How I use Human Design to Regulate My Nervous System, Part 2

Do you know what your variables are? For me, they’re more levers to pull to avoid burnout and overwhelm.

If you missed it, go back and Part 1 of How I use Human Design to Regulate my Nervous System, where I talked about a lot of the foundational elements of HD and how you can work with your design to regulate your nervous system.

The variables in Human Design are probably one of the most confusing aspects of reading your chart. They’re represented by the four arrows and accompanying numbers and colors in the little triangles and circles under the arrows. The traditional HD school of thought is that a person shouldn’t learn their variables until they’re really deep into understanding their chart, because learning your strategy and authority is so much more important. There is definitely some truth to this. If you can just nail your strategy and authority, the rest doesn’t really even matter. You’ll live out your design without even realizing. Human Design is not a necessity of life, if you’re already following your intuition.

But following your intuition can be difficult - for several reasons. It’s hard enough after years of conditioning it out of you. Being taught from a young age to ignore our gut and make decisions based on pro/con lists. Even if you’re aware of this and are now trying to course correct, however, following your intuition can feel impossible if your nervous system is dysregulated. If you’re in constant fight or flight, you’ve got a lot of unhelpful signals competing with your true inner knowing. And your body is just trying to triage the situation and get you to safety - it’s not really focusing on your ultimate path forward for your highest good.

That’s where variables can be incredibly helpful. Each one gives you a little slice as to how you interact with the world in some way, how your brain operates. They’re your cognitive architecture. It’s almost like right brain vs. left brain but expanded. Whether or not it was intended for this purpose, they give really good insight on what helps you individually regulate your nervous system.

Which is exactly why I think they’re a great tool to learn about early on.

The Variables

I’m going to talk about three of them in this article. There’s a bit more to it, with Digestion and Cognition really being part of what’s known as Determination, and then there are two more I didn’t talk about, but it’s too much for one article, and I really want to focus on the specific elements that are top of mind (for me, right now) when it comes to nervous system regulation.

Digestion

This is about, as you may have guessed, digestion of food - in part. But it’s also about digestion of information. On a broader level, it’s about how you process the intake of your environment.

My digestion type is High Sound. Some types relate to food in a more tangible way, but mine does not. At all. High Sound means I am picky AF about what I am listening to at all times. Which absolutely tracks. I have not been without a set of headphones or earbuds on my person since the early days of the MP3 player, and before that I had a pretty extensive CD collection. I listen to podcasts all the time, at certain times of the day. AM podcasts are usually in the personal development category, lunch podcasts are true crime. And don’t get me started on the music. I have extensive playlists for every occasion. Very rarely do I listen to music that I haven’t personally curated. And I make (or made, back in the day) incredibly good mixed CDs for my favorite people. I have zero musical talent but my appreciation of music is so keen I feel like I’ve learned another language.

So what does this have to do with the nervous system?

First of all, the wrong sounds fuck me up pretty bad. My 7 undefined centers have something to do with this too, of course. The more undefined centers you have, the more you’re taking in from others all day. People with a lot of openness in their chart usually already identified as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) before they’ve even seen their chart, including me. I’m easily overwhelmed and overstimulated by crowds, excessive visuals or bright colors, bright lights, too much touching, strong scents, and, of course, noise.

The High Sound digestion just adds another layer to that. Even if all other conditions are favorable I still might lose my shit if the sound is off in some way. If someone is watching a video on their phone (albeit quietly) on the couch while the TV is on I will lose my mind. Or multiple conversations at once in the same room? Might as well just punch me in the face. Someone talking with their mouth full? I’m going to go to the bathroom and puke now. Now look, there’s also a neurodivergence aspect to consider. It’s common for NDs to experience overwhelm with sound in particular in similar ways. To me, since I am neurodivegent, that’s just another explanation for the same thing. Maybe there’s a correlation to certain HD elements to ND people, maybe not.

But I choose to work with it through Human Design because the elements actually give you a blueprint for working with them.

Because just as bad sounds throw me off, good sounds bring me back. This looks like:

• Honoring my need for certain sounds for certain activities, including eating. If I want to eat in front of the TV, that’s totally ok for me. If a restaurant is too loud, it’s ok to leave.

• Listening to music I absolutely love for whatever I need it for: an emotional release, getting pumped up, relaxing, lifting my mood, whatever. I can’t explain how deeply music makes me feel. This is probably also my open solar plexus. But if it’s a good song and there is an emotional journey, I’m going on it.

  Or, if it’s just a really beautiful song, it will break my heart right open. It’s probably the same sensation that other people get when they’re in a beautiful spot in nature and it looks magnificent and they feel completely awestruck. I do really like nature but I think I’m missing something because I can feel what others feel. I don’t think nature sends me the way it sends others. Music sends me. So knowing that, I lean into it. A long walk set to my vacation playlist will do more for me than a meditation any day.

• Singing, loudly, in the car to my favorite music (usually only when I’m alone). Singing actually activates the vagus nerve so it is literally activating the parasympathetic nervous system, but layered with the sound of the music makes it even more effective for me.

• Wearing my earbuds when I’m at the airport so that I can control the sound coming in, even if I can’t control the rest of the environment.

I think a lot of these things will ring true for others even if High Sound isn’t their digestion type. This variable isn’t the only factor, after all. Or it may ring true but you have no idea what your digestion type is (but you should find out what it is).

Environment

This variable tells you exactly what kind of environment your need to thrive and feel calm. It’s literally what kind of environment is regulating for your nervous system.

