Human Design Reflector's Reflections with Dirk Nellens

Dirk Nellens

Personal Reflections of Dirk Nellens. This space is dedicated to sharing Human Design insights on our unique way of being, navigating life's energies, and finding harmony in the cosmic dance. reflectorsreflections.substack.com

  1. 4d ago

    Reflection of the week: Coming off the roof

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.com One of the things that has become increasingly clear to me about Human Design is that it came into the world as a revelation, and that I enjoy it most when it remains a revelation in my own personal experience. There is very little in Human Design that I have grasped intellectually and that has ultimately remained that way once I have lived it for myself. My experience always seems to reveal something more about the information - something my mind could never have arrived at on its own. This is very much the case with the theme of coming off the roof as a 4/6 profile. Everything I had heard and learned about it turns out to be quite different, experientially, from what my mind had imagined it would be. As a 4/6 profile in Human Design, the image of being on the roof has always made sense to me. Between 30 and 50, I began to see how I was somehow drawn to observing life without fully participating in it. The funny thing is that I wasn’t quite aware of it. My fourth-line personality, so to speak, was on a different trip - still largely convinced that I could rule my own existence and caught in the illusion of control. As the years passed, however, that illusion began to crumble, very slowly. I started to see how much of what I had considered to be my own way of being was actually an expression of conditioning - conditioning that had deeply affected my life, my body, my nervous system, my muscular armoring, my neural pathways, and so on. Life on the roof between 30 and 50 brought me into contact with all kinds of opportunities to observe the depth of conditioning and its profound impact on the body, particularly through the various therapeutic settings and experiences I took part in. And by the time I had become more or less aware of this, the descent from the roof had already begun. I wasn’t ready for it at all. There was no sense of finally reaching some moment when I would “flower” - hell, no. It felt much more like: “I can finally see how much dirt, mud and dust I’ve accumulated. It’s still sticking to me like a second skin - and now I feel pulled back down into the same mud pool again… what the f..k???” So this is more or less where I find myself today, and from here I would like to introduce you to the way I am approaching Human Design: not simply as a fascinating system, but as a GPS for our process of awareness. This shifts the emphasis from acquiring knowledge about Human Design to actually engaging in a process of awareness - and such a process requires experience first. That is why the Embody Your Design process I am offering, beginning on January 18, 2027, is oriented first towards experience: meditation techniques, ecstatic dance, and an exploration of the conditioned stances that were laid down during childhood. Human Design then comes in as a lens through which we can accompany and make sense of that experience, rather than as the starting point. If this speaks to you - or if you find yourself accompanying others as a parent or therapist - this process offers a hands-on, experiential approach. The online meetings create space for meditation, dance and exchange, bringing experience directly into your life rather than keeping Human Design at the level of knowledge. If you are curious about my teaching style, I’ve also put together a 7-hour introduction to the nine centers of the Bodygraph on Udemy (https://www.udemy.com/course/human-design-beyond-the-bodygraph/?referralCode=B7327E69007C074A1A77). It can give you a good taste of how I bring what I see through my own experience, rather than simply regurgitating existing knowledge. If the experiential process of Embody Your Design appeals to you, send me an email or WhatsApp (atashdirk@gmail.com or whatsapp +32484229260) and we can set up an introductory conversation to see whether this is something we might engage in together. Thanks for reading me! Dirk _________________________________________________________________________ If this reflection resonates with you, or if you are curious about the training - Embody Your Design course, you’re warmly invited to contact me (atashdirk@gmail.com or whatsapp +32484229260) to engage in a conversation to see if it is something you would like to be involved in. _________________________________________________________________________ We’re approaching the end of the Quarter of Duality and asked to learn to approach life as it is so we can enter the Quarter of Mutation with less resistance. [See the Neutrino Weather full video in the inner circle bellow] * Instant access to the full archive of previous posts * Two live Zoom gatherings per month (next meeting on Sunday 8th of November at 10:00 am Madrid time For anyone subscribing to my newsletter (inner circle), I would like to inform you that you are invited to assist and bring your own Bodygraph and questions LIVE, every two weeks.

