What is Conditioning?

I mean, one of if not the main goals of Human Design is to decondition ourselves – what Traditional HD refers to as the Not-Self – and shed these layers of conditioning throughout a seven-year cycle.

Now, does that mean it’s useless unless you complete the seven years? Definitely, not.

So this is my favorite explanation of conditioning.

Everybody has some kind of social media profile on some platform these days. But before you post your chosen profile photo and put it out in the world you make sure that you first either edit the raw selfie– tweak the lighting, the contrast, etc.– or add a filter to it. Perhaps, even take a selfie with a filter.

No one posts a raw selfie as their profile photo. A very rare few do.

Similar to real life, a very rare few go out into the world as their truest, most authentic selves. We have years of conditioning through no fault of our own that we carry as our filters and photo edits.

In this post, I’ll be sharing with you the five different types of conditioning to help you understand where yours might be coming from.

HUMAN DESIGN OPEN CENTERS

Imagine yourself as a really big, busy, flourishing company. Now, obviously for this company to function well, it would need several different departments uniquely in charge of different things so that the company is effectively, and sustainably run.

These different departments, in charge of different energy in your body, are what we call Centers in Human Design. Human Design Centers directly correlate to an esoteric system which is probably more familiar to you called the Hindu Chakra System. But whereas there are 7 chakras, there are 9 HD Centers. (More on that in another post coming soon where I’ll share with you about our transition from being 7-centered beings to 9-centered ones today.)

These are the different shapes you can see on your body graph. Centers represent different energies and demonstrate how a person metabolizes, uses, and experiences those kinds of energies.

Now, one thing that we usually consider when it comes to HD Centers is whether it is Defined (colored in) or if it is Open/Undefined (White).

For this article, we will be focusing on the Open/Undefined ones.

When you have a Center Undefined (have a Gate- a number in it defined or colored in) or Open (no gates defined at all in the center), then it means you do not have sustainable access to this energy and you instead receive energy here from the people around you or the planetary transits more easily. Our deepest conditioning can be found in our open centers.

This is because you’re not just taking energy in through your Open Centers– you take in and amplify it. You have a lot of potential to identify with somebody else’s energy as your own because you are experiencing this energy in your openness in a very, very big way. This leads to creating a distorted story or another filter you add to your story because you begin to think you are someone you’re not. That said, it is also the place where you are to learn the most, and once you have can be a wonderful source of wisdom.

Imagine your open centers as baskets or bins, where you collect fruits of your experiences from people who have them defined in their chart. Now if you are aware of this then you can have the power to choose how you can use that energy. But when you don’t understand, then you mistakenly identify with that energy and this creates behavioral patterns that are predictable as well as mistaken motivations in relationships.

Your open centers can be this really deep bin that can explain why you are stuck in a pattern. These patterns create so much confusion about who you are and how you are designed to operate and that is one kind of conditioning.

Remember though that you always have a choice with regards to what you are going to do with these energies and this is something that comes with understanding your unique Human Design.

IMPRINTING

This kind of conditioning comes from your family. This is a touchy one, I find, that every time I share about this topic, it tends to ruffle a couple of feathers. It’s more psychology-based than anything. But through the lens of Human Design, we understand that your parent’s “energy type” and “energy centers” will create certain patterns of behavior that become a part of your imprinting. This makes you believe you are someone that you are not. This can make you believe that you have energy that you don’t have.

For example, in our family where my husband and I are Manifesting Generators, I can already see in my Manifestor son the beginnings of imprinting with him believing he has as much life force and workforce energy as his dad and I, which isn’t true at all.

Recently, he’s been trying to multitask using his iPad as a way of a video guide while he plays a video game on his Switch. Now, I’m not saying he’s not capable of it but I can see him fizzling out faster because of this. When asked why he does it? He said he can see me and his dad doing it often, working on our laptops while talking/listening to something on our phones. It is creating a behavior in him that is not part of his unique design just because he is growing up in a family of Manifesting Generators. (Read more about the energy types and centers.)

GENERATIONAL ENERGY PATTERNS

According to Human Design, you inherit your design from your grandparents. It will not be the same but there will be similar elements. This means that your children will inherit their HD from your parents. Through this, we understand that family energy dynamics are intergenerational.

So when we start to change our energy patterns and work on our deconditioning, we can heal energy dynamics through time. Think of your healing as being able to heal those before you as well as your children’s children.

GENETICS

For better or worse, some of your human adventure traits are genetic. Protein codes contain ancestral memory up to fourteen generations. So if you experience similar events in your life that are similar to what your parents, grandparents, or greats did–even triggered or stimulated, then it can unlock certain DNA expressions or predispose you to certain shadow expressions in your genetic code. So basically, your not-so-good reactions or behavior can be unlocked by something in your DNA.

That said, through Human Design and your work on deconditioning and healing yourself, you can also rewrite your ancestral programming and create new memories that will be part of the life story you are writing.

In Human Design, there is also what we call the Design Crystal which carries the code for your life story and your life purpose. This resides in your Ajna and carries memories perhaps of your past lives. As it resides in your Ajna, the center for processing and making sense of information, these memories (most likely conditioned memories), possibly influence the way that we process information from our Head Centers. In this case, the healing process is still able to transcend time.

YOUR EXPERIENCES

Throughout your lifetime, you will make choices, experience pain, and go through experiences that are going to imprint you. You will carry this conditioning which influences the life that you create.

It is normal to have conditioning. Everyone has them. There is no shame or guilt or blame attached to it. Perhaps only when you resist deconditioning, and then healing from them upon having the awareness of them. At least that’s my honest and personal opinion of it.

SO, WHERE DO I START?

Most will tell you to begin by downloading your Human Design chart.

I am telling you to begin by deciding to choose you and to allow this system to show you what else is possible. Perhaps, through this system, you may be able to rewrite your story, one that has limitless possibilities full of ease and joy.

Once you’ve said yes, go ahead and get a copy of your chart. There are many places where you can get it like Jovian Archive and My Bodygraph but my go-to site will always be Genetic Matrix because they’ve done a lot of research and work into making sure the time differences are in the up and up.

You will need 1- Your Exact Birth Date, 2- Your Exact Birth Time, and 3- the City and Country of your birth.

If you don’t have your exact birth time, you can check your birth certificate, the hospital or town records, ask your parents or whoever was present during your birth, or work with an astrologer who does birth chart rectification and who can help you figure it out based on life events or use a birth time rectification app like this one.

It’s important to work with the exact birth time because there are planets that move more often than others and this can influence which gates (those are the numbers you’ll see on your chart) or channels (colored pathways that connect two colored in numbers like a bridge on your chart) become activated in your chart that can also change your type or authority.

Once you have your chart, you may learn more about Human Design through the BLOG where you can learn about all the HD foundational pieces to your chart to get you started.

If you want a live reading of your Human Design Chart, you can book a 1 on 1 Shadow Session with me HERE. This can also be a session where you can learn how to apply your design in more practical ways both in your life and/or your business. I’ll be sending you a short questionnaire to help focus the session and help you maximize your time with me.