EP #118: How To Use Human Design To Live In Alignment With Your Authentic Self with Emma Dunwoody, Founder of Transformational Human Design and Human Behavioral Specialist

(gentle music) Welcome back to another episode of Everyday Endorphins, a mental health podcast focused on the importance of finding joy and happiness and daily living. I'm your host, Stella Stuffinopoulos, and this week I am honored to have human behavioral specialists and human design expert coach Emma Dunwadi on the podcast. Growing up, I've always been really interested in personality tests, part of my major in school was in psychology, so I've always been really fascinated with how the mind works and what drives human behavior and how that varies person to person. Astrology's been really interesting to me. It's not something that I follow closely, but I'm a Virgo, and I feel like I definitely align with a lot of Virgo tendencies, and have also kind of developed interest in other spiritual practices and theories like numerology, and others that kind of fall under that realm. And so it was only fitting to expand my research and interest into learning more about human design and how human design can be another way to better understand yourself and learn how to take a line action in your life so that you can really lead the most authentic version of your life that you can. So I'm thrilled to have Emma on the show here today to talk a lot about how you can use human design as a way for greater self inquiry. Emma has her own podcast called The Human Design Podcast, which focuses on spirituality. She also is an author and the founder of Transformational Human Design. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, but you can expect to learn more about the foundations of human design, a breakdown of each profile and archetype. We also dive into my own unique profile, which is kind of a fun little exercise for me personally. We also talk about how you can understand your energetic blueprint using human design. What it means to live in alignment and express your authentic self, ways to release resistance, and learning how to tap into flow state in order to really manifest what you desire, how to build greater trust within yourself, and learning how to let your intuition guide you and your decisions. And lastly, we end with hearing Emma's perspective on health and happiness and how she finds endorphins every day. Before we dive into the interview, make sure to like and subscribe to this show on whichever listening platforms you prefer. And for anyone based in New York City, next Saturday, January 20th, I'm moderating a panel discussion around reaching your potential, cultivating community, and maximizing your creativity with the founder of Absence of Proof, which is a non-alcoholic events company. The founder of Drinks First, which is a dating podcast in events company, and the co-founder of Earshot, which is a creative arts collective space in Soho. There will be a non-alcoholic beverages, so perfect for dry January, and some other cool sponsors and snacks, so whoever is in town and would like to come, I would love to see you there. Information is posted on my Instagram account. The link to get tickets to sign up is also there, and in my Instagram bio. So please grab a ticket if you're interested in coming. Would love to see you and have you be a part of the day. Also, shout out to the founders of Absence of Proof, and Drinks First, Elizabeth Gascoine, and Ariana Nathani. They were actually both guests on my podcast, and I am super excited to get to moderate an in-person discussion with the two of them. Hi, Emma. Thank you so much for coming on to Everyday Endorphins. Hi, it's so lovely to be here. I'm super excited to chat to you. I think the beauty of doing podcasts is that you can really interview anyone anywhere in the world, and I'm currently in New York. You're in Australia. I just discovered that we're traveling through time. It's a Tuesday for me, a Wednesday morning for you. So I'm just super thrilled that we could make this work. And today we're here to talk about human design, which is something that I am personally really fascinated by, and I don't know much about. And I think many people who are interested in spirituality, and holistic wellness, and personal growth look for answers, whether it be through something like astrology or of the likes. And one of them, I believe, is this theory around human design. So I'd love for you to start off by describing, in a nutshell, what human design is, and really breaking it down for my listeners who maybe don't have a clear understanding of what this practice can teach them. Human design is actually a synthesis of ancient wisdom and modern science. So it's made up of astrology, Western astrology, the I Ching, which is the Chinese Book of Changes. It's also made up of the sharkra system and the cabaletry of life. Now, it also works with quantum physics. It also works with the fractals. And what human design really is, I love to describe it as it's your playbook. So if we're all in this game of life, it's your specific playbook. Now, all of us have actually been taught that there is one playbook, or maybe there's a playbook for the country we live in, or maybe there's a playbook for the gender that we have. But overall, we have these playbooks that we have to live our life by. Whereas human design says, no, we throw everything else out, and we say, this is the way we're actually designed to live our life. Now, for me personally, I came to human design after I'm a certified master coach. I'm a profiler. So I use a number of different profiling tools. And all of these profiling tools-- and that could be something like, "Enigrants really big at the moment, or Myers-Briggs, or disc profiling-- and these are really powerful tools to help us understand ourselves." Like Socrates said, "No, die self. This is the most important thing we can be doing, especially now in this time of chaos." Human design gives us so much more insight than these other tools that we've been using over the last few decades, or however long we've been using them. Human design actually gives us our energetic blueprint. It