Beyond the Type: An Enneagram-Inspired Podcast about Being Human.

Saying no can be surprisingly difficult, especially when you’ve learned to equate being kind with keeping other people happy. You may know what you want to say, but then the guilt kicks in, you start explaining yourself, or you worry that someone will think you’re selfish, difficult, or just a jerk. In this episode, Sandy shares a text exchange with a friend and uses it to explore how to say no wi...

Have you ever felt fine one moment, and then the next moment something throws you completely off balance? Life is like that.  And the Enneagram can be an excellent framework for regaining balance. In this episode, Sandy uses a hiking trail (and one spectacularly ungraceful cat) to explore what balance looks like through the lens of the Enneagram. Rather than treating balance as a fixed s...

Have you ever tried to relax, meditate, or simply enjoy a walk outside, and ended up feeling like you failed at it? In this episode, Sandy explores the pressure to optimize even our rest:  to meditate without a single wandering thought, to be fully present in nature without a trace of distraction, to regulate every emotion before it shows up. Using a story from a recent hike (and a chatty bir...

You know that feeling when you're scrolling on social media, and you see a former classmate who just bought a lake house, and you think, "Why isn't my life like that?" Or you're up for a promotion at work, you look around and decide everyone else is more qualified, so what's the point? In this episode of Beyond the Type, Sandy explores comparison, using a "mirror and window" metaphor to unpac...

Following Dolly Parton's passing, Sandy found herself stuck on a question with no clean answer:  What was Dolly's Enneagram type? In this episode, Sandy dives down the Enneagram-nerd-rabbit-hole and makes the case for three possibilities:  Nine, Two, and Three, and ends up landing somewhere a little more useful than just a guess. Sandy brings subtype into the conversation,...

Have you ever realized you're doing a job you never actually applied for? Maybe you're the one who keeps the peace, fixes what's wrong, takes care of everyone, stays prepared, or makes sure everything gets done.  In this Enneagram episode, Sandy looks at the nine types as different "jobs," the patterns each of us can fall into without even realizing it. This episode explores: The invisible jo...

You don't have to fix everything you're feeling. You just have to stop treating it like a problem. Have you ever stood in a vet's office doing math on whether you can afford this, while somewhere in the back of your mind you're also thinking about the moving boxes, the email you've been avoiding, and the bill that showed up out of nowhere? None of it is catastrophic on its own. All of it, at once,...

Why good coaching isn't about giving advice or fixing you. A lot of people think coaching is about getting advice, setting goals, or having someone hold you accountable. While those things can be part of the process, real coaching goes much deeper. In this episode, Sandy explains what coaching looks like from the inside. She talks about what happens during a coaching session, why she doe...

Three practices to quiet your mind and build self-trust. Have you ever tried to think your way out of something that was never actually solvable? Maybe it's when a coworker is annoyed with you, or whether an email landed the way you meant it to, or how a future conversation is going to go..? In part two of this two-part series on overthinking, Sandy picks up where part one left off.&nbsp...

Fear, self-doubt, and why your mind keeps searching for certainty. Do you replay conversations long after they're over? Second-guess emails you've already sent? Lie awake at night wondering if you made the right decision? If so, you're not alone. In this episode of Beyond the Type , Sandy Swanson explores one of the most common things she hears from coaching clients: "I overthink everything." She...

What your brain, your Enneagram type, and two simple practices can teach you.   Have you ever spent hours replaying a two-word email, wondering if someone is upset with you? Or convinced yourself that one awkward conversation meant you'd done something wrong? If you have, you're not alone. In this episode of Beyond the Type, Sandy Swanson explores one of the most common questions she hears in...

Trust isn't built in one big moment. It's built in hundreds of small ones. Trust is the foundation of every relationship, whether it's with a partner, a friend, a client, or a coworker. And it rarely disappears in one big moment. More often, it erodes through small ones: the phone glanced at mid-conversation, the plan canceled one too many times, the reasoning that was never quite explained. Those...

