There are two things I feel like I say to my clients during each and every reading:
1) The spleen is not psychic.
and
2) This reading isn't "the work." The real work is what you decide to do with this information.
Our Human Design is the map of our soul's contract. Understanding our individual design can give us invaluable insight into who we are at our core (minus all the messaging and influence and programming we picked up over our lifetime) and what we're here to do IF we can get back in alignment with what is authentic to us and within our integrity. Understanding our charts can help explain all the gifts and challenges and patterns and blocks that our Highest Self armed us with on purpose ("by design," if you will) so we could grow and evolve during this incarnation. It's by stripping back to our design, to what is most authentic, that we can begin to identify these blocks and fears and programmed patterns that hold us back from living out our purpose during this incarnation.
With growth as the ultimate outcome to learning about our Human Design, it's important to note:
- Knowing our Human Design is not a permission slip for bad behavior. It doesn't excuse our selfishness or fear or anger. Just because we're coded to fear certain things or have our anger triggered by some activated gate or open center in our chart doesn't mean we aren't responsible for the repercussions of our actions if we choose to give in to that fear or anger. The potential for fear and anger is purposefully woven into our designs to be a teacher. The gift of understanding our design is that we now have a map to use while we engage in the honest self-scrutiny required so that we can allow those experiences to teach us.
- Knowing our Human Design is not a free pass to live life in the passenger seat. It's not a permission slip for passivity and it doesn't let us off the hook for our inaction. Just because the word "wait" appears in many of our strategies doesn't mean that we don't have agency and choice. So many times, I hear people say "I'm a Projector, so I can't..." Human Design isn't about "can't." That's fear and a scarcity mindset creeping in (or ego). The gift of understanding our design is that we now have a map to use while we plan for how we get from point A to point B that creates/allows for the greatest amount of flow and least amount of resistance. It's about gaining insight into what actions CAN work for us.
Human Design is all about understanding how we're meant to navigate this lifetime: what gifts we're meant to give, and what gifts we're meant to receive. What challenges we'll face and what lessons we'll learn through the fears we've been given, all in service to our Highest Self and to the greater good. There are no "bad" designs. Human Design can be a powerful tool that empowers us to get real and honest with ourselves as we uncover our shadows and start working through our limiting beliefs by shining a light on where we'll probably struggle and act out of ego, out of selfishness, or out of fear.
And the good news is: fucking up is part of the process. And thank Gaia for that because fucking up is an integral part of the human experience! It's through fucking up that we discover important things about ourselves and others. Fucking up catalyzes the discovery process because through reflection, we're forced to have some tough, honest conversations about who we are versus how we act, and how in alignment that is with who we want to become.
And this growth catalyzed by taking the first step of understanding our Human Design is a life-long process. Debbie Ford puts this process perfectly in her book The Dark Side of the Light Chasers where in her introduction she writes:
Humanity and divinity, darkness and light, simultaneously exist within us. Human Design shows us where. After the reading, HOW you work with that information is up to you.
Up until now, I’ve been focused on the WHAT of our charts. It’s time to start incorporating the HOW.
Both here via the nourish blog and on YOU by design, I'm launching a new series called THE WORK where I'll be bringing in different experts, coaches, and teachers from a variety of disciplines that crosswalk with Human Design, who have expertise in the HOW to use what you’ve learned in our work to continue to grow. These women are intelligent, insightful, deeply talented and, most importantly, doing this sacred, beautiful work themselves and I'm so excited to share their gifts with you!
And don't worry! The “Intro to Human Design” posts will continue, too :) I just want to challenge us to simultaneously learn about our design and to use the powerful tools for our own growth and expansion.
Looking forward to doing THE WORK with you!