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What is human design and how can it benefit highly sensitive people and empaths? In this blog, you’ll find everything you need to know!

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Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

I am a real personal growth junkie and absorb all the information available out there. Knowing more about myself, my strengths and my life path helps me to find a sense of direction in life.

It is no surprise that I am already aware of my astrology, Myers-Briggs personality type (INFJ, yay!), empathy quotient and all other personality insights you can imagine. I love to discover all aspects of my personality and I am sure that you do too, since you are reading this article.

If you enjoy learning more about yourself, you will love Human Design (HD), I promise! When I first discovered Human Design, I didn’t know what to expect. However, once I learned more about it, I could not stop wanting to know more about Human Design.

This knowledge has to be shared and spread and that is the reason why I share it with you in this blog. I hope that I can inspire you to dive into the world of human design yourself and to use this knowledge in your personal growth journey.

I believe that human design can transform the lives of highly sensitive people and empaths. After reading this article, you’ll know why!

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

What Is Human Design?

Human Design is a system developed in 1992 by Alan Robert Krakower (now called Ra Uru Hu). This system is a pseudoscience which consists of astrology, I Ching, Kabbalah and the Chakras.

Moreover, it uses data from the exact position of the solar system and star fields in time and space at the moment you were born. Where astrology divides personality into 12 compartments (zodiac signs), Human Design consists of 64 compartments.

These 64 aspects relate to two theories; the 64 hexagrams of I Ching and 64 codons of the human genetic code. Each and every single compartment stands for a certain meaning and the combination of these form our personality, or in other words, Human Design.

The Human Design theory emphasizes that our human cells interact with one major source of energy, the neutrino stream from the Universe. Neutrinos are minute particles which travel at the speed of light and pass through everything and every mass.

Moreover, these neutrinos are passing through our bodies every millisecond of the day. Studies show that neutrinos have mass, which means that they exchange information with everything they pass through.

Hence, when we are born, the neutrinos leave their trace in our bodies, creating a genetic blueprint. As a result, this blueprint becomes our human design.

How Can Human Design Benefit Highly Sensitive People And Empaths?

Understanding the human design print can help highly sensitive people and empaths to thrive in various areas of their lives.

First of all, it provides you with a unique blueprint of who you truly are, where you are heading in life and how you energy is functioning within your body. It goes much deeper than the common astrology we know and is therefore helping you to truly understand yourself.

Moreover, it can help you to better understand your family, friends and co-workers. Learning more about their Human Design charts, helps you to see what energy centers and characteristics in them are activated. Hence, this is incredibly helpful in seeing and understanding how your energy interacts with theirs.

Finally, your Human Design blueprint can support you in creating ease and flow in your life. Once you become aware of your design and the recommendations for utilizing all its opportunities, you can create the life of your dreams.

The Human Design system goes deep and we all know that highly sensitive people and empaths love diving into undiscovered depths! After discovering it, I researched everything about my chart for three days straight and all the information on my chart was spot on. It was amazing.

Now that you know how the chart can benefit you, it is time to introduce you further into the aspects of human design. However, I must say that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you would like to dive deep into your Human Design chart, I highly recommend reading the book ‘Human Design: Discover The Person You Were Born To Be‘. This book helped me to understand the basics of my chart within one night! And if you want to read information directly from the source, you may want to read ‘Human Design: The Definitive Book of Human Design, The Science of Differentiation by Ra Uru Hu’.

How To Discover Your Human Design

Now that you learned about the benefits for highly sensitive people and empaths in relation to using Human Design, you can discover your own chart. There are many free HD chart generators out there and I am a big fan of this one.

In order to discover your Human Design, you need to use the following birth data: birth date, birth time and birth place.

Once you filled in your data, your receive your chart. Time to dive into it!

Understanding Human Design: An Introduction For Highly Sensitive People And Empaths

In this introduction to Human Design, I explain the various aspects on your HD chart. In this blog, I will not dive into what each and every single aspect means in detail, as one blog impossibly could cover it all. Luckily, there are valuable books written about Human Design that help you understand each and every single aspect of your HD chart.

