Where Human Design meets cyclical living
Before we go any further, if you don’t know your Human Design, all you need is your date, place and exact time of birth and you can generate your chart for free HERE. I suggest saving your chart somewhere handy so that you can refer back to it as you read through this article.
You know that feeling when you said you’d do something, and then the time comes and you don’t really feel like it?
This feeling is one I know well, and something I’ve been thinking on recently.
In the past when this feeling would arise, my go-to response would be to force, push and berate myself into doing the thing — because, to be honest, it never crossed my mind that there was any other option. On the odd occasion I did muster up the courage to say no and rest, I was so riddled with guilt that I learned I’d be better off just doing it rather than facing the guilt and rumination of letting myself, and others, down.
And as you can imagine, or perhaps you know this for yourself, this way of living left me exhausted, disillusioned, unfulfilled, burnt out and feeling incredibly broken. I truly believed there was something wrong with me. I couldn’t understand why I found it so hard to follow through on certain activities or tasks on some days or weeks when the previous week it hadn’t been an issue.
But then in the last few years of, to be honest I’m not really sure what to call it…it’s definitely been a journey but of what or to what I’m not quite sure…..perhaps best described as a (still ongoing!) journey of self-discovery and spirituality.
But regardless, during this time I moved to the beach (which completely changed my relationship with nature), discovered cyclical living (which completely changed my relationship with my cycle) and then stumbled across Human Design (which completely changed my relationship with…everything).
I learned how my energy actually works.
I understood the phases of my menstrual cycle.
I learned to interpret and listen to my body’s subtle messages.
I spent more time in nature.
I saw examples all around of me of how nature operates in cycles: the tides rising and falling. The moon waxing and waning. Flowers blooming and dying.
I dove deep down the Human Design rabbit hole and discovered what it means to be a Projector.
I learned how my definition showed where I experience consistent and inconsistent energy.
I started honouring my cyclical nature.
And I felt, for the first time in my life, that I wasn’t broken.
But of course, this isn’t to say it has been easy.
We live in a world that expects us to be consistent — to show up in the same way, every day — even when this goes against the grain of how we’re designed to be.
And so, even as I try my best to honour my cyclical rhythm, I still hear the voice telling me to be consistent, show up and follow through.
And I can’t even say this voice is entirely conditioning. I can’t say that it is entirely wrong because even as I share all of this, I fully appreciate and see the importance of commitment, predictability and of following through on the promises we make.
This is something I first came across in Nicole LePera’s book How To Do The Work. She speaks about how self-trust is cultivated through following the promises we make to ourselves, and encourages us to set a small, achievable, realistic (this part is important) daily promise.
The idea here is that the act of following through on your word and keeping the promises you make to yourself, even in small ways, builds trust. And this can feel particularly significant if you had an upbringing where promises weren’t kept — where people didn’t show up for you, where words didn’t match actions, where someone would say one thing but then do another. In these experience, you don’t just learn that others aren’t reliable, you internalise the belief that promises don’t really mean anything and that commitment is optional. And this is where trust is quietly eroded.
And so this is something I’ve been (really) grappling with recently: finding this balance between honouring my cyclical nature in the moments where I may not feel like doing something, versus fostering self-trust by keeping the promises and commitments I’ve made to myself.
And I say this because, at the beginning of this year I made the commitment to sharing a weekly podcast episode. And for the first few weeks of this year, those episodes happened to be published on Mondays.
But then this week arrived and I just wasn’t feeling in the energy to record a podcast and get it out ready for Monday.
And this led to an internal debate.
On one hand was a desire to allow for my cyclical nature and to not force myself to record if the energy wasn’t available to me.
But then on the other hand was the voice of commitment: you need to follow through, you made a promise, you can’t go back on your word.
And after sitting with this, I decided to turn my Human Design to remind myself of who I am and how my energy works.
This is what I love so much about Human Design….how tangible it feels to have this reflection of my highest self, and something to return to and remind myself of when I feel lost or unsure.
And so after finding the answers I was looking for within my design, I then decided to share with you a few key places to look within your Human Design to better understand your own cyclical nature.
Definition
The first thing to consider is your definition, in other words, what is defined (coloured in) and undefined (white or grey) within your BodyGraph.
