Episode 282: Six Misconceptions About Human Design
When speaking of their Human Design, I often hear language classifying things as “good” or “bad,” but there isn’t anything “good” or “bad” in one’s Human Design.
So, in the episode, I clarify the following misconceptions about Human Design:
Defined Centers are “good”
Undefined Centers are “bad”
Influence is “bad”
My Human Design doesn’t resonate with me, so it’s “wrong”
I’ve been conditioned, so I did something “wrong”
There’s always a “like for like” answer
…and how to reframe your perception of them.
Listen to the Episode:
Mentioned in the Episode:
Episode 221: When Your Human Design Doesn't Resonate with You
Healthy x Human Design: Decode Your Health Using Human Design
Connect with Naomi:
Connect on Instagram
Share the Episode:
“Nothing in Human Design is “good” or “bad.” There’s always the light and the dark - the positive way of using your energy and the shadows, which is using your energy from a dark place that isn’t authentic to who you are.”
Read the Transcript:
Hello there, friend! Welcome back to The Live Fab Life Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Nakamura.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a new episode, hasn't it? I've missed you, and I've heard from a bunch of you that you've missed new episodes, too!
As you know, I'm currently in design mode, creating new pieces of training. Having an Undefined Head Center makes it challenging to stay focused. So, I have to prioritize my projects and minimize all the other things I'm working on, which is why there’s been an inconsistent cadence of new episodes.
But after hearing from you that you miss new episodes, I was thinking I actually have enough podcast content planned that could stretch to about six months, and I have my podcast production process pretty nailed down. And while I don't think I can bring you a new episode every week while I'm deep in creation mode, I can do an episode on weeks that don’t require as much creative thinking.
Before we jump in to today's topic, I want to let you know that two of my video-on-demand trainings, “Healthy by Human Design” and “Human Design Essentials,” are now available. Keep listening to the end as I discuss them in more detail, why I created them in the way I did, and how they fit into the ecosystem of ways to work with me.
Now, let's get to today's topic.
A little while ago, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine. I did a reading for her - actually, she was one of the first people I did a Human Design reading for a while ago. Over the past few years, she’s been processing her design, going through ebbs and flows.
In our conversation, we discussed how to address different challenges she's been dealing with through the lens of her Human Design. There seemed to be a few misconceptions based on some of the language she used.
This was not unique to her. I've had other conversations and observed interactions that indicated some misconceptions needed to be cleared up. When I pointed out the misconceptions, she responded, “I'd love to listen to an episode on things in Human Design that are seen as negative but really aren't.” So, today, I’m addressing five misconceptions about Human Design.
Defined Centers are “good”
So, first of all, let's back things up and clarify a Defined Center.
Human Design has nine energy centers. The Defined Centers are shaded in. They indicate areas of fixed energy, meaning that the energy of that center is always available.
I have two Defined Centers—a Defined Throat Center and a Defined Spleen Center. I always have the energies of these two centers available to me, and I emanate them.
We influence those who have centers Undefined with the energies of our Defined Centers.
For example, As a Projector, I have an Undefined Sacral Center. I grew up in a home where everyone else had Defined Sacral Centers.
This means I absorbed their Sacral Center energy, which influenced me to believe that I could sustainably do the things that require Sacral lifeforce energy. But I don’t have consistent access to Sacral energy. I can only access it when I’m around those who have a Defined Sacral Center.
But, living in a household where everyone else has a Defined Sacral Center, I was conditioned to believe that I could function the same way as they did. But the reality is that inconsistent access means that it’s not a sustainable energy that I can rely on, but acting as if I could lead to fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout.
The misconception here is the belief that “Defined Centers are good and Undefined Centers are bad” - we’ll get to Undefined Centers in a minute.
It’s believed that Defined Centers are good because they give us influence over others. Is this always a good thing? What if someone has a Defined Center but expresses the energy in a negative or harmful way? For example, what if someone with a Defined Throat Center who has a large platform spouts fake news, lies, and harmful information?
Additionally, to allude to a Defined Center as “good” and an Undefined Center as “bad” means that Manifestors, Projectors, and Reflectors are bad, weak, and insignificant.
Here’s the thing - nothing about Human Design is “good” or “bad.” And that's the gist of this episode - to say that nothing in Human Design is “good” or “bad.”
There is always the light and the dark - the positive way of using your energy and the shadows, which is using your energy from a dark place that causes harm and from a place of negativity, from a place of conditioning, right?
Defined centers are just what they are - Defined Centers. It’s neither a good nor bad thing.
I think the conditioning here is having to assign things as “good” or “bad.” Why do we feel compelled to do so?
Undefined Centers Are Bad
If there is the belief that Defined Centers are “good,” then there’s the equal belief that Undefined Centers are “bad.”
I once had a conversation with someone who would say, “ Oh, I have the Root Denter defined, so that's good, right?” It's not just that simple.
First, let’s explain what an Undefined Center is. Undefined Centers are the unshaded or white energy centers on your Human Design chart.
There is a perception that you don't have access to the energies of Undefined Centers. This isn’t true.
