Enneagram & Burnout what you need to know for the Enneagram 2

Burnout for Enneagram Two

How burnout can happen:

Feeling driven to help and support others in practical ways is a noble motivation – after all, there’s always someone who needs help in this world! But it’s so easy to run yourself ragged in the busyness of helping others while hardly ever taking time to focus on ‘you’. You might even be somewhat resentful of the fact that you have so little time for yourself. All of this can take its toll by slowly depleting emotional and physical energy levels until your batteries totally run dry! High stress and burnout can easily follow.

Strategies to avoid burnout:

The constant willingness to help, combined with a lack of boundary-setting, is often a challenge for Enneagram Two. For some, it can be difficult, or even impossible, to say ‘no’ to requests for help.

Whilst helpfulness is a genuinely positive characteristic, overdoing it can have several negative consequences. If this is you, be very alert when someone asks for your help. If it’s not an absolute emergency, try to negotiate some time to decide how you will respond. Ask the person making the request if you can get back to them later once you’ve checked your calendar and priorities. During this time, think it through logically. Do you have the time and resources to help right now? Could you negotiate a later time when you are more available to assist? Does it make sense to refer the person to someone else who may be available to help?

Once you’ve decided, you can get back to the person with your reply. On top of that, make sure that you allocate time for rest, recuperation, and doing something that you really want to do for yourself.

Read more about Burnout for Enneagram 1, Enneagram 3, Enneagram 4, Enneagram 5

Learn about the Five Lens Enneagram model