Defined areas show you where you have consistent access to energy. Undefined areas show you where your energy fluctuates and is inconsistent. By looking to your definition you see the broad strokes and the areas where consistency may feel more available and natural than others.
And while everything in Human Design works together, there are a few centres and gates that I want to highlight, as they play a particularly strong role in your cyclical nature and rhythm.
The Sacral Centre
The first, and perhaps most significant, is the sacral centre.
The sacral centre is the centre of life force energy, vitality, creation, pleasure and desire.
If your sacral centre is defined, you’ll be a Generator or Manifesting Generator. If it’s undefined, you’ll be a Projector, Manifestor or Reflector.
With a defined Sacral, you have consistent access to a sustainable source of life force energy. The common sentiment shared for Generator or Manifesting Generators is that you can wake up with a full tank of energy — and when you spend your day doing what lights you up and what you find satisfying (this is an important point to emphasise), you have access to this steady source of sacral energy, go to bed tired with an empty tank and wake up the next day replenished and ready to do it all again.
With an undefined sacral, your energy works very differently. For Projectors, Manifestors and Reflectors, energy comes in waves, it ebbs and flows, pulses on and off. You’re not designed for sustained output in the same way, but rather work best in short bursts with plenty of rest in between.
There tends to be a big life experience with an undefined sacral of feeling the strong conditioned voice and pressure to keep up, to work hard, to push through fatigue and not be seen as lazy. But these pressures are not aligned with where your gifts actually lie. A Projector is designed to guide the energy of others. A Manifestor is designed to initiate and set things in motion but then delegate. Reflectors are designed to reflect and sample the health of their environment.
Having an undefined sacral doesn’t mean you don’t have access to life force energy, it just means that you experience energy inconsistently. It comes and goes. And the lesson here is in surrendering to the cyclical ebb, allowing yourself to rest, resisting the conditioned voice telling you to ‘keep going and do more’ and trusting that the energy will return. Just as the tide will come back in, the moon will wane and the flowers will return in spring…so to, will you.
Heart/Ego Centre
The next centre I really want to highlight is the heart centre, also known as the ego or will centre.
This centre governs self-esteem, motivation, willpower and worth.
Remember, your definition indicates whether you have consistent or inconsistent access to this energy.
So if your heart centre is defined, you have consistent access to willpower. When your heart is truly in something and you make a commitment, you are designed to follow through — and it can feel really uncomfortable for you to break your word (and also upsetting if others break their word to you). There is a strong sense of integrity here and you have this natural understanding that your word means something.
But of course the nuance is that your heart needs to be in it and the commitment needs to come from genuine desire rather than obligation.
If you are tapped into your heart and you make a decision following your hearts true desires, then you are here to follow through on this. And for you, this doesn’t feel draining, but grounding and this is what cultivates integrity and trust.
If you have an undefined heart, you experience inconsistent access to the themes of this energy centre. Your motivation, self-esteem, self-worth, willpower can all fluctuate. And you are not designed to prove, to push through or promise rigidly. And because you don’t have access to this consistent self-esteem and self-worth, there can be a tendency to over-give, over-promise and over-deliver in an attempt to feel worthy or valued.
This can create a pattern of making commitments that aren’t sustainable, followed by self-judgement or shame when you can’t follow through. And not because you’re unreliable, but because the promise was never aligned in the first place.
With an undefined heart, cultivating self-trust comes not from doing more or giving more, but about promising less and allowing flexibility within your commitments.
Gate 15 - Gate of Extremes
One of the gates which speaks beautifully to cyclical living is Gate 15, located in the identity or g-centre. And this gate is known as the Gate of Extremes.
Gate 15 brings an energy of ebb and flow — swinging between extremes rather than existing in the middle ground. It carries an appreciation for rhythm rather than sameness and consistency. I see the voice of this gate to be one of ‘all in or all out, I don’t do things by halves, go big or go home’. And so this gate also brings this beautiful gift of acceptance for diversity and the full range of the human experience.
