Episode 205: My Human Design Environment
Do your surroundings nourish you?
As introduced in Episodes 204, in Human Design, your Environment is about situating your body in the spaces and places that will support you to meet your highest potential.
In this episode, I share with you what my Environment is from my own Human Design, and share with you reflections on the physical locations I’ve lived in throughout my life and the influences it had on my ability and inability to grow and thrive.
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“For me, it’s practical to live in a place that brings me joy and excitement, and offers me what I need to feel fulfilled. This gives me life. That after 30 years since my first visit and 24 years of living here, I still feel butterflies in my belly taking it all in as if I was doing it for the very first time. That’s what feels practical to me, that’s what makes the most sense to me. ”
Read the Transcript:
Hello, my friends and welcome to The Live Fab Life Podcast. I'm your host, Naomi Nakamura, and we are back for another episode on Human Design Environments. Now just to recap, Human Design Environments are one of the Variables in Human Design and the Variables are the deeper, advanced parts of Human Design.
If you're curious about how you can find what your Variables are? Look at the arrows that surround the Head center on your chart. There are two arrows on the left and two arrows on the right. They tell you what your Variables are.
Now, in the last episode, Episode 204, I shared one of the Variables, what Human Design Environments are.
Just to recap, the whole context around the Variables and how they work together is the idea that “When you're in your correct Environment, it sets up your Perspective so that it's easier for you to be Motivated and Nourished (your Determination and Cognition Variables).
So, if you haven't yet listened to Episode 204, I highly recommend you do so to learn what Environment is. But as a quick recap, your Environment is about being in the correct energetic spaces and places where your body can be calibrated to reach its highest potential.
When you're in your correct Environment, you’ll have more awareness around yourself and your place in it. When you're not in your correct Environment, you can become vulnerable to conditioning because you aren’t where your body is ideally supported. I shared the six different kinds of Environments and the tone of each Environment.
Today I want to talk about my specific Environment, just like I did back in Episode 200, where I talked about my specific Determination and Cognition. It's one thing to share what these things are but then, what do we do about it once we learn about it?
So, my Environment is Markets. Markets are about selectivity, and well, it's about being picky. It's about knowing what you like and what you dislike and owning it.
People with a Markets Environment, know what we like and what we don’t. But we also need options because how can we know what we like or dislike if we don’t have options because you only know what you know.
So, Markets Environment is about being in spaces and places that offer access to options so that we can be as selective and picky as possible. Because when we’re able to identify our likes and dislikes it helps us find and identify with who we are as a person, who we are individually, and who we want to lean into that because that’s that is how we embrace who we energetically are, and how we can reach our highest potential.
Specifically, my Environment is External Markets, which is the passive tone of the Markets Environment that’s about being in the places and spaces where I can observe. When I'm in those places, that's where I feel the most at ease, most calm, the most relaxed.
So, let me share the spaces and places that I've spent time in during my lifetime how I felt being there.
I was born and raised on a small island in Hawaii called Molokai. Geographically, it’s very small, about I don't know, like 30 or 35 miles in length, with a population of about 7000 people.
The town is like two or three blocks, the buildings are all very, very old, probably built in the 1920-1950s. Hawai’i itself is isolated, being in the middle of the Pacific, and Molokai is about as rural as you can get in that isolated environment.
There are four elementary schools but only one intermediate and high school. Back when I was there, it was all one school but as I understand it now it's actually two separate schools but they're on the same campus. So, it was 7th to 12th grades and every class had about 100 students, so there were about 700 students on campus.
There isn’t any department store - no Target, Walmart, or Kmart. There aren’t any shopping malls, no fast-food joints - no McDonald's or Arby's or Burger King. There's no chain restaurants so no Olive Garden or Chili’s or Applebee's. What is there is all locally owned, small business and there's limited options.
Many people, like myself, after high school graduation, left for more opportunities that were offered elsewhere. Some left to go to Honolulu or Maui to go to university or to work and others, like me, left the state altogether for those same reasons.
While I loved and am so grateful that I grew up there, the values that were instilled in me, I could not have learned or been taught anywhere else, even at a very young age, I felt very limited. I felt like I was missing out on life, because, as a kid, I didn’t feel like I had a lot of options or things to do.
Once a year we’d travel to Honolulu to do school shopping. Every August, my family would travel to O’ahu specifically to do school shopping for new school clothes, and shoes, and school supplies. We would also spend visit my grandma who lived on O’ahu. I so looked forward to those trips. They made me feel so excited - I loved everything about visiting O’ahu - it always lit me up and made me so excited.
