Developing all three resources

As well as dealing with the temptation and ‘claiming’ the gift, the path to redemption will involve making use of all of our God-given resources: head and heart and gut.

It is the different balance of influences from head and heart and gut in each of us that makes us the diverse people that we are – with all of our diverse gifts – but we all have at least something of all three resources, and there is value in making use of them all.

The gut types EIGHT and NINE and ONE can be so focused on engaging with the world in a direct and practical way that they miss the potential value of careful and logical planning – from the head – and relationship building – from the heart. This way lie the temptations to arrogance and idleness and anger. Developing the skills of head and heart improves relationships with others – and actually helps bring out the gifts of the gut zone, which are justice and reconciliation and idealism.

The heart types TWO and THREE and FOUR can be so focused on relationship building, and on their own emotions and dreams, that they miss the importance, for themselves and for those around them, of careful and logical planning – the business of the head zone – and practical action in the world – the business of the gut zone. This way lie the temptations to pride and deceit and envy. Adding in some head-zone logical planning and some gut-zone direct engagement with the world will ultimately help to bring out the full potential of the heart-zone gifts of kindness and gentleness and creativity.

The head types FIVE and SIX and SEVEN can be so focused on logic and reason and planning for the future that they miss the importance of gut-zone practicality and heart-zone relationship building in the present. The result can be an ‘illogical’ level of hoarding, cowardice, and gluttony – and head types can also lose touch with their own ‘feelings’ in both the heart zone and the gut zone. A full head-zone analysis of any situation is complemented – or perhaps we should just say completed – by attention to intuition and practicalities in the gut zone, and to emotional and relational issues in the heart zone. Developing the heart and gut resources will ultimately help to bring out the positive head-zone gifts of wisdom and faithfulness and joy.

For THREE and SIX and NINE, each in the center of a zone, there are clearly two more resources to develop in order to make use of all three resources. The other sectors – ONE and TWO, and FOUR and FIVE, and SEVEN and EIGHT – already have both a home zone and a secondary influence. It is the third remaining resource that most needs development.

FOUR and FIVE are the head-heart combinations, furthest from the gut zone. They both live richly in the inner life, and the challenge is to engage more directly with the outside world. This is the gift of the gut zone – that part of every person that can indeed be unselfconscious and immediate and practical and direct. The temptations of FOUR and FIVE – envy, and a hoarding of resources – both come from a feeling of being very separate from the world. Engaging with the world a little more – with the instinct and intuition and practical immediacy of the gut zone – can help to bring out the creativity and communication and discernment and wisdom which are the true gifts of FOUR and FIVE.

ONE and TWO are the heart-gut combinations, furthest from the head zone. The combination of heart and gut has both ONE and TWO engaging fairly directly with the world but with a strong emotional influence. This can make ONEs and TWOs alike quite impulsive: TWOs rush in to help whoever appears to be in need, often without a further thought, and perfectionist ONEs can be very judgmental – also without pausing for thought. Developing the objectivity and rational planning of the head can help to bring out the gift of patience in ONE’s idealism, and more practical effectiveness and sensitivity in TWO’s acts of kindness and generosity.

Finally SEVEN and EIGHT are the head-gut combinations, furthest from the heart zone. The combination of head and gut has both SEVEN and EIGHT engaging fairly directly with the world but with a strong influence from the head: EIGHT can analyze what is going on, and often knows exactly what to do next; SEVEN finds the positive in any situation, and locks on to it. These are empowering strategies, but if SEVEN and EIGHT are too ‘heartless,’ they can become ‘headstrong’: EIGHT can be quite aggressive and confrontational; and if SEVEN is glossing over the difficult and the painful, the upbeat energy of SEVEN can be hurtful for those who do confront those issues or feel that pain. It is connecting with the heart that can most surely help EIGHT to avoid the temptation of arrogance, and become instead the protector of the weak and the fighter for justice – the gift and the talent and the vocation of EIGHT. And it is connecting with the heart that can most surely help SEVEN to avoid the inward-looking temptation of excess and discover instead the outward-looking gift of a joy to share with others – specifically a joy that overcomes, rather than denies, the pain. For SEVEN and EIGHT alike, home base is still a powerful and valuable head-gut combination – testing things out and choosing the positive – but developing the heart helps bring out the full richness of the special gifts of these two sectors – justice and joy.