Deconditioning Your Undefined Centres

In your Human Design, you will have a combination of defined (coloured in) and undefined (white) energy centres. Each centre governs a specific quality of energy. When you have a centre defined, it means that this is a function of energy that you have consistent and reliable access to. This is energy that you transmit out that impacts the environment and people around you.

Your undefined energy centres are where you are sensitive and take in the energies of the environment and people around you. This is a function of energy that you experience inconsistently and where you experience most of your conditioning from the outside world. This conditioning often leads to feeling like you are not enough in some way and have to overcompensate in order to keep up or fit in with the world around you.

Living this way, constantly persevering at being someone you are not, is exhausting and most commonly leads to burnout and fatigue.

A big part of your Human Design experiment is deconditioning from your Not Self, which can be an incredibly confronting and uncomfortable experience of illuminating all of the patterns, behaviours and traits you have taken on that are not true to who you really are.

Deconditioning is a journey of illuminating those identities, behaviours, patterns, values and beliefs that you have taken on that don’t serve you and learning to recognise the difference between your Not Self (your conditioned self) and your True Self (who you are innately).

Through deconditioning and illuminating who you are not, you begin to liberate who you really are.

Deconditioning takes time, and I believe that we all continue to decondition for most of our lives. You cannot rush or speed up this messy and uncomfortable process. The only way is through.

I have found that deconditioning is a cyclical process, one in which you continue to meet those ingrained patterns in different ways as you deepen into the truth of who you really are. Even now, after nearly seven years of deconditioning, I find my Not Self patterns still rear their heads sometimes in sneaky and innovative ways. I continue to meet that discomfort and witness the ways these patterns are taking me off track.

Below I am sharing some themes that relate to the not self of each undefined energy centre. Have a look at your own chart (you can do so here), focussing on the energy centres that are white. If you want to go deeper, our personalised human design reports cover how each centre functions in your chart, including your defined centres.

Undefined Head Centre

The primary Not Self of the undefined Head Centre is thinking about things that don’t matter. When this centre is undefined, you take in and amplify the mental pressure of the people and environment around you. You take in the mental pressure to ask why, what and how, and amplify it. Through this centre you can feel tremendous pressure to solve other people’s problems and get caught up in the questions of others people.

If you have this centre undefined (liked I do) you may find yourself running around sometimes like a headless chicken, caught up in the mental fuckery of the world around you, trying to understand, resolve and problem solve things that don’t really matter to you.

Deconditioning: pay attention to where you are thinking about things that don’t matter or aren’t relevant to you, where you are caught up in mental confusion, doubt or scepticism, adn where you are taking on other people’s questions and problems as you own.

Undefined Anja Centre

The primary Not Self of the undefined Ajna is pretending you are certain and feeling intellectually inferior. When this centre is undefined, you can feel a pressure to prove that you know for sure and a pressure to prove your intelligence. The thing is, you aren’t really meant to know for sure. You are sensitive to and take in the ideas, perspectives and opinions of the people and environment around you, making you intellectually curious and versatile.

Some incredible minds have this centre undefined, Einstein being one of them! But this is a different kind of intelligence, where the gift lies in your ability to be open-minded and fluid in your perspective, ideas and opinions.

Deconditioning: pay attention to the times when you feel you have to be rock solid in your opinion or prove to someone else that you are certain and know for sure instead of admitting that perhaps you don’t know for sure. As well as the times when you question your intellect and feel inferior.

Undefined Throat Centre

The primary Not Self of the undefined Throat Centre is questioning if you will ever be seen and heard and trying to attract attention. This can present as either unhealthy attention-seeking behaviour or verbal shutdown and feelings of inferiority.

If you have this centre undefined, you will likely feel a pressure to speak and act in order to garner attention in some way. You may feel a pressure to speak up out of a fear that your opportunity will never come again. You may feel a pressure to take action prematurely in the aim of being noticed. The gift of this centre emerges when you surrender control of how and when people will see you and how and when you communicate and act. Know that you can be a powerful communicator when you allow your expression and action to flow through you spontaneously and organically.

Deconditioning: Pay attention to the times you feel invisible, the times you question if you will be heard, the times you find yourself mentally overpreparing what you will say, and the times you catch yourself taking premature action. Notice what happens when these patterns override your authority and lead you to act on things that aren’t correct for you, and pay attention to how your energy feels.

Undefined G-Centre

The primary Not Self of the undefined G Centre is looking for love and direction in the wrong places. It’s common for those with this centre undefined to feel a pressure to fix themselves as one thing, stick to a label that clearly defines who they are and where they are going. But when you are undefined here, you are sensitive to the identity and direction of the people and environment around you. This means that your sense of direction is influenced by the direction of the people you surround yourself with.

You are here to learn to love who you are today without having to define who you will be tomorrow. Rather than having a select menu of opportunities in life, you are here to enjoy a buffet of endless potential. The key to this is ensuring you are in environments that feel good for you. When you are in the right environment, you are with the right people, and you can trust that you are heading in the right direction.

Deconditioning: Pay attention to the times you feel like you need to lock yourself down as one thing, define yourself with a definitive label, or feel a pressure to find ‘the thing’. Notice what happens when this pattern hijacks your decision-making.

