Fear and Anxiety In The Human Design Chart And What You Can Do About it
Your Human Design Chart identifies your potential areas of anxiety and fear. It gives you clues about how to soothe and reduce their impact on your life.
First, you need to know that sensations of fear and anxiety are normal. How we respond to them depends on our life experiences, awareness, perspective, and ability to reflect and reframe our beliefs.
These sensations warn us of dangerous environments, situations, and relationships. They keep us safe.
These same sensations tell us that we are embarking on something untested, big, life-changing, and impactful. It can range from a sensation of “butterflies” to outright symptoms of panic.
However we experience anxiety and fear, it’s a signal. An unspoken knowing-ness that something is afoot.
It is our body giving us information. It is natural.
Secondly, it’s equally important to know that persistent, overactive, unrelenting, immobilizing sensations of fear and anxiety are not normal.
Fear and anxiety revving at full throttle causes us to freeze or retreat. We get stuck and will do anything to stop the feeling. Sometimes the right answer is to stop or back up but not all the time. Fear and anxiety can become a theme in our life if it consistently prevents us from living life and experiencing the thrill of benign, healthy challenges and accomplishments.
Fear can make us recoil from doing that thing that will make a big difference in our lives. We will never step into our genius if we get overtaken by it.
In Human Design, our fears, anxieties, and intuitive hits have value.
They are human states that contribute to our survival, creativity, and joy of life.
They are experienced on a spectrum and their impact on our life varies from person to person. At one end of the spectrum fear keeps us stuck and at the other end it doesn’t.
When you know how to assess your fear response using Human Design, new choices open up. You can behave differently.
On your Human Design chart, the potential fear, anxiety, or intuition Gates are located in the Spleen Center.
The Spleen Center is the brown triangle on the extreme left of your Human Design diagram.
If you do not have a Human Design Chart, you can get one here.
As we take a look at the Gates of the Spleen Center, use the following questions to gauge where you are on the fear, anxiety, and intuition scale.
Does this Gate hold me back?
Does it propel me toward manifesting my genius?
How can I use my Human Design knowledge to understand and change my response to my fear?
Gate 48 - Fear of not knowing enough
Do you ever feel unworthy, inadequate, or not good enough? Like you or your ideas are never ready to be shared with the world?
You need more time. Your project needs something more.
Nail-biting. Panic. Butterflies.
You are on a rollercoaster of self-doubt.
Wow. Talk about a recipe for never getting your gifts out into the world. Picture the unpublished manuscript, unshared artwork, and “the one that got away.”
No one in your life understands what keeps you so frozen. Your offering is exquisite. It’s divinely inspired and out of this world. It doesn’t need anything else.
Getting judged, getting stuck, or forcing your way through this fear gate only adds to your anxiety.
The trick to chilling out in this gate is to learn all you can about it and observe how it affects your life. Learn and practice your Human Design strategy and authority so you can wait beautifully for the right projects to dive into. Your Design will guide you to the right situation, person, time, and invitation to share yourself and your offering.
Gate 57 - Fear of the future and the unknown
This gate is psychically attuned to what is good, healthy, and safe for you. Your challenge is to trust it and allow it to guide you. – Anxiety happens when you sense its life-or-death implications and want to run away from the responsibility. You worry you will get it wrong, so you do nothing.
I invite you to build up your self-trust by getting curious about the gifts of this gate. It’s about protecting your health and welcoming the future. What is your intuition trying to tell you? What life-changing thing are you about to unveil for the world?
If there are no flashing red lights, I encourage you to trust that you are ready for whatever is coming. You are more than prepared to lead. You will know what to do at the right time. Keep going.
Using your Human Design type, strategy, and authority will decrease the fear sensation by a lot. They will move you toward the right opportunities for you. Try it. You’ll like it!
Gate 44 - Fear of the past repeating itself
Have you ever had a feeling that you just couldn’t shake? A sense that something is off or someone has bad intentions or lacks integrity?
A personal history of pain or generational trauma increases your sensitivity to unsafe people or situations. When it is overactive, it can cause you to not trust yourself or others. It can cause a flight or freeze response.
“Ancestral” intuition or unconscious memory is a bad thing when it prevents you from taking a job, trying out a career, moving, or going for that juicy relationship. It can take the fun out of life.
“Ancestral” intuition, memory, or inexplicable nudges are good things when you’re negotiating for yourself, and others and you sense danger or deception.
Its quiet messages guide you to say and do the right things so that you get what you want and need for yourself and others. It steers you away from harm and keeps you in integrity.
Learning and practicing your Human Design type, strategy, and authority is a great way to move into self-trust and away from immobilizing anxiety.
Gate 50 - Fear of letting people down
Do you have a knack for knowing what people need? Are you driven to make sure you meet their needs whether they’ve asked for it or not? Are you the “responsible” one?
