My name is Monica, and in the enneagram of personality I’m a self-preservation 5w4. Long story short: I tend to self-sabotage by avoiding vulnerability, observing rather than participating, doubting my knowledge, overanalyzing, minimizing my needs, over-focusing on details, and being stubbornly independent. But I'm tired of getting in my own way. So here I am, opening myself up, taking risks, and sharing reflections and wisdom along the way. With plenty of mixed metaphors and minimal editing—by design and out of necessity.
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I’m chewing on this question: Are all “information binges” attempts to get social needs met? Reflecting on my most recent period of deep receptivity and the fragments of community I found within it. Use what moves you, let go of the rest. And let me know what resonates. ✨ Instagram: @un.fiving unfiving@gmail.com ✨ Music by Sleeping At Last
Learn to recognize the stories that carry fear and keep you from risking close relationships. Reach past them into spirit—toward your highest values and the most expansive and free evolution of yourself. Cultivate your strength and connection to intuition by spending time with your points of power—they could be houseplants, trees, mountains, rivers, or an archetypal guide. The natural world has so much love for you. All you have to do is notice it. ⚡️
“You’re gorgeous! And you deserve a relationship that allows you to be gorgeous in the way that only you are and to share your gifts that only you have to give. Anything short of that is short of that.” A continuation of the previous episode, with more detail, exploration, practices for real growth and healing, and answers to listener questions. Let me know what you think! 💗 * Instagram: @un.fiving * unfiving@gmail.com * or write a review wherever you listen Music by Sleeping at Last ✨
Delve into the preparation phase of dating as an Enneagram Five, learning to engage your mind as a respected ally, not an obstacle. Discover how to clarify your true desires, investigate past patterns, and create a 'Mary Poppins list' for your ideal relationship. The episode emphasizes the importance of pausing active dating for reorientation, recruiting trusted allies, and aligning with your spirit to foster genuine, essence-based attractions rather than wound-driven ones.
Announcing a shift: I’m adjusting my focus so that my primary goal is delivering helpful tips, wisdom, reflections, and guidance to help you as you journey along in your Fiveness or search for more insight into Enneagram Fives. I’ll include specific and sometimes personal examples or stories to support that, and still share some personal updates, but I hope to bring a bit of a different energy and focus going forward. That also includes hearing more from YOU, my dear listeners! Reach out! Say he...
Reflections on breaking norms, hormone surges, right timing, shifting between stability and upheaval, navigating by starlight, the hard work of embodying intentions, and probably a few other things I’m forgetting right now.
This week I’m wading deeper into parts work and relating to my ever-changing inner states from a place of wholeness. This shift from being merged with a feeling to being in relationship with it is a powerful one: it opens up a world of possibilities and allows the feeling to deliver its message and move on rather than getting stuck and blocking our flow. The more feelings get stuck in us, the less available we are to life, to giving and receiving and experiencing. At the end of the episode I sha...
I’m addressing my inner skeptics with gratitude and farewells as I reconnect with forgotten ways of caring for myself. I'm also exploring how to honor my inner work while stepping into more outer work: expressing, collaborating, connecting, expanding, engaging, impacting, and making bold moves. We all have so much beauty, love, and creativity to share with the world. What happens when we set it free? My question for you: What love are you keeping to yourself? How can you give it form, let it be ...
A simple, fun exercise to shift your relationship to the shame and fear getting in your way and strengthen your connection to what freedom feels like for you. Let me know if you find it helpful! Instagram: @un.fiving Music by Sleeping at Last
I’m taking a step back to look at the forest, then refocusing on the trees. Setting my values and finding inspiration for the next stretch of my path. ✨ Mentioned in this episode: Jen Sincero - “In order to kick ass, you must first lift up your foot.” Martha Beck - The idea that a tiny, one degree turn will dramatically change your trajectory over time. Chani Nicholas, a personalized affirmation - “Every time I risk my reputation I feel fortified.” Let me know what lands for you! ✨ Music by Slee...
I’ve been noticing how much I try to avoid relying on anyone or anything and how by subconsciously keeping money tight I both reinforce and undermine that avoidance. I desperately want to break these habits, and I think interdependence with others is the path through the independence-dependence tension that tends to trip me up. 🌸 Music by Sleeping At Last Everything else by me, Monica Bahan Email: unfiving@gmail.com Instagram: @un.fiving
Anxiety and self-doubt kept me away, but I’m back and have a few new intentions for the podcast going forward. 🌸 Music by Sleeping At Last Everything else by me, Monica Bahan Email: unfiving@gmail.com Instagram: @un.fiving
First, more thoughts on the enneagram frame as I experience it: - Subtypes/instinctual variants: self-preservation (individual), sexual (one-to-one), and social (collective). My attention stack goes in that order: self-preservation first—so I'm a self-preservation subtype of the 5—then sexual, then social. These days I'm focusing more on the social level after leaving it on the back burner for a long time. What does your stack look like? - (un)fiving: using the enneagram to facilitate change, se...