  2. Oct 19

    Reflection of the week: A year to experiment with your design

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.com What if Human Design was not simply something to understand, but something to live? This is the question behind Embody Your Design, the year-long Human Design deconditioning process I am starting on 18 January 2027. In many ways, this programme feels like a culmination of my work so far. After more than twenty years exploring Human Design — and after writing Understanding Our Energetic Architecture — I wanted to create something that goes beyond explaining the Bodygraph. Something more experiential. Over the course of a year, we will explore Human Design through teaching, experimentation and embodiment. Alongside my perspective on the system, the programme will include active meditations, ecstatic dance and a therapeutic approach to accompany what can emerge when we start questioning some of the patterns we have been conditioned to live by. Because deconditioning can be fascinating. And sometimes uncomfortable. And sometimes surprisingly funny. It is one thing to look at your chart and think, “Ah yes, that makes sense.” It is another thing to notice what happens when you actually start experimenting with it in your everyday life. That is the territory I want to explore together. Curious? I’m inviting anyone who feels drawn to the process to get in touch with me for a free conversation. (atashdirk@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +32 484 22 92 60) There is no sales pitch and no obligation to join. We can simply talk about what you’re looking for, what the programme involves, and whether it feels like the right thing for you. If you’re interested, just send me an email or Whatsapp and we’ll arrange a time. And if you want to taste the work first... I’ve also recently published Human Design Beyond the Bodygraph, a Udemy course with around 7 hours of recorded teaching and exploration focused on the centres of the Bodygraph. It’s an affordable way to get a feel for my teaching and for the way I approach Human Design before considering something as substantial as a year-long process. Explore Human Design Beyond the Bodygraph on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/human-design-beyond-the-bodygraph/?referralCode=B7327E69007C074A1A77 So there are two doors: Take the course if you’d like to explore at your own pace. Get in touch if you feel ready to explore the year-long journey. Either way, I’d be interested to hear what this brings up for you. Dirk _________________________________________________________________________ If this reflection resonates with you, or if you are curious about the training - Embody Your Design course, you’re warmly invited to contact me (atashdirk@gmail.com or whatsapp +32484229260) to engage in a conversation to see if it is something you would like to be involved in. _________________________________________________________________________ It continues being great weather to become aware of our relational defensiveness and how we keep on repeating unnecessary patterns in our connections with others. [See the Neutrino Weather full video in the inner circle bellow] * Instant access to the full archive of previous posts * Two live Zoom gatherings per month (next meeting on Sunday 25th 10:00 am Madrid time For anyone subscribing to my newsletter (inner circle), I would like to inform you that you are invited to assist and bring your own Bodygraph and questions LIVE, every two weeks.

  3. Oct 13

    Reflection of the week: I’m starting a course in January!

