Episode 186: Exploring Human Design Pressure Centers: Head and Root
Are you calm under pressure? Or are you one who wants to do anything you can to relieve pressure as quickly as possible?
Continuing with the 4-part mini-series on exploring the nine energy centers in the Human Design chart, in this episode, we explore the two pressure centers: the Head and Root centers. You’ll hear me share:
What the Head and Root centers represents and governs
What it means for each center to be defined or undefined
How it can impacts our resilience and ability to respond to stressful situations
Listen to the Episode:
Mentioned in the Episode:
Episode 182: Human Design Non-Sacral Types and Their Strategies
Episode 185: Exploring Human Design Motor Centers: Root, Solar Plexus, Sacral, Heart
FREE GUIDE: Get to Know Your Human Design + 15% off a Human Design Reading
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Share the Episode:
“I find myself putting pressure upon myself all the time - to get things done by some arbitrary date that I randomly picked, or to get things done by a certain standard that no one else expects of me but me. It’s important to understand where the sources of pressure are coming from. What kind of impact does pressure have on you physically? Is it driving you to have anxiety? To avoid facing things? What kind of impact is pressure having on you mentally? Emotionally? Do you become resentful and angry? Do you crumble under pressure? What tools do you have to help you deal with it? This is where knowing your Human Design can truly have an impact on your health. This is why I’m such an advocate, such a believer in it. ”
Read the Transcript:
Hello there and welcome back to The Live Fab Life Podcast. I'm your host Naomi Nakamura, and today we’re continuing our mini-series on the Human Design energy centers.
If you recall in the last episode, Episode 185, we talked about the four motor centers: the Root center, the Solar Plexus center, the Sacral center, and the Ego center.
Today we're continuing on and talking about the Pressure centers.
When it comes to pressure, there are two energy centers for it - the Root center, yes, the Root center is a motor center and a pressure center, and the Head center.
As you know every energy center of the nine Human Design energy centers is embodied by an organ in the human body.
The Root Center is literally embodied by the adrenal glands. Figuratively, it's embodied by our relationship with putting things into motion, taking action, getting things done.
The Root center not only governs our drive, momentum, our forward progress, what we talked about In Episode 185 as a motor center, but the Root center is also all about our ability to take initiative, our adaptability, to innovate.
And when it comes to pressure, if your Root center is defined, meaning that it’s shaded, this means that you're someone who does well under pressure; you function well under pressure.
You might even say that you thrive under pressure; you're calm under pressure. You handle it well.
However, if your Root center is undefined, meaning that it's white and not shaded in, as mine is, I’m also an undefined Root center, we are people who aren’t equipped to deal with pressure well.
We are easily overwhelmed under pressure. When pressure is put upon us, we might just crumble.
We don’t do well with things like deadlines or other people’s expectations. I certainly don't.
There was a time when I thought I did well working under the crunch of a deadline. But the reality is, that’s not how my best work comes out.
So, for those of us with undefined Root centers, when we feel pressure, our instinct is to rush through whatever it is we're doing - anything that will make the pressure go away, as soon as possible.
When I first learned about the Root center and connected that it’s undefined in my Human Design chart, the first thing that came to mind is a random story that I have to share again (even though I did so in the last episode).
When I was in elementary school, I can't remember what grade I was in - it might have been the 2nd or 3rd grade, I had a math assignment to do.
To this day, I’ve never been great at math; numbers just aren’t my thing. English and History? Yes, math and science? No.
So here I was, in the 2nd or 3rd grade, and I had this math assignment to do.
I remember getting it back, and the entire assignment was marked up with red ink and we all know what red ink means, right?
At the very top of the page, my teacher wrote, “Haste makes waste!” I’ve never forgotten this and it’s the first thing that came to mind when I learned how undefined Root centers will do anything to make the pressure go away as quickly as possible.
That's what I did! I rushed through my homework because even back then, as young as I was, math was not my strong point and I wanted to get it over and done with, as quickly as possible so that I don't have to think about it or deal with it anymore.
That's what an undefined Root center can feel like when under pressure which is why I think it's important to realize when we’re putting unnecessary pressure on ourselves.
For those of us with an undefined Root center, it’s not a badge of honor. Not everything is worth hurrying for.