helps us understand how our energy is designed to move through the world, how the universe kind of speaks to us and guides us. What our internal guidance system is specifically for us. And it actually gives us that ultimate permission slip to say, right, well, this is my purpose. This is who I'm going to be in relationships. This is my superpower. These are my challenges. These are the things that I might be afraid of that are stopping me. And it really gives us that opportunity to dive super deep into the specificities of the energy that lies within us, so that we can then clear up, heal, transform anything that doesn't serve us, so that we can lean into our greatest potential and express that out in the world, because let's be honest, planet Earth needs all of our greatness right now. Yeah, that's very fascinating to describe it as something that is looking at your energetic blueprint. I'm sure you're familiar with Joe D'Svenza, and he talks a lot about how our thoughts and our beliefs will then inform our actions. And it all has to do with the energy that we create within us and then reflect out onto the world and somehow that comes back towards us. So when we think about this concept of our own energetic blueprint, how can we use the principles or teachings of human design to create a life through which we are putting out an energy that we want to come back and be received by ourselves too? Yeah, I love that. So the first thing I want to say is just really responding to Joe D'Svenza piece. Like his work was really pivotal in my own healing journey. I healed my mental health. I was doing depression and panic disorder for a really long time. And I was one of those people who considered taking my life for many, many years, because I could not perceive a world where I had to live with this. I had to heal it. And his work was really, really pivotal with me helping to do exactly that and to heal my mental health. And I mean, I'm lucky to say, and I'm not lucky, I'm grateful to say that I've lived many years without any mental health challenges. You know, I've got really great mental health now. And it is a lot to do with the fact that I've reconditioned my brain. I've changed my behavior. Now, when we talk about it through the frame of Joe D'Svenza and many other people who are teaching mindset work, let's say, we have to kind of make a guess at the sort of beliefs that each person might be coming up against. Now, our brain actually needs more specificity than that. Our brain needs the wording that we construct that belief with to change that belief. And with human design, what it does is instead of going, well, I might have this governing belief that I am not enough, we can dive into the nuance of your specific design and say, okay, well, this not enough theme, where could that be? And we could be like, oh, wow, look, it sits the fear of not being enough, sits in the gate 48. This is the shadow, this is the higher expression of it. So now I can actually see what's really going on and find that like the root cause of that belief and I can give myself a better belief. I can create something that's more empowering for me. And this is actually something that I've integrated into a thing that I call transformation with human design. It's my model where we're putting all of that mindset stuff. We're doing all the transformational methods and coaching together with human design and the Gen Ks, which is creating much faster transformation. But a way that we can all really understand our energy and how our human design can support us in everyday life is just starting at the beginning. And if we start at the beginning, we want to understand how our energy is being projected out into the world, how it's being received, how we're influencing others, and to understand how we're being influenced. I think in this. spiritual world, we talk a lot about needing energetic protection. And I don't actually, I guess, on some level, depending on what frequency we're at, yes, there is truth to that. However, what we actually want to do is we want to understand what is ours or what is someone else's. And when we start to understand our human design, and we can be like, wow, I'm just amplifying other people's energy, that means that we can allow it to move through us. And it doesn't affect us. We don't hold onto it. We don't tell stories about it. We don't think it's something in us that needs fixing. We just have more compassion for the people that we're around, and we let that energy flow through us. So we can really use our human design in so many ways. But ultimately, it's about aligning yourself to your heart, your soul, your mission, and being able to leave the most authentic version of yourself. And I think a big part of achieving that alignment is through practices of non-attachment and not clinging to things. I'm reading an incredible book right now called The Anodote, Happiness for People Who Hate Positive Thinking. I might be butchering the title, but the author talks about this concept of pursuing the negative path to happiness and learning to actually embrace, quote unquote, negative emotions, rather than shut them out. Because through doing that, you're not actually adopting this philosophy of toxic positivity or being overly optimistic. And he pulls in examples from ancient Greek philosophers and stoicism and the Buddhist philosophers and Taoism and looking at how when we can actually de-identify from the self, we create stillness and tranquility. And in doing so, you're almost acting as if you're a third party observer or witness to the events in your life. And therefore, you don't feel such an attachment to these things. So when we're speaking really about, again, this energetic blueprint, allowing others energy to move through us, how does human design help to continuously practice that concept of non-attachment? Well, I think one of the big things to understand with human design and how it very, very specifically helps us practice non-attachment is that if we just simmer it down to its most simplest form, we want to understand our strategy and our authority. So the strategy simply put is how the universe guides