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The modern workplace, where we spend eight hours a day, five days a week, at least - has become overwhelming. So today, let’s talk about work stress and how Human Design can help you find balance.

I know a little something about this topic – well actually I know a lot of something – about this.

This podcast and my coaching practice are my side hustles. I do this work, which by the way, is work that I love, in addition to my full-time job, which I also truly enjoy.

I’ve spent the past 24 years in the tech industry and 28 years overall in the workforce. I've worked for private firms, for startups, for midsize companies, and I’ve been with my current employer, a Fortune 100 company for almost 17 years.

So, I have first-hand experience with work stress, and I understand the overwhelm that that work can bring. And being that we spend so much time at work, there’s no doubt that what happens there trickles over in the rest of our lives.

I struggled with work stress for a long time. In fact, it was the catalyst that made me first seek out therapy many years ago.

Human Design has been hugely influential in how I manage work stress. Understanding the power that I possess and what’s possible when I’m in alignment with my energy has been transformative in how I approach my work. And as a result, the quality of my everyday life.

So, if you've ever felt drained by your job, then this episode will help you find ways to balance yourself and your work-related stress, through your Human Design.

Each Human Design Type experiences different stress patterns.

Generators and Manifesting Generators thrive when they enjoy what they do. They experience considerably less stress when they do what they love.

They experience overwhelm, frustration, and burnout when their work involves things that they’re simply not interested in. Their red flag is when they force themselves to do work that they find unsatisfying.

So, if you’re a Generator or Manifesting Generator and you find yourself chronically frustrated, ask yourself, “Do I enjoy the work that I do, day in and day out, or am I going through the motions?”

You may even find yourself asking, “Have I ever enjoyed my work?”

If your answers are ‘no,” can you prioritize your energy towards the things that interest you; the things you find exciting and that bring you satisfaction?”

Projectors tend to overwork themselves. When they don’t honor the rest cycles, as being Undefined Sacrals, they put themselves on the path to burnout without even realizing it until it’s too late.

As a Projector, I can’t tell you many times I’ve experienced this first-hand.

During the dot-come era, I worked at a startup and that job almost did me in. I’d arrive at the office around 7 am and stay there past 8 pm; and then I had a 30-min to an hour commute home. And then I’d get up the next day and do it all over again – for five, sometimes six and seven days a week.

You can imagine what my home life was like. There wasn't a lot of time for grocery shopping or cooking homemade meals. I lived on vending machines and takeout. Exercise and fitness weren’t even on my radar. Different sources of stress were coming at me from every angle, and I didn’t realize it because that was the culture of the industry, especially during that time. It was almost a badge of honor, which in hindsight, was such an unhealthy way of life.

So, Projectors to minimize stress and avoid burnout, find periods of rest. If that feels challenging or impossible, put your creative hat on and figure out how to use what incorporates it creatively you’re your day. It might look like taking 5-10 minutes every couple of hours to meditate or practice breathing exercises. It might look like setting boundaries - use your PTO or vacation time, don’t check your work email after hours. I know it’s super tempting to check and you may even have your work email on your smartphone so whenever you pick your phone, its there to be read. Don’t do it.

I have an app just for work emails that’s separate from the app that I use for personal emails. The two do not mix – at all.

And whatever boundaries you set, make sure others are aware of it – your colleagues, your leadership upline. Let them know that you have boundaries around your work time and personal time and who knows, it might open up a conversation creating a safe place where they feel empowered to do the same.

This alone has been hugely important to preserving my mental health and as a result has shifted my attitude and feelings about my full-time job and having a full-time job.

No one enjoys receiving messages from your manager late in the evening, just as you're going to bed or waking up and the first thing that you see are the messages that that your boss sent you at 3am or over the weekends. No one enjoys this and it’s a burden that you carry that can affect your sleep, your mood and how you spend your personal time with your loved ones.

If you work with people that do this, protect yourself from it!

The Manifestors’ Strategy is to initiate and when they’re not able to because they feel restricted or encounter resistance, it’s hugely overwhelming to them.

The Manifestors that I know in real life, many of them work for themselves, and the ones who have employers tend to manage up well; they tell their managers how it's going to be and it works because that’s what they’re meant to do! They bring their Manifestor energy into their workplace!

