Human Design: How to discover the real you

Fears don’t elude you just because this centre is undefined. Indeed, it’s very easy for you to get triggered by the conditioning influence of other people and, because you mirror their fears, there’s a tendency for them to be magnified. Sometimes you can feel inundated with fears and have no way of processing them. Ironically, fear can overwhelm someone with this centre undefined more than anyone with it defined.

What I would say is that those with a defined Spleen are reacting to fears alerted by intuition and instinct, whereas you tend to give focus to fears without a root cause or rationale, and this can be debilitating. Your fears are likely to be the adopted baggage of those around you or have come from an experience or person from the past.

The way to transform this conditioning influence into impassive wisdom is to view fear objectively. Make your fears friends, not enemies, by becoming conscious of them. For example, a fear of authority can be turned into wisdom by understanding that a position carries power, not a person. The CEO of your company is not powerful, it’s his position that wields authority. Your wisdom grows from shifting your perspective on whatever fears grip you.

You also have an innate ability to diagnose the well – being in others. With an undefined centre, you are reflecting the atmosphere around you and will be able to pick up when someone is on edge.

Ironically, though, you struggle to recognize your own well – being. You’ll tend to be sensitive to drugs of any sort, so you might try using homoeopathic or other lightweight medicines. Ordinary prescription drugs might well take their toll on your immune system.

Also, be aware that you may have sharpened psychic capabilities because you are open to reflecting the intense undercurrents of life. Many mediums and clairvoyants have this centre undefined and thereby pick up the signals being emitted from others.

The Root

Drive

At the bottom of the life chart sits the square centre of the Root, the launch pad for all activity in life because it houses our adrenaline and processes stress. As the second of the two ‘pressure centres’, it applies the pressure to act.

The Root exists in a condition of stillness and joy, providing a sense of being rooted and grounded. If the other pressure centre, the Crown, applies an urgency to rationalize life, then the Root applies pressure to engage with and perform in life. It is, by nature, a centre of raw energy, but if it were to have a voice, when triggered, it would scream at you, ‘Lights, camera, action!’

The modern – day world heaps expectation on our shoulders with the pressure to be effective, profitable, productive, brilliant and able to complete a laundry list of tasks. The Root blindly provides the push to get on with things – and cope.

Ambition is one of nine characteristics of this centre. The others are joyfulness, stillness, contentiousness, restlessness, limitation, neediness, provocation and imagination. These individual characteristics are determined by which gates are ‘on’ and are explored later.

Anatomically, the Root relates to the adrenal glands, providing us with the stimulus that turns us into adrenaline junkies or provides that adrenaline rush. But, of course, we can also become stressaholics and permanently maxed out.

If your Root is defined

You have the means to handle, withstand and create extraordinary pressure that calls you and others to perform. All imposed or presumed deadlines are triggered in the Root and you have to gauge whether any goal or timeframe is essential or even attainable without losing balance. There is an intense drive from within, almost a compulsion to act. You are sitting on a volcano of energy that could erupt at any moment. Such pressure can blast you, and any person or project around you, into any number of different orbits.

Your natural state is to be living in the eye of the hurricane, finding calm and stillness amid the madness. When you can calmly smile to yourself in the middle of chaos, you’ve found balance. You thrive on adrenaline rushes, so once you’ve mastered how to find your poise in any situation, the crazier life gets, the more you enjoy it. You are, by nature, an adrenaline junkie, and as such you can be adept at handling stressful situations.

You may well adopt a classic symptom of someone with this centre defined: the inability to sit still. Your leg may be bouncing or your foot tapping, indicating the adrenaline and restlessness coursing through you. You are expert at getting people and things launched; the one who lights the fuse. I would counsel you to marshal the pressure which builds within you. Learn not to jump into something just because it sets off your adrenal glands, because the wrong pursuits or situations can send you off – balance and leave you with stress that not even the Root can handle. The Root is all about finding equilibrium in your life whilst pursuing your goals and chasing worthwhile ambitions.