us and communicates with us. Our authority is our internal guidance system. And when we live in alignment with those two, and we listen to them, it's the communication loop between us and our higher selves and the universe and back again. And ultimately, if we just live by our strategy and authority, that we let go of the attachment of who we need to be and what we need to do and how we need to create, what we need to create, and we just listen, and we just allow this to guide us. And then we create a life that is way beyond what we could possibly imagine that feels incredible, and it feels beautiful. And you might be someone who has been raised in a family that it's all about achievement, and you are hustling your butt to get through university and kind of doctor or surgeon or whatever. But really, you're actually more suited to sitting in a cave and meditating all day. And if you follow your strategy and authority, then that's where it's going to take you. Whereas if you're listening to the mind and you're conditioning and you're attached to who you need to be because you think this elusive happiness belongs over there, you're missing the point. Because happiness is something-- and I studied happiness for years because of my depression. Happiness is always there. There might be a cloud in front of it, but it's always within us. There's always a choice that we make. So with human design, simply living our life via strategy and authority, for example, yours is all about because you're a manifesting generator. And you're a sacral manifesting generator. So for you, it's all about being in response and really listening to the gut. Like when that cycle says, aha, I've got energy for this. Then it's a yes. But if it says, aha, I don't have energy for this, then you have to say no. And to live in non-attachment is to just follow that, aha, aha, aha, and respond to things external of you. Not living in alignment would mean that you think you should do something. So you take action from a thought that you have or something that's going on internally, instead of responding to your external reality. Another way that you'd be still attached and not practicing these sort of a more stoic methods would be because you think you have to take a certain path. So you override the sacral. So human design really helps us. If we're willing to just do the experiment with strategy and authority, then-- and it's definitely my experience that I could possibly dream some of the things that I've experienced just by following my strategy and authority. The metaphor that you gave about happiness always existing there, sometimes there might just be a cloud over it, was a metaphor that was actually mentioned in the book. And I underlined it because it really rang true to me. Kind of, you know, the idea of when you're looking into the sky and the moon is there, for example, at night. Sometimes the cloud is in front of the moon so you can't see it. But we know that the moon is always there. And so it's the same idea. Happiness, the sense of peace is within us. But there are sometimes obstacles on the way that can cloud that and maybe can feed thoughts into our head that going back to what you said. When we act on those thoughts not coming from that sense of alignment, not trusting our intuition, that's when I think we can cause this inner suffering. But I want to dive more into the different types or let's say profiles for the human design. So we mentioned that I'm a manifesting generator, which I want to talk a little bit more about later because I'm personally very interested in what my human design profile says about me. But aside from manifesting generator, can you break down the different types that exist and maybe the qualities and characteristics of each? So with human design, we start with type. This is kind of like our highest level of looking at it. I always say, like don't get overly attached to type. Like I'm sure you're going to listen to it and people are going to resonate and be like, yeah, that sounds like me. But it's something that you have to understand there's so much more depth to a human design chart that this is just a jumping off point. Okay, so we have five types. And the first one that I will talk to is the manifesto. So the manifesto, this is someone who has, it's kind of like the biggest aura, the biggest energy that doesn't necessarily mean extraverted energy. It just means they're a person that when they walk in the room, people know they walked in the room. They're here to initiate, they're here to inspire people into action. They will often be the trailblazers, the way showers, the way finders, the seekers, because they have this energy that moves through them direct from source, like literally moves them in the direction that they need to go. And what's really important about being a manifesto is you have to be unapologetically yourself. Now, a lot of them are people pleases, a lot of them shut down their big energy, a lot of them play small because they're as kids, they're the ones that almost don't need parenting. They're very energetically independent. They know where they're going. They're like, yeah, yeah, I'll be fine. And they always are, or most of the time are. So they learn that, oh my goodness, I need to shut that down because it makes other people feel uncomfortable. But really we want them out there because, and being unapologetically themselves, because they are here to inspire all of us into action. I have so many manifesto in my life. I love them. I love their big energy. I love that they're different. I love that they stand out. And when there's a manifesto that I align, with, I'm like, I'm following you. Like, what do you have to say? What are you doing? Because instantly I'm inspired and I will go and build something. A perfect example is like Ra, or who bought in human design was a manifesto. OK? So the next type is a generator. And if manifestos are less than 10% of the global population, generators and manifesting generators make up 70%. OK? Now, generators are actually here generating the life force for the planet. OK? These are the people that are here to build something, to do the