Ep #250: Embracing Human Design with DayLuna

You are listening to The Design You Podcast with Tobi Fairley, episode number 250.

Welcome to The Design You Podcast. A show where interior designers and creatives learn to say no to busy and say yes to more health, wealth and joy, here’s your host, Tobi Fairley.
Hey, friends, what a fun milestone, episode 250. It’s been a lot of love that I’ve put in all these 250 episodes and today is no different. This is an episode we recorded back in the fall with Shayna and Dana, yes, their names rhyme, isn’t it the best? And they are of DayLuna Human Design. So they’re the founders of DayLuna. They have Human Design podcast. And this company, that provides tools for discovering your unique human design in order to live in alignment with your purpose and optimize your life.

And you’ve heard me talk a little bit about human design. I’m a newbie to the whole human design thing but it really, really resonates with me. And this episode, and this conversation took that a lot deeper for me. It really helped me shift some things that has played a huge role in how I’m showing up this year and the way I’ve changed my goals or not having goals this year as I told you all. And really what actions I’m taking, and what things I’m doing in my life. And I hope that it will help you too.

The reason that we held this episode until now is because they have a brand new book that has just come out this week and you can get it in all the places you buy books and it’s called Your Human Design: Discover Your Unique Life Path and How to Navigate it with Purpose. And I think you’re going to love this episode. I think you’re going to love the book. I think you’re going to love these women, Shayna Cornelius and Dana Stiles and I cannot wait to hear what you think about the episode.

So let me be quiet so you can dig into this awesome and informative episode all about human design and I’ll see you on the other side of the episode with a few other things to remind you.

Tobi: Hey, ladies, welcome to The Design You Podcast. I’m really excited about this conversation. I’m a human design novice. I’m not a total newbie but definitely something I want to know more about so I know I’m going to learn a lot from you today and everyone else will. But why don’t we start by having you both introduce yourselves. Tell us a little bit about what you do, who you are, maybe go ahead and mention your fabulous book that’s on its way out and we’ll start there, how does that sound?

Dana: Amazing. Well, first of all thank you so much for having us, we’re really excited to get to chat with you today. And I think a lot of our human design, kind of morals and values, and the way we see the world really align with what a lot of what you talk about with your listeners. So I think it’s going to be a really fun conversation. But Shayna and I have been BFFs, we were besties in college. And after we graduated college we went out into the world and got corporate jobs and hit about 27 and just reached complete and total burnout.

And we as best friends kind of each had our own journey of going out into the adult world and trying to make it happen and then just totally crashing because we were really using our energy wrong without knowing. So we have both had the shared experience. And when we are about 27, you’re in this kind of astrological transit that everyone experiences around that age, 27 to 30 ish. It’s called your Saturn return.

So this is a time in everyone’s life where whatever you are doing that wasn’t really aligned with who you really are, or wasn’t really aligned with your true purpose, it’s going to come to the surface. It’s going to get in your face and you really need to address those things. So for both of us, that was the time where we just felt, what I have been doing, it’s not really me. I’ve been working so hard. I’ve been doing everything I thought I should do after college, why do I feel like something’s missing? Why do I feel like this is not the real me? And why do I feel completely burnt out and exhausted?

So in that kind of, call it life crisis if you will, we both really dove into just learning about things that fascinated us. We got really into yoga, and breath work, and kind of went on that journey as BFFs. And in that discovery and exploration we discovered human design. So human design is this system. It’s similar to astrology. Astrology is one of the components of human design as well as the I Ching, the chakra system and also the Qabalah Tree of Life.

So human design is this system that is taking all of these kind of ancient modalities plus modern quantum physics and a little bit about biogenetics. And it’s really showing you, this is who you are as a unique individual. This is how your energy is designed to work. This is how you’re different than other people and these are your gifts, this is your life purpose. So it’s really this system that helps you discover, okay, if this is not who I really am, this is not what I’m meant to do, who am I and what am I meant to do?

And the amazing thing about human design is it’s not just helping you reflect on your qualities. It’s giving you a navigation system. It’s giving you really practical tools, strategies that you can actually apply to your day-to-day life so that you can begin to kind of shift things and navigate with more personal alignment, with more ease, with more harmony with the world around you and with less resistance.

So when we discovered human design we started exploring with it and just kind of playing with it and that was actually the journey that led us to become human design specialists. And to create an entire business, an entire podcast that is really trying to help other people utilize the incredible power of this system.

Tobi: I love that so much and I love that you have a book coming out which we’ll talk more about later I’m sure. Because when you start this journey, and like I said, I’m on, really I would consider myself the beginning of it. It’s been about a year but I haven’t put a lot of time into it. I’m definitely going to make space for taking some classes and courses, that’s kind of what I do, I love learning, when I finish some of the current things that I’m signed up for.

But I love that you’re writing a book because when you go to look for books about human design, they are not easy to read. They’re not in commonsense language. I don’t feel like my friend wrote it, that is talking to me, which I’m hoping and assuming that your book will be much more from that perspective of just like it’s so easy to talk to you today. So I’m really excited about that because I’ve ordered a few things. And all the information’s there but it is really techie. And I’m going to have a lot of degrees, I love education, I love learning.

And I’m still like, “Whoa, this is really a lot to take in at once.” And so I’m looking forward to the fact that you are bringing this in a way that so many people can access it. So Shayna, what else do you have to add to that awesome introduction?

Shayna: Yeah. Well, I mean you’re spot on. When you first discover human design the first question you ask, it’s like, okay, how can I learn more about this and are there books? What are the resources? Where can I go to figure out how my energy operates. And we had the same experience as you where we bought all the books and all of them, it was like reading gibberish. It’s like, okay, I get reading information but it’s not actually applicable and helpful in my life right now so that’s why we wrote this book basically.

It’s the book that we wish that we had when we were first learning human design. And even still with knowing human design and all the different facets of it, it really helps you to understand the practice of living your design. So that’s the most amazing thing about human design. It’s not like astrology and not, it tells you, astrology really tells you amazing things about your personality. But it’s these bigger archetypes where it’s like, okay, every Scorpio is like this and then every person with their moon in this sign is like that.

