HUMAN DESIGN 101: THE NOT-SELF THEMES OF THE ENERGY CENTERS
I love how straightforward Human Design is.
The not-self themes of the aura types and energy centers zero in on exactly where we are out of integrity with our own energy.
The NOT-SELF is exactly what it says - it is an indication of where in the aura you are literally NOT your self.
Just as we can wear masks, we can chose (mostly subconsciously) to live off of energy that isn’t exactly ours. Each of us has energy that is consistent in our blueprint (your individual bodygraph is a map of this) and the places in our chart that are white are particularly susceptible to “borrowed” energy. When I was early days in Human Design, I thought that the not self themes were only relevant if you had a center open or undefined. HA. Any energy center defined, open, or undefined can operate from a place of not self.
How do you determine if you are in your not self? Look at the following questions. Answering yes to them isn’t shameful, wrong, or bad - it just means you are leaning into energy that isn’t yours a little too much. It is awareness and feedback you can use to ease back into your flow.
Each Energy Center has a Not-Self theme: These questions are an incredible and simple tool you can continually go back to and check where you are out of alignment - I suggest bookmarking this page so you can come back to it!
CROWN /INSPIRATION, HEAD CENTER - “Am I trying to answer everybody else’s questions?”
AJNA / MIND, POINT OF VIEW CENTER - “Am I trying to convince everyone/myself that I am certain?”
THROAT / COMMUNICATION, MANIFESTATION CENTER - “Am I trying to attract attention?”
G-CENTER / IDENTITY, LOVE, DIRECTION CENTER - “Am I looking for love and direction?”
HEART/EGO, WILLPOWER CENTER - ”Do I have something to prove or improve?”
SOLAR PLEXUS/EMOTIONAL CENTER - “Am I avoiding confrontation and truth?”
SACRAL/DESIRE, CREATIVITY, SEXUALITY CENTER - “Do I know when enough is enough?”
SPLEEN/INSTINCTS, INTUITION CENTER - “Am I holding on to what is not good for me?”
ROOT/ AMBITION, DRIVE CENTER - “Am I in a hurry to get everything done so I can be free of the pressure?”
REMEMBER: A Generator can still burn out even with a defined sacral center. When I realized it doesn’t matter if you have the center defined, open, or undefined in your chart - I was like OOOOOOOH this explains A LOT. I used to think Manifestors were all magic and so lucky with that defined throat connected directly to a motor, but a Manifestor can still use their throat center from a place of desperation and attention seeking! No one is immune to the Not-Self!!
It is simplistic to look at a chart and think defined energy is a gift more than openness because it is more “fixed.” Someone with more openness in their chart isn’t more likely to get caught in the not-self than someone with defined energy - this is what Ra was speaking to when he talked about the conditioning of a homogenized society (if you don’t know who Ra is, or what this last sentence means, that’s ok)
We are seduced by what we don’t have!! When/if we’re not rooted in our own energy, we’re likely out of whack in at least one energy center. (ahem, most people are not aligned in their own energy and that is fine! Again, this is an awareness tool!)
I find it comforting that every single one of us can all get out of balance in an energy center regardless of that center’s status in our chart. It is a reminder of our humanity and ability to mirror and get deep. The Not Self questions show us where we are out of our own bounds, allowing us to listen in on where we’re pushing or forcing instead of allowing.
Are you ready to look into your distinct energies? Book a reading with me, I’d love to work with you.
Understanding Conditioning: Body Image + Human Design
I remember distinctly being in 4th grade and the girl next to me in music class lamenting her “fat thighs.”
As I heard this girl tear her body apart, I was struck by what she was saying. I hadn’t really given too much thought to my thighs before this moment and her words drove into me like a wedge.
Was I supposed to hate my body?
PAUSE: Human Design immediately makes me think about childhood body image? YES.
A huge part of living your design is releasing the conditioning that you’ve picked up along the way that pushes you to live in your NOT SELF.
As adults, we know that this 9 year old didn’t authentically hate her “fat thighs,” she was simply reflecting the conditioning of her family and the cultural beliefs that she had absorbed from her environment. Something I reference all the time on my instagram is the Beauty Redefined book and teachings. Lexie and Lindsay Kite, PhD’s have researched exactly how women are taught to self-objectify themselves and the harm that causes.
Finding the beliefs that keep us stuck from being ourselves is one of the first steps needed when you are working towards living YOUR fulfilling life. If you are living in a woman’s body, chances are you need to work through your self-objectifying beliefs so that you can get into your authentic desires and energy.