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.com For more than twenty years, I have been studying, teaching and experimenting with Human Design. Over that time, I have gradually become less interested in how much we know about our chart and more interested in a different question: What happens when we actually begin to live it? This is the question behind Embody Your Design. It is a 50-week experiential journey through Human Design, beginning 18 January 2027, in which we move beyond simply understanding the Bodygraph and begin to explore what it means in our bodies, our relationships and our everyday lives. The course brings together Human Design with embodied practice, child development, therapeutic perspectives and other ways of understanding ourselves. Rather than giving you another collection of information to remember, the intention is to create an ongoing space in which you can observe, experiment and discover. Over the 50 weeks we will explore: * the nine Centers and the conditioning they can bring into our lives * Strategy and Authority as something to experiment with rather than merely understand * the ways our early development shapes our experience * Human Design in relationships * the relationship between mind, body and awareness * therapeutic and embodied approaches to Human Design * the deeper questions that arise when we begin to question who we believe ourselves to be The course is deliberately long. I don’t think that becoming familiar with our own energetic architecture is something that happens in a weekend. Some things can be understood intellectually very quickly. Embodiment takes time. That is why the programme unfolds over an entire year, with space between the different themes to observe what actually happens in your life. Embody Your Design 50 weeks · beginning 18 January 2027 You can join for €1,500 upfront, with full access from the beginning, or choose the monthly option of €140 per month. If you feel that you have understood a great deal about Human Design but are still wondering what it really means to live it, this may be the next step. You can find the details here: https://www.dirknellens.com/courses I would be very happy to have you join me for this next year of exploration. Dirk _________________________________________________________________________ If this reflection resonates with you, or if you are curious about the training - Embody Your Design course, you’re warmly invited to contact me (atashdirk@gmail.com or whatsapp +32484229260) to engage in a conversation to see if it is something you would like to be involved in. _________________________________________________________________________ This week, the Neutrino Weather brings us deeper into adaptation and the acceptance of change as a the only thing that endures:-) It continues being great weather to become aware of our relational defensiveness and how we keep on repeating unnecessary patterns in our connections with others. [See the Neutrino Weather full video in the inner circle bellow] * Instant access to the full archive of previous posts * Two live Zoom gatherings per month (next meeting will be announced next week For anyone subscribing to my newsletter (inner circle), I would like to inform you that you are invited to assist and bring your own Bodygraph and questions LIVE, every two weeks.

  4. Oct 5

    Reflection of the week: Looking for a first cohort of people for my course...

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.com Over the last months, I have been asking myself a rather uncomfortable question: What does it actually take to bring this work into the world? I’ve spent years engaged with Human Design, meditation, embodiment, conditioning, child development and therapeutic processes. I’ve written a book about it. I’ve recorded an entire course. I’ve made many videos exploring different aspects of the work. The material exists. And yet, there is a moment that comes after creating something when another kind of work begins. Finding the people willing to engage in a joint endeavour. Not everybody. Not a multitude of people. Just the indivuduals for whom what I’ve created is actually relevant. So who is this work for? This hybrid course - Embody Your Design - I’ve created is for people who want to go beyond understanding Human Design intellectually. It’s particularly aimed at therapists, coaches, facilitators and people involved in seeing the process of deconditioning as a process of personal development. People who are interested in exploring the embodiment of Human Design: * Human Design as a map of conditioning and awareness * the relationship between our character and our deeper potential * how conditioning manifests through the body * child development and the formation of character * embodiment and deconditioning * active meditation, ecstatic dance, guided meditations and experiential exploration * bringing Human Design into therapeutic and relational work The intention isn’t simply to know your chart. It’s to investigate what happens when the information becomes something you can actually observe and experience in yourself. I’m opening the first cohort I’m preparing to begin the first live cohort of the course in January. It will be a small group of 10 people. There will be the recorded material, live Human Design teachings every two weeks, and weekly opportunities to practice together online through meditation, movement and embodied exploration. I’m deliberately keeping the first group small because I want this to be more than a collection of videos sitting on a platform. I want there to be a group of people actually doing the work together. So rather than simply putting another announcement at the bottom of this newsletter, I’m going to ask you directly: Does this speak to you? If it does, email me (atashdirk@gmail.com) or drop me a line on Whatsapp (+32 484 22 92 60) and let’s set up a first conversation to get to know each other. You don’t need to make a commitment yet. I’d simply like to hear from you. And if you know someone - a therapist, practitioner, facilitator, or someone involved in Human Design - who you think might be interested, feel free to forward this newsletter to them. The course is based on my book and all the years of personal exploration with deconditioning: Understanding Our Energetic ArchitectureHuman Design as Your Inner GPS for Awareness I’m looking forward to finding the first ten people who want to explore this territory with me. Dirk _________________________________________________________________________ If this reflection resonates with you, or if you are curious about the training - Embody Your Design course, you’re warmly invited to contact me (atashdirk@gmail.com or whatsapp +32484229260) to engage in a conversation to see if it is something you would like to be involved in. _________________________________________________________________________ This week, the Neutrino Weather brings us deeper into learning to interact without preconditions. That’s great weather to become aware of our relational defensiveness and how we keep on repeating unnecessary patterns in our connections with others. [See the Neutrino Weather full video in the inner circle bellow] * Instant access to the full archive of previous posts * Two live Zoom gatherings per month (next meeting will be next Sunday October 11th at 10:00 Madrid time ) For anyone subscribing to my newsletter (inner circle), I would like to inform you that you are invited to assist and bring your own Bodygraph and questions LIVE, every two weeks.