Human design gets really specific to tell you this is how your energy operates and here is how you can optimize your energy to experience less resistance, more abundance, more alignment. So it tells you these practices that you can start experimenting with to see if that feels good for you and if it worked out for you, if it felt natural for you. So human design is basically showing you what is natural for you. So a lot of times people come to these understandings on their own.

But having something to mirror back and give language to things that you’ve always felt just gives you this confidence to move forward in the world with, okay, I know that this is right for me. I know that this is consistent for me. I know that these are my gifts. And I thought everyone could do this but actually this is what I’m meant to do. And I was trying to force myself to be like my friend, or my boss, or my coworker, or my husband. And really they’re doing what’s in alignment for them.

And there’s a reason why the things that you’re trying to force yourself to be don’t feel like a right fit. And it’s because you’re trying to be someone else and not yourself. So that was my experience with human design was, or before having human design was feeling like I get all this messaging in the spiritual world or in just honestly the world and society in general. Be yourself, be yourself, be yourself. And it’s like, okay, but who am I? How do I be myself? When I’m around this person I feel like this and when I’m around that person I feel like this. And when I work here I feel like that versus there.

And really feeling lost, okay, I want to be myself but I don’t know who that is. And human design is amazing because now that I understand my chart, it makes sense that when I’m in different situations I can feel differently. But it’s amazing in that it just gives you that mirror and that confidence to be like, okay, that’s why I’ve always felt these things. This is who I am.

And now every decision I make going forward, whether that’s continuing to work in this job, or quit this job, or change how I’m working, or in your relationships, or in your daily routines with yourself you have this confidence in knowing okay, this is how I access my truth in this moment. And then take action on it and see how that feels for me. And we’ve just seen it time and time again how it really just opens everything up. It’s like getting the key to a door that just opens everything up for you.

Tobi: Yeah. And you said forcing three times and that’s a word I use often because I’ve hit burnout, pretty major burnout twice. Not as young as both of you did. I don’t know what that was. Maybe I was kind of on the right path early on. We’ll see. You’ll tell me some things about my design in a moment. But when I was in my late 30s, and had a six year old and was running a business and trying to run a business by the only roadmap there is out there at the time and really kind of still today in a lot of ways.

Which is the white dudes way to run a business kind of thing. Looking at people like my dad as a model or people he looked up to. I always felt like I was forcing things all the time and it was exhausting. And I would get so tired and depleted, and then I’d pick myself up again and be like, okay, let’s go and I’d start forcing again. And if you do that enough times you absolutely will burn out. And so like you I found yoga and I found meditation and some of the things that felt so much softer and more aligned. And I swore I would never get back on the treadmill again.

And then all these opportunities came and it’s like, do you want a national product line, furniture lines, getting published everywhere, grow all the things you’ve wanted in your business, they’re starting to happen. And so I said yes to so many things at the same time and then found myself all over-depleted again, burned out again. And it was at that moment that I was like, “Okay, something has got to change, I cannot keep forcing.” And so what little I’ve learned so far about human design just like you said, the permission, identifying yourself in that chart.

And getting the validation of I knew, I knew I was not doing things the way that were right for me but I didn’t know that there were any other options. Those were the big aha moments for me. And that’s just the very tip of the iceberg. I haven’t even learned that much yet. But just have learned enough to say, any time I feel like I’m forcing I’m immediately giving that up. I’m like, “Oh, there’s my sign, this is not right for me.”

So if there’s other people listening because I’m sure there are, that are entrepreneurs, creatives that have felt that burnout and they’re just not willing to keep getting back up and pushing again, they know enough to know something’s not right. Where do we go next? How do we start to figure out? Because you look at the chart and it almost looks like something that the doctor’s printed out of your internal organs or veins, there’s all these lines and numbers and things happening in there.

And you’re like, “Whoa, what does all this mean? Where do I go? How do I learn about myself? What’s that next step of really figuring this out?

Shayna: So you can generate your chart for free online. You can go to our website daylunalife.com. And you can get your chart for free and it’s going to pull up that map of your energetic design. You’re going to need your birth date, time, and location, the time is important. However, if you don’t have it, you can try to call the hospital, you can try to find your birth certificate, there’s a few things that you can do but it’s ideal to have your birth time.

And the reason why that’s important is because human design pulls the time that you’re born and 88 days before you’re born when your consciousness is formed in the womb. So it’s pulling two different timestamps for when kind of this energetic imprint is a part of your body. So it’s important to have that detail and then you’re going look at your chart and you’ll see these written categories on the righthand side. That’s what we want you to look at first is to look at your type, strategy and authority.

If you just focus on those three things your whole life is basically going to change. And I just want to validate and say that those moments that stop you in your tracks of like I can no longer keep going, those are such pivotal moments. And it doesn’t mean that you’ll never experience burnout again. Doesn’t mean that these amazing things that came to you weren’t right for you.

It’s just knowing how to navigate these big opportunities or these exciting things that maybe are aligned for you in a way that is you versus comparing yourself to other book writers, or other entrepreneurs, or other creatives to say, “This is what this contract, this company who’s purchasing all this stuff expects of me and so I have to fit into that mold. I have to fit into that box.” Because every time that you force yourself inside a box even though it might sound on paper and mentally like this is a good idea.

When you force yourself into a box it’s always going to be exhausting getting yourself back out. So it’s kind of, yeah, I would start with your type, strategy, and authority. It’s going to kind of help you navigate to know, okay, this is a box. If I’m going into this box how can I make this work for me? And having those tools is really helpful. So I don’t know if you want to get into all of the different types.

Tobi: I was going to say, do you want to tell us the types or do you want to use, maybe do that first. Give them the synopsis of the types so they can start to say, “That kind of sounds like me”, maybe. And then they can figure out what they are. And then if you want to, we can take my chart and we can start to help people. We can even take some examples of maybe how I could have done something differently, or maybe where I missed the mark.

And help people see, like you were saying earlier, how to activate and make these things truly something people can use that are actionable. That are not just something on a piece of paper that they’re like, “Oh yeah.” And then they go back to the way they were working. Because I think it’s so easy to do that. So helping us connect the dots of how to make this actionable in our decision making and all the things that it’s really there to help us with.

