Daily Grind

Integrating your design, one mundane decision at a time.

Eleven out of twelve Determinations are designed to start their day in the morning, signalled by the suns rising. The special being who happens to have Indirect Light Determination is the only one of us meant to be on a flipped schedule, coming to life when the strength of the sun begins to wane and it’s started its descent into the next days cycle.

The time of awakening is, however, entirely irrelevant for this information as it’s about the flow and not the schedule. Inspired by the train of thoughts that we are all subjected to throughout the day, I felt motivated to reframe them according to the activities of our day so I could demonstrate how to use your design to support your everyday mundane decisions. This will be explained through my own design thanks to my Personal View Perspective and expanded through the other design potentials for better integration.

Let’s begin -

 Waking Up

This is going to feel differently depending on whether or not you have an active or passive brain. When the active brain comes online, it is immediately busy. This is someone who should feel alert unless their sleep has been disturbed. The passive brain comes online in a more relaxed way. On the surface it may appear more groggy, but it isn’t meant to be compared in a better or worse fashion to the active brain, it is simply different. As an active brain myself, I tend to wake up and research things that feel relevant to my day to answer the questions my brain is already coming up with such as “what is the weather like, and will it affect my activities?” I understand the passive brain more by how it reacts to me as an active brain. The passive brain can be exasperated by someone like me. I recall being told “shhhhhhh” more than once for being seen as a little too chipper with my coffee.

 What to Consume?

Does the word consume make you think of food or information? What was the first thing you ingested after waking up? Was it social media, coffee, water, your kids Netflix show? This question hides its answers in a variety of aspects of your definition.

  1. Determination - the structure of how you are designed to consume both food and information

  2. Active / Passive brain - the speed, frequency and enthusiasm with which you consume

  3. How many 1’s are in your chart - Investigator Profile, Fear Motivation, Security View, Consecutive/Alternating Appetite Determination, Caves Environment

  4. Defined or Undefined Root Center pressure saying you should “do” more tasks

  5. Defined or Undefined Head Center pressure saying you should think more things or get others to think more of you

 What To Do?

You can’t escape the 24 hour cycle of a day, although sleeping through it can get you pretty close. So how do you decide how to spend your time? What sequence of events will you try to navigate? How will you determine what’s really of value for your energy? How much control do you really have over how the day goes? Where can we look in your design to support this?

Form Principle

Form means design, and Principle means foundational truth. So what is the foundational truth of your design? Hint - You can’t consciously think of it!

While there isn’t conscious access to think about things like Determination, Cognition or Environment, we can feel them, and sense if they are correct. Something that is incorrect is going to give resistance. Anything that is incorrect will be uncomfortable. When my body is in the correct Internal Markets Environment for me, I don’t notice much because there isn’t any discomfort to notice. When I am in the wrong environment, I get resistance. It wears me down.

If you feel as if your body needs a lot of maintenance or tune-ups, then you’re likely feeding it wrong, numbing your sense and storing it in the wrong place. It’s like using the wrong fuel, ignoring the check engine light, and parking it outside of the garage. If you’re driving your vehicle like an arse, so to speak, then you’re going to pay for it. Drive it properly though, and it’s a smooth ride that rarely needs mechanical support.

Location, Location, Location

Technical support - Find your design North Node Gate and South Node Gate, and determine if this is an active (left) or passive (right) variable.

Mine are - 30.2.2.2 North Node, 29.2.2.2 South Node. I specifically am a 2nd line, 2nd color, 2nd tone in my Nodes. I also have a left facing, active, independent design variable. This means I am a Markets - Internal Environment. The nodes are our story line. On the design side, it’s the scene of our story. On the personality side, it’s the view we have within the story. My story is set in a Market. This represents a boundaried place of exchange, usually to do with material items. When I am in this correct environment, it is within my home. If it’s correct for me, I will find my body being stimulated with the right kind of activity. This will bring me the other along my fractal as I can be easily found in the place I belong. Meeting the other on my fractal creates ease in my life. Ease means little to no resistance, so starting my day with an emphasis on placing myself in the correct location is the single greatest advantage I can give myself in navigating life according to my signature.

Questions regarding your environment;

  1. What is your environment type - Caves, Markets, Kitchens, Mountains, Valleys, or Shores?

  2. What is your Design North Node and South Node?

  3. Are you meant to be Activated (left) or Pacified (right)?

  4. Does your physical body spend most of its time in your correct environment?

  5. Does your physical body work/earn money in your correct environment?

  6. Do you experience pain or discomfort in your body? Does it continue if you switch locations?

  7. How many other aura’s are within 6’ of you in your current environment on a day to day basis?

  8. Do you like how you feel with the people who frequent your primary environment? Are these the people you want to spend more time with? 

 What is Work?

