When I first discovered I was a 5/1 I was upset.
I still remember vividly the punch in the gut feel, that both was a dawning and realisation – that feeling when deep down, when you know something is true.
Yet a vivid rejection of what I’m hearing.
Am I doomed to be just lonely and misunderstood? (even if surrounded by people and friends, the deepest loneliness is in feeling that no-one truly sees you)
Am I really just there to be helpful to others?
I so desperately want others to just be able to fully SEE me.
What do you mean I have less influence on my inner networks vs. with strangers?
Or as one of my 5/1 clients that I recently did an in-depth reading for in more colourful words said:
“I felt pissed, like am I just meant to be like God’s b* to others?”
This is a common response for many people when they first come across Human Design (not just the 5/1). An initial rejection of aspects of their design.
The 5/1 aspect is probably what was responsible for my ‘rabbit-holing’ into Human Design, which then led to the digging into all corners.
Studying every aspect of line types of my friends and family, and then going deeper into understanding gates, then variables.
You could perhaps then say that finding out I was a 5/1 (and the feeling of initial devastation around it), was responsible for me now having the knowledge I do on Human Design.
How so very typical 5/1!
(I should also mention that I now truly LOVE and embrace the fact that I am 5/1! And all the beautiful power that it brings.)
Over 3 years now into my Human Design experiment I still discover new corners and identify new answers every time I look at my chart which has been stuck on my wall at my desk for almost that entire time.
I remember the Summer I started getting really into it, it was the few months after the 5/1 discovery.
I began to read the charts of almost everyone I was meeting, friends, my husband’s friends, his parents, and even clients.
My husband is a 4/6 type, and my business partner 1/3.
That Summer I was excitedly sharing with my husband my new learnings daily about his design during walks along the lake in Greece, while he humoured my excitement, always ending with a “You know I don’t believe in this stuff, right?”
“I know,” I would say, “But you must admit, it’s kind of interesting that your design is definitely not mine, and my design is definitely not yours.”
Most of us, even if at first we don’t have that same visceral reaction as I did, go through some sort of rejection at some point in their early Human Design discovery, and even beyond that.
But what follows, is always a deep acceptance and a flow.
There is a sort of surrendering. And with that comes opening.
A feeling where the fighting stops from within. And you learn to love your inner nature. Your whole nature.
And that is the beauty of what Human Design brings.
It is what it brought to me.
I have always been completely obsessed with the concept of Identity, and over the years have done almost every single type of personality test there is. There was a hunger to discover, and each that I would come across, I would read it and go ‘eh’, and then forget and move on.
It wasn’t that it didn’t resonate, but truth be told there was always a seed of doubt I held every personality test I did – a pinch of salt.
But there was something different about Human Design.
At first interesting that it did still overlap with things that I had already seen through choice driven tests like Myers-Briggs, DISC, Strengths Assessment, Colour Dynamics, Enneagrams etc, but that it was completely based on 3 simple data points.
All of these always left me slightly skeptical, in knowing that there was an element of the mind coming into play, and possibility to game the outcome (even if done unconsciously).
Human Design has been the single tool that has brought me Self Acceptance.
At a deep deep level. The acceptance of the full self.
And loving of that full self.
Loving the 5/1, Accepting the 5/1, and fully Embracing the 5/1 has been the biggest journey in both my personal and particularly my business life.
It took away the pressures that I needed to “do things like others”. Make the effort to get back out there and network, when the truth is that was sucking my energy. And I always needed heavy recovery afterwards.
I learnt I didn’t have to be doing things like my 1/3 business partner, who loves to chit chat and can spend hours and hours in the DM’s on social and all day flitting around socialising, meeting people and networking.
(Note: not all 1/3s are like this, my partner happens to be a particularly extraverted one, and that can play into the playful and experimental nature of the 3 line, but I equally also know several more introverted 1/3s, one of my sisters, close friends, clients – where this 3 line comes out in different ways)
I can do this for a short while – occasional. But the truth is that it drains me big time.
I learnt to accept and love the fact that my influence as a 5/1 will be the strongest on strangers.
I learnt to accept and LOVE the fact that all the marketing strategies and tactics I have been learning to grow a business were in fact not suitable for 5/1s.
It was validating to feel what I had constantly faced as stop-starts and friction in certain marketing techniques (which involved a lot of chit chat), and self-based storytelling content (which is more potent for those with the 3 lines), simply are not the most powerful strategies for me.
I learnt to accept and love the fact that because of my projection field and the fact that people will feel your aura to come to you for advice and solutions (something I have felt my whole life), that my close close circle will be a smaller one, one that my energy field can handle while giving fully.
(This contrasts with people in my life with the 2/4 type, like my sister – that seem to naturally magnetise people all over, my husband the 4/6 that still maintains deep friendships with almost all his childhood friends despite having moved abroad 20 years ago.)
And that clients will more often stay clients (albeit with a deeper relationship of trust) than becoming friends.
(Of course, over the time the relationship deepens and trust, and you do become friends of sort – but it’s less the sharing memes with each other chit-chat type of friendship, and more the deep trust in knowing that you will always support each other and be there in case of times of need)
And by the way, relationships by nature will be organic and grow, and this may always change. I have certainly had clients that become close confidants and friends, where I have even ended up becoming their client etc, but it’s simply in knowing that this will be more a select few rather than the bulk.
Marketing as a 5/1 is very different to doing so for other types.
It is focused on magnetism. It is a line profile heavy in leadership and STAGE energy.
This doesn’t have to mean a literal stage, but it means you need to be visible in a way to impact and influence others.
I spoke about earlier that personal storytelling content doesn’t do as well for 5/1s as it does for types like 1/3s and yes even 3/5s, as well as any profiles with the 2 or 4 lines.
It wasn’t that people didn’t care to read my stories – those that knew me personally in some way of course did, it was just that it didn’t influence someone to act.
Whereas particularly for line 3’s – this is the primary way of creating influence. Literally throwing themselves into situations over and over, and teaching, guiding, showing others through their learnings, mistakes and wins.
I didn’t need people to “get to know me”, I needed them to see me as someone who could advise them by showing the depth of how I could guide and advise them.
Of course, the humanistic aspect is always a part of what you want to be showing through your content (no matter what type you are) – but it was more about the balance.
So a line 3 may have personal storytelling taking up a bigger portion of their overall content, whereas a 5/1 in particular may have this only taking up perhaps 10%.
That was a major shift for me when I went back to review my content over the years (and incorporating all kinds of business advice not suitable for 5/1s…) and I could see that it was completely disbalanced (at the time taking up about 60% of my content).
Personal storytelling for 5/1s need to be dripped in to help create personal trust, and overdoing it helps people to think and know “you are a nice person”, but not necessarily someone who can help them.
This post is about acceptance.
Deep self acceptance. And starting to open up and see into the truth of who you truly are.
If you break away all the “should’s” and what others, or society, or what has been conditioned as something you should be and want to do.
And come back to knowing that there is a different way —> to approach whatever it is that you need to do or achieve.
Embracing your core nature and what truly lights up your energy, and this has been the biggest gamechanger and elevation for me in my own business and marketing experiment as part of the bigger Human Design experiment.
What has been yours?
I am a 5/1 Sacral Manifesting Generator. This blog and the articles contained within represent my true experience with Human Design (and work I do with clients), as well as other Identity Psychology toolsets used within my work.
In the meantime, if you would like to start your own journey – I invite you to book a private 20 minute discovery session with me.
@authentic.awakenings
Authentic Awakenings 
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