How Human Design Can Help You Cope with a Sudden Loss of Routine
This pandemic struck us seemingly overnight, and with that came with the sudden loss of our routines and structures that gave us a sense of outward stability.
Millions of people have lost their jobs, many more are fearing a future loss, lots of people are working at home, and there isn't a clear exit strategy, which can make everything seem even more nebulous. There is no right or wrong response to these events.
Some people are devastated, some are thriving more than ever, and most people are probably somewhere in the middle. There can be pressure to feel that we should be doing something with this time, and also an overwhelm that can lead us to refreshing the news while we lie in bed all day.
As someone who stepped away from all the external structures in my life almost exactly a year ago (a demanding job 50+ hour/week job) with 0 plans, I wanted to share what I experienced with this dramatic shift in my daily life.
The feelings of loss are real and need space to process
It doesn’t matter if you hated your routine or loved it…when things change, it’s a loss. Anything is, even if you were ready for it to end. After I left my job, it took me months to work through that loss. I was grieving the loss of connections, all of the knowledge I had spent years accumulating, and the comfort of what I had built for myself. I needed time to work through those feelings.
2. If you need a lot of extra rest and sleep, that’s OK
Even if you’re a Generator or MG, you may find that you need a lot more sleep than normal. Processing change and chaos and grief is taxing on the system, and sometimes we need to restore ourselves even more. I found myself sleeping 10+ hours per night for the first few months and it wasn’t too much.
3. It’s totally normal to feel afraid
I experienced terror during those first few months. I would wake up, remember my new reality, and immediately feel my chest tighten. Sometimes it was like I was literally gripping the sheets. However, I trusted the path and kept going. I breathed through it, took really good care of myself taking the time to truly feel my emotions, and as the days went on, the fear lessened and eventually coincided with excitement.
© Pure Generators. This image cannot be used without permission.
4. The change pushes us to look within for satisfaction, which can be painful
When I left my job, I felt loss of the external benchmarks that I had used to determine aspects of my self-esteem. Were my clients happy? Was my boss happy? Without this kind of feedback, I felt a loss of satisfaction.
Over time, began to understand what I actually wanted and how I wanted to use my time and energy. What made ME actually feel good?
It took a lot of trial and error to decondition in this way, and sometimes it hurt. Was I doing enough? Was I doing too much?
5. Losing our external structures forces us to face aspects of our mental health we may have been ignoring and places where we haven't been seeing or caring for ourselves or our energy
As someone who has struggled with depression on and off for most of my life, this was a tough realization for me. I had to face that without an external push to get out of bed, I often had a very hard time motivating myself to do life at all.
As winter hit, I struggled even more. It gave me the opportunity to find ways to help myself that worked for me and now I'm doing great, but that took months of processing and trial and error.
If you're facing this in the first few weeks of this crisis and feeling down on yourself, give yourself as much grace as possible because these are not things that are fixed overnight. It requires time to adjust to a totally new existence.
SOME ASPECTS OF HUMAN DESIGN THAT CAN HELP
There are some major gifts in these experiences, too. Here are some aspects of Human Design that helped me weather those times and begin to understand how to manage our energy when we’re at home and outside of our routines.
Determination (Digestion)
Take a look at your chart. Does your top left arrow point to the left or right? This is the Variable called Determination. If it points to the left, you will thrive with a bit more routine in the way you nourish yourself. If it points right, you’ll be better off when you flow with what you’re feeling that day.
I wrote a more in-depth post about this last year here.
Tending to your heart (and all your undefined centers)
Is your heart defined or undefined? If you have an undefined heart, you may have a tendency to feel like what you’re doing is never enough. If you have a defined heart and aren’t challenging yourself to meet goals and follow through on promises, you might start to feel lost.
Since most people have an undefined heart, take a look at the not-self messages of your open centers that can hijack your peace!
Doubling Down on Your Strategy and Authority
It might sound repetitive, but Strategy and Authority are SO KEY when you have more freedom in how you’re using your time. As Generators and Manifesting Generators, we really have to surrender to where our energy wants to go. Do we need to rest? Play a game? Take a walk even when we feel like we should work?
Without these external structures in place, tapping into our energy flow is LIFE.
You can feel it when you are pushing against where you actually want to go. You’ll feel sluggish, blah, and even tense (I get tension headaches when I do this).
Here is some info I wrote about surrender.
If you’re wanting to go deeper into your Sacral Response, check out some of my free Guide to the Sacral Response.
Love,
Rachel
Make sure to keep in touch!