But being the country folks that my parents are, my mom was raised on Moloka’i, and my dad grew up in the North Shore of O’ahu, in a town called Kahuku which was a plantation town with a big sugar mill, when we visited O’ahu, instead of staying in Honolulu, we stayed in Kahuku with my grandma.
My parents didn't like going into town, they didn't like going into Honolulu they didn't even like going shopping there. If you're familiar with Hawai’i, Ala Moana is this huge shopping center in Honolulu. I love shopping there, but we didn’t do our school shopping there, we always stuck to the malls that were in the suburbs like Pearl Ridge or Windward Mall. It bummed me out because I was like, “I'm finally here and I'm so close, but still can't get to where I want to be.”
Fast forward a few years, I went to college in Utah, and on the way there my family and I spent a week in San Francisco because this is where my mom's brother lived and where he raised his family. This is where my cousins grew up.
It was my very first visit to the Bay Area and immediately, from just landing at the airport, I fell in love with this place. I loved it. I remember we landed at night and the air was so cool. If you know me in real life then you know that I don't like heat and humidity – odd right, being born and raised in Hawai’i. So even taking my first breath of Bay Area air felt like breathing new life into me.
I fell in love with San Francisco during that week that I spent here and since then I knew that this is where I would end up, this is where I was meant to be, and never once, till this day, have I ever questioned that.
But I did go to college in Utah, and because it was too expensive to fly back to Hawai’i all the time, I spent Thanksgiving, Spring Breaks, and long weekends in San Francisco. And I always felt so sad whenever my trips ended and time to go back to Utah. It just always felt right being in the San Francisco Bay Area. It lit me up. And just like how I felt when I lived in Hawai’i, whenever I left the Bay, left it felt like I was missing out on something.
After I graduated from college, I was offered a job in Utah that started one week after my college graduation. As a side note, I accepted but in hindsight, I wish I did it. I needed and should’ve taken some downtime between school ending and starting not just a new job, but a career. I really recommend anyone in that situation, even if you're just changing jobs to give yourself more than just a few days or a week to transition. Anyway, that’s just a little tangent.
So, I started my first job, in Utah, a week after my college graduation and it was a good job. I learned a lot, it was my first professional experience, and I worked with some great people and got a lot of great job experience. I stayed there, at this job in Utah, for two more years while still visiting San Francisco for Thanksgiving, long weekends, and basically any time I could get away. And I still felt sad every time I left. I still knew at some point I was going to end up in San Francisco, but I didn't know when, and I didn't know how.
Well, two years into my job, the small company that I was working at merged with six other small companies to form a bigger company. One of those companies that we emerged with was based in downtown San Francisco. I was able to get a job with them and I finally moved here to the Bay Area in 1998. and I have never, ever regretted it.
In fact, here I am all these years later, and every time I drive into San Francisco, as I'm driving on the freeway into the City and see the San Francisco skyline come into view, or every time I see the Golden Gate Bridge, it still feels like I'm seeing these things for the first time and it still takes my breath away. After all these years, it still makes my heart and my belly flutter with excitement. I say this a lot, but I mean it when I say that it truly has never gotten old for me.
I'm asked often, “What is it that you like so much about living in San Francisco?” Now that I know that a Markets Environment is part of my Human Design, well, it puts everything into perspective for me.
What do I like about San Francisco? There's so many options and opportunities here for everything.
There's so many different kinds of foods - cuisine from every culture. There's so many opportunities for work - in biotech, tech, hospitality, in whatever field you want to work in. There's so many locations you can work in - downtown San Francisco, the East Bay, Silicon Valley. It's all very accessible.
There's so many different recreational opportunities. Do you want to go on a hike? Do you want to go for a run? Do you want to go to the beach? Do you want to go to the mountains?
There are so many types of shopping to do. Do you want to shop at a mall? Do you want to go to small boutiques?
I'm a sports fan and there’s opportunities and options for what sports teams you want to root for.
There's even options for what climate you want to be in because San Francisco is known for its microclimates. You want cool weather, head to the coast. You want hot weather, head to the East Bay.
Everything is here, and I truly believe that the Bay has it all - so much access and selections that have given me the chance to experience so many different things, that I never would have where I grew up. It’s helped me come to know what I like and what I dislike – these are things that I'm very clear on.
Being clear on those things has helped me to form my identity, appreciate what makes me unique, embrace who I am, and understand what my individual needs are.
