Hello, and welcome to Unshakeable with Human Design, everybody. I’m your host, Nicole Laino, and you and I are here together. Pull up a chair, get cozy with me because we are going to be together for the next couple of episodes. So if you’re catching this on the day that this drops, know that there are going to be three more of these coming up.

And if you’re catching this. A few days later, then you’ve got a few more to kind of binge around the same topic if it interests you. So, we’ve done a few series on this show before. We’ve done a series on profile lines, which was really, really loved by our audience, really received well. People really loved that series.

And then we did another one over the summer on centers. And now we’re going to dive into even a more intricate area of human design called variables. When you look at a human design chart, they’re on either side of the head center.

You’ll see a set of arrows on each side, two arrows on each side of the head. We’re gonna go through each one of those and we’re gonna dedicate an episode to each arrow or to each color, because there’s so much with these. And I wanna keep this simple because this is a very advanced area of human design.

’cause we’re getting to the substructure of the design. What’s happening beneath the chart? It’s something that we refer to as below the line. And I want to go through this because it can be highly impactful in your productivity. If you deal with things like brain fog or keeping on task or thinking clearly or feeling like you have little energy or lots of energy, all of this can be determined.

And explain sometimes through your variables. If you feel like some productivity things work for you and others don’t, and you don’t know why, this might explain it. Variables can help you hone your particular point of view in the world. And if you’re in business, your point of view matters. Your point of view is so crucial.

To you being able to spread the message you’re meant to spread. You have to see the world properly in order to really claim your place in it. And it can tell you your leadership style. It can tell you what you bring to your business. It can tell you what the dynamics on your team might be. If you have a group of people together and you do a team reading or something like that, which I do with people, I do with groups and I do with companies where I’ll come in and I’ll talk about the different dynamics on the team.

And the variables can tell us quite a bit. So they are fascinating aspect of human design, but they can be confusing. And I’m going to do my best to keep these very simple and direct so that they’re making the impact that they’re meant to. So let me also say, we’re doing a little contest.

If you would like to be a guest on this show and have a little mini reading with me. All you have to do to enter Is to take a screenshot of this episode in your player. Post it on Instagram, tag me. I’m @NicoleLainoOfficial, tag me and tell us what you’re loving about the series, share the series, tell everybody that you love it, tell us why and you will be entered to win. 

Enter to win an HD Reading on the show by sharing the series on Instagram and tagging Nicole (@nicolelainoofficial)

We will reach out to you and ask you if you want to be on the show and book a reading for you here. Okay? So super fun, very excited for you. We have one other thing that I want to tell you about. If you are interested in the variables, if this is something that you’re like, this is really interesting. This is an area I want to dive into.

I want to have this information for myself. We’ve actually created a guide for you that goes along with this series. It’s called the Variables Guide, and all you have to do to download it is go to nicolelaino.com/variables, or DM me the word “Variables” on Instagram. I’m @NicoleLainoOfficial.

Download the variables guide: nicolelaino.com/variables

And we will send it to you right there. And then you can have this, take it home, digest it, and dive in all on your own outside of these episodes. Okay? But we’re gonna do an episode for each of the different arrows. And specifically what we call color, because like I said, these get to be a very nuanced area of the human design chart, but we’re going to keep this very focused so that you guys all walk away with the value that you’re meant to, what you’re meant to receive here.

Okay? I don’t wanna confuse anybody. We do have another episode that we did a long time ago, I think we called it- What do the arrows in my human design chart mean? It’s episode 129. If you want to go back and listen to that one as well, we’ve kind of talked about that from a different perspective where we talked about them as a whole.

Watch Episode 129 to learn more about the Arrows in Human Design

Today we’re going to break down, we’re going to go through the first arrow and then we’re going to do the each of the other arrows in their own episodes over the next three episodes after this one. Okay. So variables are the substructure of the lines. So we all know about the lines. That’s like that first series that we did back in like March, April of this year, the profile series, so I’m a 5’1 that’s my profile.

My conscious sun is gate 64. And if you look at the human design chart, you’ll see gates running down each side of the chart in the little columns on each side. And each gate will have a dot and then another number. Another number that’s 1 through 6. So, my conscious sun is gate 64, which is the gate of confusion.

And it’s in the 5th line. Now, that is a nuance to that gate. What we’re doing is, they call human design the science of differentiation, it’s our differentiation, how we are different from every other person on this planet. Now other people might have gate 64 as their conscious sun. Other people might have that in the fifth line.