A great example of this is Episode 121. In that episode I interviewed a colleague who was also one of my former managers. At the time of that interview, Human Design wasn’t a part of my life and neither was it a part of hers. Yet as you listen to her, it is abundantly clear that she’s a Manifestor through and through.

I’ll link to that episode in the show notes along with a second episode she joined me for shortly after that one.

She talked about how she managed up and established boundaries with her leadership upline to support her family in how she needed to show up for them during that time in her life. It's a great episode, go listen to it.

Reflectors are sensitive souls. They’re sensitive to whatever environment they’re in, and it’s no different in the workplace.

The Strategy of Reflectors is to follow the lunar cycle, the moon cycle. So, it becomes problematic for them when they aren’t given time to process and reflect on important decisions.

So, Reflectors, strategize on how you can create space and afford yourself time to reflect on big decisions that you have to make. Doing so is how you can create a nurturing work environment and find balance in the workplace.

Now, when it comes to managing stress and finding balance, in addition to your Human Design Types, I always look at the nine energy centers.

In fact, that is what my program, “Energy Management and the Nine Centers” is on -- how to manage stress by working the energy of your nine energy centers.

We’re not going to go through all nine centers today, but let’s look at three of the nine energy centers – the three I think are hugely important to align with to find balance in the workplace.

First is the Root Center and the Root Center is important because it’s embodied by your adrenal glands, where stress hormones are produced. So, whenever I work with a client who’s trying to find balance, I’ll always look at the Root Center to see how it’s defined and what its active gates are.

If your Root Center is defined, you're steady under pressure - that doesn't mean that you're exempt from overwork or burnt out, but you’re better equipped to manage pressure than those with this center Undefined.

If you have an Undefined Root Center, you don't manage pressure well and if you work in a high-pressure environment, well this can be problematic.

So, understand the energy of your Root Center -- is it Defined or Undefined? What are the active gates in your Root Center? That will give you further insight into how the energy of your Root Center functions and how it’s meant to be expressed.

Then, think about how you can align your work life to your Root Center energy. What changes can you make to bring more balance into your work and your life?

Next, let’s look at the Solar Plexus, which is the center of emotions.

Whether you realize it or not, your emotions have a big impact on your work-life balance. How you react to things, how you process the highs and lows, etc. How you manage your emotions can impact your relationships with your bosses, colleagues, clients and customers – it can make or break, not just your everyday life, but also your career.

If you have a Defined Solar Plexus Center, you have influential Emotional energy. So, if you’re in a bad mood, others absorb it more than they may realize.

If you have an Undefined Solar Plexus Center, you’re one of those people who absorbs those emotions. So, when you’re working and you find yourself having strong reactions or being wholly absorbed in your emotions, ask yourself if what you’re feeling are really yours or are you being influenced by another person’s emotions.

So, look at your Human Design chart – is your Solar Plexus Center defined or undefined? If you want to go a step further, what are the active gates in your Solar Plexus Center? That will give you further insight into how your emotional energy is expressed.

The third center we’ll talk about today is the Throat Center, which is the center of communications, and in the workplace, how you communicate can make or break your success, the success of your team, and ultimately, the quality of your daily life.

With the amount of time you spend at work, your coworkers can know more about what's going on in your life than your family and friends. So, how you communicate with them can make all the difference in your work and personal life.

We’ve all worked with someone who was a poor communicator, who didn’t express themselves well. You either have to develop ESP and read their mind or filter through all the verbal and non-verbal messages. Speaking from personal experience – it’s stressful, exhausting and not fun.

So, look at your chart to see whether your Throat Center is Defined or Undefined and what active gates you have and then think about how you can work with that energy to communicate more effectively.

We talked about Human Design Types, we talked about three energy centers, now let’s talk about your Authority.

In the workplace, you’re expected to make decisions every day.

Do I need to schedule this meeting to discuss this topic? Who should be invited to that meeting?

How will I manage my budget this quarter?

Is this project something that's worth moving forward with?

Who should we collaborate with on this project?

You can feel confident in your decision-making process or constantly questioning and doubting yourself which isn’t living in balance and flow.

Following your Authority, your inner guidance system, to make the correct decisions can reduce your stress and increase your satisfaction, increase your success, bring you peace, surprise, and delight.

If you have an Emotional Authority, wait for emotional clarity and avoid making spontaneous decisions.

