S2E12 - Existential Fears In Business (Human Design)

Our existential fears can keep us stuck in our business to the point of not even starting it to begin with, not launching, selling, making offers, showing up and the list goes on and on.

These fears are mapped out in our Human Design chart, specifically in the Spleen Center which is responsible for our safety and our survival in the now. Our instinct and our intuition live here. It governs our immune system and it is also where our existential fears live.

When these fears come through in an irrational way, they can really keep us stuck in our business and prevent us from going anywhere.

In today's episode, I'm going to go into each of the fears of the spleen, how they might impact your business, and what you can do about it so your business can thrive and you can fulfill your potential.

Transcript

The Spleen Center in Human Design is responsible for our safety and our survival in the now.

Our instinct and our intuition lives here.

It governs our immune system and it is also where our existential fears live.

Those life or death fears that when they come through in an irrational way can really keep us stuck in our business.

In today's episode,

I'm going to go into each of the fears of the spleen,

How they might impact your business and what you can do about it.

Welcome to Heart Centered Human Design,

Emotional intelligence and conscious business.

The show for heart centered entrepreneurs that want meaningful success and work life balance so they can wake up every day feeling empowered,

Inspired and supported by work and life.

I'm your host,

Vanessa Najad,

Human design specialist and coach,

And I'm obsessed with helping you be on purpose and fulfill your potential.

The Spleen Center is one of the nine human design centers which govern the way that we function,

The way our energy functions out in the world.

It is one of three awareness centers and the spleen governs your survival instinct,

Your intuition.

It is responsible for your physical survival in the now.

This is your body awareness and it functions moment by moment in the present to keep you safe and to keep you alive.

Now the spleen center is the,

When you're looking at your chart at the left side,

There is a triangle that is pointing towards the right.

That is your spleen center.

If it is colored in on your chart,

You have the center defined,

Meaning this is your consistent reliable energy that you can absolutely rely on for all of the days of your life.

It's going to show up for you in a very consistent way and it is also what you broadcast out into the world and when it is functioning in a healthy way,

Other people are going to pick that up from you.

They're going to feel safe around you.

They're going to want to be around you.

If this center is undefined,

Meaning it is not colored in,

In your chart,

You still have instincts and intuition.

They're just not going to show up so consistently.

You may experience your intuition in a number of different ways.

It's not always going to be the same.

It's not going to be as reliable and you're also taking in and amplifying other people's energies around this center.

You are able to experience them,

Become really wise about them and you may also amplify them.

The spleen covers our existential fears.

These are the fears that when they're operating correctly are designed to help keep us alive.

However,

They can also show up in an unhealthy way and depending on how your spleen is defined,

You may be experiencing these in a number of different ways.

I'm going to go over all each of the centers of the spleen,

The associated fear,

How that might show up in your business and what you can do about it.

If you have the gate defined,

It is going to be colored in on your chart.

There's going to be these little numbers on the center.

I'll tell you what they are and they will be colored in.

That means you have that gate defined.

If it's not colored in,

You have it undefined.

These are going to work a little bit differently depending on if your spleen center is defined,

Colored in or not.

If you have a defined spleen and the gate is defined,

You're probably going to be experiencing this particular fear in a very consistent way and it's probably something that you have been struggling with for most of your life.

If your spleen center is undefined but the gate is colored in and you have it defined,

It's almost like a light bulb.

Sometimes it's on,

Sometimes it's off and it's going to depend on who you're around,

What environmental energies you're picking up that might be defining your spleen.

And you may be very familiar with this fear,

But it's not necessarily there all the time.

If the gate is undefined for you,

Meaning it is not colored in,

Whether your spleen is defined or undefined,

This is energy that you're going to be taking in and amplifying from outside of you.

So you might be picking this up from other people,

Through planetary transits,

Your own personal transits and the environment.

So these are all just things to keep in mind that as I go over these fears,

We're all going to be experiencing them all at some point in our lives.

And some of them might be more consistent for you and might be a bigger part of your life theme.

So we're going to start when you're looking at the spleen,

At the top left,

The furthest most gate to the left is gate 48.

It is pointing up towards the throat center.

And this is the fear of inadequacy.

And the way that this fear can show up in your business is you feel like you never know enough.

You always need to get more certifications.

You feel like you're not ready,

You do not have enough depth,

And you can't actually start or do whatever it is you want to start or do until you get more depth,

Until you get more certifications,

Until you feel like you are ready.