work they love, to be someone who is so inspired into action that they can't help but create something. And the way that they move through life is to follow their cycle response, to follow what lights them up, to follow what they have energy for. They're very magnetic. They're the people that tend to be very easy to be around, especially when they're in alignment. They'll tend to be quite enthusiastic when they're in alignment. They'll be very joyous. And they're constantly in response. They're really actually here to respond to life. So even though we're taught by people like Tony Robbins to take massive action for everyone but manifestos, we actually want to be in some form of response. We want to allow the universe to bring to us the things that we're there to respond to. Now, that doesn't mean that generators or any other type need to sit on their hands and wait for things to come. No. But you have to do the things that light you up. You have to follow that excitement, that joy, because then inevitably opportunities are going to come your way. And it's important because generators are setting the life force energy for the planet. So think about it this way. In the past, generators have been the people who maybe did most of the work in manufacturing and sitting in offices and doing all of this sort of stuff. And if they're sitting in that environment, doing something they don't love, they're generating that life force energy for the planet. So if you're a generator, you have to find what you love and go do it. Because the fact that you're lit up is not only serving and supporting you, it's serving and supporting those around you and the energy of the planet. Then we have manifesting generators who are the hybrid between the manifesto and the generator. And they are primarily a generator, so they are also in response, they can't initiate. Because they have that really big energy, like a manifesto, they come across as being relatively superhuman sometimes. especially when they have quit my channel. in themselves small or they no longer believe that they're too much. They actually have lent into their too muchness and I'm like, "Yeah, I'm too much. I'm superhuman, man." Like, watch me go. And there also a non-linear being. So if you're a manifesting generator, the odds are you're potentially multi-passionate. You want to do a bit of this, a bit of that. You may think that you may struggle with the whole concept that you feel like a quitter that maybe you can never follow through with anything, but they do tend to learn faster and get out quicker when it comes to things like learning. They get what they need. They move on. How do they know what they need? Strategy and authority. And then we have projectors. So projectors are this, almost like this new form of leader that's coming in. Our manifestors are kind of that old school leader, the masculine ruler, kind of heading for a goal. Let's get this stuff done type leader. And not all manifestors these days lead that way. They'd lead. And any type can be a leader. So don't get me wrong. But this kind of that, their energy versus the projector is this energy of the guide. The wise sage. I often use Yoda from Star Wars as an example. The thing with projectors though is that they're the kids that in, they were in the classroom constantly putting their hand up to every question. And the teacher was like, you know, no Sally, let someone else have a go. Where really, Sally, the projector was the one that was there to be seen and the teacher wasn't seeing them. So they're on the planet to be seen and recognized for the wisdom that lies within them. Now because unfortunately we live in a society where, you know, it's competition, it's like the battle of the fittest, that sort of thing. Projectors don't tend to have as much energy as their generator and manifesting generator friends. So what happens is that they then try to force their wisdom onto people. Like look at me, see me, listen to me. But it's the opposite. Our projectors really need to value the wisdom that lies within them and then people are going to invite them in. They're going to bring them in and then they become this really, really wise council. Then we have reflectors and reflectors are like 1% of the population. They have no definition within their design, meaning that as they move through life, they're reflecting back everything, all the energy that they're experiencing, the people, the places, they are incredibly connected to subtle energy. They can almost see the energy that's coming up ahead, whether that's the future, whether that's a different timeline, whatever it is, they can feel into the levels of energy that most people can't. They're also designed not to be put in a box, to be like pick something and live that way for the rest of your life. They are designed to very much ebb and flow depending on the people and the places that they're around. Ultimately, they're going to feel really comfortable when they're in a community, in an environment surrounded by people that makes them feel great, because they're going to be reflecting back that energy. It's almost like they help the community or the business or whoever they're around. This is where we're at. This is what we're doing. Well, maybe this is what we're not doing so well. This is where we need to improve. So they really help reflect back the truth of a place or people or a group or community. So that's just a tiny overview of the five types. Yeah, let's just scratching the surface. Very interesting, especially as you were talking about Manifesting Generator, I do feel like I could resonate and a lot of my personality, I think, fits with that type. I did take a test also for my human design, and it's mentioned that they didn't give me actually the information on what it means to be a Manifesting Generator, but even from doing the test and seeing what the results were and when I did a little bit more reading, it did feel very much like my personality and especially as I've grown more of an interest in this concept of Manifesting and letting things naturally come to you. I've noticed personally in my own life the most joyous moments and the