Written by Heather MacMillan. Certified Mind-Body Human Design Reader and Guide for our Human Design Circle Commuity Calls
Often when we first get a Human Design reading or look it up online, we’ll read endless blogs or ask AI to spit out some info for us. And maybe we’ll get a few aha moments but we don’t really understand how to use it in real life. Why doesn’t it stick?
Perhaps we do get a reading that feels good though and it rings true, and yet, we have a hard time “getting into our body” and listening to our inner guidance.
There’s something about our design that’s attracting us, yet even with some study and understanding this part feels hard. I’ve even led readings for others who are deep into their design or they’re bodyworkers and have a pretty decent relationship with their bodies, but they still say they don’t quite know what their authority feels like in their body.
This was partly my experience- I’m a 3/6 Emotional Projector and when I learned that I needed to wait for my emotional wave to go through its ups and downs — and to not make quick decisions in my emotionally high or charged state was a huge aha for me. But it was still so hard to find the grounded I clarity needed to get out of my head and unstuck from big decisions.
A few years after discovering Human Design, I started to learn self-bodywork in the vein of myofascial release. Not the intense, quick kind, but the slow, gentle, deep work that requires you to drop deep into your body and meet yourself at the edges of comfortable — and go into the uncomfortable stillness to really listen to what your body is communicating with you.
Alongside studying Human Design more deeply with the feminine, Mind-Body Human Design approach, it started to become clear to me just how much this type of self-bodywork can help someone connect in with their body, and therefore your Inner Authority and the rest of your design.
Our inner authorities — Sacral, Emotional, Splenic, Ego, Mental, Self-Projected & Lunar all live in the body.
Yes, even (and maybe even especially) the Lunar authority is body based.
If we’ve spent a lifetime disconnected from feeling into the physical because it hasn’t felt safe to do so, it can be very difficult to connect with these parts of ourselves.
Let’s try an easy myofascial hold to get a taste of what feeling into our bodies is like.
Place one hand on your sternum, directly on your skin — right under your collar bones and above your breasts, right in the center. Let your hand sink into your skin there and traction downwards. You can place your other hand on top of this hand
Don’t let your hands slide. You can feel a slight pull from this motion. It won’t be a huge movement and it may not feel like a huge stretch. This is gentle work.
Hold here for 3-5 minutes - put a timer on!
Breathe into your hands. You can put a song on if you wish.
After 1.5-2 minutes, notice what you feel. You might feel an opening, or a pull somewhere else in your body. You might not feel anything yet and that is ok.
Continue holding until 5 minutes or longer, if it feels right. Keep breathing through it and notice what is changing in your body.
This work created a link for me between my design and my actual body. Deepening into both things.
Human Design and self-myofascial release created a visual and physical sense of my Inner Authority, Human Design Centers, Gates and Channels — woven into the fascia in my body.
It’s supported me as I traveled into my 40s and navigated a full-on career change within a year — all while keeping things together on my farm and being in good relationship with my family.
Now I help other women use self-bodywork to embody their Human Design as they too go through life transitions or explore the elusive “What is next?” question.
Heather MacMillan works with women one-on-one, weaving Human Design readings with the body-based wisdom she's spent years learning and developing. If you're in a life transition, sitting with a big decision, or simply curious about what your Inner Authority actually feels like from the inside, she's someone worth spending an hour (or two) with.
Heather is a Certified Human Design Reader trained through the Mind-Body Human Design School with Korynn Elliott. She’s also been guiding the Human Design Circle community calls for the last two years in the HD school. You can explore her full profile and book a reading with her here.