A few weeks ago we (virtually) sat down with one of our students, Greg Mathews, and we loved learning about him and his work. Greg is an enneagram coach, music producer, and video producer who has always been attracted to helping people find their inner stories. Greg finds that, “music expresses our deepest emotion, events create experiences for people to understand themselves at a deeper level, video production uses story to define our inner worlds, the enneagram uses personality to map our deepest motivations, and counseling seeks to make the implicit explicit to find healing. This is where my heart lies, in helping people paint the beautiful and complex landscape of their inner lives and experiences. “
If you don’t know what your enneagram is there are a lot of free tests online that you can try like this one, but you can also reach out to Greg to be guided through mapping the inner landscape of your enneagram with one-on-one coaching here. Enjoy learning all about Greg!
1. Where can we find you on your mat?
Right now, in my living room with a two-year old climbing on me. Savasana isn’t quite as relaxing with twenty-five pounds of energy bouncing on you.
2. What is a challenge that has really helped you to grow?
While we were pregnant with Eden (our two-year old daughter), my wife and I moved to LA. So much was uncertain and difficult but it forced me to get curious about what I really wanted to orient my life around and to take steps to explore.
3. Where do you feel most at home?
The Big Sur coastline in central California is such a place of peace for me. It’s a dream of mine to create a retreat center there and share the rest and beauty it has given to me.
4. What is one thing you’ve learned on your mat at Ignite?
The arc of my practice almost always begins with concern about what other people are thinking or if I’m doing it “right” and ends with an inward focus and awareness. This is so much of the work in my life on and off the mat, to separate from external motivation and connect with my own body and emotional landscape.
5. What’s been your greatest adventure?
I think marriage has been my greatest adventure. Having a person who reflects love and acceptance back to me has given me such a powerful foundation to explore, be curious, and learn how to be compassionate toward myself.
6. Where else are you lighting it up these days?
Right now, I’m in the phase of big dreams and minuscule steps. I’m taking actions to align my life in the direction I want to head and it is proving to be some of the most life-giving and fear-inducing steps I’ve taken
7. What is something you aspire to do in life?
I want to create experiences for people to connect with their inner landscape. My life began to change when I learned how to look inward and pay attention to what was inside me as much as I was trying to please and perform for the world outside of me. We all have rich, beautiful, and complex inner lives and I believe the world is a much better place when we connect to and live from those places inside of us.
8. Is there anything else about yourself you would like to share?
In enneagram language, I’m a nine. I can bring peace and perspective to situations and at the same time, it’s easy for me to lose sight of myself and just go along to get along.
9. What is one thing you know to be true?
One thing I know to be true is that every person matters. Collectively, we spend so much energy trying to prove our worth and end up missing what is in there all along, that our value lies in our unique existence, not in how successful we are.