With this gate, you may swing between cycles of intense engagement followed by withdrawal, periods of deep focus followed by rest or disinterest. When you decide to do something, or something grabs your interest, you likely commit, jump in feet first and devote yourself fully to your new venture. And likewise, just as quickly as the energy will turn on, it can then turn off swinging you back the other way. And this pattern may show itself across all areas of your life from hobbies, interests, creativity, work, career, relationship and life direction.
While it can look, on the surface, like inconsistency, there is a deeper wisdom within this gate — an acceptance of humanity in all its extremes and a natural attunement to rhythm rather than sameness.
Gate 5 - Gate of Fixed Rhythms
Gate 5, located in the sacral centre, brings an energy of routine, order and predictability.
For those with this gate defined, structure and routine don’t feel restrictive but actually bring regulation, and even liberation.
With this gate you tend to enjoy and find comfort and peace in predictability and routine. The energy here is quite primal and it is important for you to have your basic needs met in a stable, predictable and structured way. This may look like regular meal times, a consistent wake up and bedtime, consistent exercise routine, daily rituals etc.
But what’s important here is that the rhythm must be your rhythm. Your body has it’s own natural and unique rhythm and routine and it’s important for you to honour your natural timing and not force yourself into an externally imposed schedule.
This gate also brings the beautiful energy of being dependable, reliable, grounded and stable. You bring the gift of order, routine, structure and stability to what otherwise could be chaotic. And you also bring a natural understanding of time, and timing, and rhythm and of moving with the cycles of life.
Where this gets interesting is that gate 5 and gate 15 actually lie opposite each other, and connect with each other. So if both are defined, you would have the full channel, Channel 5-15, which is the Channel of Rhythm.
And I say this is interesting because on one hand you could look at these two gates, and see them to be opposites. Gate 15 emphasises this swinging between extremes, one or the other, ebbing and flowing while gate 5 emphasises the comfort and peace to be found in predictability, structure, routine and stability.
But as I am so often reminded of within Human Design, it’s wisdom and depth comes through its contradictions. Which if you are interested in exploring further, you may like to read another post I wrote on this….read The Contradictory Nature of Human Design HERE.
Channel 5-15 - Channel of Rhythm
So with gate 5 and 15 coming together, this Channel of Rhythm brings this interesting dynamic between consistency and predictability versus inconsistency and unpredictability.
With this channel you would bring this natural understanding of rhythm, timing and of creating a flow in your life. Of knowing the importance of rituals and routine to bring you groundedness and peace, but also balancing this with a need for diversity and change. There is also an importance with this Channel of embracing your unique flow and rhythm, that may very well go against the grain of societal norms but which works for you.
Gate 9 - Gate of Focus
Another gate I want to highlight here is Gate 9, the Gate of Focus located in the sacral centre.
This gate offers the gift of deep concentration, focus, immersion and of being in flow. It brings a high attention to detail and of being able to zoom in and focus on the small details that others would overlook.
And this focus is cyclical by nature. It ebbs and flows. It can look like periods of intense focus and deep immersion followed by periods of distractibility and poor focus.
You can see here, as with all of the centres and gates I have spoke to today, where there could be potential to hold shame around this, perhaps labelling yourself as inconsistent and of trying to force yourself to be consistent. But with understanding of this gate, it becomes clear that you are not designed for constant intense focus, but for focused presence only when the energy is available to you.
Variables
The final piece I want to touch on is the variables.
And this is where I’ll say that the variables are where we get into the nitty gritty of Human Design. They are complex, sometimes confusing, and here lies the potential to get stuck in the weeds.
But to keep this simple, the variables are the four arrows at the top of your BodyGraph, and they provide insight into how you are designed to engage with the world, how you process information, what environments you thrive in and how you approach and move through life. And so when considering Human Design in relation to your cyclical nature, the variables provide an added layer of depth, nuance and insight.
When you are looking to your arrows, each arrow governs a particular theme
The top left arrow relates to digestion — not just how you digest food, but how you digest information, experiences, and the world around you.
The top right arrow relates to motivation — what naturally motivates you, and what pulls you into action in a sustainable way.
The bottom left arrow relates to environment — the kinds of environments that support you, nourish you, and allow you to feel most like yourself.
And the bottom right arrow relates to perspective — how you tend to see the world, make meaning, and interpret what’s happening around you.