This could be the most mundane aspect of your life - but it doesn’t have to be. I’m always torn between classifying work according to “the thing you do to make money” and “physical labour”. It’s clear to me where the conditioning is that creates this division, and it’s the presumed notion that “work” has keynotes of monetary, masculine, physical, and a chore. I deduced this out of the awareness that roles seen as more feminine, such as “stay at home mom” do not get publicly classified as work, are often unpaid and seem less physical, and perhaps also more enjoyable. The world associates work with loss of energy, inadequate compensation, and a disdain for effort. None of this has anything to do with Human Design. This is the narrative that many are eager to leave behind when they step through the threshold of HD into their differentiated life. So by ignoring the gender-typical conditioning that raised us, how can we open up ourselves and our understanding of work in a way that feels genuine and true for each of us?

Re-defining “Work”

According to your Channels - Are you made of Generated, Projected, or Manifested Channels? Generated channels respond to the thing they have the energy for. Projected channels need to be recognized in order for the other to gain value from them. Manifested channels inititate what they have the energy for. Many people are a combination of these channels which gives them a variety of ways to work with the other.

Being “busy” doing what exactly?

Errands, tasks, chores, the tedious, the monotonous and the truly mundane - those are the things that we do the most frequently and with the least awareness. Those are the moments where Human Design is going to have the most impact.

When you’re running out the door and nearly out of patience with your mixed type family, spilling your coffee on your jeans and bumping your head while getting into your car - this is the moment that knowing you’re a third line profile is going to be the difference between this being a funny learning experience or a full blown breakdown.

When you’re trying to make a snack for four kids and they all want different things, knowing Determination is going to be the difference between projecting personality flaws onto children, or choosing to support their cognitive functioning. Are they really picky, or are they closed taste?

When you’re frustrated that someone isn’t doing the thing you asked them to, strategy and authority will be the explanation as to how you likely miscommunicated and got inferior results.

When you need groceries but aren’t sure which store to go to, what to buy, when to go, or how to remember what you need - your design has the clues. Is your form trying to go anywhere? If the body hasn’t initiated it, it’s just a mind thing. You only think you need to go grocery shopping. (“but Sam, there is literally like no food here" and to this I laugh and ask if you’ve heard of delivery). What store will you go to? Probably one that suits your Environment and doesn’t repel your Cognition. What will you buy? This one is fun - whatever you respond to, whatever grabs your attention, whatever someone invites you to, whatever revs up your cognition. If you know you need things, how will you remember them? You can write a list, but there’s a good chance it’s strongly influenced from your mind. In fact - shopping is rarely stressful because of the items. It’s stressful because of the time, and pressure of being in the environment. Are you grocery shopping with a partner who relies on external vision while you are sensitive to touch? Are your children verbally responding to and asking for items, while you are designed to quietly see one thing at a time? Are you rushing to get back home for any particularly valid reason, or is it simply to be free of the pressure of your undefined root center?

When your phone rings and you really don’t want to answer it but you start to feel guilty for letting it ring - HD is here to give you the knowing that it’s not only okay, but correct to honour your own authority. Even for the small things.

The truth is, it’s all about the small things. This life is an accumulation of the small things. There isn’t a person on the planet who gets to be exempt from the mundane aspects of having a human body with all its human functions of eating, sleeping, and grooming. But think about the people who have made being human a wonderfully sensuous experience. The craftsperson who made your favourite ceramic coffee cup. The creative who alchemized your favourite color lipstick. The designer who smithed that perfectly smooth ring from your Grandma. The wildcrafter who foraged the botanicals that dyed your favourite t-shirt. The pastry chef that baked your favourite croissants. When you recall these sensual memories, do you recognize the aspects of your definition that led you to them? Were you invited somewhere? Did your defined G center lead the way? Did your defined Spleen ping you? Did your cognition increase as you got closer? Did you respond enthusiastically?

Design Hygiene

How does one scrub an aura?

This is something that I think can be sold a lot of different ways; from crystals, to smudging, salt baths and sound therapy. It tends to be most marketed in a spa like package. Those things imply that I will be using tools to do something about my energetic state because it’s off kilter. The first thing I am going to do is set aside those tools. So often we think about what we can add to our lives to make ourselves more comfortable, but if we are coming from a place of discomfort, it’s not going to be supportive to add more on. My defined spleen naturally wants to let go of things. I’m a detox machine. It makes sense for my design that I am going to approach this topic from a “let’s eliminate before we add” perspective.

The foundation of a lot of self care activities is you being alone, regulating your nervous system, giving yourself attention and supporting your mental health in the process. The key factor here - aloneness.