To connect to our inner voice and guidance, we must be IN and connected to our bodies. Facing memories and beliefs about what keeps us disconnected from our bodies is a HUGE part of the process. It is not pretty, it doesn’t really feel good either, but it is a part of the process that allows you to get to a place of authenticity within yourself and isn’t that the whole point of being alive?
Competition, comparison, body image issues, it all starts YOUNG. It serves as a distraction from living your life. It is also strategically used to oppress women because we can’t move forward if we’re too worried about how we look.
In Human Design terminology, this is called conditioning. We are conditioned to fit in and be acceptable so that we get our needs met. Women believe that their value is tied to how they look and therefore we shut down huge swaths of our authentic selves to divert precious resources to making ourselves “acceptable.” But you are not a stock. Your value does NOT rise and fall in concordance with your physical appearance.
Why does this matter? Conditioning holds us back from being who we are. If we are worried about HOW WE LOOK, then we are not clued into HOW WE FEEL.
How you look may get you rewarded externally for a bit, but tuning into how you FEEL will lead to actually being aligned with your highest self.
When we are in flow we are freely allowing our unique energetic signature to beam into universe with clarity.
When we are living in our NOT SELF, we’re scrambling or hiding our energetic signature - and we’re not calling in the correct opportunities and people for us.
In order to clear out our conditioning so that we’re beaming out a clear signal, we’ve got to get in our bodies to feel our authority so that we’re not overthinking and getting stuck in our conditioning.
Embodiment is the antidote to self-objectification. Striving to live fully in our physical being leads to our full expression of being.
Embodiment is a word thrown around a lot lately. But what does it really mean when someone says this? If we look to the dictionary, we see embody to mean giving a body to a spirit. I see embodiment as a channel to deeper self-understanding. We need to be fully grounded in ourselves (our body) to make decisions that are truly the best for us.
I find it can be helpful if we all understand that embodiment simply means being grounded in our body. Now, this isn’t a seamless transition. It’s taken me a long time to drop my self-objectification and just allow myself to BE. It feels awkward at first to not participate in diet culture. I felt self-conscious to just let my body be - but the more I just allowed myself to be, the more I realized I could hear what my body was saying. I felt what a yes and no was in my body.
Allow embodiment to be a daily practice. Notice how often you are disconnected and watching yourself in life. Gently steer yourself back into the present moment.
What do you feel? I found that slow flow yoga and yin yoga really helped me connect into my physical being. A physical practice of any kind that helps you be present and in the moment will help you connect to your inner voice.
Want to learn more? Let’s chat
Human Design: freedom through living as yourself
Human Design appeals to me because it’s proof that we’re all designed to be different.
As I child I felt so frustrated that my peers didn’t see how silly “favorites” were. Why limit yourself to one of anything? Didn’t they see how arbitrary picking one thing and elevating it over another was?
Why do we decide that one thing is important and special to the exclusion of other things?
This question has nagged me my whole life.
When I found Human Design I felt relief.
Relief that someone was finally seeing something my way - that we all are designed with unique talents, gifts, and views that bring something into this world.
Everyone is created to bring in a specific energy signature into the world. We all make an impact and play an integral part of the universal plan. Everything is interconnected. Nothing is better than anything else - everything holds value and purpose.
We could have so much more joy in our lives and in the world if we recognized that everyone brings a special flavor of perspective and talent into the world. If we recognized our own talents and didn’t look to try and make our talents look like someone else’s.
The root cause of a lot of suffering is living in the not self. We’re attracted and seduced by what we aren’t. A pothole so many people fall prey to is believing you build character through conquering what you aren’t good at - whether through competitive forces or through believing a cultural narrative that arbitrarily elevates certain career paths and traits over others.
I grew up in the Christian faith and the parable of the three servants is something that bubbles up constantly when I think about Human Design and feeling satisfied in life. We are given gifts in life and it is not about comparing ourselves to others, it’s about using what we have and sharing our talent with others that brings joy and satisfaction.
We’ve been so browbeat by narrative or linear thinking to realize that there are so many ways to be successful.
We will always be seduced by what other people can do because we don’t live in a vacuum. Recognizing that you are attracted to something isn’t the same thing as needing to be that thing.
MY PHILOSOPHY IS SIMPLE (and borrowed from that parable mentioned above):
WE CAN USE OUR TIME ON EARTH ENJOYING OUR TALENTS AND GIFTS OR WE CAN BURY OUR GOLD.
We’ll all be happier people if we accept who we are and explore what it means to be on earth with the set of energetic tools we’ve been given.
We all have talents, dreams, and wishes for our time - are you following those urges and desires or are you brushing them off?
We’re not meant to live a life to please our families or external sources.
We’re here to express our inner well of joy, creativity, and passion.
Ready to let your inner talents free? Book a session with me.