Episode 166: A Foundational Breakdown of Your Human Design Chart
If you’ve ever seen your Human Design chart, you know that it’s very confusing. Without any knowledge of the basic foundations of Human Design, it’s hard to understand the basics, let alone the intricacies of your charts. As a Health and Human Design coach, I’m here to help you understand your design so you can determine how to best integrate your design, and live your life with the least amount of resistance.
In this episode, I aim to clear up a few questions and misconceptions of Human Design for you! Knowing your Human Design can help you understand yourself better, shed some light on your gifts that you can offer the world, and how we all function harmoniously together.
Episode Highlights:
A summary of Human Design
The foundational elements of a Human Design Chart
A breakdown of my own Human Design
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“It’s one thing to have your chart, but then what do you do with it? How do you integrate it? Now that I had this information, what could I do with it? How can it help me learn and grow and really lean into who I am, so that I don’t feel like I’m lost or constantly fighting, searching, or feeling tension in my life?”
Read the Transcript:
Hi, there, and welcome back to The Live FAB Life Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Nakamura, and today we're going to be talking about the foundational aspects of Human Design.
Since I’ve started Human Design coaching, I’ve had a number of people ask me what it is and what can I expect from a reading. And whenever I'm doing a reading with someone for the first time, I really stick to the foundational aspects of Human Design because there are so many layers upon layers of Human Design.
This is something that you can spend a lifetime learning and integrating. There are many aspects of it that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of yet.
So, in a first initial reading, I stick to the foundations because I believe you need to spend some time learning what the foundation of your chart is, before moving on to the more advanced topics – walk before you run.
So today, I wanted to spend some time breaking down the Human Design chart because when you first look up your Human Design chart, there's no way of knowing what it means.
The first time that I looked at my chart was back in 2018. I’d had a few people that I knew who had readings, and I thought, “Ooooh, I don't know what this is.”
At that time, I was really into the Enneagram and Myers Briggs and some of those other personality profiles and so I looked up my chart. And when I looked up my chart - and I’ll put a copy of it in the show notes for this episode that you'll find on my website at www.livefablife.com/166, for Episode 166 - but if you look at a Human Design chart, you're going to be like, “I don't even know what any of this means///” because there's really no way to interpret it.
So, I did what a lot of you might have done - I close the browser. And I didn't give it another thought until about a year ago.
It was right about when the pandemic started that a friend of mine had a reading and she was recommended that I get one. She thought I could really get something out of it and find it valuable. And boy did I ever. That first reading that I had really shook me to my core.
I immediately bought a bunch of books, I bought the book written by the founder of Human Design, which I actually wouldn't recommend doing that because the language in it is hard to understand. It's essentially a textbook.
But I did a lot of reading and self-study on my own. Then, last fall, when I had the opportunity to take a coaching certification program for Human Design, that things really started to gel for me.
All these things that I had been learning, bits and pieces, finally started to come together into context. I pieced things together and to get the whole picture of what Human Design really is.
This is the first time, probably since I went to nutrition school back in 2015, and when I started studying functional nutrition back in 2016, that I’ve been this excited to learn about something. That's how passionate I am about Human Design. It excites me!
And when I'm doing readings with my clients, there's a certain energy that it brings to me that I think translates to the other person in the session too. It's so uplifting. It's so gratifying. And it's just, it's energizing.
There are many different sites where you can look up your Human Design chart, I'll include a few of them again on the show notes.
But when you look at it, what are you looking at? What are you looking for?
And then when you do a reading, specifically, when you do a reading with me, what can you expect? This is what I want to spend this episode talking about. So why don't we just go ahead and dive in.
The first thing, the foundational piece of human design, and I believe that if you just know this, you can gain so much out of Human Design, is what most people know - they know their Type, or their aura.
Your type is really the foundation of Human Design. If you look at your chart without even going into the intricacies of how to break down reading your chart, but your Type is determined by your Defined and your Undefined or Open centers. We'll get to that in a little bit.
Your Type is your unique role that you have in this world. The purists of Human Design will say that there are four Types and one of the Types is a hybrid Type. Theoretically, there's five different Types that you can be.
You can be a Manifestor, and Manifestors are people who bring forth ideas. They make up about 10% of the population.
Then you have Generators. They are the people who are here to build and create things. They take the ideas that the Manifestors bring forth and put them into action; they build them. They make up about 35% of the population.