I myself, found the book ”Human Design: Discover The Person You Were Born To Be‘ to be incredibly useful in understanding the basics of my chart. It is an easy read and helps you to understand the basic aspects of your own, individual chart.

However, I will help you to understand the basics terms in Human design. Below, I discuss the different aspects on the chart itself, the five types of person, the different authorities and share a brief overview of the 12 profiles.

The Components Of A Human Design Chart Explained

In the picture to the right, you can see my Human Design Chart. I’ll walk you through the different components of it.

The Nine Centers

First of all, you can see 9 large forms shaped in triangles and squares. These are your energy centers and determine how you interact with others and their energy centers.

Ever met a person who drained your energy in an instant? Chances are that there were conflicts between your energy centers!

The 9 energy centers are Crown, Mind, Throat, Heart, Emotions, Root, Sacral, Spleen and Self.

The colour of your centers determines whether these specific centers are defined or undefined. As you can see in my chart, I only have two centers defined and fixed, meaning that 7 are perceptive and open for the energies from other people who do have these centers defined.

Channels

In between these energy centers, there are 36 channels. These channels connect the different centers and transport the energy in your body from one center to another.

If some of your channels are fully colored, this means that they are active channels. However, depending on the colour, you will learn whether it is a conscious (black) or unconscious (orange) connection.

Moreover, if the channels are colored halfway, this means that they are not activated and have no consistent meaning in your life. Yet, these can become activated when you surround yourself with people who do have this channel fully activated.

Gates

In the different centers, you can see 64 numbers called gates. These gates are located in the same spots within each Human Design chart, at the beginning of the different channels. However, when one of the gates is marked with a colour (black, in this case), this means it is turned on in your system.

The gates represent your individual characteristics, predispositions and attitudes. However, depending on the colour streaming from that gate into a channel, it shows you whether it is a conscious (black) or unconscious (orange) trait.

This summarizes the visual aspects on the chart itself. However, there are different signs and numbers on the right and left to your chart. These describe your design and your personality. I will not dive into these aspects in this blog, as this is more advanced Human Design theory which may be interesting for you at a later stage.

The 4 Human Design Types Of Person

Your Human Design Type is based on the centers active in your chart. In total, there are 4 types: the manifestor, the generator (and sub-type the manifesting generator), the projector and the reflector. Below, I briefly explain each type.

Manifestor

Within the manifestor type, one or more of the three motor centers – Heart, Root & Emotions – are activated and also connected to an active throat center. However, the Sacral center is not activated. About 8 percent of the world population are manifestors.

With these energy centers activated, manifestors are real go-getters with a driving energy that allows them to actively achieve their goals. Hence, they always act to get things done and realize their wildest dreams. Manifestors easily express their desires and act on them (due to their highly active motors), because their throat center is defined.

Generator

Generators have a defined Sacral center, but nor this center or their activated motor centers connect to the throat. Moreover, Generators are real workhorses and seem to have an endless supply of energy. Hence, this type keeps going when other types are exhausted.

However, an important note for this type is that they are not initiators, but should wait for the right opportunities in order to fully utilize their potential. Once a generator joins a project somebody else initiated, they are unstoppable!

Image to illustrate the topic highly sensitive people and empaths and manifesting. On the image, there is a book with a candle on it saying 'manifest and chill'.

Sub-type: Manifesting Generator

A sub-type of the generator is the manifesting generator. This sub-type is very similar to the generator, but has a clear connection to an activated throat center. Therefore, this enables manifesting generators to initiate AND be productive. A very useful combination.

However, this type has to make sure to listen to their gut before getting into action, in order to truly live their design and manage their energy well.

Projector

Projectors do not have an activated Sacral center and none of their motor centers are connected to the throat. Consequently, this type needs to make sure to be recognized or invited first, before getting into action. As they do not produce own energy through their sacral, it is very important for them to listen to their authority and apply the strategy to be invited first.

If this type does not follow this strategy, chances are that they easily burn out, because they want to keep up with the pace of generators and manifestors. However, when invited, projectors are excellent organizers, managers, guides and visionaries. About 21% of the world population are projectors.