moments where I feel in most alignment, nothing has been actively forced. Like I've allowed for my passions to dictate my day to day without necessarily a formal structure, but still having like that north star vision. And as I continuously focus on that overarching goal, things naturally fallen my lap almost and it's not without hard work. Of course, there's the intentionality behind it and the work and effort put to accomplish certain things, but I've noticed that the less hard I actually try, the more things end up working out. How does that happen? If we think about it in the context of maybe the type of being a Manifesting Generator or more broadly your own philosophy on this. Well, the simple answer is it's the difference between being in flow and in resistance. You know, like when we have operated from the mind for hundreds of years, we've made it this, almost it's God, you know, the smartest person in the room is the best person in the room. It's all about operating from the mind. It's all about analysis, research, all of these things. And this is a very masculine way of seeing the world. Whereas the truth is the way energy works is that a lot of the time our mind is getting in the way of the flow state. It's getting in the way of who we really are, of the heart of the soul and more of the feminine energy being expressed. One of the fundamental pillars of human design is getting us out of the head and into the body. It's getting us out of the subconscious mind that is operating from our conditioning. Our conditioning is something that is created between the ages of zero to seven. It creates our identity. So most adults are walking around as a zero to seven version of themself. And this identity was created then to keep you safe, to keep you fed, to keep you loved, to keep you belonging. And at the end of the day, they're not the things that actually light our souls on fire. That's not our bliss, that's not our purpose, that's not our true love. So a large part of what you're talking about is it's this shift from the mind trying to create everything, you know, in the world of manifesting, like we talk a lot about, okay, what do you want? And then we need to understand the belief systems and we have to get rid of the blocks and we have to do, do, do, do, do, do, do. And a lot of it is very, very mental, but when it comes down to it and then you need to release all of it, you need to surrender to all of that and just know the way you want to feel and allow it to come to you. Well, human design is the ultimate practice of allowing because if you can fully trust your design, if you can fully surrender just to being led through life through your strategy and authority, then you're going to live in more of a flow state. You're going to minimize that resistance and resistance is just fear, you know, it's just whatever the specific fear is like, I don't know enough, I can't do this, I want to be seen, you know, I'm afraid of success, I'm afraid of failure, whatever it is. It's just a story that our subconscious mind has created to prevent us from changing. It's really that simple. So if we actually go back into the body, if we allow ourselves to be guided through strategy and authority, if we listen and one of my principles in transformation with human design is like, you have to pay attention to the external clues because they don't lie. So if you have something in your life that keeps turning up and you're like, well, I've done all the work, I don't know why it keeps turning up, well, it's turning up out there because it's in you. It's like with your human design, it really helps you take full responsibility. You're like, okay, cool, I really want to shift and change. This is turning up, where can I see this in my design? Right, I need to heal this piece. Now, what's the highest potential of that energy? Because everything unresourced for what's turning up in our life, it has a polar opposite that is resourceful, that's something that we potentially do want or it's our superpower. So it really helps us to see, oh, wow, this is just a superpower that I'm using from fear instead of love. And if I stop trying to change myself or make myself wrong or judge myself, and I, in fact, heal whatever trauma or block or whatever is associated with that and realize that there's this higher potential and expression of this energy, then boom, I'm changing my behaviour, I'm becoming a different person and things do come to you more easily. I know my entire business has been built basically off following my human design. That is so fascinating. And I can imagine that human design work is transformational across every single area of one's life. But where would you say people feel they get the most benefit out of this from? Is it in their career? Is it in their relationships, be it platonic or romantic? Is it in their own personal growth? Where do you see these teachings and philosophies really help others feel that sense of alignment in their life? Wherever they apply it. So wherever they apply their design, wherever they live, with their design, wherever they follow their strategy and authority, they will improve that area of their life. The goal is to be a whole being. Although we are very good at decompartmentalising things and being the old story of like, "Wow, I'm really successful in business, but my relationships suck." What it really says is that in business you trust yourself and you're living more in alignment and flow state and in relationships you still have pain and trauma that needs healing. So really, anywhere that you apply your human design, like if you're trusting your design in relationships, you know, maybe you're going through, you don't know whether to break up with someone or to stay with someone and you just follow your strategy and authority and maybe you even have an emotional authority. I've got emotional authority for example, so I'm, you know, you'd be waiting for emotional clarity. So you don't make a decision until you have emotional clarity. Instead of feeling the pressure to make a decision because the mind tells you or society tells you or your partner tells you, it's like, "No, I'm going