Dana: Yeah, great. So let’s start with the types real quick so that everyone listening can kind of follow along and see if this resonates with you. So as we mentioned, looking up your chart first. And then you’ll see those written categories. You’ll see type and then you’ll either be a manifester, a generator, a manifesting generator, a projector, or a reflector. So there are five different types. And this is kind of the most broad category in human design.

After this it gets much, much, much more detailed and specific but knowing which one of these types are, it tells you how your energetic body or your aura functions, how you can really utilize that energy. So that you move through the world in personal alignment and kind of allow things to come to you in a way that’s really aligned and feels correct. And to allow yourself to really interact with others in a way that feels harmonious. So learning just this type is genuinely the most lifechanging thing. If you only ever learned one thing it would be this. So let’s dive into it a little bit.

If you are a manifester you are less than 10% of the population. So this is a little bit more, one of the more rare types. And manifesters are people who are really here to initiate new things in the world. Because of the way their energy works they have this kind of sacred purpose of being like a fire starter, a catalyst of change in the lives of others. So they have a very impactful presence and they’re really designed to inspire change. They’re designed to be very independent and have a lot of freedom and kind of be trailblazers. People who are starting new things.

Now, with them being a starter, they’re not necessarily here to finish all of the things that they start. So for a manifester, they could be an entrepreneur, but they also could be anything. They could be a coach that is sharing ideas that are really sparking change in people’s lives. But for a manifester, the more they can grant themselves the permission to do something that’s never been done before, and to move on when they’re over it and to not feel like they have to tend to that fire they started forever. That’s really ideal for a manifester.

So in work a manifester really needs that freedom. It does not mean that they can’t work a nine to five. They could as long as they have a lot of freedom about what projects they’re working on and when they want to work on it. And their energy really comes in spurts. So they might want to do a bunch of work and then kind of take a bit off and rest a little bit. As long as they have that freedom in whatever they’re doing that can really be aligned for them. So as a manifester you have this very powerful, impactful, inspirational aura.

And your aura is kind of closed. You’re not designed as a manifester to be influenced by what other people are wanting you to say or do. You’re really designed to say, “What do I want to say? What do I want to do?” So you have this aura that kind of creates this block to protect you, to kind of keep you in your own energy field. Now, that can be difficult for other people to interact with because we’re actually used to sort of feeling people on this very subtle energetic level and kind of getting a sense of where someone’s at.

But with a manifester, they are extremely hard to read. So they’re someone who’s starting new things and they’re super independent. And people can’t really read them so it’s a perfect setup for people to really want to try to control that manifester, or to stop them in their tracks. And the way that a manifester can really get past that energetic hiccup with their aura and other people’s is through their strategy which is called informing.

So the more they inform people about what’s going on in here, what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling, what I’m wanting to do the more other people are likely to understand them and actually get onboard. And allow that manifester to have the freedom that they’re really here to have. So for any manifesters, telling people what you’re wanting to do and what you’re wanting to create, and what you’re wanting to do next can feel really unnatural actually. This is the only type where your strategy feels like a practice. It feels kind of difficult.

But once you start doing that, everything in your life becomes so much easier. You’ve really changed this resistance that can happen on this very subtle energic realm. So for all the types it’s really about understanding that we’re not just physical beings. We have this energy that exudes out of us and other people feel that energy. And any time you walk into a room you do kind of feel someone. So understanding, okay, how are they feeling me? And how can I work with that to really utilize my energy and kind of exchange that with more harmony instead of that resistance?

So for manifesters, they’re the only ones that their strategies kind of feels like a little bit difficult to try on for size. But then we get to generators which is one of the more common types. Over 37% of the population are generators. And generators are people who have this sacred lifeforce energy, they are here to use their energy doing what they love. So that’s the main purpose they have in this life is how can I use this creative energy that my body is generating on things that I really want to build, on things I really want to create?

So for a generator their aura really feels warm, and open, and enveloping. So people feel like, okay, this s a really capable person. And I feel comfortable asking them to do things for me. So generators can really struggle with people pleasing. They can feel a lot of pressure to do what other people want them to or need them to but really their highest purpose is doing what they want to do and really doing what they love, building what they love. When they’re doing that they generate this creative life force energy that spills out of them and feeds the rest of the world.

So for generators, getting really clear about what do I actually want? How can I start saying no to things that feel mediocre, or boring, or I’m sacrificing myself for someone else because I feel bad? And how can I start saying yes to things that truly light them up. That’s going to be the path that brings them to great alignment and in alignment with their purpose. And the strategy that generators can use to find what lights them up is called responding, waiting to respond.

So it’s really about being present and letting their body, not their mind, tell them what is right for them to use their energy on. So for a generator, when their body comes across something and they get this rise of energy, it’s like they’re drawn to it, they’re enlivened by this thing. It truly lights up their body. They know that they have come across something that’s really aligned for them versus they, you know, someone offers them a job opportunity and in their mind it’s like, well, it makes sense on paper. It is a good job but their body just feels nothing towards that.

So it’s starting to make that shift, how can you let your body guide you as a generator instead of your mind about how to use your energy. And next we get to manifesting generators which is what you are, Tobi. So as it sounds, this one is a hybrid of these first two. We talked about manifesters, they’re really here to initiate and trailblaze. And then we talked about generators who are really creative, and can build things, and are here to build what they love.

A manifesting generator or man gens as we call them for short, is kind of both of those energies. And in the end they really are more like a generator where they’re here to use their body’s responses to things. When as a man gen, when you come across something in your body it’s like that is exciting, that gives me life, that just gives me energy. That’s your body saying, “Engage with this thing, do this thing.” Even if it doesn’t make sense on paper. Even if you can’t see directly how it’s going to make a lot of money.

If your body is getting lit up by something it is in alignment for you to engage with that thing. So as a manifesting generator you also are kind of here to be that trailblazer. You’re here to do things differently. You’re here to break the mold in some ways.

Tobi: I feel all of that so strongly. When you were doing the manifester I was like, “That feels just like me.” And then you started the next one and I’m like, “And that’s also me, the creator.” So it makes perfect sense, yeah.

Dana: Yeah. You’re the perfect mixture of those two things. You are creative. You’re here to build what you love and you’re here to do it in a way that’s a little bit different. And you are someone who can start a lot of new projects as a man gen. You can have a lot of different hobbies and different interests. And it’s important for your career life to have a lot of diversity, and variety, and freedom just like that manifester.