  5. Sep 28

    Reflection of the week: Finetuning the Pattern of Awareness...

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.com We are currently moving through the Cross of Service, a theme that I find particularly relevant to the work I have been developing over many years: the possibility of becoming increasingly aware of, and sensitive to, the energetic pattern that we are. In the title of my book, I have described Human Design as an inner GPS for awareness. The Bodygraph gives us a map of our energetic architecture, but the real exploration begins when we start experiencing that architecture in our everyday lives. Over time, I have found that Human Design becomes much richer when it is brought together with meditation, Ecstatic Dance, therapy, child development, the Enneagram and embodied exploration. These practices have helped me move from understanding the map intellectually toward actually experiencing and finetuning the patterns it reveals. This is the foundation of the yearlong experiential Human Design course I have now completed and uploaded on thinkific. The hybrid journey (self-learning and zoom gatherings) takes us through all Nine Centers, combining teachings, meditation, journaling, developmental and therapeutic exploration, Enneagram perspectives and two live online sessions each week as well as meditative and dance gatherings on a weekly basis. I am now preparing to open the first cohort in January, with a small group of around 10–15 people who feel ready to give themselves a year of this exploration. If you feel that this might be something you would like to undertake, I would love to have an initial one-on-one conversation with you. There is no obligation to join. I would simply like to hear where you are in your own journey, tell you more about the course, and see whether it feels like the right fit. Just send me an email to atashdirk@gmail.com if you would like to have a conversation. Perhaps our deepest service is to allow our life to become a service to awareness. Human Design can be a powerful inner GPS for that journey - helping us recognize conditioning and gradually find our way back to greater freedom, presence and full aliveness. This is what my course is ultimately about and I would be honored to have you on board! _________________________________________________________________________ If this reflection resonates with you, or if you are curious about the training - Embody Your Design course - I’ve prepared, you’re warmly invited to contact me (atashdirk@gmail.com) to engage in a conversation to see if it is something you would like to be involved in. _________________________________________________________________________ This week, the Neutrino Weather brings us deeper into the the relational dimension of life which is ultimately an exercise in communion between 2 individuals although it is never without friction or confusion. [See the Neutrino Weather full video in the inner circle bellow] * Instant access to the full archive of previous posts * Two live Zoom gatherings per month (next meeting will be announced next week) For anyone subscribing to my newsletter (inner circle), I would like to inform you that you are invited to assist and bring your own Bodygraph and questions LIVE, every two weeks.

  6. Sep 21

    Reflection of the week: Full Moon conjunct Neptune... testing innocence!