Then you have Projectors, and Projectors are here to organize and guide.
So, the Manifestors is bring forth the ideas, the Generators are there to put into action, the Projectors organize the people to do so.
I'm a Projector and we make up about 20% of the population.
Then you have the Reflectors, and they're really the mirror of the population. They are so rare. They're sensitive souls, and they make up about 1% of the population.
And then you have the Manifesting Generators. This is the hybrid Type and these are people who really have the energy of the Generators, again, are here to build and create, but with some of the energy of the Manifestors. To bring innovation into things and they make up about 35% of the population.
So, a lot of people, if they're familiar with Human Design, they probably know their Type. But there are so many different layers beyond just Type. However, just by knowing your Type that can really tell you a lot about yourself, and how you're meant to function and the role that you play in the world.
Now, how this was useful for me is when I learned of my Type, after having my first reading (because I've actually had multiple readings, I think it's really important to especially if you're going to be someone who decides to do this for work to see how different people different approaches they take), and so when I learned I was a Projector, of course, I looked up the Human Design Types of my immediate family and those who are closest to me or have been closest to me at various points in my life, especially in my formative years.
Well, first of all, every single person in my immediate family is a Manifesting Generator, and Manifesting Generators have the most energy of all the Types. They're the best at multitasking.
And all of the people that have been close to me at really significant times in my life are also Manifesting Generators!
So, I truly feel that I have been conditioned to operate as a Manifesting Generator when really, I'm a Projector!
And if you really get to know what Projectors are about, we’re a non-energy Type. We need a lot of rest.
So, it's no wonder that I’ve really struggled with burnout for large portions of my life, especially my adult life, but you know, even in my teenage years, because I've been trying to keep up with these people who are high energy Types. That's just not me. So again, just knowing that about yourself really can help you understand how you can manage your energy in many different ways. And what gifts do you bring to the table. And it's not that you can't do all these other things that other types can do, but you really shine when you're aligned with your type.
So, beyond your Type, next, let’s get into your strategy. Every Type has a strategy.
What your strategy means is really how you can best create opportunities to exchange your gifts with the world.
So, what does that mean? Your strategy is how you can move through life with the least amount of resistance. I think that's something that we all want, right?
We don't want to have to fight battles and feel like we're in tension all the time. So, aligning and being true to your strategy and aligning with your strategy is the best way to do that.
What are the different strategies?
For Manifestors its “to inform.”
For Generators and Manifesting Generators, its “to respond.”
For Projectors it’s to “wait for the invitation.”
And for Reflectors it’s to “wait for the lunar cycle.”
As a Projector I'm going to give context about what that means in terms of my strategy as a Projector to “wait for the invitation.” Really, what this means is waiting to be recognized and invited into a situation.
The best way that I've been explaining it to people, particularly those that I've done readings for, especially those who are either have their own side hustles, or are business owners or a Beautycounter consultant like I am….I have never felt that cold calling was for me.
I know that’s a sales strategy that's very popular. Everyone uses it, right?
Well, I've never felt comfortable doing that. And every time I've tried it, it's never quite worked out for me. And that's because cold calling is not waiting for the invitation.
It might work great for other types, but for a Projector, not really.
So, what does that mean? That means that I need to wait to be invited to share what it is that I have to share. That doesn't mean sitting around not doing anything, just waiting for the invitation.
But rather, I need to make sure that people understand what it is I have to offer and to create opportunities for invitations. In hindsight, looking back at the different clients that I've worked with, the different customers that I've had, different opportunities that have come my way, the best ones, the most fruitful, the most productive, and the most enjoyable ones actually have always come when an invitation was extended.
This was really eye opening for me. This is an example in the context of the business world, but it can really be for all parts of whatever you’re waiting to be invited to - whether that be a relationship, a friendship, whatever it is, you want to wait to be invited if you're a Projector.
So again, for Manifestor is “to inform,” Generators and Manifesting Generators are “to respond,” and Reflectors are to “wait for the lunar cycle.” That's what your strategy is.
So, we’ve gone over your type, your strategy, and next is your authority.
Your authority is your inner guidance system for making decisions. What's the best way for you to go about making decisions?
I'm pretty quick with decision-making, but I have a lot of friends who have really hard time making decisions, and even about the simplest thing. In college, I had a lot of friends that way, and even just deciding, “Oh, what are you going to do tonight? Or what are you going to have for dinner”, it felt like it was the biggest chore, it was just the biggest thing in the world for them to make up their minds about something.
