Maybe I Can with Debbie Weiss

Ep. 84: Introduction to Human Design with Erin O'Connor

• Debbie Weiss

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This week on "The Maybe I Can" podcast, we are joined by Erin O'Connor for a fascinating introduction to Human Design. Have you ever wondered what makes you uniquely you? Human Design is a system that blends astrology, the I Ching, Kabbalah, and the chakra system to offer a personalized map of your energetic makeup.

In this episode, Erin will provide a basic overview of Human Design, explaining what it is and how you can use it to gain insights into your personality, strengths, and life path. She will walk us through the basics of interpreting your Human Design chart and share simple ways to apply its principles to enhance your everyday life.

Join us for this enlightening conversation to discover how Human Design can help you understand yourself better and navigate your world with greater clarity. Tune in to explore how "Maybe I Can" moments can open the door to a more self-aware and empowered you.

Don't miss this introductory guide to Human Design with Erin O'Connor on "The Maybe I Can" podcast!

Erin's Links:



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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to Maybe I Can, exploring possibilities one sprinkle at a time. If you've ever found yourself asking is this all there is to life, then you're in the right place. I'm Debbie author, speaker, entrepreneur and coach, and every Tuesday, I'm here to share a sprinkle of hope and inspiration. Together, we'll uncover the more More joy, more fulfillment, more prosperity, more fun. We'll share stories of transformation, actionable tips and that little nudge you need to take the next step. So let's embark on this journey of discovery and say maybe I can to a life filled with more, ready to find out. Let's get started.

Speaker 1:

The Maybe I Can Show starts now. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the show. I'm your host, debbie Weiss, and today I think I'm joined with my first repeat guest since I started this podcast. And, erin, I have to look back. You might have been my first guest. I don't remember. You are yeah, so I can't believe it's. Let's see, we're in July and I started, I think, may 1st of last year, so my podcast is over a year old. I haven't mentioned that or celebrated that yet. So we made it over a year. That's an accomplishment in itself. So thank you for coming back. So let me introduce you so that we can get rolling here, you so that we can get rolling here.

Speaker 1:

Today, my guest is my beautiful friend, erin O'Connor. She is a Mindful School Certified Mindfulness Instructor and the founder of Happy Humans Mindfulness, where she empowers children, parents, teachers and educators with mindfulness skills for a better life. Erin has 21 years of teaching experience at the kindergarten and first grade levels. Erin also teaches mindfulness at Endicott College in Beverly, massachusetts, where she guides graduate students in applying mindfulness concepts and practices to enhance their daily academic and professional lives. In addition to mindfulness, erin shares the transformative power of human design, with families offering personalized readings that reveal each member's unique strengths and personality traits. By integrating human design principles, she helps families foster deeper connections, improve communication and create supportive environments where everyone can thrive. A key part of her mission is to empower parents with the insights needed to nurture their children's individuality and growth effectively, recognizing their crucial role in the process. Erin, welcome back.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me and congrats on your podcast being a year old.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thanks. It seems like yesterday I was just fighting tooth and nail, saying no, I'm not going to do it. What am I going to say? You know, and I remember Shana, my coach, being like I'm telling you you're going to love it. It is right up your alley and yeah, I hate to say it, she's right. It's almost like admitting like your parent was right when you didn't want them to be right. You know what I mean? Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

So we're here today because last time we talked all about mindfulness, which we might touch on again, but in your bio we were talking about human design and I was fortunate enough to have you do a reading for me a couple of weeks ago, and that's what inspired me to have you back on the show and share all about human design with our audience.

Speaker 1:

Because, since I've been on my own journey of self-discovery over the last decade or so, I've learned about so many different concepts and tools that are out there that I never heard of. It's almost like when I started with insurance and within my company, everything is an acronym. I was like why is there not one big book of acronyms? Everybody's talking in this code, not you know this code language and they have not given me the book, and that's kind of what I felt like when I first arrived on this. You know, spirituality, personal development scene, and human design is definitely one of those. Even though it's not an acronym, I had never heard of it before, so why don't you just give us an overview of what it even is, and where did it come from? And how old is this thing?

Speaker 2:

So human design is absolutely fascinating. I believe it was developed in the 80s, so it's not that old, and it's based on the idea that each person has a specific design or specific blueprint that they are born with, and this design is depicted in a human design chart, which shows a person's energy centers. It shows their profile, their authority, defined gates, and the gates are gifts that we're here to kind of share with the world and also here to kind of work on ourselves, to kind of share with the world and also here to kind of work on ourselves. And within human design. There are five different energy types that each one of us could be.