Reflectors

This is the most rare Human Design type, as only 1% of the world population are reflectors. As none of their energy centers are defined, they are open and receptive for all energies. Therefore, reflectors often show the other types who they truly are, reflecting their energy back at them like a mirror.

Moreover, a reflector magnifies the energies of others, which sometimes can be challenging for this type as it aren’t their energies upsetting them. For reflectors, it therefore is important to remain objective and calm. Hence, realize that most of the energies passing through you aren’t yours.

Authorities

Each Human Design chart also includes the authority type of a person. Your authority determines how you are taking charge of your life. Accordingly, this aspect of Human Design helps you to understand how to trust your decisions, move forward with confidence and remove insecurities. There are six authority types, which are:

  • Emotions authority: seeking emotional clarity before making a decision.
  • Sacral authority: following your gut and trusting it 100%
  • Spleen authority: instant decisions based on your intuition.
  • Heart authority: decision-making by attuning to your heart’s desire.
  • Self authority: decision-making simply by knowing it is right or wrong for you.
  • Outer authority: discovering your inner truth through external factors.

Do you want learn more about how these authorities work? I highly recommend reading ‘Human Design: Discover The Person You Were Born To Be‘.

Human Design Profiles

Finally, Human Design also entails 12 profiles. Your profile shows how your design fits into the bigger scheme of things. Moreover, it provides you with a sense of orientation and being in life. Therefore, it is perfect when you want to discover your purpose in life.

These are the 12 profiles:

  1. 1/3: Investigating truth through your experiences
  2. 1/4: Investigating your passion and aligning with the right people
  3. 2/4: Letting your unique insights be drawn out of you
  4. 2/5: Authentic alignment and sharing your truth
  5. 3/5: Other people live vicariously through your experiences
  6. 3/6: Lifelong experiential learning and knowledge sharing
  7. 4/1: Sticking to your truth and sharing it with your community
  8. 4/6: Experiences with others brings you wisdom to share
  9. 5/1: Share the depths of what you know with integrity
  10. 5/2: Sharing the genius or gifts inside you
  11. 6/2: Wisdom from your life-long inner process
  12. 6/3: Gathering experiences, integrate them and share your wisdom

If you would like to learn more about the twelve human design profiles, the ‘Profile and Type Reference Book’ may be interesting for you.

How Highly Sensitive People Can Live According To Their Human Design

Now that you know more about the basics of Human Design, I hope that you feel intrigued to dive further into it and experiment with it.

In the Human Design world, you experiment with your design. Most likely, you are already aware of many of the traits on your chart. However, there may also be some great revelations.

For example, I always struggled with directly phrasing what I am thinking. Writing felt more natural to me because I had time to word my thoughts properly. When I did not have enough time to think before I spoke, a lot of nonsense came out of my mouth.

When you look at my chart, this relates to the fact that I am a projector whose energy centers are not connected to the throat center (standing for expression and wording your thoughts). Knowing this, gave me the freedom to allow myself to express my thoughts in a way that suits me.

Moreover, living according to your authority enables you to make the right decisions for you. Many of us put our mind above anything else, while only few of us actually should make our decisions there!

Therefore, look at your individual design and experiment with it for a couple of weeks. I am sure that you will acknowledge amazing results!

Human Design Can Be Confronting For Highly Sensitive People And Empaths

When I first acknowledged my design, I experienced mixed emotions. While I recognized many traits within me, there are also certain negative traits that I always thought where part of me, who aren’t represented in my design.

These are characteristics that arose in me due to the conditioning from my past. Hence, it was very emotional to see that these aspects actually are not a part of me. Now, I can work on letting those false perceptions of myself go. It is truly healing.

Therefore, I hope that your design will do the same for you and help you to understand yourself on a whole new level. Utilizing your gifts stated in your HD chart, can help you to manage your energy properly and live the life you have always dreamed of.

Intrigued? Discover your Human Design here for free.

What is your type and could you relate to it? Feel free to share it with other readers in the comments.

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