What I mean when I say I’m an enneagram 5 with a 4 wing (5w4): revisiting the foundational conceptual frame for this podcast. The episode ends with the full song “Five” by Sleeping At Last (with a run time 5:55, of course). Tendencies include: Hoarding ideas, dreams, favors, credits, intellectual resources and physical materials for just-in-case use in the future. Hiding my vulnerability and retreating into an appropriate social role, especially when I sense meaningful connection isn’t available...
It’s been a while. I was coping with a down shift in support, focused on getting through each day without major problems, and working my way through a couple major problems that did crop up, including crises of confidence and direction. I grappled with hormonal chaos and destabilization in my living situation and closest relationships, all while continuing to care for my toddler full time and getting very little sleep. I went deep into 5w4 survival strategies. (More on that coming soon). I’m fin...
A brief follow-up to Episode 9. A reflection on some of the ways I fostered a healthy relationship to self, and how that was necessary for engaging with the enneagram of personality as a channel for growth. Before you deconstruct your ego you have to build a robust relationship to self so you have somewhere to stand while you do it. I don’t mean developing a static sense of a static self—quite the opposite. It’s about developing a dynamic and ever-evolving set of practices and perspectives conce...
Ugh. Are you as tired of hearing about gratitude as I am? No? Cool. Either way, I’m gonna tell you about how buzz words turn me off and how I’ve opened up the concept of gratitude to build something meaningful and essential to my me-ness in a way that works for me. Also a preview of some ideas coming soon: emotional storms and minimizing my presence as a social preservation response. Let me know what resonates and what you want to hear more of. 🌸 Background photo by me, Monica, the day of recor...
Meandering thoughts—on a meandering walk—on one of my growth edges and the attainability of my goal of financial independence; seeing parallels/metaphors in the natural world. Let me know what resonates. 🌸 Background photo by me, Monica, the day of editing Music by Sleeping At Last Production by me, Monica Bahan Instagram: @un.fiving monicabahan.com...
We all yearn to go back sometimes, to when things were good, to when we felt better, to before the loss. We can’t go back. But, if we listen, the yearning can show us the way forward. I give a few examples of yearning to go back and explore how our fear and loss can point to what we value, what we’re wanting—giving us direction for opening, healing, growing, and connecting. I also give a quick update on the personal themes from Episode 6. Mentioned today: Long exhales ♥️⚡️🧠 Lisa Dion, founder o...
I’m approaching dating as a single/solo mom, first conceptually and then in real time (maybe). I have a strong sense that decluttering has to come first—internal and external decluttering, clearing, organizing, and arranging to achieve harmony and carry less baggage. But can dating and decluttering happen simultaneously? I need help. Mentioned today: 🧠 ♥️🌟 EMDR therapy: stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s super cool, super effective, and a starting place for so much ...
I talk about how I see the enneagram of personality—that we become our type through an interaction of our innate personality and early life experience, and that it’s all about where we get stuck and how to get unstuck; the difference in perspective between the right and left hemispheres of the brain; and the mind in human design. And then I tell a story from my own life—Mother’s Day 2021—that illustrates how these different perspectives came together as I made a major life decision. Resources me...
Accuracy in language is especially important for we sensitive folk (and maybe even more so for wee sensitive folk ☺️). Pay attention to the words you use, both with yourself and others, and get to know your personal lexicon. Words move you, so choose language that gets you where you want to go. If it lights you up, go there. When we rely too heavily on the common language of the culture and neglect to form or attend to our own unique lexicons, we limit our imagination and souls’ expression to th...
I felt disoriented and uprooted this week, so I sat by the river and came back to myself. I remembered that my mission with this podcast is exploration in the spirit of freedom and generosity. That clarity brought excitement and inspiration with it, particularly around unpacking language and bits of language that catch my attention—words, phrases, types of words, ways of speaking. Just introducing that mini project today, not diving in yet; I plan to include a series of episodes or segments in t...
This is all so new to me! 😬 In the course of recording and preparing this episode, I’ve felt excited, nervous, doubtful, brave, trusting, clear, resonant, free, expansive, exhilarated, delighted, terrified, ashamed, lonely, hopeful, connected, grateful, centered, curious, optimistic, motivated, and inspired. I talk a little about all that. I reflect on my experience of shifting out of my comfort zone, into challenge, and tripping over into overwhelm—feeling the spins of disorientation, being in...
Hellooo! Welcome! My name is Monica, and I’m a self-preservation 5w4 in the enneagram of personality. I’m clearing out internal clutter and stepping out of my cave of self-limitation, sharing reflections and wisdom nuggets along the way. With plenty of mixed metaphors and minimal editing—by intention aaand necessity. Who’s coming with me? 🌸 Music by Sleeping At Last Production by me, Monica Bahan Accompanying photos on Instagram @un.fiving monicabahan.com...