Now the thing here is you may never feel like you're ready.

And with this fear,

Especially if you have this defined,

This is the gate of depth.

You probably have so much more depth than you give yourself credit for.

You are ready.

Even if you don't feel ready,

You are ready.

And this is one of those where you just got to,

You're never,

You may never feel ready.

You just got to go and do it.

You have to rely on your strategy and authority.

And if your authority cleared,

Whatever this is,

That means it is time to do it.

You have to just feel that fear and go ahead and do it anyway,

Because the only way out of this is just to go through the fear.

And this is true really for all of the spleen fears.

When they are showing up in an irrational way,

And what that means is if you are safe in this moment,

Everything is okay,

You are not threatened,

Your life is not at risk,

Then this fear is not a rational fear.

Many of these fears have you making up stories that you are telling yourself as to why you can't or cannot do something.

And then those are the stories that are having you override your strategy and authority,

And they're keeping you stuck.

They're keeping you from doing what you need to do in your business.

So first and foremost,

Making sure you're safe,

You're not being threatened in the moment if that is the case,

And this fear is irrational.

And then ensuring that you are following your strategy and authority,

And if that gave you the green light,

It is time to go and do a thing.

Now the next fear,

Over to the right,

We have gate 57.

This is the fear of the future and the fear of the unknown.

This one is also pointing up towards the throat center.

This is that fear that,

I don't know what's going to happen if I do this.

What is,

What may or may not happen,

And that fear of just keeping you stuck of not doing anything because you're so afraid of what the future might bring if you dive into whatever it is that your strategy and authority gave you the green light on.

Now this fear is also part of individual circuitry,

And that can be melancholy here.

And when we get really stuck in ourselves and we don't move forward,

This can really lead into depression.

So remember to pay attention to your strategy and authority and trust what will come is going to be the correct thing for you.

Now the next fear is gate 44.

Now this is the one that points across towards the heart center.

It's the only one that really goes across the center of the body graph.

And this is the fear of the past catching up with you,

Of the past repeating itself,

Of your skeletons in your closet being revealed,

And that can really keep you stuck.

The example of this is if you had a failed launch before,

And now you're not going to launch because you're so scared that your next launch is going to fail again.

This is that fear of the past repeating itself.

And again,

Tapping into your strategy and authority of what is the correct thing to do and feeling that fear and pushing through it anyway,

If that is what your authority is guiding you to do,

Is the important thing.

And remember,

Everything that hasn't worked out the way that you have wanted it to work out,

There has always been an important lesson.

And even if you don't know what that lesson is yet,

Someday you may look back and you will realize why something did not work out,

Why that launch failed.

And even if you tried several times and it failed several times,

It does not mean that it's always going to be that way.

So remember,

Strategy and authority,

Feeling the fear,

Doing it anyway.

The next one over is the one at the point of the triangle,

Gate 50,

And this is the fear of responsibility.

Now I can really relate to this.

I have this defined significantly in my chart.

It's one of the few gates I actually have defined twice,

And I'll share a personal example of mine.

So this can be not only the fear of responsibility,

But taking on too much responsibility and taking on responsibility that is not actually yours to take on.

Now when my nieces and nephews were little,

Whenever I was hanging out with my siblings and their children,

I would be on edge.

I would feel like if something happens to these children,

I am responsible.

It is my fault.

I have to make sure these children stay alive because if they don't,

It is my fault,

Which makes absolutely zero sense given that my brother and my sister were there.

These are their children.

It is their responsibility,

Not mine.

It's just one of the ways that this can show up.

Now in business,

This can keep you from growing too big because you don't want to hire employees because you don't want to be responsible for them.

It can keep you from launching things because you feel like you have too much responsibility.

And again,

As always,

Strategy and authority is key.

That fear of responsibility,

I know it very,

Very well.

And again,

You have to feel that fear and move through it in order to really grow both as a person and in your business.

Okay.

So moving down towards the bottom part of the triangle,

The next one is gate 32.

And we all know this one very well.

This is the fear of failure.

We all have this at some point.

This can also show up as a fear of success,

Which is a little more insidious because you're probably not going to be conscious that you have a fear of success,

But that can really keep you small.

And again,

This can tend with the other fears.

If you're really successful,

You may have a lot of responsibility and you don't know what's going to happen in the future.