to follow my strategy and authority. I'm going to listen to this thing that guides me to my highest truth, to my highest potential, my greatest love, all of those things." And then when I have the clarity, I'll move when I know I'll do it. You know in your case you're going to have more of a situation where if this was you you're going through a relationship thing it's going to be very clear, aha I have I have energy for you so nah I don't have energy for this. So it's like when you follow it whatever part of your life you apply your design you're going to change and transform that part of your life. I think people also have a very difficult time pleasing trust and faith and things that they cannot see or things that they just don't fully understand myself included and it goes back to this point you were talking about earlier perhaps specific to the manifesting generator around really trusting that intuition but how do we actually practice this concept of having trust in the things that we can't explain or we don't see yet I like to think of that metaphor around what tree growing. It takes a tree a very long time to grow into what we see present day but beneath the soil the roots there's so much happening under the surface that if we just trusted that was happening that we would then see the tree right grow to its full potential so if we think about our lives and our choices and our decisions in that way how do we actually cultivate that sense of trust for our gut for our instinct for trusting that things happen naturally and in flow and in service to us rather than against us when there are difficult moments in life that feel like they're working actively against our best interests. Yeah I love that great question and ultimately we just need to break down trust really simply how do we trust something repetition. So at the end of the day we are conditioned to trust what we see and we are conditioned not to trust what we can't see and this goes back to a time where Isaac Newton made an agreement with the Catholic church that science would only research matter so the things that we can touch and feel that's in this 3D reality so science was always focused on what you can see but they wouldn't touch the things that you can't see because that was the realm of the church because otherwise the church would never let them study the things and research the things that they were researching the things that they were coming to understand that would ultimately become things like quantum physics. So then the church took care of all the things that we don't see. Now it built up a dogma around the things that we don't see that we now see through that people are moving away from the church and you know it doesn't really matter whether you you know I'm not forward or against it I don't really believe in right wrong good or bad I really believe in resourceful or unresourcedful so the reason why we don't trust what we can't see is because we've been conditioned to do that we've been conditioned to be that way and that was me you know like before human design I was like I'm research driven I'm results driven and when I finally started you know I picked up human design or I was introduced to human design a number of times before I actually picked it up and once I picked it up and I did the experiment the thing for me it was very black and white for me is if I get results then I will continue to run with this experiment and this modality and if I don't then I won't I'll just get rid of it because at the end of the day it doesn't matter what anyone tells you to do knowledge is just knowledge it's not powerful like you know there's this whole knowledge is power well it's not really power until you actually do it until you actually integrate it until it gets you the results otherwise it's just sitting up here in this you know this knowledge mind blah so how do you trust it you experiment with it you experiment and you find out if you get results so for me very early on in the beginning I was living by strategy and authority I got an insight a download that they told me I had to change the name of my podcast to the human design podcast my ego went mental it's like you can't do that who are you you don't know enough blah blah blah you know all of that that voice that we all have and I was like I don't care I'm running my human design experiment and I'm a manifesting generator so I can't act on a download I wrote it down in my journal next day I'm on the phone to a mentor and he says you need to start a podcast on human design because there's no good ones out there and I was like boom there's my strategy and authority right there I've got clarity I'm a go so I got results straight away so if you want to learn to trust yourself then you want to pay attention to the results that you're getting the challenge is and this was me because for so long I wanted to align to my intuition I wanted to know my intuition I wanted to have all these experiences that all these other people had and at the end of the day once all that studying and learning and training was done I was like oh wow this has been operating since I could ever remember like I've been able to connect with energy and you know people have crossed over and angels and all of these things my entire life I just almost categorized it differently and I wasn't even disregarding it I just assumed everyone else felt that way so at the end of the day we have to build evidence for the brain because if the brain has evidence then you're going to trust it more okay so the two things that you want to do when it comes to building trust in your human design or your intuition or the things that you can't see is you want to pay attention to the results and then you want to record those results so you know I've just told you the story about the podcast once I changed the name of my podcast to the human design podcast I don't know what happened like I didn't market it I didn't do anything it just took off so that was enough evidence for me and then I just continued to put that evidence down in my journal made sure that my brain didn't delete it because that's what our brain will do it'll delete the