If your Root is undefined

Your natural state, when alone, is to be relaxed and unbothered, going through life at your own pace. The problems begin when you’re sucked into the vortex of the outside world and start experiencing stress which your centre is not designed to handle.

You can probably associate with the expression ‘getting into a spin’. This is because a conditioning influence, either in your past or present – day environment, feeds stresses into your system from those with a defined Root.

You can achieve all sorts of goals in your lifetime, but it has to be done on your own terms. Whenever you feel stressed, you’ve committed to something outside your own integrity. Other people’s needs and pressures can send you off – balance and leave you out of sorts if you yield to them. If you’ve ever been challenged by a statement such as ‘Get out there and make something of yourself!’ that outside pressure alone can lead to you stressing out. You don’t have consistent access to the adrenaline needed to carry you through. In fact, you might well be known as a serial procrastinator or someone who does things at the last minute because, to achieve anything, you need time for the pressure to build within. You might be one of those people who pack their suitcase two minutes before the taxi arrives. I would almost bet that you write ‘to do’ lists just to be seen to be doing something! You can start millions of things but finish very little.

One likely characteristic people will notice about you is that you’ll be hopelessly early or terribly late when running on someone else’s timings. Take the story of a friend of mine who has the Root undefined. She’d promised to take her son, who has the centre defined, to an appointment at a designated hour. She was upstairs. He was downstairs, clock – watching. When it was time to leave, he was at the bottom of the stairs, tapping his wrist – watch and screaming about being late. With that transmitted surge of adrenaline, she was sent into a spin, dashed from what she was doing, rushed to the stairs, tripped … and fell, landing at the bottom, thankfully unharmed, but in a stressed – out flood of tears. That was a conditioning influence in action.

To turn this into impassive wisdom, you need to recognize when pressure is coming at you but note it’s not your pressure, so remain calm and stay centred and true to yourself. If you constantly get wrapped up in the stress of others, you’ll end up exhausting your adrenal glands. So learn to be watchful, find tranquillity and practise meditation, in line with your nature.

That completes our look at the nine centres. You now have a handle on your inner workings and an overview of the person you were designed to be. But right now we are only at the ‘getting to know you’ stage. What follows is another fascinating truth spawned by the centres – and that’s what ‘type’ of person you actually are.

3 Engaging with Life (#ulink_6fa06b77-2292-50d3-91e7-12d2432c429e)

The Five Types

‘Human Design has brought me “home”. I have finally been understood. Thank you for opening me up, re – affirming my truth, and providing expert guidance.’

AP, New York, USA

What type of person do you think you are? If you had one minute to sum up your nature with a self – appraisal that allowed you to be understood and recognized on first impression, what would you say?

The world is a colourful assortment of approximately seven billion different characters and there are endless descriptions of different types. Sometimes we’re identified by our jobs and professions: the executive type, the labourer type or care – giving type. Or we stand out by personality: the shy type, the confident type, the thoughtful type or reckless type. Some even mark us out by hair colour: she’s a blonde, he’s a redhead. Or religion: Orthodox Jew or southern Baptist. Or nationality: American or Arab. I’m sure as you read those labels, snapshot stereotypes formed in your head. It seems everyone applies superficial labels that really tell us nothing about the person.

Which is where Human Design comes in. It recognizes five types of person, five types that we’re designed to be:

• manifestors

• generators

• manifesting generators

• projectors

• reflectors

Your type is determined by noting which centres, if any, you have defined, and to which other centres they connect. Put simply, your type depends on which of the nine centres are in colour. It reveals some of the most insightful information about you – and others. I’ll go so far as to say that you’ll start to view people you have known for decades in a new light. And once you understand someone’s natural state of being, it allows you to rethink your approach to them. Of course, old habits die hard, and long – established behavioural patterns are notoriously difficult to break. But Human Design encourages us to break down stereotypes, see the real person and interact in a far more authentic way.

The life chart from the Human Design program actually tells you what type you are. So if in doubt, take another look at it, or print it out, and read on. And remember that if at first you don’t recognize yourself in your type, this might be caused by conditioning that has made you act in ways counter to your being. So I suggest looking beyond how you act and focusing on your innermost self.