Career Change, Divorce, Empty Nest, Retirement, and Other Life Transitions Life transitions come in many forms, but they often ask the same things of us: What do we take with us? What do we leave behind? What needs to be honored before we move forward?   In this episode, Sandy shares seven questions that she uses with coaching clients who are navigating major life changes. These aren't quick...

Why do so many people feel guilty when they slow down, even when their body and intuition are telling them to do exactly that?  If you've ever felt low-energy, nostalgic, or experienced "summer sadness" during the warmer months when everyone else seems to be thriving, this episode is for you. Sandy opens with a personal story about sitting alone in her car on her birthday, feeling forgot...

  You've done the work. The therapy, the journaling, the coaching, maybe you've had a few real breakthroughs. And then summer rolls around. And so does the inevitable trip home to see your family, friends, and people from your past. And it feels like all of your hard work just goes right out the window. Why does this always happen??!? In this episode of Beyond the Type, Sandy a...

If you've ever felt exhausted despite doing all the "right" things, stuck between who you were in January and who you are now, or quietly haunted by a feeling you keep pushing aside — this episode is for you. In this episode of Beyond the Type, holistic life and leadership coach Sandy Swanson invites you to do something radical: stop measuring your progress and start checking in with yourself...

Have you ever been told to "just be yourself" and wondered what that even means? In this episode, Sandy explores the difference between the True Self and the False Self through the lens of the Enneagram. We look at how personality patterns develop, why authenticity can feel so difficult, and how each of the nine Enneagram types can lose touch with their deeper essence. Because before we can *be* o...

Feeling exhausted, reactive, emotionally flat, or constantly on edge? It may not be burnout. In this episode, Sandy explores the difference between burnout and nervous system overwhelm - and why so many people feel exhausted, reactive, anxious, emotionally flat, or “on edge” even when nothing catastrophic is happening. We'll cover: • The difference between burnout and nervous system dysregula...

Have you ever been surrounded by people and still felt completely, inexplicably lonely? That hollow, flat feeling has a name: relational hunger . And it's more common than you think. In this episode, Sandy explores the difference between being heard and being truly known, why so many of us are starving for real connection even when our calendars are full, and what's quietly getting in the way. You...

Do you reach for your phone without really deciding to? You're mid-scroll at 11pm, exhausted, and yet... you keep going. There's a reason for that - and it has nothing to do with willpower. In this episode of Beyond the Type, Holistic Life and Leadership Coach Sandy Swanson digs into why our phones have such a grip on us:  from the dopamine loop and the slot machine design of social media app...

Most of us are walking around with a set of beliefs about ourselves that we never consciously chose. Beliefs that were handed to us early, filed away as facts, and have been quietly running the show ever since. In this episode, Sandy will be digging into limiting beliefs:  What they are, how they form, and why they're so stubborn. She'll draw on the work of therapist and author Marissa Peer,...

Shed what no longer serves you to make space for what DOES. Spring is here, and with it comes an invitation that goes a lot deeper than cleaning out your closet. This short, reflective episode is about the kind of renewal that actually matters — the internal kind. I explore what it really means to "start again," why something has to die first, and what gets in the way (hint: it's probably yourself...

In Part 2 of this two-part conversation on listening, we move from awareness into action, with five practical skills to help you become a more present, connected, and intentional listener. In your relationships, your workplace, and everywhere in between. We start with a framework from Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at MIT and author of Theory U, that will genuinely change how you think about eve...

Listening is the most important part of communication (imho). In Part 1 of this two-part series on listening, we look at  why  we  don't listen as well as why we think we do - and what's actually happening in our heads when someone else is talking. We'll explore five of the most common patterns that get in the way of real listening, including: The "righting reflex" (the ur...

Why do we sometimes react so strongly to situations that seem small in hindsight? Strong reactions are often blamed on stress, personality, or a lack of emotional control. But research suggests something simpler and more practical is often at play:  a lack of precise language for what we’re actually feeling. In this episode, we delve into how language influences emotional experience, why vagu...