story in general I was like if you have a belief that I don't really believe or I'm not really sure about the things that I can't see then every time something miraculous happens or something you know energetic happens your brain's going to delete evidence of it it's just going to get rid of it because it doesn't support your belief system it doesn't fall into your belief system so that's why we have to build evidence so through the frame of human design is I always tell all my clients like you want to journal every day if you're picking up human design to help you in the business and you're actively practicing your strategy and authority then you're writing down at the end of the day I'm grateful for blah blah blah happening because I follow my strategy because I follow my authority you're giving the brain the evidence and building the trust because trust only comes from consistency it doesn't matter what you're talking about trust is about knowing that whatever it is or whoever it is or however it works it's there when you need it that's what trust is that was such a beautiful response genuinely and I think it also challenged me to think about trust in a different way and it makes sense when you break it down in a neuroscience level because our brains will make these logical conclusions based off of evidence that we can see but oftentimes like you mentioned if a piece of evidence or something that happens in your life doesn't fit with your pre-existing belief structure you're not going to actively attend to that so you'll forget about it which is also why I love the practice of gratitude journaling writing down things and it does take that extra effort to constantly remind yourself that certain things have happened in your life that will help you build that trust but I think it's a great practice to do and I've even noticed for myself and I don't know if this has been your own personal experience but the less I actually trust myself the more I then worry as a byproduct and the worrying is hypothesizing about future events that haven't even happened and that have the potential to not even happen and so I then create this negative energy within myself and then I act weirdly like there's just something off and so if we can learn to shorten that time in which you linger in that space of the rumination and whatnot like if you can react to that faster and of course correct quicker I think it actually strengthens that mental muscle of building trust in your life. Yeah well trust is like if you want to trust something you have to start with trusting yourself like as we did so without we cannot create anything in our external reality that we don't have in our internal world so we have to trust if you want trust then you have to trust yourself and that starts with keeping the promises that you make you know like if you say you're going to the gym you go to the gym if you say you're going to journal then you're journal you make sure that you keep the promises that you make to yourself and trust is fundamental the other thing I want to respond to on that as well is like we need to understand that we are not our thoughts we are not our thoughts we are the witness of our thoughts we are the one watching we are the one seeing these things move through our head now the thoughts themselves they're just patents they're just patents they're just things that are decisions that we've made in the past that have turned into these patents and wasting our time trying to solve these patents they're never going to be solved because the ego the fear in you that there's actually it's there to keep you safe is just going to find another way around it's never going to be solved it's it's not something to be solved so when we start to understand that there are other ways that we need to be guided that we can be guided that it can be simple and easy and that we like a negative banter in your head is just a defense mechanism for your ego your ego is trying to keep you safe it's trying to prevent you from changing so it's going to tell you all of these stories now remember the ego also has access to all your deepest darkest fears so it's just going to keep bringing out you know whatever you need to hear from the bag of goodies that's going to keep you staying the same. So, ultimately, whenever we want to change our behaviour in any way, we have to understand that that's going to come up, the thoughts are going to come up, the beliefs are going to come up. You know, it's so many people that I work with. They come to me and they're like, "Oh my God, I'm doing my shadow work, I'm doing this." And I'm like, "It's powerful stuff, but you're putting all your attention on presupposition that in some way you're broken, that in some way there's something wrong with you and you cannot move forward without fixing it." And it's not true. It's just not true. At all. Like, the most imperfect people can have great. I mean, look at Steve Jobs for goodness sake. He built this amazing brand, this incredible product, you know, Apples, fundamentally changed planet Earth and then look at his relationships. He's not perfect, but he's still had the ability to override that voice in his head when it came to business. So, this is the thing we have to understand. It's like, our thoughts are not who we are. We are not our thoughts. We are the witness of our thoughts. And when we can sit in this place where, "Well, I'm going to listen to my heart." And again, heart math have done so much research on this. It's really easy to bring yourself into heart, brain cohesion. Again, you know, Dr. Joe Dispenser talks about this a lot and get answers from the heart. Like, this is much more powerful than the mind. So, human design is all about that, like getting out of the head. And don't get me wrong. The head also has like the think our potential for thinking and we have so much wisdom up there, but when it comes to the mind, as soon as we're applying thinking to ourselves, we've lost the power. We're giving the power away. When we start to listen to the body, when we listen to our internal guide and system, when we know how to pay attention to what I call the external clues, then