Undefined Centers are the areas where your energy is fluid. When you’re around someone with a defined center that you have Undefined, you absorb or “borrow” their energy. This is what I mean when I say you’re vulnerable to influence through your Undefined Centers.
Going back to my example of having an Undefined Sacral Center and living in a household where everyone else had a Defined Sacral Center, I absorbed their Sacral energy. I borrowed it and was absolutely influenced by it.
But when I was not around them, I lost access to that energy; that makes energies from Undefined Centers fluid—they come and go.
This is why I often discuss the importance of finding your baseline. What I mean by this is recognizing your energy so you’re aware of when and how you’re being influenced, i.e., when taking on energy from someone else.
This is why alone time is important for everyone. When we’re alone, in quietness, we’re not exposed to external stimuli, whether other people, television, social media, etc. Quiet moments alone help to build self-awareness because we can get to know and understand ourselves free of external influence.
That said, time spent exposed to external influences is important, too, because we need contrast. Contrast to show us what it feels like when we're alone versus what it feels like when we're taking on things outside of ourselves.
This is how we learn to differentiate what it feels like to be our authentic selves in our own energy from what it feels like when we’re exposed to external influences.
Influence is Bad
I've discussed vulnerability to influence and conditioning. You may think, “Oh gosh, being influenced is bad.”
But remember, there isn't “good” or “bad " when it comes to Human Design.”
It’s your mindset and perception of how you view things and the context you interpret them.
This is why it’s so important to have the self-awareness of understanding how your energy works and knowing if and when you're being influenced and how you're being influenced.
In hindsight, my life would have been significantly different if I’d understood that while living in a home full of Defined Sacral Centers.
Understanding this gives us a choice to decide how to manage our energy - who am I going to spend time with and allow to potentially influence me? What boundaries do I need to create to manage my energy? What kind of work am I going to do? How am I going to structure my day?
When you understand how your energy flows, you can determine how to best manage it so that you can manage stress and avoid burnout because how you manage your energy determines the quality of your life.
Additionally, you can be influenced for good. If you’re not in a good place, living in your shadows, you can be influenced in a way that brings you out of the shadows back into the light.
So, it's important to understand your energy and how it flows and functions. This is what makes your Authority so important. Your Authority is your correct way of making decisions. Following your Authority will guide you to know what to do with the external energy you absorb. Just because you’re absorbing energy doesn’t mean you’re going to be conditioned by it.
If you’re unfamiliar with Human Design Authority, it is one of the foundational topics discussed in my training, “Human Design Essentials.”
My Human Design doesn’t resonate with me, so it is wrong
I've heard this claim repeated many times from people who don't fully understand Human Design. What they know likely was learned from scrolling on Instagram—maybe they had one reading, which is great!
But speaking from personal experience, it takes multiple readings and much more than reading Instagram posts or listening to a podcast to fully grasp your Human Design.
Obviously, I firmly believe in Human Design and that our designs are who we are. I don't believe that any part of our Human Designs is wrong. But I don’t want you to take my word for it. I want you to experiment with your design and find out for yourself.
What I do believe is that different parts of our Human Design resonate with us at different stages and in different phases of our lives.
At times in my life, I would absolutely not have agreed with my Human Design. For example, I would not have agreed that I need to prioritize rest, that it’s better for me to move slowly, or that I need to wait for invitations. I would have scoffed at this and insisted that none of those things applied to me.
But now that I've lived to the years that I've lived, I can look back in hindsight and think, “Gosh, I wish I knew this in my formative years because I could have made entirely different life choices that would have made life so much easier.”
I also believe that conditioning can lead us to believe that some aspects of our designs aren't correct and aren't authentically us.
Going back to my example of being the lone non-Sacral in a household of Sacrals, I believed that I was fantastic at multitasking. I used to write on my resume that I was an excellent multitasker.
I also believed that I was a go-getter and someone with all the energy in the world—I mean, I trained for ten marathons.
When I learned that I was a Projector and what that entailed, I could have easily said, “No, that's wrong. That's not me.” because they've done all these things that supposedly are incorrect for Projectors.
But here's the thing: even though I'm a Projector, all those things—multitasking, being a go-getter, having an abundance of energy—I do believe they are indeed still true for me.
But the context in which I understand, define, and apply these words to myself has shifted.
I still see myself as a multitasker, and I'm using this specific example because Manifesting Generators are traditionally the best multitaskers, but that doesn't mean they're the only multitaskers. That doesn't mean that I, as a Projector, am incapable of multitasking. I am, and I do it every single day.
But I've redefined multitasking to what it looks like for me. I'm still doing multiple things at once, but not at the same speed that a Manifesting Generator would. I move at my own speed.
I still see myself as a go-getter driven and unafraid to go after what they want. But without consistent, reliable Sacral lifeforce energy, it can take me longer to get things done. That doesn't mean I'm not a go-getter. I’ve redefined my definition of a go-getter.
I may not train for marathons anymore, but I still feel I have all the energy in the world. Now, I’m mindful about how I use my energy, what I spend it on, and how I manage it.
It's a mindset shift. It's a recognition that words can have different meanings; they can mean more than one thing to more than one person. There are different ways of interpreting these words and the context in which we translate them.