As I said, there is potential to get lost in the arrows, but the overarching way to interpret them is through their orientation.
If the arrow is facing left, this is referred to as active and brings a more masculine energy. With left-facing arrows you are designed, and do well, with consistency, focus, structure, specificity, strategy, routine and discipline. Your brain is analytical, methodical and requires consistent input to work at it’s optimum.
Arrows facing right are referred to as passive and bring a more feminine energy. Right-facing arrows tend to thrive with more flow, fluidity, variability, flexibility and intuition. Your brain is more receptive, more open, more observant, more absorbing and requires less consistency to function optimally.
Something to pay particular attention to would be if you have all arrows facing left or all arrows facing right. This is often referred to as being a quad-left or quad-right and indicates a particular strong energy here for you. But it is normal to have a combination of different facing arrows and this is where you would break it does into the theme of each specific arrow.
For example, lets take the top left arrow relating to digestion. And remember this not only relates to the literal sense of digesting food, but also how you digest, take in and absorb the world around you. So with a left facing arrow here, this would indicate that you thrive and do well with consistency, structure and routine in your life, and also your eating habits. It is commonly said here that because your brain requires consistent input to function at its optimum, fasting may not be suitable for your constitution. If you have a right-facing arrow here, this shows you don’t have as much of a need for routine and structure, you are designed to go with flow, more through life with more flexibility and have variability and inconsistency in your daily routines and eating habits.
While the variables offer incredible depth and nuance into digestion, cognition, environment, motivation and perspective, it is easy to get lost. And so I often find it helpful to remember that when we are living in alignment with our design and following our strategy and authority, we naturally begin to honour these tendencies anyway. As with any aspect of Human Design, it isn’t something to be reverse-engineered.
With all said and done….
I hope this has been helpful for you and given you some insight into where you might look within your own Human Design to understand your relationship with your cyclical nature.
I will also say here that nothing in Human Design works in isolation. And while I have cherry picked a few components for you to reflect on, it is important to consider your design as a whole because ultimately the wisdom of Human Design emerges when all of the pieces are considered together.
But as always with Human Design, what I love about it is that it offers us the language to articulate our experience — and then the permission to lean into it fully.
Without this lens, I might have been more susceptible to the conditioned voice telling me I was flaky, unreliable or failing for not releasing a podcast episode on a specific day. But with understanding, I can recognise that voice as conditioning and remind myself of my design.
I have an undefined sacral centre. I am a Projector. I have an undefined heart. I carry gate 15.
And this is where I can give myself grace, show myself compassion, take the pressure off and come back to my truth: I am a cyclical being. And I would be working against my design if I were to push myself to do more when the energy isn’t available to me.
So if you’re curious on what I decided to do with the podcast episode, where I landed was that my commitment was to share a weekly podcast. And this gives me seven days in a week to share. This feels good, this feels spacious, this feels supportive.
But forcing myself to have podcast out an a specific day feels restrictive. Because my energy does ebb and flow. It fluctuates. My weeks vary. I work a few days a week as a midwife, I have my hypnotherapy and Human Design clients, I have other commitments and making the promise to myself to show up every week on a particular day feels like I’d be setting myself up for failure.
Whereas committing to weekly, without committing to a specific day, creates a spacious container with room to move freely inside it.
And this is how I have come to bridge these two themes of keeping the promises I make to myself, while also allowing for my cyclical nature.
And while this answer is mine and not necessarily yours, I’m sharing this with you as an example and to invite you to reflect and consider your own unique cyclical nature. Look to your design, reflect on what you naturally gravitate towards, question your conditioning and consider how can you balance your cyclical rhythm while still cultivating self-trust through promises?
With love,
Alice x
If you are curious to dive more deeply into this, you may like to listen to this podcast episode…
If you’re looking for some 1:1 support in creating your aligned life, you may be interested in booking a Human Design reading….your opportunity to dive deep into all things Human Design and uncover the insights that matter most for where you are right now. Expect to walk away breathing a sigh of relief feeling deeply seen, validated, understood and with clarity on who you are and how to create more ease, flow and alignment in your life. 1:1, Mother:Child and Family readings available. Find out more and book HERE.