TYPE 1

THE MANIFESTOR

‘Making It Happen’

A Manifestor has one or more of the three motor centres – Heart, Emotions or Root – defined and connected to a defined Throat. But the Sacral is not defined.

You are one of life’s go – getters, born with an ability to make it all happen. People may well observe an air of invincibility about you because you are a catalyzing force who injects tremendous drive and focus into any project or endeavour – and into the people around you. The willpower of the Heart, the intense feelings of the Emotions and the adrenaline surge of the Root are enough, either in isolation or combined, to surge to the Throat to create a highly – motivated person capable of powerful expression and manifestation.

For a Throat connection to be relevant, the channels must be fully in colour, that is, they must be active channels. The Root’s active connection must find its path to the Throat via the Emotions or Spleen.

Manifestors account statistically for about 8 per cent of the world’s population, so first appreciate that you are rare with your relentless, compulsive, driving energy that constantly seeks to act, achieve and do. Your nature is to be a human dynamo, actively accomplishing goals. Such accomplishments, which you might take for granted, can attract either admiration or jealousy from non – Manifestors, mainly because a lot of people hanker for your manifesting ability! You may find it hard to understand why others have such difficulty getting things done, but not everyone can achieve things as quickly or effortlessly as you, so cut them some slack. You are the one type who can go it alone and succeed, needing no one and nothing but your own drive. Indeed, if I were to compare you to a car, you would be the Maserati. You get in your super – powered vehicle, turn the ignition and you’re off! It helps to realize that you are the key and ignition switch missing in others. Imagine how it must feel for a non – Manifestor turning that ignition switch and nothing happening. You may struggle to understand that feeling, especially if you are an employer, but this understanding alone can lead to a new co – operation that encourages others and enables them to utilize your input.

If you see a stressed – out parent with a child running them ragged, you’re probably witnessing a non – Manifestor parent struggling with a Manifestor child. You’ll recognize the Manifestor baby, too – as soon as they can crawl, they’re off here, there and everywhere. Just wait till they learn to walk! I’ve met many non – Manifestor parents whose children are Manifestors, and they are worn out trying to keep up with their hyper but capable offspring. All these children seek is the freedom to be constantly active; it stifles their nature to be restricted. What their parents must learn is to provide free rein within certain boundaries, such as: ‘You can stay up, but 8 p.m. is bedtime’ or ‘You can go outside to play, but the end of the street is the limit.’ It is the honouring of freedom within limits that strikes the balance here. Also, aim to provide activities and interests which keep their relentless energy engaged. Describe sensible boundaries and let them be!

If, on the other hand, you’re the Manifestor parent and your child is a non – Manifestor, you may wonder why they are not more like you. Like mother, like daughter, right? Wrong. It is not in their nature to be like you and you cannot train them to be equal powerhouses.

In relationships, a Manifestor can be hard to live with because of a constant need for action which leads to unpredictability and potential volatility. It can lead to an attitude of ‘Do it my way or take the highway.’ Don’t even think about trying to control a Manifestor. You might as well lock a lion in a tiny cage and await the roar. But appreciate the gift of an extremely capable partner who, granted freedom, will find a way through anything and be a consummate professional – and forever thank you for understanding them.

The key to understanding a Manifestor is to know they are born doers, eager to make things happen. Blocking them, asking them to stop or nagging them to spend more time relaxing is contrary to their nature. You’re far better off enhancing this temperament by celebrating them, appreciating their efforts and letting them go for it. They need to be active. For them, there is no bliss to be found in doing nothing. Be aware that if you attempt to quiet them, this can lead to friction or anger.

What I encourage Manifestors to do is to let people know their intentions rather than just rush off and do things. Don’t just disappear in a cloud of dust and expect everyone to accept it. ‘But why should I tell everyone what I’m doing all the time?’ I can almost hear you protest. Because, in my experience, I’ve found that Manifestors find immense freedom to be themselves and achieve what they want to achieve when they co – operate with the people around them.