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Many of you may be wondering: What is Human Design? A completely unique-to-you framework based on your birth details, the Human Design system was inspired by the ancient Chinese text "I-Ching" or "Book of Changes," a common source for both Confucianist and Taoist philosophy, and one of the first efforts of the human mind to place itself within the universe. The next iteration of these ancient texts was channeled and formalized by Ra Uru Hu around 1987 and became known as the Human Design system.

Human Design allows you to better understand You, your personal inner workings, quirks, coping mechanisms, aptitudes, advantages and disadvantages. Through a better understanding of Self, the idea is to better align with your Soul. A Self aligned with Soul can equal a more balanced, abundant, joy-filled experience rich with empathy and grace. If you can give yourself grace, you can give others grace.

I didn't realize understand what "grace" meant until I experienced plant medicine. My work with ayahuasca, magic mushrooms, bufo alvarius, cannabis, kambo and more allowed me to truly internalize this concept of Grace and release my trauma and conditioned beliefs about myself and others on a cellular level. Once the new, fresh neural pathways had been carved in my mind, I was able to start getting to know my Self, my true essence, the unique Soul that Source had gifted me.

Something that took me utterly by surprise was the power of combining and integrating my Human Design chart with my plant medicine work. It was something of a nuclear bomb for my mind. On the surface, Human Design may look like another personality abstract or intellectual metaphysical system in which the mind will try to filter one’s experience. Yet, I find that it is so much more than that once we begin experimenting with and verifying the knowledge in our personal experience. We may see that it is actually describing ourselves and our experiences on a deeper level than the conditioned ways we are used to looking at the world…albeit through a logically consistent and mechanical model. So, Human Design does start with the mind, but through Strategy and Authority, quickly leads one back to the truth of oneself and the deep intelligence of the body.

Plant medicines, on the other hand, tend to start with the healing and cleaning of the body while showing us the beauty of opening ourselves up to a greater sense of love and connection than we may have thought possible. They also can show us how malleable and often unreliable the mind is in processing our experiences.

I mention all of this, as it provides some background to how I got here. And where is here? Well, it’s just like it was before but different. There is a more embodied and present experience of being, with less of an attempt to control and try to figure out what is going to happen next. More poetically, sometimes it feels like a state of suspension, a kind of floating or flying through space without my previous tether or point of reference. What was this point of reference I seem to have lost? Is it the narratives and beliefs that were given to us by our parents, formal education, or the media? Or is it simply my mind’s insistence that it knows what is best for me and how to take the next step? In any case, it feels like these last several months have been a ridiculously slow process of letting go of the stories, maps, and scripts that my mind has identified with and attached to as a point of security.

With that letting go comes a possibility of recognizing the innate intelligence of our body and a sense of just watching our life unfold as if we were passengers going on a ride. There are fewer filters in place and a more direct experience of life. However, this state also carries its own sense of discomfort, perhaps in seeing that life wasn’t what we thought it was or would be. Our mind still wants to orient around something. Questions like ‘what is the point to all of this?’ arise. What are we doing here? What is our life actually about? What is my truth and aim?

What I’m seeing today is how available this kind of awakening is for those willing to take the leap and do the work. At the same time, a lot of people seem to have little interest in doing just that and probably don’t even know that it’s possible. And yet, can you really fault anyone for not going down this road? It takes a lot of time, self-work, and patience with oneself and others, and it’s not really giving us anything in the conventional sense. In a culture filled with immediate gratification and material acquisition, it’s not a very enticing carrot. It can feel like a leap into the void and a free fall into yourself.

I would argue - somewhat subjectively - that this "free fall" is the greatest gift of all time. Because the ultimate payoff is the embodiment of Authentic Joy and Deep Serenity, as well as the understanding of Unconditional Love, or True Love. That is what you get in return for letting go and letting God, which is so much a part of this work for me. Sure, I have experienced moments of happiness up until my awakening (like the Pop! of a champagne bottle - thrilling yet fleeting). But nothing close to the deep, sustained levels of Joy that I now feel almost all day, every day. As well as a connection to Source, and unwavering confidence in my dharma, my soul contract, my divine Path.

What I've experienced now, since my internalization of my unique Human Design - in combination with plant therapy - is that the second I'm off the divine path which God has planned for me, I'm met with friction, pitfalls, slogginess, closed doors, distress, confusion and anxiety.

Why do you think so many people rely on pharma drugs to get through their day? They are distressed and diseased. They aren't listening. They aren't tuned in, they are not One with the Divine Creator and the plan for them. And that causes an uneasiness, a dis-ease, which leads to disease of the mind and body. I cannot judge them; I was one of them... so I'd be judging myself which does no good of course. After all, the system is in place to keep us all asleep and consuming, numbing, distracting to support the agendas of the powerful and greedy. That's the system's job, and it does it very well.

If we start to see that chasing certainty and security through the mind is fruitless, and that it ultimately becomes a compromise of ourselves and a substitute for something more authentic, we may not want to go back. If we are courageous enough to loosen the grip our mind has on trying to make sense of and interpret so much of our experience, letting go of some of our stories and beliefs, and embracing a sense of not knowing, the mind may begin to take a back seat and hand over the navigation of the life to the soul and Higher Self.

You must shut off your active mind in order to align with God’s Plan. Then you can reorient to the Plan, or for me, the secure feeling and confidence that there is a Plan, it just has not been unveiled to me yet, as the time has not yet come. Then, you can re-engage the mind as a beautiful tool to help move you along the Plan. It’s important to check back in, at least weekly with prayer and meditation, shutting off the mind. I try to check in annually with plant medicine as well.

We may then find that our experience opens up in ways we could have never imagined. Life becomes more interesting and magical as we become the lead character in our own movie. With that comes the possibility of living and seeing our own signature of success, satisfaction, peace, or surprise as fully ourselves; our Self aligned with our Soul. And through this unity we can achieve absolute Bliss.