I used to get so frustrated, but you know, now that I know, of course, I looked at their human designs, and I'm like, “Oh, that's why spontaneity is not their thing. They need time to make decisions.”
There are seven different types of authorities. Your authority depends on what your chart looks like.
There’s emotional authorities, sacral authorities. Sacral authorities best make decisions by listening to their gut instincts.
There’s splenic authorities - that's what I am. Splenic authorities are all about primal instincts. You have a “knowing.” It can happen in a split second. And really, that’s how I make decisions.
It's funny because I've really been trying to learn and lean into my authority, especially through with social media.
If you follow me, especially on Instagram, because that's really the only place where I spend some time on social media, I'm not consistent posting there. I can't explain why, but I just don't feel like it most of the time.
When I do post something, something that's meaningful, or unintentional, at least for me, it usually happens in the moment where I'll just get this feeling where I have to post this or I have to talk about this right now. And when I do, that's when I get the most engagement from my community there. So, I've been really trying to lean into that and think, “Okay, when I think about how I want to post this, I'm like, Well, do I really want to post this?” Or is this something that's like, it's a different feeling. When I get that I need to post this right now, it has to happen right now.
Some of the other authorities you can be are, an Ego authority, or a Self-Projected authority, or a Mental authority or a Lunar Authority.
So again, there are seven types of authorities. Different types can have an emotional authority, your chart will determine it. There’s a rhyme and reason that determines what your authority is based upon your chart. There's five types, but there's seven authorities, so there's a little bit of mix and match going on there.
So, you have your type, strategy, authority, and then next we have your Profile lines.
In the readings that I’ve been doing for the past several months, Profile lines have been really powerful in those sessions, because I think this is where a lot of people have really felt seen the most, in really intimate, personal ways.
Profile lines are about your role and your purpose in life.
The lines range from one through six - there is no seven, eight or nine. Profile lines can only be one through six.
Your profile is a combination of two numbers that represent your conscious and unconscious self. Together they create your profile lines. And your profile lines are going to look something like a fraction.
I'm a 1 /3. So, if I were to tell somebody, about my Human Design - I'm a 1 /3 Splenic Projector. That's my Human Design.
I'm not going to go through what each line means because I just don't think we have time, but out of curiosity, my One line, for the most part, this is a bird's eye, high level view, One’s are about learning and being eternal learners.
For me, I find security and safety when I have knowledge. So, if I don't feel like I'm knowledgeable about something, I'm not going to feel safe talking about it. And I'll be honest, this is why I've had a really hard time starting to talk about Human Design because yes, I've been studying it for a year but for people with the One line, it's hard to feel like, at what point do we feel like we're qualified enough to speak about a topic?
And that's really silly, because I always speak from my own personal experiences. And that really goes along with my 3 line.
The 3 line is about trial and error. It's about gaining wisdom from the trials and errors of your life, from your personal experiences. That's really the voice that I've taken in this podcast. Much of what I share is my own personal stories. I share through other people's “real people” stories, whether they be subject matter experts, or people who just have a story, I think is interesting to share. Stories that are compelling and interesting, that I think others will want to hear.
And so, the struggle that I have, is really feeling that I'm qualified to speak about something in an authoritative way, because I'm the forever student.
I’m always learning, I have a thirst for knowledge. That's really who I am.
And like I said, each number, 1-6, has a different meaning and for each person is very personal.
I think for many people, because it's sharing their purpose in life, that part of a reading can be really emotional. It's really intimate.
And I've had some really special experiences with some of my clients as we explore what that means in their chart.
So next, let's talk about the different centers.
Looking at a Human Design chart, you'll see different shapes throughout the body graph. Some of them are colored in, and some of them are not.
The ones that are colored in are what we call Defined centers. A center becomes defined when two gates connect to each other. When they connect to each other, they form a channel.
A Defined center is really where you are “consistently you.” It's the reliable voice in you, and where you consistently send out active energy.
In Undefined centers on the body graph chart, those are the centers that are not colored in – they’re white. These are the centers where you can take in energy and absorb energy from others.
So, when you have an Undefined or an Open center, that’s not to say that you can't experience the energy of that center, that's absolutely not true. You can, the energy that just flows through Open or Undefined centers, it doesn't flow through consistently. And you can experience the energy of those centers in different ways.