So there's so much that ties into this fear that we all deal with that fear of failure.

It is important to remember,

And I like to think of this gate a little bit like the third line trial and error.

There is no such thing as failure.

Failure is only feedback and learning from what didn't work out the way that you might have wanted it to.

And even when things don't work out the way that you might want them to work out,

You're still learning from them.

And something that didn't turn out the way that you had planned may lead to something way better than anything you ever could have imagined.

So I know that fear of failure is a really hard one to push through.

However,

If you don't push through it,

You're not going to go anywhere in your business because you're not going to do anything.

You're not going to launch anything.

You're not going to start anything.

We got to push through that fear and listen to your strategy and authority.

The next one,

This is another individual fear,

Cage 28.

And this is the fear of death,

The fear of purposelessness,

The fear of what is the point?

Why am I even doing this?

This can also be the fear of struggle,

Like,

Oh,

It's going to be too hard or like,

Why is it so hard?

You know,

Those things about like,

If I do this,

It's going to be so much work.

And that fear of struggle,

Of purposelessness,

Of what's the point of like,

It's not going to work out.

And that the fear of death.

This one also very big in my chart.

This is actually in my Incarnation Cross.

The stories that we make up really in all of these ways that we tell ourselves really keep us stuck.

They keep us from following a strategy and authority.

So your authority might have given you the green light to start something new,

To create a new program,

A new offer,

A new launch.

But this fear is showing up and telling you stories as to why it won't work or why it's going to be too hard or what's the point and then you don't do it.

So we have to continually come back into our body,

Really quiet down the stories that we're telling ourselves.

Do your best not to judge the stories because you don't want to add another story on top of the story and really feel it into your body,

Feel into your strategy,

Feel into your authority as to what the next right step is for you so you can move forward,

So you can move through the fear and do what you were meant to be doing.

And the last one is Gate 18.

Also one of the few gates I have to find twice.

This is the fear,

The fear of authority is often said,

But this is also that fear of judgment.

And this can be your own self-judgment.

This is collective energy and when collective energy is turned in on itself,

It can be hyper critical.

So it can be the fear of your own self-judgment and also the fear of other people and especially people that you have made an authority judging you or not liking or having an opinion about your work that you don't like.

So it is that fear of what are the people going to say and can I deal with that?

And especially it's important to think about like,

Who are you making an authority on your work?

Because you are the authority on your work and your work isn't for everybody.

People are going to judge it and that is okay because those are not your people and that is going to feel uncomfortable.

And as you stretch what you are capable of holding,

It is going to be less bothersome.

It might still bother you always a little bit,

But it's not going to be something that stops you.

So it is so important that you don't let any of these fears stop you because remember,

The only time that these fears are actually legitimate is if you are being physically threatened in the moment and if that is not the case and you are making up stories as to why something is not going to work for you and then you are basing your decisions and what you do with your life on those stories,

Your business is not going to go anywhere.

So remember,

Come back into your body,

Take some nice deep breaths,

Do whatever embodiment work you like to do.

This might be yoga or dancing or EFT,

Breath work,

Whatever it is to get out of the stories that your mind is making up about these fears.

Tune into your present moment,

Tune into the now and then follow your strategy and authority and do what you are here to do.

I would love to hear how this episode landed for you.

Did any of these fears really resonate?

Is any of this stuff that is showing up for you on a consistent basis?

If you are listening or watching on a platform where you can comment,

Please let me know in the comments what came up for you.

Thank you so much for making it all the way to the end.

I will see you in the next episode.

Reviews

Thank you as always Vanessa! The deeper we go the more fascinating human design is! I have an undefined spleen center and only channel 44 defined. This makes a lot of sense, because the most consistent road block fear for me does tend to be “what if this doesn’t work out too?” Looking at the past and worrying the hard parts or failures will happen again. Although my meditation and mindfulness practices have improved how I handle this greatly, it still shows up, and clearly does because it is part of my design. My husband and older daughter both have defined spleen centers and cover a lot of the other channels as well, I feel like I feel their fear states very strongly. My youngest daughter has an undefined spleen center and no channels from it defined, would this explain her inability to articulate her fears when she is feeling afraid? She will often just say “I don’t know, I’m just scared…” when I can tell she is feeling afraid and am trying to help her find words for it. I would love to be more helpful to her with some tools, but perhaps the best help is just to be there with her while she goes through it. Thanks again!