Forty Days on Being a Four

By: Christine Yi Suh

Narrated by: Christine Yi Suh

"How are you feeling?"

Christine Yi Suh says that this has always been a hard question. She writes: "The more accurate question for a Four may be, 'What aren't you feeling?' I can grab my prevailing emotion and tell you how I'm doing from that emotion's point of view (joy, elation, sadness, grief, confusion - you name it!). I live and breathe a kaleidoscope of living, feeling, conflicting emotions."

Many times Fours are labeled "emotionally intense" or "too much", but for a Four, this is just how life is. This is why Fours are ideal companions in the midst difficult times: the death of a loved one, the birth of a baby, transitional seasons in career, relational conflict, and so on.

The Enneagram is a profound tool for empathy, so whether or not you are a Four, you will grow from learning about Fours and enhance your relationships across the Enneagram spectrum. Each summary concludes with an opportunity for further engagement such as a journaling prompt, reflection questions, a prayer, or a spiritual practice.

©2021 Christine Yi Suh (P)2021 eChristian

Very illuminating

I thoroughly enjoyed my 3 hours of listening. Christine took me into her heart and used examples from her life to teach me about 4-ness. I cried often and felt like I was given tools to love and accept myself.

Overly Rooted in American SJW Speak

The complexity of a 4 in the process of spiritual growth would be difficult to lead with a sub 3 hour audio guide, so it’s not surprising it feels a bit less than satisfying upon completion. This book misses the opportunity to speak to all 4s because it unfortunately gets mired in a narrow American social justice warrior lexicon of inclusive virtue signals. The author does an admirable job explaining her “lived experience” as a young Korean American hitting her 30s in Southern California, and the details of her life are interesting. Unfortunately, as a spiritual guide for all 4s, though it lands good and rightly difficult questions for self reflection, I found the overly personal application and preachy tone off putting for someone trying to escape the limitations of this American political identity politics/theology subculture. And I am saying this as someone who could easily be labeled a SJW myself, work full time in Christian ministry to serve oppressed African women, and a part time minister. This book would be hard to pass on to anyone not female, 30ish, and already a Rachel Held Evans enthusiast and consumer of “spiritual directors.” If the intended reader/listener is within those narrow parameters then it might be a great choice.

Healing

Thank you for putting my experience of being a woman of color and a four into words. Forever grateful.

More of a memoir of her own experiences than about being a four.

Some really insightful things but seemed to be more a memoir of her own social injustice experiences than a daily devo.

Not very relatable

I stoped listening because it became very un-relatable, focusing a lot on personal stories, race, politics and religion. That might be some people’s thing, but I was hoping for more emphasis on the enneagram.