all of a sudden it doesn't matter what fear says to us. We're just like, "Oh, yeah, hey, old friend. I see that you have an opinion, but I'm going to keep moving towards my dreams." And once you can master the art of truly being a witness to your thoughts and not letting them overtake you and recognizing that you simply are not your thoughts, you are that third party observer. I think you're forced to reckon with because you then bring the power back to yourself. And of course, it's so much harder to practice than to talk about, but I do think it requires conscious effort every day to strengthen that ability to not fall victim to the thoughts that you cannot control because that's just how our minds are programmed. If we go back to evolution, probably for survival mechanisms. So, if we can learn to really de-identify from the thoughts that do arise and through practices, like mindfulness and whatnot, and recognize that sometimes there will be unpleasant thoughts that come about, but that doesn't mean that your mood or your state needs to change entirely. I think that's when there's so much power, when you're able to be unbothered by whatever thought crosses your mind or crosses your path. I think all of this really does tie back into a broader philosophy on happiness and leading a healthy life and living in alignment as you describe with your mind and your heart and your mind and your body. And as we wrap up this evening and your morning, Emma, the final question I would love to ask you on my podcast is a question that I ask every guest on the show. And it ties into the theme of endorphins and finding joy and the most mundane moments of life. So, that being said, what is something that brings you a bit of endorphins every day? Well, I'm a manifesting generator, so I'm going to have more than one answer to that. And look, so much of it for me has to do with sunshine, movement and family. So I'm a very active person. Every morning I'm up, I go and walk this hike that we've got literally just outside our door, which is stunning. See the whales at the moment, the dolphins, like it's so beautiful. Looking in the sun, I live by the beach, lying in the sand, swimming in the ocean. And then I suppose the other thing that is just so important to me is family. And that's my actual family, but that's also my business team, they're my family, my friends are my family. So really, I've created an entire life of endorphins being, you know, I can get up in the morning and I'm getting my dopamine hit in resourceful ways, you know, not via Instagram. So yeah, it's been via my human design, I've been able to create an entire life where I feel really supported with joy and happiness and fulfillment every day. I love that. And something I've been thinking a bit about and I know we're recording this in September, the episode won't go live likely for a few more months, but September is my birthday month. And I thought to myself, okay, my birthday is on the 20th, so that'll be the day that I celebrate. I thought to myself number one, that puts too much pressure on my birthday for it to be a perfect day. And number two, why can't literally every single day be some form of celebration? Why can't we live life every day and view it as a celebration, being grateful to be alive, being grateful for all the experiences that, you know, we can have. And so I love that you said that you've been able to create a life filled of endorphins because something I'm trying to do right now is the same as create an internal ecosystem of pure joy and love so that every day does feel like a celebration in a non-traditional sense. So your answer really resonated with me. I loved it. You had to share. And I feel like I learned so much about human design and I really do think my listeners and whoever's tuning in right now. There's a lot that you can take away from what Emma just had to share. So thank you again. It was such a pleasure having you on the podcast. Where can my listeners follow along with all of your content and also stream your podcast as well? Yeah, sure. So thank you so much for having me. It's just been an absolute blast. And I love what you said as well. You know, I think one of my highest values and it's something that I think, like if you want to pick something up to feel good on the inside all the time, it's just having one of your values be reverence. You know, like every day I wake up, I open my eyes and I revere life itself. You know, like I just freak them get to do this every day. This is brilliant, even on the hard days and trust me, I've had some really hard days. So where people can find me? My website is Emma Dunwoody.com. If you love the sound of human design, please go to the website, get your free chart. We'll send it over to you. And if you get your chart with us, we've actually set it up. So we have a bunch of resources that are drip fed to you so you don't get overwhelmed by human design. It's all specific to your design. So that we can really help you integrate, which is really our goal because what's the point in having this amazing knowledge of you can't actually live by it because you're overwhelmed by all the information. So you can do that. And then you can go up to the podcast, which is the human design podcast where I break down all the parts of the chart. I talk a lot to transformational human design, which is my model. We're of integrated transformational coaching, the Genkies, human design and intuition. Yeah, you can find me on Instagram as the human design coach. There's some underscores in there, but if you just look up Emma Dunwoody, you'll find me. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Emma. Thanks for having you on the podcast. Thanks for listening to this episode of Everyday Endorphins. If you liked what you heard, make sure to like, rate and review this podcast on whichever platform you prefer. You can also follow along the Everyday Endorphins Instagram account to stay up to date with episodes, future events and all things related to mental health, wellbeing and happiness. Don't forget to keep spreading Endorphins and find things in life that bring you joy every day. Until next time.