Human Design: What is it?

Human Design is a study that shows you how you can use your energy with the least amount of resistance (aka: the most ease). It combines various modalities you’ve likely heard of before – Astrology, the ancient iChing, the Kabbala, the Chakra system, and some quantum physics. Pausing to note that I acknowledge and honor the anciet lineages of each of these modalities and since I am not deeply immersed in those modalities seperately, I will be referring to Human Design and use languaging such as The Centers (vs. the Chakras). In my experience, Human Design is like getting a permission slip to be you. It’s one of the most life affirming systems I have come across. It shows you how to move with your unique energy not with the flow of everyone else and how to simplistically own your contrasts in life.

In this post, I’m going to take you through how to use your Human Design Type to create and live more ease in your life. I’ll break down what each type is, share some practical tips to implement and share a few journal prompts for you to tune into. Enjoy!

Get To Know Your Human Design Chart

When you pull your chart for the first time you may be thinking… What in the world is this chaos?! There are all these arrows, lines, shapes, and colors. How could this possibly have any ease in it?! (By the way – I have a free guide that breaks down your entire chart for you. You can get it here.)

If your ultimate goal is ease, remember simplicity. Often times we learn something new and we want to know all of it at once and when we do that, we miss the power of integration. It is in the space that you try something on and really feel how it lands in your life that you can create true ease.

I always say when I’m sharing someone’s Human Design with them to take what lands with you and leave the other parts behind. This is particularly important in Human Design because there are 2 billion different configurations. So if you read something about your type and you’re like… ehhh… not so much… Makes sense! You have more than one dynamic. And if you read something in someone else’s design type that resonates… Makes sense! You have many layers as a human and part of the magic of Human Design is accessing those layers. For example: I’m a very energetic Projector (we’re known for naps and slow energy), if we break my chart down more we can see I’m what’s called an Energy Projector.

My encouragement to you is to take your Human Design layer by layer. Take a peek at the words nearby that body picture. It’ll look something like this:

The 5 Human Design Types:

See where it says Type? Yours will either say:

Generator
Manifesting Generator
Manifestor
Projector
Reflector

These are the 5 main energy types in Human Design and what we are focusing on today. This is your base layer for ease. Have you ever been hiking somewhere cold or skiing even? They encourage you to wear a base layer. If you went out in only that you’d be freezing! If you went without that, you’d have some gaps for cold to get in.

Our base layer in Human Design sets a foundation for ease, but isn’t meant to be taken as an extreme where all your ease lives. You’re just getting dressed and you can’t put everything on all at once.

The 4 Human Design Strategies:

Wait to respond (Generators and Manifesting Generators)
Inform (Manifestors)
Wait for the invitation (Projectors)
Wait a lunar cycle / wait for clarity (Reflectors)

Each type comes with a strategy and this is the first way to create ease in life. Your strategy helps you to drop forcing through life and offers you a way for your energy to move with life.

So you ready to breakthrough to a layer of ease in your Human Design!? Let’s break this down type by type…

Human Design Type: Generator

Generators are a spark of joy to us all. If you are a Generator, you are here to be deeply immersed in what lights you up because when you are, your energy is quite literally magnetic. We can all feel the buzz of you being fully immersed in something you love and we are attracted to it. Generators are full of life force energy and are here to create out of their energetic buzz.

A Generator’s strategy in life is “To Respond”, meaning they are waiting for life to bring something to them so they can respond to it. For a Generator this doesn’t mean doing nothing, it means being in what you love and watching watch life brings your way. When something enters into your energetic space you then choose if it’s a “yes” for you or a “no” for you. The lesson for a Generator can be to honor the no’s as much as they honor the yeses. Just becuase you have the energy doesn’t mean use it, you can burn out by doing too much of what doesn’t light you up leading you straight into frustration.

Generators will likely find ease when:

You make decisions that you often cannot explain, you just know it in your gut.
You’re building or working, not just for the sake of it, but building in a way that doesn’t deplete your energy.
You unattach from life working according to a very specific timeline or plan. You trust that life comes to you when you are deeply immersed in your joy. You learn to fall in love with the unknown.
You use up all of your energy in a day, going to bed very satisifed with how you’ve completed the day.

