Episode 324: Energy Mapping Through Human Design: The First Step to Understanding Your Rhythms
Before you can build a rhythm that fits, you need to understand the energy that’s driving it.
In this episode, I’m breaking down what energy mapping through Human Design is, why it matters, and how it helps you create wellness rhythms that actually work for you — not just on paper, but in real life.
If you’ve ever felt like your energy was inconsistent, unpredictable, or just hard to work with… this one’s for you.
Listen to the Episode:
Mentioned in the Episode:
Episode 322: Finding Rhythm Through Human Design After Wellness Rules Failed You
Episode 323: How Human Design Reveals the Patterns You’ve Been Missing
Connect with Naomi:
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“If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Why am I like this?” Energy Mapping takes that story or narrative that you’ve surmised and replaces it with: “Here’s how I work.””
Read the Transcript:
Do you ever feel like your energy is all over the place — like some days you’re sharp and focused, and others, it’s like walking through mud?
That’s not a fluke. It’s a pattern. And today, we’re going to talk about how to notice them.
Welcome back — or welcome in if you’re new here to the show! Today’s conversation is one I revisit over and over again — not just for my clients, but for myself too.
We’re talking about Energy Mapping through Human Design — and why this is always the first step to creating real rhythm in your wellness.
Because if you’ve ever wondered: “I should have more energy by now,” or thought: “Why can’t I stick to this routine everyone else loves?” It’s likely you’re trying to live in a rhythm that doesn’t match how you’re built. How YOUR’RE designed.
If you’re not familiar with what energy mapping is, let’s dive in. Energy mapping is noticing how your energy moves — throughout your day, your week, your life — and then building your life around your flow, not someone else’s.
It’s: Tracking without obsessing
Observing without judgment – isn’t this what I’ve been saying for years now? Self-observation with non-judgement.
Gathering real data without adding pressure
Human Design gives you the perfect lens for energy mapping because it gives you context – a framework.
What energy centers in your Human Design are defined or undefined? In other words - where you have consistent or inconsistent energy.
How do you experience pressure? Are you calm under pressure? Or do you crumble under pressure?
How do you make decisions?
Where are your energy leaks? Where are you unnecessarily expending energy – using your energy inefficiently?
What environments or digestion types actually support you?
If you’ve ever asked yourself, “why am I like this?” this approach takes that story or narrative that you’ve surmised and replaces it with: “Here’s how I work.”
It’s a critical reframe of that question and one that most people skip.
Instead, they buy the app (or the planner if you’re an analog person), they follow the productivity hacks, they try to replicate someone’s morning routine – someone else’s wellness practices. And then wonder why it doesn’t stick. Why don't those things that work for other people work for them?
But the truth of the matter is: If you don’t understand how your energy actually moves, no external structure will hold.
And this my friends is why energy mapping is foundational.
I mean, isn’t it essential, if you want to take a “whole-istic” approach to life to know:
When your energy naturally peaks and dips?
As a Projector, I know that I’m not the Energizer Bunny, who can be likened to a Generator or Manifesting Generator. I know that my energy isn’t as sustainable as the Energizer Bunny’s is.
And this isn’t a limiting belief, it’s how my natural energy flows so I can plan accordingly, manage expectations and give myself scheduled breaks.
For example, I spent the past six months creating my newest program, Find Your Flow. I wasn’t from scratch - much of the content in that program has been repurposed and refreshed from past offerings I’ve had, so I honestly didn’t think it was going to take me six months to create Find Your Flow.
But learning from past experiences in writing programs where I pushed myself to the brink of exhaustion, I’ve made a commitment to myself to not do that again.
So, while theoretically the program could have been created in less than six months, I now know how my Projector energy flows and I gave myself lots of breaks in creating it and I think that I’ve produced some of my best work as a result.
Isn't it essential to know - how does your environment affect you? So you can place yourself in the places and spaces that are most supportive to you and arm yourself when you’re not there?
I have a Markets environment - an External Markets Environment to be exact. This means that I thrive in places where there’s opportunities, options, essentially urban spaces. - literal markets! I settle in and feel at ease there.