Speaker 2:

The first is generators, and generators are actually the most common energy type. So there's generators, there's manifestors, manifesting generators, projectors and reflectors, and each type, each energy type, has its own unique characteristics and their own unique way of interacting with the world. So generators are known for their ability to generate energy, their ability to generate energy. They're here to sustain work or projects that they are passionate about. So generators are here specifically to do the things that light them up, because the more that they do that, the more energy that they generate, and then they're sharing that with you know with the rest of the energy types, manifestors are independent and they are here to initiate action. They're here to start stuff. Excuse me, when I think of manifestors, I think of a train conductor. Like a train conductor that's saying, like hey, all aboard, like we're going here, that's a manifestor. They're here to really get things going to. Just like I said, to start things.

Speaker 2:

Manifesting generators are a hybrid, and manifesting generators are a combination of a manifester and a generator, and they typically embody boundless energy enthusiasm. They tend to be multi-passionate and they're not here to fit into a box. I am a manifesting generator. And then there's projectors, and projectors like yourself, debbie are here to guide and direct others. And then the last energy type, which is the rarest, is a reflector, and reflectors are very sensitive to their environment and they need time to process decisions. Reflectors are here to kind of reflect back where society needs help improving and within. Do you want me to keep going or do you want to ask?

Speaker 1:

me. Well, I want to ask you a question. So how does this? Well, a couple of different things. How does this differ from astrology, and what information do you need in order to figure out which of the five energy types you are the?

Speaker 2:

human design. Actually, it combines elements of astrology. That's why you need your birth date and the time of the time that you were born. So it combines astrology. It combines the I Ching, the Kabbalah and the chakra system. Those are all of the elements that kind of make up human design. What was your second question? Where do you?

Speaker 1:

Well, so so you need it was. What do you need? So you need your birth date, your time and your place of birth, right?

Speaker 2:

Yes, and the more specific that you can be with your time of birth the better, because the time that you were born is super, super important in generating your chart. You know and you can do estimates, but you want to get the exact time, if you can, because then you know your chart can differ by minute.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know, isn't that the hardest thing? Anytime I do any like with astrology or anything, it's like I thought I would never forget the time my kids were born and I have a general idea, but I think I was trying to do one of their charts when we were talking and I was like, well, wait a second, was it 815? Was it 820? You know, was it 840? Was the other one, you know whatever? And I went to look at their birth certificate. It wasn't on there. I pulled out their birth certificate, it wasn't on there, and I know from, like, my parents and stuff that that wasn't on there either. I thought maybe it was in their generation, but my kids, my kids, didn't have it either.

Speaker 1:

Now, before we go further, I just want to tell people that I asked you and there is an app. Neither of us are tied to this app, but it's an app called my Human Design and you can download it, put in that information and for free, it will just give you your chart, Not every element of your chart, but the main things, and then, of course, it doesn't let you see a lot of the explanation without paying, but at least you'll be able to see what your energy type is, and your authority as, as I'm thinking to myself, maybe, if people are listening, press pause. If you're curious, download it now right, so you can pull it up and as we continue our discussion, you know, you can see what applies to you.

Speaker 2:

I love that you brought up the authority, because authority in human design is super important because it refers to your unique inner guidance system. That helps we can make decisions based on emotional authority, and that means that you need to wait out an emotional wave before making a big decision, so you want to come to a neutral place rather than being like super happy or super low before making decisions. There's sacral authority, and sacral authority means that you're kind of relying on your gut instincts right, everybody always says follow your gut, but not everybody has this, this ability to follow their gut. Um splenic authority is based on um intuition and instinct. And then there's ego authority, and that is these individuals are here to to make decisions that involve, like listening to what they truly want, what feels empowering, what feels motivating, and that's for people.

Speaker 2:

These people who have this authority need to actually speak out their decision, like speak out loud so that they can hear themselves. To then make their decisions, they need to be able to hear their own voice. Then there's mental projectors, mental authority, projectors, mental authority, and that means that you really kind of want to not really no design is meant to make a decision from their mind, and that's what we're conditioned to do is to make decisions from our mind. So, with mental authority, they're also meant to talk things through. But they're also meant to kind of talk things through in different environments. So their surroundings and their surroundings influence their insight and their clarity. So what feels good in different environments? And then the last one I was just going to say. The last one is lunar authority, and that one there is unique to reflectors, and reflectors need to follow the lunar cycle before they make their big decisions. So they have to wait about 28 days before making big decisions.