Generator ease activities to try:

Start your day with joy, what would feel super lush for you to kickstart your day?
Implement a new hobby, one that you just know is something you want to play in!
If you find yourself stuggling with daily overwhelm: Create a completion routine for the day – Ask yourself, what’s the ONE thing I need to do to feel complete today? Perhaps keep a notebook next to your bed for any overnight ideas that come through.

Human Design Type: Manifesting Generator

Manifesting Generators, our multi passionate sparks of life! If you’re a Manifesting Generator you have a wild way of moving with the buzz of joy in your life. Your energy is sacred and ignites people & projects when it’s activated. This beautiful buzz of energy can certainly burnout if you are using it in the wrong spaces or not fulfilling the “on” energy. You’re designed to bounce around and live many passions, you have an extraordinary capacity to hold as many “yeses” for you as possible. This definetly doesn’t mean you’re not designed for rest, even the most energized of us all need recharge time.

Your strategy is “To Respond” to life as it generously moves towards you. For you, you’re looking for your moment of clarity in a process, you need to dip into a process to really feel if you want to see it all the way through. So your intial yes is the greenlight to go, and the moment you feel like it’s a no means it’s time to let it go. A lesson for the Manifesting Generator can be to let themselves evolve and change, to not hold onto something too tightly to prove themselves or just to see it through to completition.

Manifesting Generators will find ease when:

You’re happily bouncing around in many ideas, whatever your bounce means to you. This can be feeling super grounding in a few igniting projects or quickly bouncing between dozens of new things!
You’re not submitting to an idea that you’re flakey or frantic. You own your movement, because your movement creates clarity.
You move with what your internal energy needs – not what others are telling you to do. AKA: Self care bubble baths make you anxious?! Ditch them! Or is what your buzz needs the most right now a nap even though you have a full calendar? Cancel the day (or part of it), take it.
You use up all of your energy in one day in a satisfying and complete way. This doesn’t mean moving just for the sake of it, it’s moving in a way that fuels your internal process.

Manifesting Generator ease activities to try:

Evaluate how you’re spending your time – What’s draining you out? What’s fueling you up?
Play the wild idea game – Do the thing you’ve been holding yourself back from because it’s “too wild” or “too out there.” Let yourself live your wild.
Add in an afternoon energy shake up to your day, each day take a moment to break a stagnent moment by getting up and moving your energy so you can notice what life may have for you to respond to.
Honor your no, even if it means you changed you mind.

Human Design Type: Manifestor

Manifestors, bring things to life for us all! Manifestors are the only type that can initiate something without response or invitation. There’s no waiting for a response or invitation once you feel the urge to go, it’s time to move. The Manifestor energy has incredible power to act independently, to take action, and to impact others. Your energy is often felt before you’re seen

Your strategy is “To Inform” which can feel super counterintuitive to you as someone who is ready to go. It is important to follow this strategy to maintain peace and ease in your life. Since you move so fast it can feel nourishing for other people to be in the know of your process. Even though you tend to operate as a lone wolf, you still need people in your life.

Manifestors will find ease when:

Despite your amazing capacity to go-go-go and make things happen, it’s important to be mindful of your energy. You best operate in sprints or bursts, not slow burns or marathons.
When you are manifesting want you want for themselves without outside influence, this is what impacts and changes the world on the greatest scale. Ask yourself – What do I want?
When they are in spaces and circles that honor their independence and vlaue flexibility.
Move not to for the sake of movement but when it is aligned for you to go. Moving with any path that doesn’t align with your desire because it’s worked for someone else or because you feel like you should will lead you to anger. Have the courage to wait for your path to open and as you do move towards what you know for sure.

Manifestor ease activities to try:

Have a little staycation or “run away from it all” for a bit – Alone time can be quite recharging and invigorating for you to align with your impact.
Can’t find the pathway? Create it. You’re designed to show us new ways, even if it’s never been done before.
Inform yourself – write in your journal what you vision is.
Ask others to inform you – it can feel really good for others in your life to inform you of their moves too!
I know you have a lot to do… please honor your rest and sleep! Your powerful energy needs breaks to catch up and make sure you are fully aligned.

