control, they are prune to addictions, and on a constant run from their anxiety. They suffer mood swings, depressions, panic and manic phases. 

According to Riso and Don Hudson, the 7th type corresponds with Jung’s extrovert sensation type. 

II. The childhood pattern of the 7 

As children, 7s feel disconnected from their nurturing figure (this figure is often their mothers, but can in some cases be represented by the father or another caretaker). Due to being disconnected from the person who are supposed to satisfy their needs, the 7s either experience not getting what they need at all, or they don’t get what they need when or in the way that they need it. This leave the 7s with a sense of lack, and of a distrust in the worlds ability to meet their needs. 

Their sense of lack and distrust throw 7s out in a lifelong search for contentment. Many 7s carry an assumption that they must fight to have their needs met. They might even unconsciously think they are doomed to suffer and lack for the rest of their life. Unhealthy sevens can become both desperate and aggressive in their quest of getting what they feel their world does not allow them to have. 

The thing is that, this feeling the 7 has of not getting what they need, is not necessarily built on a truth. It can just as well be built on the 7 not RECOGNISING - or appreciating - what they are given. Because the 7 tells themselves that Existence cannot serve them, they might even recreate that narrative for themselves. 

Usually, the 7s search to be fulfilled will remain futile until the they open up inside for the possibility that Existence IS actually caring for them – in its own way.

III. The 7 body

The seven typically locks up in the diaphragm to resist feeling the lower part of their body, and to avoid the primal feelings residing in their hips and sacral area. When some of those feelings DO pass the diaphragm and threaten to enter the 7s consciousness, the 7s stop breathing and jump to their head. In a desperate escape from feeling they go intellectual and start shuffling things around in the head - or sometimes even in the room. 

In my experience, 7s are often lightly built, and due to their high inner and outer tempo, they can have a certain athleticness about them. If you come closer though, you´ll see that they often have braced several parts of their bodies to keep their feeling world at bay. Conscious work with the body for a 7 is a lot about giving up that braising – to get into their bodies and track down all the places inside that they locked down, and then work to loosen those areas up, 

IV. The 7 motivation: Being happy, free and content (and the fear coming with that motivation)

7s are concerned with being happy and content, with being free to choose, to have several options and varied experiences, and to enjoy life as fully as possible.

Known for being the most joyful archetype of the Enneagram - their joyfulness is far more complex than it first looks like! Because as the 7s want their joy so badly, they become very uncomfortable about whatever THREATENS to disturb their joy. 

What is the number one threat to joy? That is: the 7s own feeling world. Challenging feelings of course, may scare away joy and fun at any moment. 

Unless 7s have taken on their inner work, they tend to be fearful and anxious about anything that goes on in their inner environment. And, they usually employ a very immature approach to their threatening feeling world. 

What´s their approach? 

They attempt to escape it. 

V. A (desperate) hunt for excitement: Gluttony, greediness and neediness

Now, how does one escape their own feelings? 7s know the solution: We´ll distract ourselves! 

Employing external stimuli and excitement to drown the voice of their challenging feelings, 7s usually develop a plethora of strategies to stimulate excitement: entertainment, relationships, shopping, new experiences, exiting knowledge etc etc. 

In their quest of using excitement to keep their threatening feelings at bay, 7s are the type most prone to addiction. That addiction can take many forms: from substance abuse to a desperate hunt for entertainment, to relationships or sexual addictions, to challenged relationship to food, or just an overly attachment to their daily coffee cup. (Or that very typical chocolate addiction.)

The more challenging their feelings are, the more insistently the 7s has to work to escape them. At unhealthy levels, the 7s end up jumping from one distraction to the other to keep their anxiousness at bay. Their I´s become like empty containers which needs to be constantly filled with fun and excitement, to avoid having to feel what's going on inside. 

As the sevens tumble down the levels of healthiness, their need to constantly stimulate themselves to keep their feeling worlds at bay, becomes incredibly tiring – both to themselves and to their environments. 

Eventually, the 7 hyperactivity prevents the penetration of reality, and all pleasure disappears. Now, nothing can really satisfy the 7 any more. Disconnected from their feeling world, no experience – no matter how thrilling – can serve to touch the 7. All joy is gone, and the 7 personality remain as scattered, addictive, desperate, and miserable.

When unhealthy 7s get themselves lost in a desperate pattern of consuming their outer world while trying to evade their inner worlds, their whole life turns into one grand escape. And eventually, the costs of that escape are far more destructive than the feelings they were trying to escape in the first place. 

Summarized: Until the 7s face the fear of their own feeling world, that fear will run – and probably ruin - their life. 

VI. The manic-depressive defense 

When sevens are unable to master up enough energy or activity to suppress their challenging feelings, these feelings will eventually float to the surface. When that happens, one of two scenarios usually unfold.  

The first scenario is the manic-depressive defense.

Threatened of having to face all their suppressed material, the 7 starts manic activity to keep the anxiety at bay. 

Manic sevens behave like children, with no thought about consequences, and can wreck havoc in their environments. They might use up great sums of money in efforts to buy back their “happiness”. They might redecorate the whole house, or make plans to take over the world. Or they throw themselves into addictions: sugar, alchohol, drugs, shopping, to escape the anxiousness that now readily are breaking through the surface.