Speaker 1:

And that's funny, because that was my question is asked is like do they, are they tied together the authority and the energy? Like, are all projectors, emotional authority or you know?

Speaker 2:

no, no no, they're not. So everybody's authority is unique and that also impacts you know, the birth time, your authority, the birth time, your, your authority and what other things I know you said about your gifts.

Speaker 1:

Give us, give us some examples of what your gifts are and and what your human design can tell you about your gifts, about what you. What if you don't have a gift Like? What if something I mean, or what if you know? This is just a general question because, as you're describing some of these things, I'm thinking to myself. Boy, I thought I was good, listening to my gut. Clearly I'm not, since that's not my authority, and all along I must've been pretending like could I? Does it mean I'm not good, you know, listening to my gut, because that's not my authority?

Speaker 2:

well, the other, so to speak yeah, I mean you might, like I said, you might not even have um. So in order to have sacral authority, your sacral needs to be defined in your, in your human design chart. So within your human design chart, there are nine different energy centers, so it's kind of like the chakra system, except the chakra system has seven. So with human design they have the same seven chakras, same seven energy centers as the chakra system, but they also added splenic and the ego, the heart center, and so that that makes up nine. And so within your chart these centers can be defined, which means that you have consistent access to the energy of each one of those centers, or they can be undefined, and undefined means that you don't have consistent access and you're kind of borrowing that the energy of the those centers when you're with people who have those centers defined. Um.

Speaker 2:

And so sacral authority, in order to have that, your sacral has to be defined, and so you know it's that uh, and people always think you know um, that they have it. But sacral authority is this ability to kind of um, feel it, like I said, in your gut, and that might come through sounds. It might come through like uh-huh or uhuh, or nodding of your head or actually physically moving towards something, and so being able to follow your strategy helps you to live with a little more like ease, because you start to understand how you're actually meant I'm sorry, your authority how you're meant to make your decision, so that you don't get, you know, confused like, oh wait a minute, I'm supposed to follow my gut but I don't actually feel anything. So if I don't feel anything, you know I must not want to do this, but it just might not be your authority.

Speaker 1:

Oh, my goodness, I feel like each of us should be wearing a shirt that lists all these things, so you could walk up and be like oh hi, I'd like to borrow this from you right now, because I'm undefined and I need your help.

Speaker 2:

I'd say that the most important things for anybody who's just kind of like learning about human design or kind of getting into it is, you know, understanding what your energy type is, what your authority is, right, how you're meant to make decisions. And then there's also, um, it's called strategy, and strategy guides you to, uh, the way that you're meant to kind of interact with the world, the way that you're meant to kind of make your decisions. And there are different strategies that each person, that each energy type has. So manifestors, for example, their strategy is to inform. So they're designed to initiate, so that means that they're designed to start stuff and bring new ideas into the world, and their strategy is to inform other people of their decisions and their actions before they take them. And so this is important because it helps to reduce any resistance or misunderstandings from other people, right? So making it easier for them to kind of move forward with their plans without getting stopped in the middle of doing something.

Speaker 2:

A generator's strategy is meant they're meant to respond. So generators are designed to respond to life rather than initiate action, and so their strategy is to kind of wait for something external from their environment to respond to. So that might be a question, it might be a request, it might be a situation, right, and so responding allows generators to use their energy in a sustainable way, so engaging in only the activities that truly like, light them up, that truly satisfy them. Do you want to hear the others or do you want to?

Speaker 1:

Well, you've gone this far, Come on. What if I'm one of the others?

Speaker 2:

I want to hear so manifesting generators, their strategy is also to respond, but because they're a hybrid of a manifester and a generator, they also have that you, they. Their strategy is also to inform others of their actions. Right, so they're here to respond, but they're also here to tell people like, hey, this is what I'm doing, and projectors like yourself are meant to wait for the invitation. So projectors are designed to guide and manage others, and their strategy is to wait for invitations to share their insights. To share their insights, because when they don't wait for an invitation from somebody else to share you know what you see within them, or a better way that they can do things, it repels them, and so it's super important to wait for somebody to either be interested in what you're doing or specifically even just ask you for you know, for advice.

