Most of us take our mind to be the best adviser. In its considerations and judgements, though, your mind can draw only on the past: on what you have already experienced, what you have learned at school or university, what you have read or seen somewhere. Your mind also works on the basis of beliefs — particular individual views and notions that you have taken over from others or formed yourself. Such beliefs often lead you astray, and have nothing to do with reality.
Video: your inner voice
There is a far greater intelligence in us than the mind. Unfortunately nobody ever taught us how that intelligence expresses itself in us, or how we can consciously notice it and question it. Not least for that reason we live in a very mind-oriented society in which numbers, data, facts, profit and logically comprehensible arguments count for more than the higher wisdom within us.
Your mind cannot make you happy. It does not know the path of your life, it does not know what could bring you into your full strength or what would really make you happy. It only pretends all of that so that you listen to it and to nothing else. If you look more closely at the path of your life and at your decisions, you will recognize that your mind has often led you astray, and that its assumptions and promises frequently did not come true. You have already spent a lot of time and energy following that path, and it did not make you happy.
There is, however, a reliable voice in you that can do this and can always show you the way that is best for you. This is your inner voice. It is the one you should give priority to, which is why in Human Design it is called the inner authority.
This inner voice can reliably help you to make the decisions that are right for you. Why do decisions matter so much? Because they determine your future. With your decisions you shape what is to come. Look at your life as it is today: it is largely the consequence of the decisions you once made. You decided on the flat or the house you are living in. You decided on the partner who may be at your side. You decided on the occupation you are in — and on the employer you work for. Or at some point you decided to work for yourself. However that may be: your situation today is the result of the decisions you made earlier. And with every new decision you shape your future.
That is why your decisions matter so much — and so does the question of what you base them on. The Human Design system shows you how you can best perceive your inner voice. The first center that is defined (shown in color) in the following order is your inner authority. That is the one to give priority to when you decide:
1. The solar plexus center (emotion/feeling).
If this center is defined in you, your feeling is the most reliable adviser you have. You can question it by letting a picture form in you when deciding. On the one hand you imagine what it would look and feel like if you decided FOR it. On the other you check how it feels to decide AGAINST it. You will notice the difference.
Your feeling about your decision does not simply arrive — your best adviser expresses itself through that feeling. You cannot grasp this with your mind; you can only trust your feeling, and then see where it leads you when you listen to it. That is when you will recognize the wisdom behind it.
With a defined emotional center, though, you are also subject to swings of mood that can influence your decisions positively or negatively. It is therefore important not to decide on the spur of the moment but to wait as long as you possibly can. That way you look at your choice in different moods — and the longer you take, the clearer and more reliable the decision will feel.
2. The sacral center (life force).
If this center is defined in you, your gut voice answers yes/no questions reliably. If you ask, for example, „should I do this?", then either an approving, grumbly „mhm" comes from your gut (yes) or a soft „ohhh nooo…" (no). There is usually a noticeable tendency rather than a sharp yes or no. If the undertaking you are asking about feels laborious and burdensome, that is a no. If it releases energy or a certain enthusiasm in you, that is a clear yes.
3. The spleen center (intuition).
If this center is defined, you have a reliable intuition. It is important to understand, though, on which subjects you can rely on it. It only ever responds to the moment at hand and relates to the body, wellbeing, the immune system, safety and comfort. The task of intuition is above all to protect you from possible danger. Animals have this center too. It provides the instinct to avoid danger intuitively — and so to survive. Your intuition therefore does not help you with questions that point into the future. If you want to know intuitively where you should fly on holiday in three months, your intuition will not be able to answer that.
The impulses of intuition come spontaneously and are often very quiet. Many people therefore fail to hear them, especially when they are intensely busy with something or caught up in thought. What makes it harder still is that the impulses of intuition come only once. If you ask again — „what was that just now?" or „why should I do that, or NOT do it?" — nothing more comes.
As a rule your mind cuts in after such spontaneous impulses and looks for logical explanations and reasons for them. But with intuitive impulses there are none. And because the impulse cannot be understood, many people ignore it. Only afterwards do they sometimes recognize that following it would have protected them from harm. The fact is: behind the impulses of your intuition, too, lies a great, inexplicable wisdom that goes far beyond our mind.
4. The heart center (ego/will).
If this center is defined, your inner voice speaks to you through the amount of willpower you feel in yourself in relation to a decision. You can question this deliberately by asking yourself, before deciding: „do I really want this?" — and then listening inwardly and sensing whether you feel strength for one side of your choice. If you feel „yes, I really want this", then it is right for you from a higher point of view as well. What matters is that you feel the strength for it in you. If it is merely a tempting thought, it carries no weight — it is about energy you can actually feel for a decision, a project, something you want to stand up or fight for. It sometimes helps to listen to your own words when you talk to somebody about your choice. You often express to others what you want and what you do not want. That can happen quite unconsciously — and sometimes you can tell from WHAT you say, HOW you say it and WITH WHAT ENERGY, what it is you really want.
5. The self center (identity).
If this center is active (defined) in you, a higher wisdom, your higher self, sometimes speaks out of you spontaneously. You do not know precisely where it came from yourself — it simply comes out of you. Unfortunately this instance in you cannot be questioned deliberately. It speaks up on its own when the time is ripe and it is helpful for you. It is like a taxi driver who automatically takes you to the right places at the right time and lets you meet the right people. „Right" here means right FOR YOU, for your path, for your development. Exactly how that happens each time cannot be explained by the mind, nor consciously followed.
Looking back, though, we can sometimes recognize that fate led us to places, brought us into situations or brought us together with people that were extremely important for our path and that made a certain development possible in the first place. We then call it fate or providence — in truth there is a higher instance behind it that brought us into exactly that situation.
That said: we all have free will. The higher wisdom can bring us into particular situations, but it is up to us whether we say YES or NO in the situation. Whether we take the opportunity or let it pass. Whether we speak to somebody in a particular situation, or leave it. It is your choice, your decision. And through your choice you shape your future. That is why your decisions matter so much. And that is why it matters so much that you recognize the way your inner voice speaks to you, and how you can question it deliberately, in order to make the decisions that are right for you and for your path.