What Is Human Design and How Can You Use it to Become a Better Business Owner Part 1
Episode 422: Show Notes
Hey everybody and welcome back to the show. This is going to be a really good episode because today we are finally talking about the Human Design personality test method. We have heard such muttering about this topic and we are obsessed with personality tests in general. It’s amazing how in this Human Design model, personality is seen as something baked into who you are. You don’t get to pick or adjust over time like in other test models. It’s literally based off of your birth hour/minute/location, so you cannot change what you are.
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We know very little about this topic but wanted to share what we have learned so far. Tests like the Enneagram and Myers–Briggs give you such good insight about who you are, and you can learn how to be a better person and understand your faults. The Human Design model, by contrast, can help people become more balanced through collaboration. Our conversation today is structured by running through the book Human Design: Discover the Person You Were Born To Be, which helps breakdown how Human Design came about. We will talk about some of those basic principles today and how they relate to our types as business partners. Enjoy!
The Origin of Human Design: Ancestral Data and Complimentary Energies
So what is Human Design, when did it originate, and how does it work? We get into some of these questions and how they are explained in Human Design: Discover the Person You Were Born To Be. Human Design is a way of testing personality traits developed in the 80s that takes time of birth, history before birth, and astrological factors into consideration in diagnosing your personality type. According to this theory, the time three months before you were born is very important because it is when the neocortex in the brain’s frontal lobe turns on, the time when the soul apparently enters the body. The book provides a series of charts that describe Human Design, and they follow three categories: nine centers, 36 channels, and 64 gates. There are two things to look at when studying this chart: conscious personality aspects and unconscious ones. The unconscious ones point to the ancestral input or the data that you were given at that vital three months prior to birth phase. If you look at the chart, you’ll see planets which can be confusing but they relate to how these celestial bodies influence the whole process. One of the most interesting things is the chart’s depiction of your active versus inactive personality centers. According to this theory, when you are around another person, your inactive centers become active if their corresponding ones are, to a positive or negative effect. So Human Design theory is all about being aware of yourself and how you work with others, and can be used to great effect in creating productive partnerships.
Four Main Types, and How to Balance Yourself Through Conditional Wisdom
Next up, we get a little deeper into the nuts and bolts of what types this test categorizes people into. There are four main types: the generators, projectors, manifesting generators, and reflectors. Abagail is a projector and Emylee, a manifesting generator. The reflectors are rarest and can be named as such because hardly any of their centers are defined. These reflector types could have it rough because they might find it quite a struggle to cope in different situations! Their open centers are taking cues from all over, making decisions a tough thing to manage. The caveat here is there is no good or bad chart. Don’t go down the rabbit hole of seeing undefined centers as bad. Also, the people around you whose centers are defined in areas where yours aren’t can be used to help you. This is called conditioning influence.
The Nine Centers, What They Symbolize and How They Play Out in Us
The Human Design theory locates nine places in your body called centers that can either have a defined or undefined state. Their defined or undefined states collectively feed into what broader type you are. The nine centers are the crown, mind, throat, self, heart, sacral, emotions, spleen, and root. We give a breakdown of what each of these centers symbolizes in its defined or undefined state, which state Abagail and Emylee fall under per center, and how their relationship plays out accordingly. The crown is about having a strong personal vision versus following other people’s goals in its defined compared to undefined state. Mind centers symbolize the third eye and have to do with helping others see and grasp things. As for the throat, this area relates to tactics around communication. You’ll find yourself either having strong opinions and being really chatty or rather being very tactful in how you deliver a message depending on its state. The self center is, of course, related to your conception of who you are. Either you’re sure or will find yourself constantly revisiting the question of who you are depending on the situation. The heart center is about your motivations for doing what you do. Either you do things for the greater good or for your own ego. The sacral has to do with your energy. Those with a defined sacral tend to do the hard work while others get the credit, and those with undefined ones prefer life in the slow lane and like to delegate. As for the emotions, this is the most intense whether defined or not. Defined people tend to set the tone and have huge ups and downs, whereas undefined people take on the tone that defined ones set, and are more calm and collected in their natural state. The spleen is about survival and deep fears live here. There is danger here because emotions can manifest themselves physically. Finally, there is the root which houses adrenaline and processes stress. This center governs the difference between driven people and those who achieve a lot in their own time. The interesting thing about this test versus other ones is that these centers are facts and aren’t malleable, so they can tell you a lot about who to spend your time with to soak up the energy in places you lack.
How an Emotionally - Based Manifester and Spleen-Based Projector Collaborate
Our hosts decided to do a comparison of their working styles based on their authority centers, and then look at an article about how a type combination like theirs ran a business. Abagail’s authority center is emotional and Emylee’s is her spleen. Emotional authority people seek clarity before decision making whereas spleen authority ones decide instantly. We hear how this dynamic plays out between our two hosts in their business, the pros and cons of each style, and how they have learned to accommodate each other. They then look at an article about how a married couple consisting of a manifester wife and projector husband type got to understand each other in their gallery business. The wife took the director role of the visionary and the husband was the artist who integrated her ideas. This dynamic plays out in Abagail and Emylee's situation where projector Emylee is often spitting out millions of ideas and not keen to get into the day to day implementation. A great strategy to accommodate this is to allow the projector type the time and space to spit ideas out and trust that they will come back to the ones that matter, which the manifester can then implement!
Quote This
The interesting thing about this test versus other ones is that these centers are facts and aren’t malleable, so they can tell you a lot about who to spend your time with to soak up the energy in the places you lack.
Highlights
The Origin of Human Design: Ancestral Data and Complimentary Energies. [0:05:04.5]
Four Main Types, and How to Balance Yourself Through Conditional Wisdom. [0:11:05.3]
The Nine Centers, What They Symbolize and How They Play Out in Us. [0:15:05.0]
How an Emotionally-Based Manifester and Spleen-Based Projector Collaborate. [0:48:19.7]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Awareness, Ancestry, Personalities, Collaboration, Partnerships, Self-Assessment, Astrology, Astronomy