Human Design Type: Projector

Projectors carry incredible strengths in seeing the big picture and recognizing the talents and gifts of others. Projectors are here to support the other energy types through guidance and perspective. Ease comes when you go deep in what you’re drawn towards, when you do this people are drawn into your energy and sense an openness about you. As a projector you are really not here to do all of the doing. Breaks are important optimizing your energy.

Your strategy is “Wait for the invitation” or to wait until you feel recognized before you enter into something new. There are many ways, shapes, and forms invitations can show up in life. The most important place to start is recognizing yourself so you can explore and share from your depths. Often you see things that other’s are missing, it’s important for your ease to not just open tell people how to change, rather to wait until you feel recognized and invited in.

Projectors will find ease when:

You surround yourself with the right people for you and in the right environments.
You break up your day. Projectors are known for doing things fast and needing many breaks and spaciousness in between the doing.
You’re not here to follow how everyone else is doing it or to keep up. You’ll find so much ease when you stop trying to keep up with everyone else around you.
You take your power back and fully own your gifts even if they’re different than the boxes you’ve been conditioned to fit into.

Projector ease activities to try:

Lay down horizontally… it doesn’t have to be a nap if you’re not into that, simply a quick moment to break up your energy and recharge your body.
Go to bed before you’re tired, this helps release any conditioning and settle your entire system.
Lean into something you want to know more about and share what you learn along the way. You’ll always have a unique way of sharing your perspectives and people will be drawn in by what you have to share.
Define success for yourself — you’re really here to show us all how to do life differently and that success doesn’t require burnout. So take some time to define what success really means to you.

Human Design Type: Reflector

Reflectors are here to be fluid like the waves. As the rarest type in human design, you have a way of moving unlike so many people on this planet. You are in tune with rhythms and cycles without being able to full explain how you know what you know. You’re able to effortlessly reflect back to people, or show them what they need in a variety of ways. You move in a pace that others may not understand. As the days and seasons change you are greatly impacted by them and change too. You may find yourself overly sensitive to people and places.

Your strategy is “Wait a lunar cycle” / “Wait for clarity” meaning to take your time as you move with life. Traditionally it is to wait an entire cycle of the moon, however what you’re looking for is your moment of clarity. The moment there is no doubt or uncertainty, the moment you simply know. As you move through the lunar cycle you experience being every energy type, activated in new and different ways. Lean into what you need in each moment. The present is where your power lies.

Reflectors will find ease when:

Your ease comes when you sit back and enjoy what life is showing you like a buffet of life. Let yourself taste and try what you’re drawn towards.
They stop trying to live like anyone else. There’s no one like you and the majority of the population moves differently than you. Release from the labels that keep you boxed in.
You take control of your enironment. A reflectors environment is so important and can change a decision in a moment and catalyze stuckness into clarity.
You find your flow in each day.

Reflector ease activities to try:

Create santuaries everywhere you spend time. Rearrange your home, office space, anywhere you spend time and let yourself move around during the day while doing the same things.
Take many breaks and when you do, let go of energy that’s not yours. You can easily take on other’s overwhelm, burnout, emotions, and stress and amplify it. This is your strength and if you aren’t aware of it can be a burnout trigger.
Go to bed before everything is complete. Let yourself leave the dishes until tomorrow, finish your writing later, make the phone call when you’re more full. This will serve you and everyone around you.
Sleep by yourself every now and then — If you have a partner it can be overwhelming to sleep with them every night because you get conditioned by their energy. If you find you are overstimulated first thing in the morning, give this a try.

Human Design & Ease: In Conclusion

All 5 energy types have such a unique way of being. Try on what you love and leave the rest! Human Design is never meant to be a box, label, or only way of doing things. Explore, experiment, and have fun along the way! The ultimate goal is to feel ease so if you’re ever stuck in integrating your design ask yourself – What would feel like the most ease right now? And follow that!

My favorite way to learn Human Design is from YOU – I’d love to hear in the comments: What’s your type + your favorite way to tune into ease?

Human Design and Ease: How To Use Your Human Design Type To Live More Ease