A manic 7 mind is going crazy, and you can recognize it in the way they speak and move: too fast, as they were haunted by somebody. The manic seven is in full fledge survival mode, deeply selfish and desperate – but often pretending to be just as happy and cheerful as before. 

VII. Drama queen – the shadow side of the 7

The second scenario is a shadow side of the 7 joyfulness that are often overlooked, and which are one of my personal key points in understanding the 7. The second scenario is: Collapse.

7s, being SO concerned with being happy, can make up a tremendous drama when they feel they are NOT SUPPORTED in their happiness. 

Actually, if you ever meet the most miserable person in the world, that’s probably an unhappy and collapsed seven. So don’t get too attached with the happy image when you try to understand this archetype!

Many 7s has a totally unrealistic expectation of how easy life “should” be.  They feel that they came to life for the sole purpose of enjoying, and if they are not ABLE to do that, they are victims, and deserve to be pitied and doted on.

Basically, sevens HATE not having fun. They really can’t stand it. 7s can even go into full blown panic when life is not fun: This is wrong, it’s not like it should be, help – I want out!

When 7s do not see how to make life fun, their easygoing nature entirely disappears. Now, they become dreadful to be around. Because 7s have no scruples in letting everybody around them feel their darkness too. They want their world to see and FEEL their misery. 

Unhealthy 7s that don’t get what they want, can act like spoiled children: Throwing tantrums and creating scenes, with no sense of others feelings or if they ruin any occasion. They are just set on one thing: to get what they want. 

And the irony is that unhealthy 7s often get their way - simply because others are too shocked or embarrassed to resist them. 

VIII. The key to 7 healthiness: Replacing desperation with recognition

Terrified of missing out on fun, average and unhealthy 7s are prudent to develop serious FOMO - fear of missing out.When the 7s get lost to their FOMO, they start restlessly jumping from place to place. They get into tiring loops of thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, or that they need more, or something different than what is here. 

The irony with this behaviour is that when 7s start running internally and/or externally like this, they often end up running AWAY FROM most of the fun. Even if they stand in the middle of the fun, chances are they are so stressed about missing out on something another place, that they don’t experience what's already happening around them. 

A seven myself, my greatest realization is this: The key to being a healthy 7 is to recognize what life is already offering you. 7s, due to our childhood story of deprivation, have a tendency to always feel that there isn’t enough. But as long as we tell ourselves that we´ll never get what we need, that’s likely the scenario we´ll continue finding ourselves in. 

Before we choose to trust our own and Existence´ abundance, we´ll never discover it. 

The moment a 7 become aware of their limited storyline, and how they are recreating it, they can decide to break free. As a 7 turn their attention away from lack, and onto everything they HAVE indeed been given, their life usually shift quite drastically. 

A smart seven takes in the world as deeply as she or he possible can, and makes gratefulness their key practice. Aware of their tendency to consume the world, smart sevens remind themselves that fulfilling any desire that pops into their head doesn’t necessarily make them happy – but that FEELING whatever happens in and around them: Do. 

By RECOGNIZING all the greatness and potential joy that exists around them at any time, and using the opportunity to thank Existence for all the fun it brings, 7s open the portal to their healthy state, and also the potentials of ecstasy. 

IX. Moving with the arrows 

My approach to the arrows differs from the traditional approach of viewing one direction as that of integration and another of disintegration. I think we have much to learn from BOTH our connected points – and that our aim is to CONSCIOUSLY integrate our arrow points. But… our arrow points can also be uses as a way to escape ourselves, You can read more about my approach to the arrows here.

STRESS POINT: 1 (“direction of disintegration”)

Under stress, 7s start drawing on the unhealthy side of the 1st type. When this happens, the otherwise so playful 7 becomes rigid, judgmental, insensitive, demanding and pushy. 7s under stress typically become overly concerned with fairness, rights and wrongs – and tend to keep an eye on people around them to make sure they stick to the “rules”. When 7s flip into 1, the 7 entirely loose the easygoingness their archetype is known for.

When 7s learns to CONSCIOUSLY integrate this side of themselves on the other hand, the 1 gives the 7 a sense of orderliness and structure. Also, as the 7 overcomes the shadow sides of the 1, it’s as both their joyfulness and creativity finally find their true flow.

SECURITY POINT: 5 (“direction of integration”)

When 7s relax without waking up to themselves, they move to the 5th type. In this state, 7s can become deeply intrigued with intellectual matters, and spend all their energy on intellectual quests. Forgetting their predicament as deeply social creatures, they may isolate themselves, and forget their bodies and their world. Eventually though, the lack of people and inputs will have the social 7 frustrated and restless.

When 7s learn to consciously integrate this side of themselves, they learn to focus and go in depth on the matters that interest them. The strategical streak of the 5th archetype also helps the entrepreneurial 7 to develop their ideas and visions into actual products.

This essay is a study for my upcoming online course: Awakening Through the Enneagram. You can read more about this course and sign up for information about it HERE. 

Or go on and read my other essays on the Enneagram: Exploring the Arrows, or my intro to the 9th type. There are more type essays coming through the winter!

Wishing you all the best with your (Enneagram-inspired) inner work!

With love, Ida