Episode 187: Exploring Human Design Awareness Centers: Ajna, Spleen, Solar Plexus
Awareness is essential to conscious living and self-development. So, how aware are you?
Continuing with the 4-part mini-series on exploring the nine energy centers in the Human Design chart, in this episode, we explore the three awareness centers: the Ajna, Spleen, and Solar Plexus centers.
You’ll hear me share:
What the Ajna, Spleen, and Solar Plexus centers represents and governs
What it means for each center to be defined or undefined
How each awareness center brings mind-intelligence, body-intelligence, and emotional intelligence
Listen to the Episode:
Mentioned in the Episode:
Episode 182: Human Design Non-Sacral Types and Their Strategies
Episode 184: Your Human Design Authority - How Do You Best Make Decisions?
Episode 185: Exploring Human Design Motor Centers: Root, Solar Plexus, Sacral, Heart
Episode 186: Exploring Human Design Pressure Centers: Head and Root
Episode 166: A Foundational Breakdown of Your Human Design Chart
Connect with Naomi:
Share the Episode:
“In observing my own awareness, as well as working as a health coach for the past several years, I can tell you that, no one knows our own bodies as well as we do. We live in our bodies. It’s who we are, but in so many ways we’re unaware of so many things about it. We lack awareness of our own bodies. ”
Read the Transcript:
Hello there, my friend and welcome back to The Live Lab Life Podcast. I’m your host Naomi Nakamura and we’re continuing on with our exploration of the Human Design energy centers, and this is Part 3 of our 4-part mini-series.
In Episode 185, Part 1 of this series, we explored the 4 Motor centers -- the Root, Solar Plexus, Sacral, and Ego centers.
In the last episode, Episode 186, Part 2 of this mini-series, we explored the Pressure centers -- the Root center, again, and the Head Center.
Today we're focusing on the Awareness centers -- the Spleen, Ajna, and Solar Plexus centers, and yes, like the Root center, the Solar Plexus is a Motor center but it’s also an Awareness center.
I'm going to be honest with you, the Awareness centers have been the most challenging for me to understand when I started studying Human Design. I think it’s because awareness happens in different stages and it took me a while to grasp it, then to understand where I was with it - how aware I was. And it’s still an ongoing process for me, as I'm sure it is for many of you as well.
So why don't we just jump right in.
We talked about the Spleen in Episode 184 when we talked about Human Design. If you listened to that episode then you know that the Spleen is my authority, I have a Splenic Authority, so I’ve spent a lot of time learning and observing the Spleen center.
As every Human Design energy center is embodied by an organ in the body, the Spleen is embodied by the Immune system and Lymphatic systems.
Figuratively, it's all about our fears and primal instincts.
The Spleen is all about survival. What do we need to survive? What do we need to do to keep ourselves safe and healthy?
It's no wonder that as I started to learn about my Splenic Authority, all of these things really started to resonate. As you know I’m so passionate about health and wellness, and have been for, gosh, almost the past 20 years. And I've spent the past six years as a Health Coach, so it really brought a lot of things into perspective. Isn’t that what Awareness is about? Gaining perspective?
So, in terms of awareness, the Spleen center is about body awareness. How aware are we of our bodies?
In observing my own personal awareness, and working as a health coach, I can tell you that, no one knows our own bodies as well as we do, right? We live in our bodies. It’s who we are, but in so many ways we’re unaware of so many things about it. We lack awareness of our own bodies.
If you’ve listened to the past few episodes, then you’ll recall that having a defined center means that the energy of its center is consistent. We emanate and give off the energies of defined centers.
If you have a defined Spleen, as I do, you have reliable instincts. You can trust your instincts. You have the gift of intuition; the gift of discernment is strong in you. Follow your hunches.
In Episode 184 on Authorities, I talked about the difference between the vibration gut feelings of the Sacral center versus the “can’t always be explained” knowing of the Spleen.
The Spleen is all about trusting your instincts. Splenic energy is intuitive, instinctual; that knowing? It’s spontaneous. As quickly as it comes, it goes.
So, when you hit with a moment of inspiration, a flash discernment, write it down!
These moments often come to me when I'm in the shower, or when I’m out walking my dog, Coco Pop, or when I’m driving, or even sometimes when I’m sleeping. I used to always keep a notebook with me to capture these flashes of inspiration that come, but of course, now with technology, I use a voice memo app or the Apple Notes app on my iPhone to capture these thoughts and ideas.
The Spleen is also about fear, survival, safety, and health.
If you’re struggling with immune or lymphatic system challenges, feeling fearful, and doubtful of yourself, perhaps you’re still learning how to trust your instincts; you’re still developing your intuition.
I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence during my childhood and young adult years. I didn't trust my instincts; I didn’t trust my decisions.
When I got to my 30’s, my doctors, and other practitioners that I worked with, both from conventional and functional medicine, all noted how my body doesn’t detox easily, that my lymphatic system seemed sluggish, and always recommended some sort of detox support whether through supplementation, doing seasonal detoxes, and any number of body support things that helps the body detox like dry skin brushing, contrast showering, castor oil packs, rebounding, etc.