If you have a Sacral Authority, follow your gut.

If you have a Splenic Authority, trust your instincts.

There’s a number of past episodes following your Human Design Authority which I’ll link to in the show notes for this episode that you’ll find at www.livefablife.com/293 for Episode 293.

Recognize that each person has a unique way of making decisions and be mindful of those differences when collaborating with colleagues.

Now, earlier, I talked about boundaries. Setting energetic boundaries based on your Human Design is how to set yourself up for success in the workplace. It’s how you can best avoid work-life imbalance because misusing your energy, expounding extra energy unnecessarily, and operating against your Human Design is the fastest path to burnout.

If you’re a Manifestor and you find yourself angry all the time, if you’re a Generator or Manifesting Generator who’s at your wits end with frustration, if you’re a Projector who feels overlooked and bitter, or if you’re a Reflector who’s chronically disappointed -- these are telltale Not-Self signs that you're not living your design.

Recognize when you're not in alignment, and then have a strategy reset and bring yourself back into flow.

A strategy might look like stepping away to take a moment for yourself when you feel your Not-Self emotion coming on.

It might look like turning on the “Do Not Disturb” status in your Slack or chat tool.

It might look like blocking your calendar off and not checking your emails for focused work or “free-thinking” time for innovation.

So, I'm recording this at the end of September, and about six weeks ago, in my 9-5 job, it was announced that there was going to be yet another round of layoffs. It would be the third round in our fiscal year and the fourth round of layoffs in the past two years.

As tough as that is, what made it even tougher this time was that we employees had to wait a full month after the announcement to find out who would be impacted and laid off.

For a full month, we didn’t know if we were going to lose our job. It was tough. But it wasn’t the first time we were forced to deal with a situation like this. The first time was during the pandemic and back then, I did not handle the situation well - at all.

But this time, while still tough to live in limbo, I feel like this time, I handled it better. I recognized and accepted that it was a situation that I didn't have control over. There was nothing I could do about it - either I was going to stay employed or not.

But what I did have control over is to follow my Strategy and Authority and trust in myself to make correct decisions. To align with my Projector energy, honor my need for rest and live in flow.

Align with the energy of Root, Solar Plexus and Throat Centers, uphold my boundaries, and stay focused on my priorities and things I do have control over.

In case you’re wondering, fortunately, I am still employed, but unfortunately, a lot of really great people that I've worked with for a really long time, aren't.

There’s always going to be situations that you don't have control over, but even in those situations you still have agency. And aligning with your Human Design alleviates stress and anxiety because you‘re working WITH how you’re designed and not against it. Through Human Design you can expand your self-awareness which is empowering and through that power you can achieve work-life balance, however that looks like for you.

So, explore and experiment with your Human Design. Look at your body graph chart frequently – I do!

Identify the areas where there’s an opportunity to create some of that work-life balance that you need.

And if it's possible, explore the Human Design charts of the people that you work with, so that you can have a better understanding of how they function and understand how you can support them, which then ultimately supports you!

A couple of years ago, I delivered a Human Design Workshop for a group of five or six people who were all on the same work team. In that group there was one Manifesting Generator, and the rest were all Projectors.

Introducing their Types, Strategies and Authorities – what they meant, and what expressions of those energies looked like help them understand each other; how could best interact with each other, how each person made decisions, when someone needed space to process things – you could see the light bulbs going on in how they could work together with more synergy. It was a lot of fun!

We all experience work stress, so I invite you to explore your Human Design to understand how it can help you find balance.

If you want to learn more about the Human Design Types besides your own, check out “Human Design Essentials,” my program that teaches you how to understand the foundations of Human Design.

And if you want to understand the nine centers, you’ll want to take the “Energy Management and the Nine Centers” program.

What’s great about these programs is that you can have your Human Design chart besides your colleagues, if you have access to them, so you can see how you can complement each other and how you can support the differences between you.

If you're ready to get really personal and want to understand your design more intimately, I invite you to order a Human Design Playbook from me. That is how I do Human Design Readings where you’ll not only receive a documentation of your design, but it’ll be accompanied with your own personal podcast episode looking into all of it.

So, our time together today has come to a close. As always, thank you for your time, energy and your attention. I'll see you right back here next time. Bye, for now!