Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. Join me every other week as we get real, and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. Let's get rolling.

Sarah Jane Case is a certified enneagram teacher and author of The Honest Enneagram, a book I listened to and loved a couple

years ago and just listened to for the second time this past week. And she also wrote the

enneagram letters. Most well known for creating the popular Instagram account and

podcast Enneagram and Coffee, Sarah Jane can now be found on Instagram at Sarah Jane Case.

Back in January of 2024, Sarah Jane did an Instagram post where she recommended a book for

each of the nine idiogram types. I obviously loved this post,

and it got me thinking that we should explore books and reading through an enneagram lens on the show.

So I'm thrilled that Sarah Jane is here to help us do that today. Welcome, Sarah Jane.

Hi, thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited for this

conversation. And when I told my paying subscribers that we were going to do this episode, there was lots of excitement. A lot of people are interested in the connection between Indiagram and reading. Yeah. I mean, it's so exciting to get to talk about. It's like two of my favorite things in the world.

Can you very briefly share what the Enneagram is for our listeners who are not familiar with it?

Absolutely. So the Enneagram is a system of personality. It's broken down into nine distinct types. So each type is associated with a number, one through nine,

and a title like peacemaker or the helper. And what makes it different than other typing systems is kind of twofold.

It focuses on motivation. So it will show you what you do, of course, but more importantly, it helps you understand why you're doing it.

So helpers are helpful, of course, but what makes growth possible is truly getting into the more

difficult truths of why they are so helpful, right? Their fear of not being lovable, the belief that

love must be earned. And it's my belief that the Enneagram is not telling us who we are. It's revealing to us who we thought we had to be in order to earn love, safety, or belonging. So it's an invitation to be more than who we thought we had to be this whole time. Oh, that's interesting. And I think that I can feel that in my real life very deeply. It's who I think I have to be.

Absolutely. Yeah. Like, I will be safe if I stay in this lane. Yes, absolutely. And how do you personally approach the

Enneagram? I know in your book you talked about sort of your

philosophy that might be a little different from other people's philosophies. Yeah, I really

approach it from a place of deep self-compassion. I believe that self-love, right, is really about

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