When I learned about Human Design, the Spleen center, that I’m a Splenic Authority, and that it’s embodied by the immune and lymphatic systems, gosh, it all clicked.
In hindsight, recalling that time of my life where I lacked self-confidence and self-trust, and not yet tapping into my intuition and gift of discernment, well like I said, things started to come together for me.
I could see how clearing out and supporting my lymphatic system also cleared blockages that may have been blocking my intuition, my instincts.
I know that just hearing the word “detoxes” or “cleanses” has a negative connotation to it, that it’s diet culture. I think it depends on the intention behind them. In its simplest function, it removes things that aren’t meant to be in your system. And going through the process, the experience, helps you build and recognize an awareness in your body that was somehow blocked.
The Spleen is a center of body awareness.
Now if your Splenic center is undefined, you might pick up and take on the fears of others.
You could also have a heightened sense of danger, remember the spleen is about survival.
If you’re not in alignment, you might be someone who struggles with hypochondria – fears about health, safety, and survival.
So, when it comes to the Spleen center, think about how you view fear. How do you view discomfort?
Remember, on the other side of fear is freedom. On the other side of fear is courage. Primal instincts. Survival.
The second Awareness center is the Ajna. Ironically, it took me a bit to wrap my head around the Ajna center. Ironic because the Ajna is the center just under the Head center – it’s the second one from the very top of the Human Design chart.
The Ajna center is all about your mind. Literally, it’s embodied by the pituitary gland. Figuratively, it’s all about viewpoints and opinions. It governs analytical thinking. It governs your belief system.
It's all about mind awareness.
The Splenic center is about body awareness, and the Ajna is about mind awareness.
If you have a defined Ajna center you’re meant to have a point of view, to take a stance, to share your opinions. It’s a fixed way of thinking. Your mind is always thinking, always processing things.
If your Ajna center is undefined, as mine is, we're open minded, we don’t have a fixed way of thinking about things. Our gift is flexible thinking - we can see different viewpoints, we can see the possibilities of situations. When I learned what having an undefined Ajna meant, and that I had one, I really gained perspective and helped me understand myself a little more.
I don’t want to say that people with an undefined Ajna are more empathetic than those with defined Ajna’s, but in a way, I feel that we kind of are.
I can see varying viewpoints in different situations. I may not agree, but I can follow other people’s trains of thought of how they came to form the opinions they have – most of the time.
I can see different possibilities, outcomes and to be honest, it can sometimes feel overwhelming. But if there’s a decision to be made, that’s where we lean into our Authorities.
Now, the third center of awareness is the Solar Plexus center.
We talked about the Solar Plexus in Episodes 184 when talking about Emotional Authorities, and in Episode 185 when we talked about the Motor centers.
The Solar Plexus center is literally embodied by the kidneys. Figuratively, it's all about our emotions.
If you recall, if your Solar Plexus center is defined, it automatically makes you have an Emotional authority. So, the Solar Plexus governs our emotions and feelings.
So, it's about emotional awareness.
The Spleen is about body awareness, the Ajna is about mind awareness, and the Solar Plexus is about emotional awareness.
Over the past couple of years, more so than ever, I've come to understand how critical emotional awareness is, especially when it comes to personal growth and self-development, building self-confidence, how we relate to and how we interact with others.
If your Solar Plexus center is defined, you feel all the feelings and that's not a bad thing. The danger comes in having judgement on feelings; believing that negative feelings are bad.
Feelings are just feelings, they’re energy in motion.
People with defined Solar Plexus centers experience emotional waves – they feel the emotional highs and lows. It’s just how they are.
So, they need to wait for the in between moments of the emotional highs and emotional lows – that’s when they’ll have clarity to make decisions. Spontaneity is not those with defined Solar Plexus centers.
Emotional awareness also comes by not avoiding, discounting or bypassing feelings. You’re going to feel them all – just ride your waves.
For those of us who have undefined Solar Plexus centers, we pick up the feelings of others. We absorb and amplify those emotions.
So, we need to be aware of when this is happening. When are we influenced by someone else's emotions?
When we’re alone, feeling calm and collected, we want to observe that so we can recognize when we’re riding someone else’s emotional wave.
Whenever I’m feeling hot or ambivalent about something, I ask myself, “Is this how I feel, or am I picking up someone else’s emotions and amplifying it?
This is what emotional awareness is all about - not just reacting, but thinking about, deciding, and determining if something is valid for us. Is it our truth?
So, there you have it - three energy centers of awareness.
We have one more episode left on energy centers. Next week we’ll round out this 4- part series with the final episode on the manifestation centers.
There are nine centers in the Human Design chart, and we've talked about the seven of them – the Root center twice, the Solar Plexus center twice, the Sacral center, Heart center, Head center, Spleen, and Ajna.
So next week we're going to talk about the remaining two - the Throat center and the G-Center, which are the centers of manifestation.
If you have any questions, you can come over and leave them on the show notes for this episode at www.livefablife.com/187 for Episode 187, or you can come over and find me on Instagram at @livefablifewithnaomi. Drop me a message there I'd love to hear from you.
As always thank you so much for your time and attention. I still appreciate it and I'll see you right back here 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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