Because if we don't experience many different things, how will we know what we like and what we don't?
I’ve had people tell me that they don’t like something, yet when I asked if they’ve ever tried it before, they say, “Well, no…” Then how do you know you don't like it? Having options lends to selectivity, and to a degree pickiness, and that's what having a Markets Environment is all about.
But here's what's interesting about my Environment because yes, I have a Markets Environment, but I have an External Markets Environment, Externals being the tone of the Environment that's that I have.
It's the passive tone of the Environment Variable, and passive tones are about, well it's kinda like being on the outside looking in, meaning that you observe rather than being observed.
So, the opposite of External Markets, the Active tone of it is Internal Markets. Internal Markets is where you're the one being observed.
So External Markets is interesting for me because I don't live within the San Francisco city limits. I live just outside the City. As much as I love the City, I’ve never had a desire to live right in it.
I mean, does that not align to my External Markets Environment, or what? Observing versus being observed?
I love, love, love being close to the City. I love being close enough where I can be in the city within 20 minutes or less, but I equally love not living within the city limits.
Why? Well, I like the fewer headaches that living outside of the city offers - more space, more amenities - like parking. Having never lived in an urban area like San Francisco, one of the things that I didn't know was that a lot of people who live in the city either don't have cars or have to pay for parking.
That just blew my mind because where I grew up, we parked in our driveways and garages. And I like that – I need that, it’s odd like I’m very specific about.
While for some people being in the City can make them feel tense or they can be on edge, being in the city makes me feel comfortable. I feel calm and relaxed. But I feel even calmer relaxed when I'm close to the City but not living in it.
Truthfully, it’s an observation I hadn’t made until I started thinking about my External Markets environment.
Another thing I’ve thought about is how there have been so many times over the years that I considered leaving San Francisco because of the cost of living. It’s one of, if not the most, expensive places to live in the United States.
And I'm a remote worker at my full-time tech job and have been for over a decade meaning that I can live anywhere that I want to. I could easily move out of the Bay Area and live somewhere that's considerably more affordable. I could probably have a home that’s much larger than my just over 600 square foot apartment that I live in right now. But here's the thing - for all the times that I seriously considered leaving - and I have a couple of times over the years - I could never imagine doing so. Because when I think about leaving the San Francisco Bay Area, it feels like giving up on life. It feels like the energy would be sucked right out of me.
I remember what not living in San Francisco felt like - feeling sad every time I left to go back to where I was living. I remember what it felt like to feel not excited about where I was living, to not like where I was living, and to always feel like I wanted to be somewhere else. It was depressing. It felt like there was a void in my life - a lack of purpose, like, “What's even the point?!”,
I never want to feel like that again.
Other people would tell me that living in the Bay Area is not practical. “Why are you still living there?” they’d asked.
Well, what is practical? And who determines what practical is for me? Who determines what practical is for you?
To me, it's practical to live in a place that brings me joy and excitement and offers me what I need to feel fulfilled. That gives me life. That after 30 years since my first visit and 24 years of living here, I still feel butterflies in my belly taking it all in as if I was doing it for the very first time. That’s what feels practical to me, that’s what makes the most sense to me.
And so, this is how I have come to observe my Human Design Environment. While I shared about my experience from a very specific place, a very specific location, Environment is also about the spaces that we're in - not necessarily precise locations.
This is just my perspective, my experience, but I invite you to find out what your Human Design Environment Variable is and see what that feels like for you, and process it.
And I’d love to hear about it. I'm always so curious to learn other people's designs, hear how it aligns or doesn’t align them.
But as you do that, remember that the Variables are advanced topics in Human Design, and your Type, Strategy, and Authority are still the foundations, and until you have a solid understanding of those things, explore your Variables are but don't go down the rabbit hole of getting too caught up in them. But I think it’s fun to have an awareness of them it offers a deeper level of insight into yourself.
Now if you’re still new and getting to know your Human Design, I do have a free PDF workbook on my website for you to download. It walks you through first, how to find your Human Design chart if you don't yet already have it, then once you have your chart, how do you understand it. This workbook walks you through step-by-step and tells you this is how you find your Type, Strategy, and Authority, what your nine energy centers mean and how you can interpret it.
Go to my website at www.livefablife.com and when you download it, you’ll join my email community, and you’ll also get a discount code for a 15% off for reading with me.
If you have any questions or if you would like to reference anything that I mentioned in this episode, come on over to the show notes at livefab.com/205 for Episode 205.
That's all I have for you this week. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you right back here again next time.
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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