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.com This week, the Earth, Moon and Neptune converge in Gate 25, Line 6 - Innocence / Ignorance. Gate 25 speaks of innocence and universal Love being the Spirit of all that is. Its sixth Line 6 carries a sharp teaching: false innocence is eventually exposed through our actions. This makes integrity a central theme of this coming full moon conjunct Neptune and something that will be illuminated collectively. It is easy to believe that we are acting from love, compassion or good intentions. But Line 6 asks us to look beyond the image we have of ourselves: Do my actions actually embody what I believe? Where is there a gap between my intentions and my behavior? This question feels particularly relevant to the work I am preparing to share with you through my upcoming Embody Your Design online course. The intention of this course is an invitation to embody Human Design - to take the information out of the realm of ideas and into direct experience. Because ultimately, we cannot talk ourselves into embodiment. We have to experience it. And perhaps this is exactly what this Full Moon is illuminating: the difference between knowing something intellectually and actually living it. The Full Moon is conjunct Neptune, bringing heightened sensitivity, intuition and imagination, while also potentially blurring the distinction between what we imagine to be true and what is actually happening. So the invitation is simple: Don’t tell yourself who you are.Feel it. Live it. Embody it. And allow your actions to reveal what is true. _________________________________________________________________________ The Embody Your Design course is a way of cultivating awareness - Human Design as an inner GPS that gradually allows our own unique nature to express itself with greater clarity, freedom and compassion and how it can be put at service of deconditioning or therapy. If this reflection resonates with you, or if you are curious about the training I’m preparing, you’re warmly invited to contact me (atashdirk@gmail.com) to engage in a conversation to see if it is something you would like to be involved in. _________________________________________________________________________ This week, the Neutrino Weather brings forward a vital energy that has to be do with authentic engagement and the potential for discovery that such engagement can offer. [See the Neutrino Weather full video in the inner circle bellow] * Instant access to the full archive of previous posts * Two live Zoom gatherings per month (next meeting will held on Sunday 27th of September For anyone subscribing to my newsletter (inner circle), I would like to inform you that you are invited to assist and bring your own Bodygraph and questions LIVE, every two weeks.

  7. Sep 14

    Reflection of the week: Uranus - Urgency or Awareness?

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.com One of the themes I found myself reflecting on during this week’s Interactive Neutrino Weather was the conditioning currently brought forward through Uranus. If I were to summarise it in a single word, it would be this: Urgency. Urgency has become one of the defining psychological climates of our time. Everything asks for our attention. Everything asks us to react. Everything tells us that if we do not respond immediately, we will somehow fall behind. Interestingly, Yuval Noah Harari has pointed out that many of today’s digital algorithms have discovered something fundamental about human psychology. Fear spreads faster than understanding. Anger generates more engagement than reflection. Urgency keeps us connected to the platform. But not necessarily connected to one another. I find that distinction increasingly important. Engagement is not the same as awareness. One captures attention. The other liberates it. One narrows our perception. The other expands it. One constantly asks us to react. The other quietly invites us to observe. Perhaps nowhere is this more relevant than in the conversations surrounding Artificial Intelligence. On the one hand, we are witnessing an unprecedented acceleration of technological development. On the other, we often seem strangely unable to have the calm, thoughtful conversations that such developments require. We oscillate between alarmism and dismissal. Between fascination and denial. Urgency rarely produces wisdom. Awareness does. This has gradually become one of the central intentions behind the Human Design training I have been developing over the past months. When Ra Uru Hu spoke about the Science of Differentiation, he repeatedly invited us to honour our Strategy and Inner Authority. Over the years, however, my own experience has led me to understand those words in a particular way. Human Design is not asking us to become different. It is inviting us to become aware. And awareness naturally gives rise to differentiation. Not because we are trying to be unique. But because, as conditioning softens, what has always been uniquely ours quietly begins to express itself. In my own book I describe Human Design as an inner GPS for awareness. That sentence has become increasingly meaningful to me. A GPS does not decide where we should go. It simply helps us recognise where we actually are. The same is true of the BodyGraph. It is not there to provide us with another identity. Nor to tell us who we are. It is an instrument of observation. A way of recognizing the architecture through which consciousness expresses itself. Like every lens, however, Human Design also asks something of the one who is looking. If we look through the BodyGraph from fear... we will find fear. If we look through comparison... we will compare. If we look through superiority... we will create hierarchy. If we look through the need to be right... we will simply reinforce another identity. Only when we look through awareness does the BodyGraph become what I believe it was always capable of becoming: A way of meeting ourselves and one another with greater clarity, compassion and respect. Perhaps that is the deepest invitation hidden within this week’s conditioning. Not to become more urgent. But to become more present. Not to react more quickly. But to observe more deeply. Because perhaps the greatest contribution we can make in an age increasingly shaped by algorithms and Artificial Intelligence is not to become faster. It is to become more conscious. Warmly, Dirk _________________________________________________________________________ These are some of the reflections that continue to emerge as I develop the foundations of my upcoming training: Embody Your Design. More than teaching a system, my intention is to explore how Human Design can become a way of cultivating awareness - an inner GPS that gradually allows our own unique nature to express itself with greater clarity, freedom and compassion and how it can be put at service of deconditioning or therapy. If this reflection resonates with you, or if you are curious about the training I’m preparing, you’re warmly invited to reply to contact me (atashdirk@gmail.com). This week, the Neutrino Weather offers a perspective on how the splenic part of the Bodygraph can highjack the emotional part of the Bodygraph. [See the Neutrino Weather full video in the inner circle bellow] * Instant access to the full archive of previous posts * Two live Zoom gatherings per month (next meeting will held on Sunday 27th of September For anyone subscribing to my newsletter (inner circle), I would like to inform you that you are invited to assist and bring your own Bodygraph and questions LIVE, every two weeks.

