Step 7: “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”
For Enneagram Type 6s, Step 7 at Surrender School directly addresses core challenges like self-doubt, mistrust, and anxiety, as well as their inclination to seek external security and certainty. Type 6s often strive to feel safe and prepared, which can lead to over-control, hyper-vigilance, and using food to manage anxiety or create a false sense of security. Step 7 encourages Type 6s to practice humility. They are asked to recognize that their pursuit of external certainty and security can become a barrier to trusting their own inner guidance and experiencing true faith. Specifically, they’re encouraged to ask their Higher Power for the willingness to release their need for excessive control and external validation, trusting that inner faith and guidance are available, even amidst uncertainty.
1. Cultivate Humility and Self-Acceptance
Character defenses, such as your patterns of self-doubt and over-control, are deeply ingrained behaviors developed over time as ways to feel safe and secure in an uncertain world. Just as you are powerless over food, you are also powerless over these defenses in isolation. Trying to change them solely through willpower is rarely effective. True transformation begins with acknowledging these limitations and opening yourself to support from a Higher Power.
- Reflect on Humility: For Type 6s, humility involves recognizing that true security is not found in external certainty or control, but in developing inner trust and faith in a Higher Power and in your own inner guidance. It’s about acknowledging that self-doubt and mistrust can prevent you from accessing your own wisdom and experiencing a deeper sense of inner peace. Humility here means valuing faith and inner knowing as strengths, not vulnerabilities.
- Embrace Faith and Inner Guidance: Accept that faith is believing in things unseen and that you are indeed guided from within, even when external circumstances feel uncertain. Allowing yourself to trust in this inner guidance, to listen to your intuition and inner wisdom, will lead to a deeper sense of security and resilience, regardless of external validation. Remember your mantra: “Faith is believing in things unseen. I am guided within.” By embracing faith and inner guidance, you counteract self-doubt and mistrust, foster genuine self-reliance rooted in trust (not fear-based control), and discover that true security comes from within, not from external guarantees.
Reflection Questions:
- What does humility mean to me, beyond seeking external security and certainty?
- How can I cultivate faith and trust in my inner guidance in my life and recovery, especially when things feel uncertain?
2. Ask Your Higher Power for Guidance and Transformation
It is important to reach out to your Higher Power and other trusted, program fellows – connection is the antidote to addiction. As a Type 6, you may instinctively seek security by trying to control your environment and anticipate potential dangers, often hesitating to fully trust in your Higher Power or your own inner knowing. However, true transformation requires surrender and allowing yourself to be supported by faith. Your part in this process is to become aware of when your self-doubt, mistrust, or need for over-control is driving your actions and to humbly ask your Higher Power to remove these defenses. This is not a one time event, but an ongoing process of self-awareness and surrender. Each time you notice yourself seeking external reassurance or falling into doubt, you can consciously turn to your Higher Power for guidance. Your Higher Power’s role is to gently remove these defenses as you become willing, freeing you to experience a deeper faith and trust in your inner guidance, valuing inner knowing as much as external validation.
Reflection Question:
- Reflecting on your Character Defenses Assessment, recall times you tried to control situations to feel secure and what the result was. How can I accept that true security comes from faith and inner guidance, and that I need help from my Higher Power and others to cultivate this trust?
Write your own Seventh Step Prayer: In addition to using the Seventh Step Prayer below, take time to write your own version of the prayer, inserting the defenses you identified and speaking from your heart. Keep it simple, honest, and personal. One suggestion for modification is presented below.
- Seventh Step Prayer: “My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me my (each of the defenses listed in my Character Defense Analysis) which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.”
- Personal Prayer: “Higher Power (our words of your own choosing), I am now willing that you should have all of me, true-self and false self. I pray that you now remove from me the defense of _________________ if it stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Help me to see my other defenses as I live my life in alignment with your will. Amen.”
Letting go of control for a Type 6 means: releasing the need for external certainty and constant reassurance, and trusting that faith in unseen guidance and inner wisdom is a source of true security. It means surrendering the belief that safety comes from over-preparation and control, and embracing the truth that inner faith and connection to a Higher Power provide a more profound and reliable sense of safety. Letting go allows a Type 6 to navigate uncertainty with greater peace, to make decisions with more confidence in their inner knowing, and to find a more grounded and resilient security rooted in faith, not fear.