The direction of this arrow tells you something before you even find out your specific environment type. In Human Design, generally speaking, the left-facing arrows indicate being active in some area while a right-facing arrow indicates receptivity or passivity. The left-facing arrow will participate in and structure whatever it is and the right-facing arrow will want to sit back and take it all in. For the environment, a left-facing arrow will want to anchor into the space and actually control it in some way, while the right-facing arrow wants to sit back and take it all in. Left feels best when they have a designated space - their own office, their favorite chair, or the same table at the coffee shop they go to everyday. The specific Environment type will inform more about what and where that space should be, but they like the structure and predictability and the feeling that some part of their environment “belongs” to them (whether or not it actually does). A right-facing arrow wants to people watch and observe others in the environment. They feel at ease when they have the freedom to move around and experience new locations.

My bottom left arrow faces left. Way before I knew about Human Design I would be very particular about my space. My office (whether that was at home or in a more corporate setting) has always had to feel like mine. And familiarity definitely breeds comfort. Knowing my design only confirmed it, but it gives me awareness around situations where I may not be as productive. It’s ok that I’m really picky about ad-hoc work spaces when I travel, and now I know how to make them work better for me. More on that in a minute, but speaking to this left arrow piece, I always travel with a meticulously curated set of products that I use to feel comfortable, familiar, and productive. I find someplace I can park myself for an entire day so that it feels like “my” space over time. On a day to day basis, having my own office that I set up exactly how I wanted it was so important. If office space was limited I would still need to set up a designated space somewhere - just floating around with my laptop all over the house would not work for me.

Just like with all the variables, you can get even more specific about your environment type. Mine is Internal Markets. Market environment types (whether internal or external) thrive in environments where something (whether it’s actually market goods and money, or more abstractly, ideas, conversations, energy, etc.) is being traded. There needs to be a sense of bustling energy and exchange. Internal Market types like people to come to their “market” and External Market types like to go to others’. Which completely tracks. I love hosting a party. I love showing visitors around town. I love taking people to my favorite place. I love being the one familiar with a space and bringing others into it.

Markets are a little different than some of the other environments in that there is not exactly a calm but more of an energization that comes with it. Each of the Environment types will land differently, but in a way that’s going to speak lovingly to your nervous system for you. Regulating the nervous system is not just about being calm. There are other emotional states that activate the parasympathetic (or rest and digest) state, such as joy, belonging, or inspired. In the case of Internal Markets, this feeling is stimulation and and excitement - in a good way. When you’re doing something that makes you come alive, that’s also good for the nervous system. Internal Markets people probably don’t feel a sense of calm when they’re in their ideal environment, but they do feel comfortable and at ease, alongside this happy little buzz of cognitive stimulation. And even though the feeling is a little different for each Environment, they will always make you feel safe. You may know what kinds of spaces you gravitate to but knowing your Environment shows you specifically why that is, which makes it easier to replicate it in different situations. Someone with a Mountains Environment, for example, might want to look for a home with a beautiful view. For Internal Markets, this can be difficult to fulfill on a day to day basis since I’m alone in my office much of the time, which is ok because it fulfills a lot of my other needs. (And maybe someday I’ll think about an office space outside the home). When I feel like I’m in need of a positive energy boost, I’ll sit outside on my porch where I can interact with the neighbors, or go to my favorite coffee shop.

Cognition

Cognition is the other variable I’ve worked with a lot. It speaks to your strongest sensory gift - Smell, Taste, Outer Vision, Inner Vision, Feeling, or Touch. It’s your “super sense”. Mine is Outer Vision. I was a little surprised by that TBH because I have the nose of a bloodhound but apparently my Outer Vision is stronger. It turns out that it doesn’t actually mean how well you smell or how good your eyesight is. Smell is more like a spidey-sense - knowing when things are off (though how things literally smell to you is part of it too - but not whether you have a strong nose, but rather understanding that you can really trust your nose). Outer Vision is about appearances and aesthetics. It means that your intuition can be relayed through your visual observation of your surroundings. A picture is truly worth a thousand words to Outer Vision. It also means that aesthetics are really fucking important to my internal world. For better or worse, I need to be surrounded by beauty to function best. Because what does intuition need to thrive? A regulated nervous system. The universe is literally asking me to curate an aesthetically pleasing life. I’ve always kind of operated this way without realizing it, but I felt a little guilty about it, like I was being shallow for how much it mattered to me.

As fate would have it, my husband (lawyer by day) is an impeccable interior decorator so our entire house is absolutely gorgeous (I feel pretty comfortable bragging about that since it wasn’t me. At all. I have no idea actually how to decorate, I just know it when I see it (similar to my appreciation of music)). Remember when I said I set up my office just right, which was super important to my left-arrow Environment need to own my space? I didn’t mean I decorated it. I meant picking out and setting up MY stuff - the computer and tech stack, books, candles, hand lotion. Between the beautiful decor and the way I’ve set it up exactly how I want it, my office brings me so much joy. Which is great since I spend so much time there.

Where I spend time elsewhere is the harder part to control, but knowing this is my cognition gives me permission to be a little picky about it (within reason). Where nervous system regulation comes in with cognition is that whatever sense is your most powerful is also going to have a huge impact on how you feel. The vibes need to be good in that sense in order to feel comfortable and at ease. Shallow as it may seem, I really struggle when I’m in an ugly or messy environment. I minimize it where I can, and when I can’t, at least I have awareness as to why I’m irritable and overwhelmed, and I can try to minimize other stressors or take extra care of myself in some way. On the flip side, going to a beautifully decorated restaurant or hotel is pure joy.

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These are just a few of the variables but they’re the ones that have been the most impactful to me as of late. Knowing how you interact with the world on a cognitive level gives you more unique tools for what is going to support you. It’s definitely not necessary to start everywhere all at once. But the variables can give you ideas for little changes you might be able to make that can have a big impact. You can find yours on most charts listed somewhere on the side. If you’d like more personalized support around your design and how you can use it to help with nervous system regulation, check out my tier offerings.