The Road Back to You: Looking at Life Through the Lens of the Enneagram

If you're married, or in a long-term relationship, you have experienced the struggle of understanding your partner and trying to interpret their behavior. You've learned that relationship is a balancing act of making two lives function together, while allowing each other the freedom of your individualities.

Our guests today on The Road Back To You are Wade and Heather Hodges. Wade is a pastor, author, husband, and father. Heather is a visual and performing artist, wife, and mother. Their insight will help you understand:

1. How the Enneagram gives a couple permission to give each other space.
2. How the Enneagram relieves the pressure you feel to change your spouse.
3. The value of giving each other the opportunity to process your experiences differently.
4. How each of your gifts complements each other's weaknesses and forms a stronger team.

This episode is essential for any couple; whether you have just started your life together or been married for 50 years!

Also, here are two opportunities to experience an Enneagram Conference with Suzanne and Ian. Click on the event of your choice for more information:

One last thing. This is The Road Back To You's final program for Season One. Thank you for joining our family of listeners over the past several months. On March 1st 2017, we will launch Season Two. We already have a number of exhilarating guests scheduled to discuss new and relevant topics. We are also adding a new section to each show called "The Listener's Corner" where Suzanne and Ian will respond to your emails.

We hope you will continue to join us as together we explore The Road Back To You.

Our guest today on The Road Back To You is Jeff Chu (Enneagram 6), a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Travel+Leisure, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. He is the author of Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America and currently a student at Princeton Seminary.

As a writer who has professionally spent most of his career telling other people's story, Jeff explores how examining his own story has lead to the discovery of a kinder, better, more loving version of himself.

His conversation with Ian and Suzanne will help you understand how a person who comes from a culture that doesn't tend to honor self-examination and uniqueness of identity has utilized the Enneagram to help provide a better framework and new vocabulary for shaping his life.

Enjoy!

Are you as anxious about the upcoming election and the polarization that has gripped our nation as we are?

Given the troubled political climate, we decided to take a hiatus from our series exploring each of the nine types to talk politics through the lens of the Enneagram.

Ian and Suzanne's guest this week is Michael Wear. An Enneagram 4, Michael directed faith outreach for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. One of the youngest White House staffers in modern American history, he is an author and leading political strategist who examines the intersection of faith, politics and American public life. As you'll hear, "he's got game."

Questions on the show's docket this week include:

• What can we learn about politics when we look at them through the lens of the Enneagram?
• How can Americans on opposite ends of the political spectrum regain compassion for one another?
• Why is it important for voters to understand themselves in the context of the political process?
• How can we recover civility in our political discourse?
• Who says politics should give us value and affirm us?
• What harm does a "politics of pure power" do to our nation?

Listen now as we recklessly plunge into a discussion on the two things you should never discuss at the dinner table, politics and spirituality. Bon Appetit!

This is the series finale of The Road Back to You. On this episode, Ian and Suzanne speak with Al (Enneagram 2 - The Helper) and Nita (Enneagram 5 - The Investigator) Andrews.

Al and Nita Andrews have more than 40 collective years counseling couples into healthy relationships. They are active at several ministries in Nashville and Franklin, Tennessee. Porter’s Call, Thistle Farms (paper studio), and St. Augustines Chapel at Vanderbilt.

On this episode of The Road Back to You, Ian and Suzanne's guest are Jill Phillips and Andy Gullahorn. Jill is an Enneagram 6 (The Loyalist) and Andy a 9 (The Peacemaker). Their insight into how the Enneagram has helped them in their marriage and their role as parents while balancing their lives as full-time musicians is nothing short of inspiring. We have also included a bonus song, recorded by Jill and Andy live in The Road Back To You studio. Whether you are an Enneagram 6 or 9, married to a 6 or 9, or are close friends with either number, we think you'll find this episode invaluable. Enjoy!