In this world that we're in, where we glorify busyness, adopting the belief that procrastinating until the last minute produces better results – well, it’s not true for everyone. It’s not always the best thing for everybody and it won't always lead to better results.
So, my fellow undefined Root center friends, can we stop putting so much pressure on ourselves?
And if you have a defined Root center, it's important that you understand that not everyone is like you. Can you have grace for those who are around you who have undefined Root centers? Particularly if you’re a people manager or a parent, or in any type of authoritative role?
This is where Human Design can really, really be helpful when it comes to relationships, and how to communicate and collaborate with one another. When we understand what another person’s Human Design is and what makes them, well, then we can understand how we can best work with each other and hopefully have more compassion, empathy, tolerance, and grace.
Now, if you’re an undefined Root center, and you find yourself rushing, or feeling like you can't afford to slow down, that you can't take your time, well I think this is when it’s helpful to pause and ask yourself, “Why am I feeling this way? Where is this pressure that I’m feeling coming from? Is pressure that someone is putting on me, whether it be a friend, a family member, a colleague, a boss, anyone - is it an external source of pressure?
Or is it pressure that I’m putting upon myself?
I find myself putting pressure upon myself all the time - to get things done by some arbitrary date that I randomly picked, or to get things done by a certain standard that no one else expects of me but me.
It's important to understand where the sources of pressure are coming from.
And then, what kind of impact is that pressure having? What kind of impact does that pressure have on you physically?
Is it driving you to have anxiety? Maybe depression? To avoid facing things? What kind of impact is pressure having on you mentally? Emotionally? Do you become resentful and angry? Do you crumble under pressure because you just don't understand where it's coming from? What tools do you have to help you deal with it?
This is where knowing your Human Design can truly have an impact on your health. This is why I'm such an advocate, such a believer in it.
The other pressure center in Human Design is the Head center, which we haven't talked about yet.
The Head center, as you can guess, is at the very top of the Human Design chart. It’s the direct opposite of the Root center, which is at the very bottom of the Human Design chart.
As every center is embodied by an organ in the body, the Head center literally embodied by the Pineal gland. Figuratively, it’s our inspiration, it's our imagination.
The Head center fuels the analytical thinking and mind consciousness that happens in the Ajna center, which is right under the Head center.
The Head center, because it's all about our creativity and imagination, can also be our source of inspiration. It can equally be our source of anxiety.
So, if you have a defined Head center, meaning that it’s shaded in on your chart, then you’re someone who finds inspiration from within. You can be self-inspired. You inspire yourself.
In terms of pressure, you're able to withstand mental pressure. Just like with the defined Root center, you're calm under pressure. When you withstand mental pressure, you don't feel the need to release it or escape it or do anything to make it go away. You're okay with just being in it; you don't feel the need to do anything about it.
Whereas for those of us, myself included because I also have an undefined Head center, for those of us who have an undefined Head center, we find inspiration from external sources.
We look towards other people and other things outside of ourselves for inspiration. We're not self-inspired people.
I cannot tell you how much this resonated with me because I’m very visually inspired. I'm also very inspired audibly by other people, so, with that, we’re a never-ending source for ideas because we were stimulated through so many things external to us that our ideas are always flowing.
As cool as that is, I believe it's important for us undefined Head centers to understand that we don't have to act upon every idea that comes to us. We don't need to pursue every single one of them.
In my own personal experiences, I feel like I'm always coming up with ideas, not just for myself but for other people as well.
When I see someone starting a business, or having a unique talent, my mind is already working, thinking about how they can grow their business or expand on their talents, or monetize whatever the thing is that they’re good at.
The ideas come so clearly and easily to me, for other people, as well as for myself. This really speaks to my 3rd profile line in my Human Design chart. We haven't talked about profile lines yet, but I've mentioned it here and there, and the 3rd line is all about learning through personal experiences.
So, with all the ideas that come to me, I always want to try new things. But I have to temper that inclination and not pursue every idea or everything because that's how I get distracted and end up not getting anything done at all.
I have so many projects that I've started but have never actually seen through to completion because I get distracted by something else.
So, if you have an undefined Head center, this is something to be aware of.
We’re also susceptible to mental pressure. This makes sense, right, since those who have a defined Head center do well with mental pressure.