Conditioning doesn't mean you did something wrong
Realizing how you’ve been conditioned doesn't mean you did something wrong.
I once had a conversation with someone who was processing everything they’d recently learned about their Human Design and made a comment like, “Oh, I did that wrong”
No, no, no, no, she didn't do anything wrong.
Conditioning means is that an external stimulus, a person, book, film, social media - something or someone has influenced you. It led you to believe something and act in a way that wasn't authentic to you. And you weren't aware of it because you didn't understand what was authentically you and what was incorrect for you.
As I’ve said, we need contrast to know who we are and who we're not. Conditioning teaches us this once we recognize the conditioning, and if we’ve learned something from that experience, conditioning isn’t necessarily bad. Without it, the lesson may never have been learned.
There isn’t always a “like for like” answer
Lastly, there isn't always a like-for-like answer in Human Design.
I've been asked questions like, “Oh my gosh, I finally did this thing. Why did I wait so long to do it? What does my design say about it? Is there something in my design that explains <insert data-preserve-html-node="true" thing they’re looking for a direct correlation for>?
Human design has many components, and our individual designs' configuration makes us unique. So, it’s not always having an active gate that means you acted a certain way or did a thing.
For one, it’s usually a combination of things, but it’s also about how you’ve been influenced and conditioned.
For example, say you’re a procrastinator. Maybe something in your Human Design lends to being cautious or needing to take time to make decisions. Or maybe you were conditioned to procrastinate for any number of reasons—fear, uncertainty, inability to trust, or a need for control.
Maybe you were following your Authority, or maybe you weren’t.
This is why, if you really want to understand, embody, and align your life with your Human Design, you need to deeply understand the intricacies of your specific design.
This depth of understanding doesn’t happen in one day, month, year, or ten years.
It might not happen after one Human Design reading; it may not happen after three Human Design readings. It's something that you learn, experiment with, and digest in pieces over the course of your lifetime.
I've been fully immersed as a Human Design professional for about four years, and I'm still digesting and learning parts of my design. It’s a lifelong journey.
This is why I've structured my offerings in the way that I have.
Earlier, I shared that I have two new video-on-demand (VoD) trainings available and that I'm creating more.
I’m creating VoDs because there's only so much that I can cover in a Human Design reading or a coaching session.
After spending the past four years giving readings, I realized that it would be beneficial to my clients and to me to have self-guided, on-demand programs available to provide a baseline and help people understand foundational principles so that we can communicate in a common language with Human Design.
The VoD’s are intended to provide context and conceptualization, explaining fundamental principles.
I decided to offer VoDs in bite-sized chunks instead of a big course because this is how I prefer learning - in bits and pieces so that I can learn and then go away, think about it, digest it, put it into action, and then when I'm ready to come back and continue learning.
Typically, big courses go unfinished, and I don't want my clients to do that. I want them to take the time to learn what they want.
That's why I'm creating short-ish VoDs. So far, they're about an hour long—one is a little under an hour, and the other is a little over an hour. I’m aiming to keep them all about the same length.
So, this is why I'm creating self-guided trainings – to provide a baseline.
I’m intentionally taking a modular approach so you can mix and match the ones that interest you.
If you've received a Human Design Playbook from me or we’re working one-on-one together, these VoDs can supplement what we’re focused on.
The next level in my suite of offerings are Human Design playbooks and Functional Nutrition Assessments. Both of these things are very personalized to each individual.
I used to offer Levels 1, 2, and 3 Playbooks but I realized it's a much better client experience to have it all in one place. The Human Design Playbooks and Functional Nutrition Assessments are very in-depth and take me a great deal of time to create because I spend so much time deep-diving into each person’s information.
Some have purchased them expecting an immediate download; these are not immediate downloads.
Third is one-on-one coaching. In this type of coaching, I allow the client to select what parts of their Human Design they want to explore in accordance with the areas of life they're feeling challenged in.
I designed my offerings to be a more comprehensive, versatile, and flexible way to work with me. If you're not completely clear or familiar with my approach to working at the intersection of Health and Human Design, the first VoD I created is a free training called “Healthy x Human Design.” I’ll link to it in the show notes for this episode, which you’ll find at livefablife.com/282 for Episode 282.
If you haven’t watched it, I highly encourage you to do so.
Human Design Essentials is also available, and once they're done, three additional VoDs will follow in the next three to four months. I anticipate returning to weekly episodes.
So, three additional VoDs are coming: Human Design Essentials, Human Design Playbooks, Functional Nutrition Assessments, and one-on-one coaching are available now. You can find information on all of this on my website at livefablife.com.
I'm so glad we got to spend this time together. Thank you. I always appreciate your time, energy, and attention. We will speak again soon. Bye for now!
Naomi Nakamura is a Health x Human Design coach who’s creating a healthier society through aligned energy.
She blends a bespoke mix of Functional Nutrition and Human Design to help others shift into alignment to leverage and correctly manage their energy to support their body, mind, and spirit.
She believes that when we embrace our authenticity and lean into our bio-individuality, we naturally live a life of freedom, empowerment, and optimal health.
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
| Pinterest
