Reader,
What you will find in this email:
- A 9 Lumens Alumni free quarterly check-in (in the p.s.)
- A simple but honest question: How are you really?
- A framework to assess whether you’re flourishing, functional, or fractured
It’s the last day of February. So let me ask you: How are you… really?
January had its way with us. February flew by. And now we’re turning our face toward March.
Where I live, March is “lion and lamb” season. Not quite winter, but not quite spring. It’s a liminal month. A liminal space is a threshold — the space in between. Not where you started, but not yet where you’re going.
If we’re willing to look, these in-between seasons can give us an honest read on ourselves.
If you think back to your intentions for the year, what’s your read on that now? After the first two months of this year, what feels important?
Viktor Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning:
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
That space he describes is an internal threshold — the space between what happens and what we do next.
Flourishing, functional, and fractured are essentially about how much access you have to that internal threshold.
- When you’re flourishing, choice is accessible.
- When you’re functional, the choice is still there, but it takes more effort to reach it.
- When you’re fractured, choice can feel almost nonexistent.
Frankl also wrote:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
He was writing about extreme suffering. And still, he saw that agency remains.
Most of us are not living in life-or-death conditions. But we are navigating stress, disappointment, pressure, expectations, and our own internal narratives.
So the question becomes: How much access do I have right now to that internal threshold, the space between stimulus and response? That question increases awareness. And awareness expands choice.
In traditional Enneagram language, teachers talk about “Levels of Health” — healthy, average, and unhealthy. Your Enneagram Coach uses aligned, misaligned, and out-of-alignment.
Recently, I’ve found myself using language I find easier to picture:
Flourishing. Functional. Fractured.
- When you’re flourishing, there’s space. You have access to choice. You’re not perfect, but you’re present.
- When you’re functional, you’re managing. You’re responsible. Things are getting done. But you’re leaning more heavily on familiar coping strategies. There’s more effort involved.
- When you’re fractured, awareness narrows. Reactivity increases. Your thinking becomes urgent or rigid. The pause between stimulus and response feels hard to find.
Framework for assessing
When you’re flourishing, what’s different about you? How do you sound? How do you move through your day? Where do you notice gratitude? Where do you sense alignment with who God created you to be?
When you’re functional, where do you feel effort? What feels tight? What feels efficient but not fully alive? Where might you be operating on responsibility alone rather than relationship — with God, with others, even with yourself?
When you’re fractured, what narratives get loud? What feels urgent, threatened, or scarce? What fears are driving? And gently — where might you be forgetting that you are held?
Then zoom out.
- Where are you flourishing?
- Where are you functional?
- Where might something feel fractured?
- Where might God be inviting you to widen that internal space?
This isn’t about grading where you are at this point in the year or catching yourself failing at resolutions. It’s an honest assessment.
Because curiosity increases awareness. Awareness restores choice. And choice allows growth. And growth is so beautiful.
P.S. 9 Lumens Alumni — March is your quarterly check-in month. Go ahead and schedule your free March 30-minute session here: https://app.paperbell.com/checkout/packages/167491
P.P.S. If you haven’t joined me for Enneagram coaching yet and you’re ready for growth, I’ll have space for new clients starting in April. Schedule a discovery call if you’d like to learn more.
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Linda Hannigan
Your Guide to the Enneagram
Coaching for clarity. Space for change. Support for lasting growth.
Certified Enneagram Coach | Credentialed Life & Leadership Coach | BTH, CPLC, PCC
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