Think about what it can feel like to have all this mental pressure in your head, not just in your body, but in your head too. Imagine what it feels like and if you don't understand why you're this way? On top of that, layer on feeling the mental pressure but not being equipped with tools to manage it.
What that looks like for me was chronic stress, anxiety, constantly doubting myself, which translated to not having very high self-esteem, not feeling confident in myself.
It directly correlated to how well I took care of myself, and how much I loved myself.
So, here are some coaching tips around the Head center:
If you have a defined Head center, you may do well under pressure, but you don’t need to have everything figured out. Don't put yourself into that trap of thinking that everything needs to be figured out; you don't control the thought process. Have grace with yourself.
If you have an undefined Head center, you can be easily distracted and overwhelmed. Because you can lose focus, you want to narrow what you’re focused on and be very clear on what it is that you’re trying to accomplish.
I can easily have a to-do list that’s a mile long. When I look at it, I get easily flustered and overwhelmed, and then nothing gets done.
What I found to help me is to narrow my to-do list and be very realistic about it, to the point where there are only 1-3 things on it.
Some days, it’s literally only one thing especially if it's something that’s going to take a lot of mental energy because nothing exhausts me more than having to expend mental energy. It exhausts me more than expending physical energy. So, I try to keep my to-do list very narrowed and focused.
Another thing I do that helps me, as an undefined Head center, to stay focused is to write things down. We have so many ideas floating around from so many sources of inspiration.
It's very easy to feel the pressure of having to remember so many things at once or being afraid that I’m going to forget something important.
So, I use the Apple Notes app on my iPhone. I think I have close to 600 notes in it of stuff that I need to remember - personal information, ideas that come to me, things I want to try. It's never-ending but jotting it down is truly a helpful way to relieve some of the mental pressure I feel so deeply.
It’s one of the biggest things that helps with my productivity. When it comes to productivity, there's so much advice on how to do things but once I understood my Human Design, I began to understand what type of productivity advice is going to be helpful for me and what won’t.
Another thing that helps me relieve mental pressure is to minimize distractions. Nothing detracts us from being focused more than distractions.
I’ve turned off 99% of the notifications on my phone. I’ll also use a Pomodoro timer to stay focused for intermittent periods while allowing for breaks to welcome distractions. I’ve also limited who I interact within specific periods of time.
Whatever you need to do to minimize your distractions, so that you can manage your energy, productivity, and release mental pressure – do it!
But perhaps the most important tip I can share with you is to be a detached observer of yourself and others.
I've talked about this in past episodes when I’ve spoken about practicing observation with non-judgment. It’s one of the best tools that I use to help relieve mental pressure.
When I feel myself under pressure, especially in a situation that's out of my control, I can easily let myself spiral thoughts of all possibilities and outcomes of what can happen. But all that does is give me stress and anxiety.
So instead, I can work on focusing on the things that I can control, and I can observe the situation and myself in response to it non-judgment.
This is so critical because with judgment comes how we've been conditioned to think or what we've been conditioned to expect. If we’re able to make observations with nonjudgement, I think that's where clarity and grace can come in.
So that’s the two pressure centers in Human Design - the Head center and the Root center. These are such pivotal centers to understand, particularly when it comes to how it can impact our stress and anxiety, and how to manage and respond to it.
So that's it for this week. Next week, I'll be back with another episode, exploring three more Human Design centers, the centers of awareness.
As always, thank you so much for listening. If you have any questions, feel free to come over and drop a note to me over on the show notes for this episode at www.livefablife.com/186 for Episode 186, or come over and find me on Instagram at @livefablifewithNaomi. You can drop me a DM there or comment on a post.
And if you’re interested in booking a Human Design reading with me, I love helping people dive into their Human Design chart. You can find more info at www.livefablife.com/services and when you join my community you can get 15% off a foundational reading.
Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a fantastic week and I look forward to being back here with you again next time. Bye for now!
Naomi Nakamura is a Health x Human Design coach who’s creating a healthier society through aligned energy.
She blends a bespoke mix of Functional Nutrition and Human Design to help others shift into alignment to leverage and correctly manage their energy to support their body, mind, and spirit.
She believes that when we embrace our authenticity and lean into our bio-individuality, we naturally live a life of freedom, empowerment, and optimal health.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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