The intuitive knowing, anxiety, or fear of this gate can pressure you beyond caretaking that’s appropriate and into co-dependency. You can fail to live your own life and feel compelled to control everyone and everything around you,
This sense of responsibility can burn you out.
A great way to manage this sensation or drive is to remind yourself that you have a desirable gift. You instinctively know what others need before they do. People will pay big money for that talent and they will also exploit it if you’re not careful.
Remember, you cannot be all things to all people. Learn to say no.
Your Human Design type, strategy, and authority teach you how to say no.
The Human Design influenced “no” is faster to learn and has an empowered energy behind it. It feels righteous, just, and fair to everyone involved.
Gate 32 - Fear of failure
Imagine having an unveiling party for your big, beautiful dream come true, but no one comes. Or they show up but they laugh at you, point out your mistakes, and criticize you.
It’s the stuff of nightmares.
The fear of Gate makes you delay your offerings to the world unless you are absolutely sure you will be celebrated, validated, and recognized. Anything less is too painful to contemplate. Until you are certain you cannot fail, no one gets to see that amazing thing you’ve done.
It all sounds irrational, but fear of failure is a real problem for a lot of people.
If fear of failure, has you stuck, here is an affirmation for you:
The sensation I am feeling is my body letting me know that I am birthing something brilliant and beautiful. As I do this amazing thing, I will take my fear with me. I will do it despite my fear. I am doing it regardless of my fear. I am doing it because I freakin’ rock!
I also recommend using your Human Design strategy and authority on the front end of your decisions rather than using them after the fact to review a poor outcome. They ensure that you do the right thing at the right time.
Gate 28 - Fear that life has no meaning or purpose
Do you ever get that panicky feeling that time is running out and you still haven’t found your purpose or done anything impactful or worthwhile?
The fear of this gate needs to prove something before time runs out. It is driven to confront issues, take on causes, and stubbornly fight battles that are not necessarily meant for you to fight. You need to feel the exhilaration of proving a point or surviving a challenge.
For health reasons too numerous to mention, this is a risky lifestyle.
When used correctly, your Gate 28 will move you to do things that are empowering not reckless and depleting.
You will fight the right causes. You will feel exhilarated, deeply satisfied, and vital about your accomplishments. You can take it to the wall and stay physically and emotionally healthy while doing it. You’ll have lived to fight another day. You’ll have survival stories to tell. You will be an inspiration to people who want to experience worth in their lives too.
To use your Gate 28 correctly, you must activate your Human Design type and strategy. Those two things will help you pick your battles wisely.
Gate 18 – Fear that things will never be perfect enough
Do you get anxious when things aren’t going as planned? Is it painful to watch people do things the “wrong” way when you know a better way? Do you get increasingly agitated when meetings don’t run smoothly, processes fall apart, or people drop the ball, etc?
Instinctively you always know what to do. Internal pressure makes you want to jump in and fix things. You absolutely can’t bear the pressure. It needs relief.
You, my friend, are an extremely valuable commodity. You have a nose for imperfection, flaw, and weakness. You are driven to correct what doesn’t work.
But when your perfection superpower is used before it’s asked for, it doesn’t feel good to other people. It feels critical and no one likes to feel criticized. You and your ideas will be ignored or forcefully shut down.
And, when you turn your perfectionism onto yourself, it’s called self-criticism. It can keep you from doing great things in your life, business, or career. Also, it can strain potentially amazing relationships.
To avoid anxiety, bitterness, and pain in your Gate 18, I recommend using your Human Design knowledge to assess whether your “corrections” are wanted before offering them.
Conclusion
Human Design teaches you to embrace your “fears” as guidance towards paths of greatness. The path you choose has the potential to inspire, empower, and influence others in ways known and unknown.
When you reframe fear as intuition, you can feel the vibration of our body change.
You move from cowering to expanding to a higher level of self-knowing and trust.
You are more willing to follow your intuitive voice toward the best you have to offer in that moment.
Your job is to find out how your intuition speaks to you.
For some, it will take time to unearth the voice of your intuition. Especially if you’ve ignored it your entire lifetime. But now you know what to look for and how to think about what your fears are telling you.
When you know what to look for you will have choices and you will take informed action.
You won’t be held back by fear anymore. Rather, you will be catapulted onto a path that is correct and safe for you and others.
Brigitte Knight is a Human Design educator, life coach, and therapist. She loves teaching people to use their Designs to improve their relationships.
She helps former Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others manage religious trauma, anxiety, guilt, loneliness, and depression.
Her life’s experience as a Registered Nurse, therapist, ex-Jehovah’s Witness, and Human Design practitioner since 2006 can help you live your best life.