Yet, where I grew up was the total opposite of this. Think - small town, but on an island. Limited opportunities and options and while I love how growing up there grounded me, I always wanted to be somewhere else. I always wanted more and I left home at 17 and while I visited, I’ve never lived there again.
I don’t want to say it wasn’t a supportive place for me, but where I live now, in an urban area, in the San Francisco Bay Area, settles my soul - it’s where I’m meant to be.
Isn't it essential to know - what kind of rest that you actually need?
I mean, rest is rest, right? There’s 5-minute catnaps, there’s completely disconnecting yourself. Every one benefits from whatever rest we can get (because we all need rests - even the Energizer Bunnies), but what I’m talking about is managing your energy so that you’re using it efficiently and not depleting yourself. For example, long time listeners will know that long before I even heard of Human Design, I used to train for marathons. In retrospect, I trained the “traditional” way, the way Generators and Manifesting Generators train. But I’m neither, so its no wonder that I was always injured. And tired.
I wasn’t one of those people who could take two weeks off from a marathon and then start training for another race. Or who could take one rest day a week and stay refreshed. In hindsight, I needed to have trained as a Projector.
Disclaimer: I don’t actually know what that looks like, but I do know its definitely more rest time – true rest time incorporated into a training cycle.
Isn't it essential to know - when your decisions are aligned vs. reactive?
I think this is the most essential thing to know - how you’re designed to make aligned decisions. Because your wellness comes down to what decisions you make - what you choose to do and what you choose not to do.
And if you don’t trust your decision-making and have confidence in it, you’re always going to be second guessing yourself and outsourcing your wellness to someone else’s rhythm - someone else’s designs.
I know this is a lot to take in. It’s simple, but it’s a lot. I’ve been told it feels like micromanaging but it’s not about that. It’s NOT that. It’s understanding your internal clock — so you stop overriding and quite frankly, gaslighting your own rhythm. I started the ritual of tracking things well over 20 years ago. Calories, steps, workouts, sleep, how much water I drank. Now, to be clear, I still think all of those things are helpful and can have a place in your wellness if you practice them in a way that’s aligned with your rhythm.
For me, what I didn’t understand back all those years ago, that I do now, was that my approach, the intentions for why I tracked these things wasn’t aligned with my rhythm. They weren’t as effective as they could have been because I didn’t have the full picture – because I didn’t understand and also account for my own energy.
But once I started tracking my energy, I saw things more clearly. I realized just how much {unnecessary} pressure I was putting on myself to be “on” all the time — even though my design literally tells me that I have an Undefined Head Center and Undefined Root Center which means my energy doesn’t flow under pressure.
It changed my whole perspective - not necessarily that what I was doing was “wrong” - I guess in some ways it did, but it wasn’t this huge overhaul. It was a mindset shift in how I could make some rituals work even better for me.
Once I started seeing patterns more clearly, I stopped fighting them. Everything stopped feeling like they were battles. I stopped wasting energy and started building structures around how I actually functioned — not how I thought I should.
This is when and how things started to shift.
So if you’ve been nodding along because your energy feels like a mystery most days — consider this episode to be your sign to stop guessing and start mapping your energy.
And I happen to have a free guide called Energy Mapping 101 that walks you through how to begin tracking your energy in a clear, pressure-free way that actually works for your brain.
Then, when you’re ready to go deeper, or perhaps you’re already ready to dive deeper — and you want to build an actual rhythm around your energy and your design — that’s exactly what we do inside Find Your Flow.
It’s my signature program that helps you track smarter, live slower, and rebuild your daily rhythm using Human Design and functional strategy.
You can learn more about both Energy Mapping 101 and Find Your Flow in the show note for this episode at www.livefablife.com/324 for Episode 324. I’ll have links to everything mentioned there.
And if you have any questions, come find me on Instagram at @livefablifewithnaomi.
Until next time — Trust your rhythm. Not the rules that you’ve been led to believe you “should” be following.
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
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