Undefined Ego

The primary Not Self of the undefined Ego is feeling you have something to prove. With this centre undefined, you are likely to question your worthiness and value in the world and can feel like something is wrong with you because your motivation and willpower ebb and flow. In your Not Self, you waste time and energy making promises and commitments that you don’t have energy for, being overly competitive, trying to be the best, or needing to always be first.

Remember always that you have nothing to prove. You are valuable and worthy just as you are. Living your life trying to constantly prove your value and worth is a quick path to burnout and exhaustion. Instead of proving your worth, your gift is in discerning what is and is not valuable.

Deconditioning: Pay attention to the times you feel like you have to overcompensate or say yes to something just to prove you are valuable and worthy.  Give yourself grace and know that you aren’t designed to always be motivated in the same way others can be – it’s natural for you to feel unmotivated sometimes. Do your best to not make promises and commitments. And pay attention to the times you fall into cycles of constant improvement or feel like you have to do more, be more and have more.

Undefined Solar Plexus

The primary Not Self of the undefined Solar Plexus is avoiding truth and confrontation. If this centre is undefined in your chart, you are someone who takes in and amplifies the emotional energy of the environment and people around you. Not everything you feel is your own and it can be important to recognise this sensitivity.

The Not Self of this centre can present as people-pleasing, where you hide your truth or tell white lies to keep the peace and not rock the boat. You can find it more difficult to face confrontation. You can also be hijacked by other people’s emotions, which leads you to make decisions that aren’t right for you. Know that you are here to become wise about emotions, desires, truth, and healthy confrontation.

Deconditioning: Pay attention to the times you feel emotionally heightened – if you can’t connect that emotion to your life then there is a good chance you are amplifying the mood/emotions of the environment and people around you. Try to hold off making decisions if you feel emotionally up or down – aim for cool, calm and collected. Gently encourage yourself and build your tolerance for sharing truth, having uncomfortable conversations and embracing healthy confrontation.

Undefined Sarcal Centre

The primary Not Self of the undefined Sacral is not knowing when enough is enough, and if you know my story at all you will know this has been a big one for me personally. What this Not Self can look like is overworking, overdoing things and overgiving. If you have this centre undefined, you must be a Projector, Manifestor or Reflector – this is part of what defines these energy types.

The Sacral centre governs lifeforce energy, workforce energy, and creativity, and if this centre is undefined, you will have an inconsistent experience with these themes. You are not here to work in the traditional sense—your energy ebbs and flows, and you will likely do best with a more seasonal approach to your work.

Deconditioning: Do your best to stop before you feel tired; by the time you feel tired, it’s likely that you’ve overdone it. Pay attention to the times you feel you have to keep up with the world and people around you. Embrace the seasonality of your energy. Give yourself grace, and don’t be hard on yourself; you are wired differently to 70% of the world – your value has nothing to do with how much you do or how productive you are.

Undefined Spleen Centre

The primary Not self of the undefined Spleen centre is holding onto things that aren’t healthy for you and resisting change. The Spleen Centre governs our experience with safety, survival and wellbeing, and those with this centre undefined typically come into life questioning their safety and security.

In your Not Self, you may find you hold onto relationships, roles, jobs and possessions that you know aren’t healthy for you because they give you a sense of security. You’re here to learn not to compromise your well-being in this way. It can also present as hoarding physical things. With this centre undefined you also take in and amplify the fears of the people around you, which can lead you to taking reckless action or resisting the change you know is best.

Deconditioning: Pay attention to the times you feel overwhelmed by fear and ask if that fear is really yours. Notice where you may be resisting change and where you may be holding onto something (a relationship, job, environment or possession) that you know is unhealthy for you and be curious about what the payoff here is – where are you swapping your wellbeing for artificial security in some way.

Undefined Root Centre

The primary Not Self of the Root Centre is rushing to be free from pressure. Typically, people with this centre undefined can, in their Not Self, do the work of 3-4 people a day. But this is a quick path to burnout and exhaustion. Instead of rushing through life, you are here to learn to witness the pressure you feel without acting on it.

When you have this centre undefined, you take in and amplify the pressure, stress and ambition of the environment and people around you, and you are more sensitive to stress. This pressure can lead to constant, misaligned busyness OR complete inaction and stagnancy. You might find you procrastinate on the things you need to do and distract yourself with other things.

Deconditioning: start to notice the ways you rush through life and all of the ways you distract yourself with misaligned busyness. Give yourself grace, and remember that you are here to embrace more spaciousness and ease. Prioritise wellness practices that help you wind down and destress your life. Remember, you are not here to rush through life.

Deconditioning Your Undefined Energy Centres

Your Not Self patterns can create some external success—you may even think that your undefined root and ability to do the work of 3-4 people in a day are a blessing. But please know that this will never be healthy or sustainable for you long term. Your Not Self patterns only work to keep you stuck, distracted, and locked in homogenisation.

If you want to truly differentiate and live a life that is true to you, deconditioning in your undefined centres is the best place to start. Only when you see and illuminate who you are not can you truly start to liberate who you really are.

I invite you to see with compassion and curiosity where you may hold Not Self patterns, behaviours, and values in your life and how you can lean into your strategy and authority when you are next making a decision rather than allowing these patterns to hijack your decision-making.

If you’re interested in learning more about your Not Self and energy centres, our personalised Human Design reports are the best place to start. 70+ pages, all about you and ready to download almost immediately. We cover each centre in depth + so much more.