If a manifesting generator is feeling bored, or stagnant, or like they’re doing what other people want them to do in their work. That is going to drain this amazing powerful energy they have to create is just going to be gone if they are feeling bored.

Tobi: I felt all of that.

Dana: Yeah. And whereas a generator, they have a little bit more of a singular focus. So it’s like, okay, I’m on this thing, I’m stuck on it. I want to be thorough. I want to be here forever with this thing and I can have a seemingly unlimited amount of energy. Whereas a man gen is like, okay, I’m working on this thing but I want to dabble in this and then I want to shift to this thing. So if your career life can have all of these different categories, a podcast and then sometimes you’re doing consulting.

And then you’re in different locations with different people and you get to have that excitement and variety, that’s going to be really aligned for you.

Tobi: 1,000% me right there, yes.

Dana: Yes, I love it. And the big thing for you, your strategy is still that responding with your body, not your mind. So as a man gen this amazing thing might come up and it’s like, okay, I really want to do this but will it make money and will it work out? And I haven’t seen anyone else do it. I’m not really sure. And those mental questions can really derail you from your path or purpose So it’s really about trusting your body’s excitement. If your body is like I am all in, I am lit up by that thing. It’s kind of like a trust fall into that.

And in your mind it can not make that much sense but later on you realize, that felt really aligned for me, that felt like me.

Tobi: Yeah, so neat.

Shayna: And I do want to just add in here a note about listening to your body. Because a lot of times when man gens and generators hear, “You need to listen to your body.” The question is, how? What does that mean? Because we’re really taught that to listen to our minds and to weigh the pros and cons. And human design is really reframing that your mind is here to observe and inspire, and create, and observe the world around you. But it’s not here to make your big decisions for you and to decide what it is that you should be doing in this present moment.

So as a generator or manifesting generator, really taking note of what’s actually in front of me right now in this moment. Is it this email? Is it this text? Is it this food, this person? What’s actually here in my environment? And how does my body feel? Does my body feel energized by this email? I’m already just jumping in to respond. Does my body feel engaged and turned on by this thing that I’m doing or this food that I’m making? Or do I feel nothing? My body’s just like, whatever.
And a lot of times that’s what we feel the majority of the time.

And that’s your body actually saying no for now to that thing. And then sometimes your body might feel exhausted by what’s in front of you or contracted. And then once again our mind kicks in and says, “I’m just tired, I need coffee.” But really it’s your body saying, “I don’t want this thing right now today.” And as a manifesting generator, that might just be because you did it yesterday all day and your body’s wanting variety. It doesn’t mean this thing’s wrong for you.

It just means in this present moment your energy’s going to be better spent doing something that you had that turned on engaged feeling in your body. So for any man gens or generators listening, I just want to invite you to start really taking note of that energy level within the core of your body with all of the small things you’re doing. When you’re doing laundry, when you’re cooking your dinner, when you’re answering emails or creating a new project, whatever it is, just starting to really take note.

You don’t have to take action on it, but just having that awareness alone of wow, every morning that I answer emails right away, my body is actually having contraction and I’m just chugging coffee to counteract that. That awareness is huge because then you can say, “Okay, you know what, next week I’m not going to check emails until later in the afternoon.” And I’m going to do something more creative that I feel really engaged with during that time. So just taking that note is really, really helpful.

Tobi: I think one of the things that I was most, I don’t know, I felt most seen about when I learned I was a manifesting generator is that for years, well, a couple of things. So there is that part of society and indoctrination. And for me a lot of that I would say is patriarchal and all the systems that we live in under, there’s so much influence that says basically kind of as I would call it, has us vote our body off the island. We disconnect and we live kind of from the neck up. And my brain is really sharp, and really quick, and it’s really powerful and so I’ve always leaned on it.

And so when I look back on the times that I was burned out, I could see how disconnected I was from my body. I’ve always had a strong intuition or gut instinct for big decisions. I never overrode that but in the day-to-day and the moments, a lot of times I did. And then the thing that made me most seen was when I really understood this and I understood how much freedom and variety I need. And I had been trying to force myself into things like morning routines because successful people have morning routines.

And I effing hate morning routines and I don’t want to go to the gym every morning at 6:00am and then have done these five things before nine o’clock every day. Some days I want to wake up and I want to literally journal for two and a half hours. And other days I want to get right into work. And some days I want to do meditation. And when I started just literally allowing myself to check in and be like, “What do you need right now”, and giving myself permission for it to look different every day if I wanted to which blows some people’s minds.

It changed everything for me and it didn’t make me less successful. I mean it actually made me really, really happy. And it really made me more tuned in and more focused on the things that I was excited about at that moment. I think that was the most liberating piece of this early on for me, that I still definitely practice now. I let myself off the hook of a lot of rigid schedules. And I’m still a big scheduler. I love time blocking. But in a way that works for me and not in a rigid way. And so it’s been really, really helpful.

Shayna: Yeah. And looking at the finer details of your chart that is in so much alignment. You are designed to have that time blocking or that scheduling but having variety, and freedom, and whatever just feels good with the rituals or the things that you’re actually doing. So for man gens and generators in general, I mean without looking at those deeper layers, the small things make the biggest difference. Your food as a man gen or generator can either set you up for success for that day or failure.

If you’re eating something that you’re like, “I have it, I should eat it because it’s”, whatever. You can eat that and then just feel completely out of alignment, whereas if you’re like that energy of, I can’t wait to eat this, or go there, or devour this thing. That energy is actually what you’re looking for in your creative projects, at work, with your emails, with your friends and family, that, I want that energy, that’s what you’re looking for. So if it’s like I should have this morning routine, I should do journaling every single day. That’s your mind, that is not your body. Your body is saying, ugh, to that thing.

Tobi: And it’s so interesting that you bring up food too because around the same time I started discovering human design I really started working on intuitive eating and cutting out every diet mentality that I’ve had for the last forever. And so exactly what you’re saying, people think, if I make everything okay, and I listen to what I want I’ll go off the rails. I found it to be the exact opposite. I found it to be some days maybe I do want to eat a donut. And other days I want to have salads five meals in a row. And then another day I want to eat a hamburger or whatever.