  8. Sep 7

    Reflection of the week: When Consciousness Takes Form

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.com Reflecting on the quality of the current neutrino weather, we can see that this week we find ourselves under the influence of the Cross of Dominion. Over the years, I have often heard Ra Uru Hu illustrate this Cross with a simple example. Someone discovers that being vegetarian profoundly transforms their life. At first, it is simply a personal insight. But gradually that awareness begins taking form. Vegetarian restaurants appear. Books are written. Communities emerge. New recipes are shared. Eventually an entire culture grows around what once began as a single lived experience. Consciousness, it seems, does not simply awaken. It seeks expression. It seeks form. This observation has stayed with me for many years because I have repeatedly encountered it in my own life. For more than twenty-five years, Human Design has been one of the most important companions on my own path of awareness. Yet, as I shared in previous newsletters, I gradually discovered that understanding Human Design and living it are two very different things. A retreat may offer a profound glimpse into ourselves. A Human Design reading may illuminate aspects of our energetic architecture with remarkable clarity. But sooner or later we return to ordinary life. And then another question appears. What form does this awareness now take? If it remains only an insight, it gradually fades. If it becomes embodied, it begins reorganising the way we live, relate, accompany others and participate in the world. This has slowly become one of the deepest inspirations behind my own work. The book I have recently completed, Understanding Our Energetic Architecture – Human Design as Your Inner GPS for Awareness, was one way in which years of inquiry gradually took form. The online training I am currently preparing, Embody Your Design – An Embodied Framework for Integrating Human Design into Therapeutic Practice, is another. It is not simply a Human Design course. It is my attempt to create a space where the awareness process Human Design assists us with can be lived, embodied and explored within a therapeutic context. A place where the BodyGraph is not merely studied, but enters into dialogue with psychotherapy, meditation and the ongoing process of deconditioning. Perhaps this is what the Cross of Dominion invites us to contemplate this week. Not what we know. But what form our knowing wishes to take. Because awareness that never finds expression remains a beautiful possibility. Awareness that takes form has the potential to quietly transform both our own lives and the lives of those we accompany. If this reflection resonates with you, or if you are curious about the training I’m preparing, you’re warmly invited to reply to contact me (atashdirk@gmail.com). Warmly, Dirk _________________________________________________________________________ If you want to explore how I see Human Design as a lens at service of therapy, don’t hesitate to consult my book, it’s on Amazon for you! The Neutrino Weather for this week is available to the Inner Circle. This week, the Neutrino Weather offers the right conditions to see more clearly what really matters to us and to align our actions with it. [See the Neutrino Weather full video in the inner circle bellow] * Instant access to the full archive of previous posts * Two live Zoom gatherings per month (next meeting will held on Sunday 13th at 10 am Madrid time For anyone subscribing to my newsletter (inner circle), I would like to inform you that you are invited to assist and bring your own Bodygraph and questions LIVE, every two weeks.

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Personal Reflections of Dirk Nellens. This space is dedicated to sharing Human Design insights on our unique way of being, navigating life's energies, and finding harmony in the cosmic dance. reflectorsreflections.substack.com