When I think about cleaning my aura, it has the same vibe to me as resetting my palette. I know the word clean can automically infer it’s opposite and that in order to clean my aura, my aura must be dirty. I often feel like people are shamed into thinking that conditioning is the HD equivalent to dirty. As if we need to de-condition our centers like they’re a part of laundry day. Your conditioning isn’t gross. In fact - it’s likely quite savoury.

There are likely many people, places and pets that you find to be a bit much, but you also crave the experience of being in aura with them. Taking breaks to be alone helps your aura recalibrate akin to smelling coffee beans in between perfumes to cleanse your palette. It helps you appreciate the different notes in each scent, otherwise it all begins to smell the same. Take little refreshers alone whenever you need them. There is no need to feel guilty about wanting space or a break.

When you take time alone to know what you feel like, it’s easier to distinguish yourself from the other when you come together. It’s easier to know yourself in relation to the other. Alone can be ten minutes in the shower. It can be a bike ride by yourself. It can be driving to work. Maybe it’s sleeping. Maybe it’s a small trip. Maybe it’s just getting the mail.

How do you feel when you’re alone?

 “Leave me alone!”

Do you ever want to snap that at anybody? Maybe instead you just swallow that feeling down. I bet it tastes like your not-self theme.

Bitterness, Frustration, Anger, Dissapointment

If you’re being honest with yourself, how often do you experience the above? When you feel that way, what do you do about it? When you want to leave somewhere, or be alone, do you find a way to make that happen? Do you support yourself in that? Do you have priorities or commitments that prevent you from taking needed alone time? Do you have to keep those priorities or commitments? Can you ask for help or support? Have you tried?

I know those are heavy questions. It’s okay to take your time with them. Be as honest as you can be.

Take the bridge less travelled.

If you’re a form of split definition, then you have receptor gates within your design that when activated will create bridges for you to connect back to yourself. Since you can be activated by transits and other auric forms such as plants and animals, you should be able to access a wide variety of bridges. Sometimes though, you might find yourselves in comfortable circumstances were you know there is a bridge, so you will utilize the same path over and over. Always taking the same path leads to a lack of expansion, perspective and stimulation. It can also create a misinterpreted sense of identity. If you are always being conditioned by the same definition, then eventually you are likely to over identify with it as yourself.

A practical strategy.

Allow me to walk you through some questions and pointers that can help you gain awareness on how clean your auric atmosphere is.

  • Do you sleep with anyone? Is this someone who is often living their signature? How do they condition you?

  • Who are you eating with? Do you compromise your determination in their presence?

  • Who are you working with? This can include the most frequent people in your inbox or DMs. Do they bring out your signature?

  • Who do you experience intimacy with? Do you honour your natural drives and passions with them? Are you over-exerting or suppressing anything?

  • Who are you talking to? Who are you talking about? Do you feel your signature when you speak or hear the expressions being exchanged?

  • Who gets most of yours? Who respects yours? How do you measure when you’ve given enough? Do you feel like you need more or less with someone?

Who are you addicted to?

You’re going to be addicted to the people and places that keep your not-self narrative alive.

Most people thing they’re addicted to things, or substances, when in fact - it’s probably another person. This is the person you drop your boundaries for. The one you stay up late talking to even though you really want to be asleep. The one you spend time texting even though it brings out your not-self theme. The one you give your time to even though you don’t feel a fair value exchange.

Being addicted to a person is more than swooning over their personality or vying for their attention. It’s about the unconscious genetic conditioning. It’s about the strong hold of the not-self and it’s need to see a narrative play out. You’ll be addicted to what you’re not because it’s stimulating in a world that sells over-stimulation at 5$ a cup. You’re going to be addicted to the drama of the centers where you are designed to go to become wise.

You’re always going to meet people along your fractal that pull you into distraction. This is the equivalent to when another person becomes an unhealthy coping mechanism. It’s just something to keep you homogenized. Your goal is to have the awareness to recognize distraction, and not get addicted to it.

The truth is you’re never really addicted to anyone other than a construct of yourself that you look to the external world to enforce and validate through conditioning you in the incorrect relationships. It’s when someone get’s stuck in that process that we see all kinds of unhealthy bonds being made.

Running out of bandwidth.

Do you ever feel like you’re running out of mental storage space? Has your cognitive processing gotten slogged down with junk data? Does your mind feel like you left tabs open and now you’ve been sent the caution notification that says “this program is using too much of your systems memory.”

  • How much media are you consuming in a day? From songs to shows, lectures, commercials, social accounts, signs. We’re talking about a variety of frequencies. Can you turn some of them off?

  • How many people are you trying to divide your attention between? Is this natural for you? Are all of these people a yes for your authority? Can you take attention away from anyone?

  • Some people, myself included, are real information junkies. Information can be very heavy in the body until it’s been digested. That usually requires sleep and hydration. Do you need either of those right now? Are you full on content? Do you need to create from it or talk about it to help you process it?