But I’ve never felt so just relieved, and free, and joyous, and energetic around my food by listening when before it was like, you can’t have this and not too much sugar, and not this. And don’t eat too much meat and don’t have this. And you must have all these things and it has to be portioned out. And that did not work for me at all, at all. So again so much freedom has come into my life in every way when I started learning that I could actually tap in and trust myself and trust my body to know what it needed and that it was going to be okay.

And we’re not going to cut 10 years off of our life because one day we decided to have some sugar and another day, then we got tired of it for a while and didn’t want that. Everything’s fine, in fact it’s going to be better when you really lean in and tap into and listen. I mean also the same with exercise. I would force myself to exercise or to do things that were more, I would call young, or strong, intense energy. And I have so much intensity in my personality already that there’s a lot of days that I just literally need to do yin yoga or restorative and lay on the floor for two hours.

And my brain would say that’s not good enough, that’s not enough. You should be sweating. You should be at the gym. You should be lifting today. And so when I stopped that as well and started saying, “What do I need today?” Changed my whole life also.

Shayna: Yes. And that is the perfect example of how in so many areas of our life we compare ourselves, or we judge ourselves, or we let somebody else be an outside authority, somebody who wrote this diet, a diet that worked for them, that probably their body led them to. You’re now using your mind to say, “That expert on nutrition or this diet knows more than me and I should be doing whatever they’re doing.” That’s judgment. That’s comparison and that’s giving your authority away.

And we do that, this perfect example with food, we do that in our work. We do that in our relationships. We do that with our friends. We do that in every aspect of our life. So it’s really such a good example to know, are you forcing yourself to not ever eat sugar because you’re trying to be in this box of this diet that some person outside of you said was best for you? Or are you listening to your body and really tuning into this feels forced or this feels like I’m having resistance or it’s just not me for some reason.

And can I honor that and just tap back into that, okay, let me check in with this yoga in front of me so my body feels like, ooh, this feels good, or does it feel like I should? So a perfect example. And then when we get into some of the other types this is where they’re vastly different from manifesters, manifesting generators and generators.

Tobi: Yeah. So there’s two more, right?

Dana: Yeah, there’s two more. So the three that we just talked about are what we call the energy types. So these are people that really can have energy. However the generators and manifesting generators, these are the true energy types, but you really can have this surplus of energy to work on things and to build things but the catch is only if you’re doing what you love, only if you’re listening to your body. If you’re going against that, that energy depletes. So when we get to these other two types, these are what we call the non-energy beings.

So the next type we want to talk about is projectors, which is around 20% of the population, so a little bit more there. And this is what Shayna and I are. We are these non-energy types. We do not generate a sustainable amount or consistent amount of energy to work on things. Instead our body is really kind of inconsistent with the energy we create. And we can pick up on energy from generators or manifesting generators around us and kind of borrow your energy. So we’re also intrinsically connected.

It’s imperative that our generators and man gens are aligned because everyone else is really kind of interconnected and relying on your energy, making sure that you’re doing what you love and you’re aligned so that we can all kind of work in this harmonious way. But as a projector you are really here to guide the energy use of others. That is really kind of what you’re here to do. And your aura is really helping you do that. We have this aura as a projector that goes outside of us in a focused and penetrating kind of motion and sees into the other, sees into businesses.

So projectors are really here to see things in a deeper way, in a different way than other people. And they’re able to then give amazing advice, specific advice for that person or for that business to help that person or business be more authentic and more efficient. So as a projector, if you’re just working on your own thing and really trying to work nine to five and trying to work 40 hours a week consistently in your life, there’s going to be a moment of true burnout and a lot of health issues that happen. So for Shayna and I, we thought we were manifesting generators like you.

We were trying to do everything and we were trying to get it all done and we had all of these passions. And we were really trying to force ourselves to keep up with the people around us and we kept having this feeling of why can’t I do this, what’s wrong with me? I have to hide the fact that I feel this tired. And projectors are really kind of designed as optimal for the way your energy works to work about two to four hours a day and not more than that. And that’s one of those things that really feel like they’re, even if you love it, it’s expending energy.

So limiting that two to four hours a day and putting more of your focus on your insight on what you see, instead of what you can do or create, or build, that’s the great shift for projectors. So for a lot of people when we hear, okay, projectors are only here to work two to four hours a day, it must be nice as well like people say. But for us as projectors it’s like, I’m only supposed to work two to four hours a day, how am I going to pay my bills? How, how is this possible in this world that we live in to only work that much?

So for projectors, when you start to really shift and kind of trust that the less you overwork yourself the more magnetic you are. The more of this attractive energy you have to attract invitations to really share your insight, to be a leader, or a consultant, or a guide in some way. So for projectors you’re really here to guide others, give people advice. And in order to do that in a way that feels harmonious you need the other person to really invite you. That advice has to be solicited. You’re trying to give unsolicited advice as a projector, it’s going to feel very repelling for other people.

I like to liken it to you can’t feed a closed mouth. If someone is not hungry and their mouth is closed, and you’re trying to shove food in their face, it is disgusting and like how for projectors, when we’re trying to give people advice when they weren’t open to it or didn’t want it from us, it really comes off as repelling. So for projectors, their strategy is to focus on yourself, to focus on using your energy correctly, recognizing yourself, recognizing what it is that you see in kind of a special way that other people might not.

And then allowing people to come to you, allowing people to invite you to share that wisdom, to share that insight, to share your gifts with them. So when Shayna and I found out that we were projectors and we were trying to keep up with this 40 hour work week it was just one of the biggest light bulb moments in our entire life. It was like everything clicked. Everything made sense and we started really kind of focusing on, okay, who am I then? What do I find fascinating? What am I able to really see differently than other people?

And from just doing that actually all of these invitations started coming in. We got invited to work at this retreat in Costa Rica where we both went. And everyone around us was just asking us for human design readings. Literally the whole retreat accidentally turned into a human design retreat because everyone was inviting us to share with their chart. Someone said, “I wish you guys would create a podcast so I could learn more about this.” So we actually ended up creating a podcast later where we teach people about human design.

So all of these big opportunities have come to us through recognition and invitation. And all we were doing was really focusing on kind of building ourselves up as a guide and recognizing ourselves and not forcing ourselves to try to work so hard and efficiently. So for all the projectors out there, just knowing that you are really designed to operate a lot differently than the rest of the world and experimenting with working less, experimenting with just building yourself up. And letting people come to you instead of trying to find that recognition by pushing your advice or insight on other people.