3. Practice Surrender and Trust in the Process of Transformation
It is important to let go of outcomes! It is vital to relinquish the need to control your feelings of safety and certainty and to dictate how faith and inner guidance will develop in your recovery. Surrender your need for guarantees and constant reassurance that you are on the right path. Instead, cultivate trust that your Higher Power will guide you as you open yourself to faith and inner knowing. You may find yourself taking risks you wouldn’t have before, making decisions with less agonizing, or experiencing a sense of peace even when external circumstances are uncertain—not because you have eliminated all doubts, but because you are being guided towards a more faith-based and internally secure way of living. Transformation unfolds organically, in its own time, and often in ways that strengthen your inner faith beyond the need for external proof.
Incorporate your mantra into your daily prayer and meditation:
For Type 6s, your mantra is a tool to counter your tendency toward self-doubt and fear-based control. It’s a reminder that true security is found not in external certainty, but in cultivating faith and trusting your inner guidance, even when things are unseen or uncertain. Consistent repetition helps to gradually reshape your default patterns of thought and behavior, fostering growth and a more balanced approach to navigating life with faith, not just with anxiety and over-preparation.
“Faith is believing in things unseen. I am guided within.”
Reflection Question:
How does my mantra challenge my reliance on external security and control and my tendency toward self-doubt? If it doesn’t fully resonate, what revised mantra could better support my surrender in Step 7 and my journey towards faith and inner trust? Suggestions for a Type 8 might include:
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- “I trust the guidance of my Higher Power.”
- “I am safe, even when I don’t have all the answers.”
- “I don’t have to prepare for every possibility—I can live in the present.”
Choose one of the mantras above or create your own, based on what you’ve discovered about your defenses and patterns. Commit to using it in your daily surrender practice.
4. Embrace New Habits and Attitudes
Welcome the expansion and growth that comes from releasing your defenses and cultivating self-awareness. As you deepen your connection with your Higher Power and with others, you will discover a different kind of security—one rooted in inner faith, trust in your intuition, and emotional resilience, rather than solely in external control and certainty. These changes will foster richer, more meaningful relationships and establish a more grounded and authentically secure path in your recovery journey.
- For each of your defenses, gently visualize yourself practicing the opposite behavior you have previously identified in your Readiness Assessment for Step 6.
- Choose one or two defenses to work on at a time.
- When you notice a defense arising, consciously ask your Higher Power for help, repeat your mantra, and actively practice the opposite behavior.
Examples for Type 6:
- Self-Doubt: I can trust my own judgment and take action even when uncertainty is present.
- Mistrust (Fear): I can choose to trust wisely, knowing that not everyone will betray me.
- Fear of Rejection: I can offer love and support without needing to prove my worth.
- Over-Control: I can allow situations to unfold naturally and trust in God’s plan.
- Hyper-Vigilance: I can stay present and respond to situations as they arise, rather than anticipating the worst.
- Over-Responsibility: I can allow others to take responsibility for themselves without feeling guilty.
- Withholding of Self: I can share my true thoughts and feelings, knowing that authenticity creates deeper connections.
- Catastrophizing: I can acknowledge my fears without assuming the worst will always happen.
- Indecision – Overthinking: I can trust my decisions and take action without overanalyzing every possibility.
- Rigid Adherence to Rules: I can rely on my own wisdom and faith rather than rigidly following external rules.
Reflection Questions:
- Which of my defenses can I start practicing the opposite of right away? And how specifically?
- How can I create new habits that support my self-care and recovery, particularly around cultivating faith, trusting my inner guidance, and managing my anxiety and self-doubt?
Summary for Type 6
For a Type 6 working Step 7 at Surrender School, the core shift is recognizing true security. It’s found in inner faith and guidance, not external certainty and control. Humility in this step means acknowledging a key point. Your pursuit of external security and reassurance can block your inner wisdom and genuine faith. You are encouraged to ask your Higher Power to remove defenses. These defenses perpetuate self-doubt and the need for excessive control. Embrace faith in unseen things. Practice surrendering the need for external guarantees. Cultivate new habits. Trust your intuition and inner guidance. Doing these things transforms your relationship with food. It builds a more secure and authentically faith-based recovery.
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