"Decision-Making ...
Have you ever considered that all of your experiences are the result of a decision that you made? Decisions dictate the direction of your life including where you live, who you meet, your work in the world and your relationships. Even seemingly minor choices can have a profound impact on your life path. The life you are living right now is the result of a sequence of decisions. Do you know how you make decisions? Most of us have been taught to use our minds to make decisions. Familiar recommendations include: “Use your head, make up your mind, figure it out, think it through, and weigh your options.” Consider the possibility that the mind is not your best tool for decision making. The Human Design System describes a radical new process for decision-making. Human Design shows that we each have an innate embodied capacity to make correct decisions for ourselves and in a way that is more clear and accurate than the faculty of the mind. For most people this innate decision-making capacity is under-utilized or might even be unknown to them. People who are experimenting with Human Design are reporting that this new way of decision- making eventually leads to experiencing life with ease and confidence, and that they are more often finding themselves in the right place at the right time with the right people.
The Mind and Conditioning The Human Design System points to a key revelation: the mind is not the correct authority for decision-making. The true purpose and value of the mind has largely been misunderstood. Applying the logic of Human Design we can observe that the mind, despite all of its cognitive capacity, is easily conditioned by outside influences. This tendency of the mind to be conditioned makes it a limited and easily distorted mechanism for decision-making.
Rather than for decision-making, the correct role for the mind is to witness and observe life. The mind is a remarkable research tool for observing and recording knowledge and experiences as memory; however as a consequence of deep social conditioning we assume that the mind is capable of directing our lives through its decisions. The mind is a vast data bank of sensory input and information accumulated over a lifetime; it overwhelms and confuses the personal decision-making process. The mind can’t discern what is correct for you because its ‘data storage’ comes from the deep conditioning it takes in from others. The mind internalizes answers, opinions, and ideas from various outer authorities including parents, teachers, religious leaders, spouses, politicians, and the media. Can you see how mental decision-making is based on the influence of these external authorities? With mental decision-making, we’re all vulnerable to living out a homogenized version of life that has little connection to what is healthy, satisfying and uniquely correct for us. It’s likely that the conditions of your life right now are a product of these conditioned influences. The mind is filled with repetitive thought patterns which you may not even notice as conditioned thoughts because they are so familiar to you; they’re running as constant background commentary throughout your day-to-day life. Making mental decisions leads to unconsciously conforming to external expectations and/or following collective ideals and rules that you began identifying with in childhood. Life is robbed of real individuality; it often becomes a superficial facade of a socially-environmentally conditioned concept of ‘normal’. Living a conditioned life brings the experience of frustration, bitterness, anger or disappointment.
Fear and the Mind When the mind is making decisions, it is pretending it knows what is healthy and good for you, often trying to manage and control your decisions through deception, distortion, and fear. Fundamentally the mind makes its decisions based on a deep fear about survival. Over time you can end up with a life that is built on so many fears and lies that you feel a constant, generalized state of anxiety. Is it any wonder that a large segment of western society consumes anti- depressant medication on a daily basis? Is it any wonder that so many people today are unsatisfied with their quality of life? People are searching for meaning in a world which is built upon the illusion of mental control. Many are living lives filled with depression and anxiety, thinking that they are not good enough or that they will never succeed in the face of all the pressures of modern society. Many see that our lives are not fulfilling, but very few of us question our decision- making process or recognize that our lack of fulfillment is related to mental decision-making.
The Mechanical Map The Human Design System offers a mechanism for breaking out of a mentally driven life. Through experimentation with Human Design you can discover the remarkable power of this simple, practical application of the knowledge. The entire Human Design System is vast and deep and there are many layers of information within it. However this book is designed to introduce just the basics of Human Design and it illustrates a simple, mechanical process for correct decision- making. The basics are all you need to discover the truth of your unique life and to find the pleasure and ease of living life as your authentic self. "
Your Own Authority A Beginner’s Guide to Human Design Dharmen and Leela Swann-Herbert