If you look at it, these are also potential areas for learning and growth because there's not consistency there. Inconsistency isn’t a bad thing, it just means that you're open, you're flexible in those centers.
So, I mentioned gates and channels. In the body graph chart, there are 64 gates, and they correspond to the Chinese I-ching system and the human genome system, because remember, Human Design is based upon a number of ancient and modern systems.
So, there are 64 gates in the body graph chart. The red gates, and the gates are the numbers you see throughout the chart, those are the gates, and the red are your unconscious gates.
The black numbers are your conscious gates. Each gate, think of it as like an entry and exit point for the energy moving between centers. So again, you might have an open gate just like your open centers, or you might have one that's defined and the ones as defined are going to be the ones that's colored in.
And then like I said, there are channels. Channels are created when two active gates are connected between two centers. There are 36 channels in the body graph chart.
Every chart is going to look different. There are no two people on this earth who have the same Human Design body graph chart.
For context, you can look at my chart when you go to the show notes, but in my chart, I only have one channel of my whole chart.
I know people who have five channels, I know people who have six or seven channels. I have one. So, I have a really open chart, which means I'm sensitive and I can really absorb the energy of others.
And so, I really have to be careful and really make note and know when it is my energy versus me taking on someone else's energy. There's a lot of room for learning and growth in my chart.
So having your chart is one thing, and even knowing what your type is, is one thing. But there's so many layers to your Human Design chart.
We went over your type, strategy, authority, profile lines, defined centers, undefined centers, gates and channels. These are what I consider to be the foundational parts of Human Design.
There's so much more to it. I mean, you can really tackle into your digestion and how you best digest. It’s also call it nutrition. There’s what environment type, your motivation, etc. There's so many different things that your chart can tell you about yourself.
But it's one thing to have your chart, and it’s another thing to know what your type is. But then what do you do with it, right? How do you integrate it, if you want to integrate it?
For some of you just knowing it, that's enough. That’s nice. But for many of you, like myself, I wanted to know like, “Okay, now that I know this information, what can I do with it? How can it help me learn and grow and really lean into who I am so that I don't feel like I'm lost, or I'm searching, or I'm constantly fighting against something or feeling this tension in my life?”
And so, this is where I invite you to, if you've never had a Human Design reading book a session with me. In that first session we’ll go through everything that I’ve just talked about here in this episode. From there, I highly recommend you taking some time to integrate.
If you would like coaching through that, I also offer monthly coaching after somebody has their initial reading with me. But we can also have follow-up readings to go into some of the more advanced parts of your chart.
So, that's it for this episode! I wanted to really just share with you what your Human Design chart is about, and then what to expect in a reading with me. Readings are about 50-60 minutes long. I’ve found that all of my readings have stayed within that timeframe.
And then from a reading, I record it, if you prefer to be recorded, and I send you a copy of the recording. I’ll also send you a transcript. I use transcription software, so it's not 100% accurate, but you can pretty much get the gist of it. I prefer transcripts because I may not always go back and listen or watch a recording, but I like to pull up a document to maybe look through and pull out some significant parts of it or words that might resonated with me.
I also prepare a PDF document, which outlines your chart. I share all of these things with every client that I do a reading with.
So, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on the show notes, or contact me through my website. Or come find me on Instagram. I'm at @livefablifewithnaomi. I respond to all the messages that I get there.
That's it for this week. I hope you have a great week. I hope I've shed some light on Human Design for you, if it's something that you've been interested in, but it might still be a bit of a mystery. And if you have any questions, I look forward to hearing from you.
Until then, have a great week and I'll see you again next time.
Bye!
Naomi Nakamura is a Functional Wellness & Human Design Coach. She helps women who struggle with stress, fatigue, and burnout find freedom and empowerment by optimizing their health, finding balance, and upgrading their energy so they can live life on their own terms.
Combining her diverse professional background, and her unique approach integrates Functional Nutrition and Human Design she guides clients on a highly individualized journey of self-discovery, observation, and integration by removing physical, mental, and emotional confusion and overwhelm, simply taking them back to the very basics of health through their Human Design.
She believes that when our bodies function optimally, our personalities and souls can shine through everything that we think and do with empowering clarity and ease.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
Connect with Naomi on: Instagram
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