Speaker 1:

Let me stop you right there and say I apologize in advance to anybody that I gave advice that you didn't really want. Right, did you learn?

Speaker 2:

all of these things about yourself. Yeah, and reflectors are meant to wait for the lunar cycle, so they're designed to reflect back the health of their community, their families, and their strategy is to wait a full 28 days before making major decisions, and this waiting period allows for reflectors to gain clarity and perspective, so ensuring that their decisions are in alignment with their true self and with their environment.

Speaker 1:

All right. So now let's talk a little bit, because during our conversation, you really enlightened me about the way that I was thinking of certain things down the road with my own son right, and you were like, yep, he's this, you're forget it, you're barking up the wrong tree, and I did. It really made me change what my goals were for him moving forward. So how, how do you, how do parents? You know you're working mostly with parents who have little guys right For the most part, yeah, or teens, that's true, that's true. So how do you show them to use this?

Speaker 2:

So I bring it about by you know kind of asking them if they're interested in learning more about their child's unique abilities, and then that kind of opens up the door of you know, talking about human design.

Speaker 2:

And for parents it's super helpful because it gives them an idea of who their child really is, versus the conditioning that society and them as parents can be putting on their child, right, and so it helps them to understand, like, who their child really is and what their unique abilities are, right, and so that's.

Speaker 2:

I was on the treadmill one day and I was kind of thinking about one of my little guys that I was working with and the dad kept saying I just don't understand how she, you know she works like what she does. I was like, oh my goodness, human design. We need to bring human design to parents to help them understand their children better, to help them understand how their children are meant to communicate and meant to make decisions, and it just helps the family unit to be more kind of cohesive, because it allows the parents actually, I mean, and when the child is in alignment, right, but it allows the parent to view their child through the lens of compassion, through this lens of like understanding, like oh OK, they are different than I am, but this is who they are designed to be, and without the parent trying to change who their child is oh, my goodness, that so resonates with me because all I think about and you know, nowadays, thank goodness, there's so much more awareness that everybody doesn't fit into a box, right?

Speaker 1:

People now talk about different learning styles. That was never the case, you know, when I was growing up, there was one way you sat there, you listened, you know, if you moved you were in trouble and all those things. And luckily you go into a classroom now and it's much different. But I still feel like even there's still those traditional roles and as a parent, you are measuring or at least I was. You know, look what that kid's doing and look what that kid oh, their kid is behaving so much better. Oh, their kid, you know, is interested in this. Their kid is playing, like you know. And this, this point of comparison, where you're just trying to like make your kid look quote, unquote normal, right, which is just a box, like you said, that society says deems to be normal, and now we're finding out there is no normal.

Speaker 2:

And it is nice to know that human design can help, feeling like they are, you know, not good enough, and teach their child what it means to wait for an invitation, right, that's just opening the door to a much more peaceful life for this little child, right? And that's just one example of you know an energy type where you know a parent having this understanding can help them.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, erin. Half hour goes so darn fast. I can't stand it. It doesn't help. So please tell everyone where they can learn more about you and human design and all of your great mindfulness stuff. Where can they go?

Speaker 2:

You can find me at happyhumansmindfulnesscom. I'm on Instagram and Facebook at Happy Humans Mindfulness and, you know, on my Facebook and Instagram pages I'm constantly sharing different mindfulness techniques that parents can use with kids, that adults can use, as well as information on human design.

Speaker 1:

Now, and her posts just make you smile, right, and they just remind us to pause and be mindful. So, erin, thank you again. I really appreciate you coming on and sharing all of your knowledge with the audience and, who knows, maybe next year you'll be back for number three.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my goodness, thank you so much for having me again, debbie. It's an honor really. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

And everybody else. I will see you all next week. Thanks for spending part of your day with me here on Maybe I Can, exploring possibilities, one sprinkle at a time. It's been great having you and I hope you're leaving with a spark to light up your journey to more. Remember every big change starts with a single maybe. If you're ready to kickstart that change but not sure where to begin, I've got just the thing for you. Head over to download my free guide, the One Critical Step to Kickstart Change and take that all-important first step. Let's make those maybes into reality, one sprinkle at a time. Catch you next Tuesday at 4 pm Eastern, 1 pm Pacific, with more stories, tips and that extra push you might need. I'm Debbie saying goodbye for now, but always remember maybe, just maybe, you can.

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Debbie Weiss

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