And then the last type is another non-energy being but the most rare out of the five, that is reflectors. Reflectors are 1% of the population. So they’re so rare, they’re like our unicorn in human design. And these are individuals who are extremely empathetic. Their entire energy system is designed to take in the world around them and kind of become the energy of the world around them within their own being temporarily. So they really are here to reflect the energy of the world around them and the people around them.

And by doing so they can really be wise guides for us to show us where we are authentic or not, where we are healthy or not. So reflectors are kind of designed to be at the center of our communities and we can really look to them to see how are we all doing. And you’re going to be kind of a reflection of that environment around you. So for reflectors, their sensitivity is their greatest asset.

However, society doesn’t always teach them that. Society teaches us that we need to be strong and we need to be consistent, that we need to be hard, that we need to really have that consistent energy. But for reflectors just like projectors, they really are non-energy beings. And the strategy that they have to help them move through the world is actually connecting with the moon cycle, giving themselves an entire lunar cycle before they make a big decision in their life.

And by doing that they kind of allow themselves to come back to their own energy instead of reflecting what everyone else wants them to do and all the energy they’re picking up. By giving themselves that much time they actually operate their energy correctly and can move through the world with less resistance. So for reflectors the big conditioning is how could you possibly give yourself an entire month to make a decision? No one’s going to wait for you to decide if you want this job or not.

But actually when you give yourself that permission to slow down, that’s when you end up attracting the opportunities that are going to be aligned and that will allow you to come to that clarity with that timing.

Tobi: Amazing. Amazing. So everybody just heard so much that I’m sure they have an idea, if they haven’t already been to your site, I’m sure they have. As much as most of us, unless they don’t know their birth time, I’m sure they all ran straight to your site because we love to have a label. But what you’re saying is this isn’t about a rigid description of ourselves.

There’s so much nuance and movement in all of these but that’s just kind of the overarching place that they can start to see whether it resonates with them or not and how they’re connected, what permissions it gives them just like it did me early on, right?

Shayna: Yes, exactly. And any of the types can be a business owner. Any of the types can be a guide. Any of the types can have profound wisdom that’s here to tweak and guide other people or be a trailblazer. It really is not here to limit you in any way. It’s just here to say, “Okay, you want to be a trailblazer, you want to start this business. Here’s how you do it as an individual working with your energy.” Versus trying to be somebody else’s energy, that you’ve see it done before.

And you’re not going to reach that level of success in a way that feels abundant and not easy, but flowing I want to say, for you. You’re going to feel like you’re swimming upstream, you’re fighting, and hustling, and grinding to try to get there. And by the time you get there you’re so burnt out, it’s like what was it even for anyways? So really knowing that this is not meant to limit you. We know so many projectors that are trailblazers. We know so many manifesting generators, and manifesters and generators that are guides. So it goes so much deeper than these broader layers.

Tobi: Yeah. And one of the things I was thinking about while you were describing all of these is that none of them really align with what the world says we should be totally, not a single one. Maybe generators a little bit in some ways but not if they’re really being aligned they’re not because maybe fall into the people pleasing place. But what I’m hearing from you is not a single one of the five types sounded like the poster child for what the world and especially what America shows us people should be like.

So no wonder everyone’s always feeling out of alignment, and tired, and depressed, and overwhelmed and all the things, whatever their particular emotion is at any moment because what we’re told and what’s natural to us are really not the same thing.

Shayna: Yeah, it’s all about awareness. I mean any of the types, the world is not meant for any one specific type. I mean the kind of nine to five hustle ground, generators and manifesting generators they can do it, but it’s still going to feel burnt out if you’re forcing yourself to do something that you don’t actually love or want to do. And so it’s just having the awareness of yourself and what feels good to you, even if it’s not your reality yet, but having awareness of oh yeah.

For me as a projector hearing that I was only designed to work two to four hours a day, I literally bawled because I was like, oh my God, now hearing that, that is what I want but how? And it’s not about the how, it’s about having awareness of okay, this is what my energy operates with in its highest alignment. And then you can have understanding of, and this is why my husband’s like this or my friend’s like that, or my boss, or my coworker, whoever, my mentor is operating in this way because it works for them.

And setting aside that comparison by having this awareness, that’s the most liberating thing and then it becomes much more easy to actually have your job, or your relationship, or the world work for you versus you feeling like you are just trying to keep up or you’re trying to grind to do what you should be doing.

Tobi: Yeah. And I think there’s a whole unlearning piece too because for me hearing this idea of responding, and I was like, “Wait, I feel like I’m the instigator and I’m the pusher.” But a lot of that was habit and it was taught to me. And so trying to figure out how to respond to something, I didn’t even know what that meant. I was like, “What even is that”, right?

Dana: I love that you said that unlearning, because we talk about that a lot in human design, we call it deconditioning. Because we’ve been so conditioned, we’ve been so taught that the only way to do something is to initiate it always and to seek it out and to do what makes sense. And as a manifesting generator or a generator you’re really here to respond. You can highlight the phrase kind of like I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know when I see it. So when you kind of see something or you bump into something and your body is just like, that’s it, then you are designed to start that thing.

Then you are designed to create that thing but you’re just really waiting for your body’s cue instead of just out of a place of anxiety and fear, getting on Google and Googling, what business should I create? And kind of like that forcing. So all of the types can really initiate new things and start new things. It’s just about what’s that starting point so that you know that you came into this in a way that was really right for you. So that’s a huge part of navigating life is understanding, based on my type, how does my aura work and what’s that strategy?

So for manifesters, the more I start telling people what I want or telling people how I feel, faster things start to come to me. For generators and manifesting generators, the more I’m listening to my body about what I’m really wanting in this moment the faster things come to me, that I can really start creating those things. For projectors, the more I hold my tongue and let people come to me, and focus on myself, wait for that invitation, the faster things come to me.

For a reflector the more I slow down and tune into the moon cycle and have this awareness that I am so empathetic to the people around me, the faster things start to just happen for me. I align with that natural path. And then the second part of human design is called your authority, your decision making. So we won’t linger on this too quickly but this is huge. I think it’s maybe the most helpful takeaway from human design is how do I access my version of intuition and truth to know that I’m making a big life decision that’s going to be aligned with my path. So this is for big things.

A lot of the stuff we talked about so far are small day-to-day things, what do I eat? Where do I go next? Who do I have this conversation with? Now we’re getting to the realm of do I want to start this business? Do I want to move to a new country? Do I want to get married? Do I want to take on a $100,000 of debt? These bigger life decisions that are going to impact our life path in some way, everyone has a unique decision making process. There’s eight different ones and everyone’s going to be one of eight.

So the most common is the one that you have, Tobi, and I also share it with you, it’s called emotional authority. So for about 50% of the population, if you’re going to make a big life decision like this, it’s important to give yourself time to sleep on it for one night up to a week. And that can be kind of complex for someone like you Tobi, because you have a lot of instinctual spontaneous gut instincts. In the moment it’s like, I know what I want, and for little things that’s so important for you to listen to.

But when it comes to a big thing it’s really important that you check in with what was that instinctual gut feeling you had in the moment. But also now allow yourself to sleep on it because if you have emotional authority, your emotions can color your truth. And so if you’re in an emotional high, if you have emotional authority, you have this emotional wave where you’re in an emotional high and you’re so much more likely to say yes. Someone’s like, “Do you want to do this project with me?” And you’re like, “Yeah, I feel great, sign me up.”

And then later you have regret, you’re like, “Why did I say yes to that?” It’s because that emotional high was coloring your truth. The same thing with an emotional low. For people who have emotional authority, if you’re in a low you can feel like it’s just I don’t have enough energy, I just can’t do it, just doesn’t feel right. And that’s not your truth either. So for people with emotional authority, it’s always going to be about giving yourself time to make sure you’re emotionally neutral. That is the only time that you can really feel what is going to make you happy.

And whatever’s going to make you happy, that’s going to be the thing that’s right for you, that’s aligned with your purpose, aligned with your path. That’s if you have emotional authority. Now, the next most common authority is called sacral authority. And these are people who are designed to make big life decisions in the present moment. Do I want to take on a $100,000 of debt? They can feel that gut instinct and they’re really designed to just trust that first thing and go with it.

So for those people, giving themselves time can be really detrimental. It can cause self-doubt, it can cause a lot of anxiety. And so just knowing that is huge. I have emotional authority, my husband has sacral, so we’re making a big life decision together. I always have to encourage him, trust yourself, that first thing is your answer. Don’t get in your head and question yourself later, and wrack over it but really allow yourself to be spontaneous, that’s what’s right for you.

But for me I can’t make a decision spontaneously because my emotions can really color my truth. So just being able to hold space for the way that we’re different in our partnerships, in our business partnerships, with our friends and family and not comparing yourself. This is what works for them. So I’d better try to be spontaneous. That would really derail me from my personal alignment and vice versa. So there’s eight different ones and you can explore those deeper. They kind of get really deep. You can go to our podcast if you want.

We have an episode that tells you about all of the eight authorities, but just practicing, this is my type so I’m going to lean into that strategy and here’s how I make aligned decisions. That is the experiment of human design. And we love to encourage people, take those two things and play with them and see, how does that feel for you? Does that feel right? Does that feel natural? What happens when you start to experiment with that? What new things are coming into your life? And through that experimentation, you get to really see, this does work, this does feel good to me.

I did attract all of these amazing things with a lot more ease when I was living that way. And you begin to prove to yourself if this is meaningful for you, if this is helpful for you. And that’s really what we’re interested in with human design, it’s never like is this true or not true? That’s the wrong question. It’s like, is this helpful for you? Is this meaningful for you?

Tobi: That’s such a good point. Yeah, because I do think a lot of people are like, “That’s weird or that’s woo, or that sounds whatever.” And that’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not, if it’s helpful, if you’re like, “Well, I don’t really want to believe it because it seems kind of far out there but actually every time I use this it actually helps me.” Then why would you not practice it and see what comes of it, yeah, so interesting. So is there anything else that we want to touch on as we wrap up? This has been so helpful for a lot of people.

I like how you’re both really great at explaining things and making them really commonsense. There’s so many things I’m hearing from you and I don’t know if it’s because I’m hearing it for the third or fourth time but I don’t think so. I think that you’re just really good at making things more commonsense and more, like we said before, actionable. But is there anything else we want to talk about to help people kind of know what to do next once they get their chart?

Shayna: Yeah. Well, there’s so many different things that you can look at in your chart but the big thing is, knowing the places where you are consistent, the places where you’re really designed to give your gifts, designed to give your purpose, I think that is an incredible part of human design. That is a little bit deeper but you can really look at your dates and your channels is what we call them. And you can see these really specific qualities that you’re here to share with the world, you’re here to enthuse in everything you do.

And that’s kind of the next step in human design is have this navigation system, I’m starting to understand how my energy works and how to feel what’s right for me. And then let me look at these deeper layers. What are my gifts? What is my life purpose? And am I really utilizing that? Am I really leaning into that? And that’s where you start to really see a lot of the more specific things. Now, the cool thing about human design is you don’t actually need to know those things because once you’re listening to your body you’ll naturally be guided to opportunities and places where you get to use all of those gifts.

Tobi: So do we do that by working with a professional and getting a reading? Can we do that ourselves by listening to your podcast and having our chart out and aligning it with your episodes or taking your book out? Is it going to walk us through all of these things? Or are all of those options and it just depends on if the person wants to DIY it or they want to work with someone? How’s the process best kind of engaged with?

Shayna: Yeah, exactly, any of those options work. You can definitely go to our podcast. It’s a great resource to learn. We also have a ton of video courses on all the different channels and deeper layers in your chart. We have courses, things like that. But then also in our book. So our book goes through the daily practice, and tips, and quizzes, and tricks, and things that you can really start applying today for your type, strategy, authority, it even gets into your profile which we haven’t talked about today.

But that’s your personality archetype. It talks a lot about how you’re designed to learn and teach. And then we also give affirmations for each of the different gifts. So that’s kind of the tip of the iceberg of okay, I have these areas in my chart. It shows you how to find them in your chart. And then have these affirmations to help you lean into the highest expression of all these qualities. So the book is going to be an amazing resource. But then also our podcast and then also getting a reading. That’s kind of the deepest layer you can go in.

Tobi: Yes. And do you do those too, you do the readings, yeah?

Shayna: We do readings, they just book up really far in advance. And when we first hear about your human design, it’s like I want to know now. It’s so hard to wait four or five months to get a reading. So it’s knowing, okay, I have these resources so I can start to dive in. But a reading is kind of the deepest layer. And then I do want to say, just looking at your chart, Tobi, you have so many gifts that you’re using just incredibly in alignment. You’re extremely detailed.

You’re really good at bringing out the beauty in things and un-editing yourself in a way that can really inspire other people to find the beauty. You lead by example. You really have these gifts around. Being able to kind of ponder things. So it’s a specific gift around, human design likens it to turning a stone over, and over, and over again and thinking about the same thing over, and over, and over until suddenly you have this polished stone. And it’s like this, okay, this is this beautiful thing now that I want to teach, or share, or create, or build, or whatever it is.

So in so many ways you’re using all of your gifts and really the biggest tip that we would give you is un-edit your voice. Say the thing that you just feel like I need to say this or I want to say this, or I have this intuitive hit to just call bullshit on this thing or that thing. And taking off those kind of parameters of this is professional, or this is what I should do. The more that you un-edit yourself, the more impact you’re going to be able to have. So I just wanted to say that really fast.

Tobi: I’m ready to sign up for a reading right now. Put me on the list because I want to know more and I love that. And it is not an accident that you just said that in that exact way. That’s so where I am in this very moment of my life, so thank you for that because it does give me a lot of validation that the way I’m showing up is the right way. And it doesn’t necessarily make it easy, it just makes me have the confidence to keep doing it.

Because I mean that’s the thing about, I’m sure everyone’s gifts, when we find out what they are they’re probably sometimes a blessing and a curse. But you’re like, “It’s amazing and I love the permission and now shit, I can’t unsee it and I have to give up.” I feel drawn to really show up who I am, as who I am in the world. So it’s all amazing but thank you for that, that was wonderful. So yes, I want to know more. I want you all both to do the thing and tell me all the things about myself. So maybe we’ll do that and then have you come back later.

Because I mean I love what we did here today. I love that we really set the groundwork for everybody in a really clear way. And hopefully everybody’s going to get the book and then read it. And then maybe we’ll have you come back and we might just dig in specifically to my chart and start to show them what’s possible and what that could look like if they went deeper. I would love that so much.

Shayna: That would be so fun because it is really just, it’s shocking to hear these very specific tools of how to apply it. So that would be wonderful. We’d love to do that.

Tobi: Yeah, I think it would be fun and because people obviously, just like with you, people that are in your audience and that follow you online get to know you in a lot of personal ways. And so even just hearing something about me, they’re going to be like, “Oh my God, how is that true? That is so her, or that’s the her I see or it’s the evolution I’ve seen over the years or whatever, how is that happening?” And I think it will give people more confidence in it, as you called it, a modality or a tool that they could really use in their own life.

So let’s plan on that, that will be really fun. I can’t wait to get my hands on the book, so thank you so much for getting us all excited about human design again in such an amazing and easy to understand way. If everybody is dying not only to get the book which I’m guessing they can get anywhere they buy books. Do you know the launch date officially? We’re recording this a little bit in advance but we’re going to run it really close to the launch date so what is that day that they can get their hands on the book?

Shayna: Yeah, so the book is available for pre order any time. But the launch day that it’s on shelves is January 10th.

Tobi: Okay, perfect. And then if they want to get your courses, find your podcast, get on the list for a reading, all the things, where do they find that? Where do they find you? Yeah, where’s the best place to follow you? What are those details?

Shayna: Yeah, so our website’s daylunalife.com. And our Instagram’s @dayluna. Our podcast is The DayLuna Human Design Podcast. And our book is called Your Human Design. So you can find that anywhere, like you said, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, anywhere that you buy books and connect with all of our different offerings on our website.

Tobi: Amazing. Well, thank you so much, it was so fun. This literally has been on my list to learn more about. So it’s again not accident that you showed up, that you piqued my interest all over again. You will be hearing from me really soon. I’ll be on your website in an hour going, booking my reading, you’re going to be like, “Yes, she did it.” And then we’ll follow up again soon which I really look forward to so thank you both so much.

Shayna: Thank you.

Dana: It was so much fun. It was so much fun to get to connect with you.

Tobi: Amazing.

Okay, so if you haven’t dipped your toe in human design then this book could be the place to start, if you have, it’s still going to be the place to go. Because as they talked about in the episode and we’ve talked about so much, there’s really not a readable accessible easy to understand book on the market that’s not all techie. And so that’s what they really wanted to do is help you really understand and harness your human design to create fulfilment in your life. So grab the book wherever books are sold that you like to buy them.

Check out their website and I’m going to bring them back soon because we are scheduled. In fact I scheduled way back a few months ago when we originally recorded the episode. I scheduled on their calendar which put me I think in the early part of February to get a one-on-one reading with them.

So we’re going to do that and I’ll be back to share that with you, maybe the whole thing is an episode or at least the highlights. I can’t wait to do that, you might want to schedule one too.

So check them out and let us know on the Instagram, tag us and let us know you heard this episode and if you liked it and what you think about it and all the things. And on a separate note, don’t forget if you want to work with me, not on your human design but on your next iteration of your company, and your offers on creating a course or a program, we’re wrapping up the sales. We’re closing the doors really soon for our online Course Incubator. So if that’s something you’re going to want to do, we’ve never done this before.

Who knows if we’ll ever do it again but grab you a spot while you still can and work with us over the next six months to create a course, a program, a scalable thing that you can be selling by late summer or early fall to really serve your audience in a new way, add new revenue to your company and really be able to share your expertise in a whole new way. So check that out at tobifairley.com/course and I’ll see you here you here next week with another great episode of The Design You Podcast, bye for now.

Thank you so much for listening to The Design You Podcast, and if you are ready to dig deep and do the important work we talk about here on the podcast of transforming your mindset and creating a scalable online business model, there has never been a more important time than right now. So, join me and the incredible creative entrepreneurs in my Design You coaching program today. You can get all the details at TobiFairley.com.