But then if we go a level deeper, to what we call color, we start to get another level of nuance to this. And that’s what we’re going to be discussing here because each arrow is part of the substructure of those lines. So we’re getting to greater and greater detail about what makes you tick, about why some things work for you and some things don’t. Why you’re different than somebody who might have the same birthday as you. How these things change.

I mean, we have the whole chart, but then we have something deeper. I remember Ra talking about this, where he takes out the chart with twins. This is the part that’s different. They’ll have everything else that’s looks exactly the same. But then when you get to the substructure, because the timing is different. This area, the variables, I will say this, you do kind of need your exact birth time to really feel confident in this information. 

Some things don’t move very much. The variables do. This is very sensitive to time. So I want to throw that out there just so if you don’t know your exact birth time. This part, you may have to feel into it. You won’t have a great answer on this. We won’t be able to say exactly what your variables are.

So let’s talk a little bit about this. There are four arrows that we’re going to talk about. There are four colors that are represented by each arrow. They’re digestion, motivation, environment, and view. Today, we’re going to go into digestion. Digestion is not just how you digest food. All that is a big part of it. 

What we’re talking about is how you feed your body and how you feed your brain. This is the top left arrow and it is connected to your brain, your physical brain. So the brain that if we cut open your head and we took it out of your head and we held your brain in our hands, that physical brain, that’s what we’re talking about.

We’re not talking about the mind, which is different. That’s your personality. We’ll get to that in the next episode, I believe, is where we’re diving into that. It’s called your motivation. So digestion is about feeding your brain, feeding your body. We’re on the unconscious side of the chart.

So this is the part that it’s not about our personality, it’s about what feeds us unconsciously. What’s feeding this vehicle that we’re in. And specifically, the part that has to do with our brain and also, we can think about this, the gut brain, we hear that term, right? The gut brain connection. This is sort of gut brain, brain brain.

Okay? Now how do we feed these things? We feed it with food. We feed it with information. We feed it with life. We’re always taking something in. So how do we best take things in? What’s the best way for each one of us? What’s the quote unquote right way? The correct way? Now I always say, with anything with design, you really want to experiment.

You want to try different things out, see what works for you. But what’s fun is, what we’re doing here, going through it this way, it’s giving you the sandbox to play in and tell you that this is your sandbox, now play here, experiment here. Rather than picking up diet books or different books or tips or looking at people on Instagram, seeing what they’re doing and taking that in and trying to do it yourself, instead you could say, oh, I understand why that doesn’t work or this does.

So when we’re talking specifically about digestion, some of the problems that can be solved with this, or some of the problems that can come up if we’re not nurturing our body properly with food and with information is that we can find that we are overeating. We might find that we have no appetite. We might find that we’re not taking in information properly, that we become unproductive.

Things feel harder. We might find that we have that brain fog. That I just don’t have a clear mind. I’m not focusing well. If any of those things are true for you, then I encourage you to experiment with your digestion arrow with that type. It’s also called determination, is the color theme.

Okay? Let’s go through these. There are six types, there are six categories, and then each category has a nuance to it, and we’ll talk about them. But really download that guide if you want to go deep into this and you want to see all of the definitions for these. Because I’m going to talk about them, I’m going to riff on how they are different and how we approach them and why these things are so important and where they come from here, okay?

So, each type, appetite is the first one. Appetite is the most primal. This is our earliest digestion profile and there are two types. There is consecutive appetite, there is alternating appetite. Now, what this is telling you is how much food do you need to take in? What structure should there be around that?

Are you somebody who should eat structured, larger meals? Have three meals a day that are larger in portion, needing a lot of food to feed your brain. Is that correct for you? Is it best to have very clean, simple foods? Or are you on the other side where you can have a little bit more variation in your food and you are alternating?

So you want to eat small meals throughout the day. Feeding your brain continuously, but smaller, you don’t need as much food to get through the day, to stay clear. And if you eat too much food, if you’re eating these big heavy meals, you will probably feel foggy. You will probably feel weighed down. You might feel that your body can’t digest them.

So it isn’t necessarily, although what you eat does matter, this is that hunter gatherer type of digestion profile. I believe there is a hunter gatherer diet. Is it paleo that is there a hunter gatherer? You might find that a paleo diet might work really well for you if you have an appetite profile if you have an appetite digestion profile. That might feel nurturing to you, that might feel good for you. That might not feel good for me. Because actually mine doesn’t have nearly as much to do with what I eat.

It’s more how I eat it. So this is why it’s so important is because it will tell you what’s important for you to pay attention to. I can eat most things. There are plenty of things that I can’t eat, but I’ve figured out what they are, eliminated them or reduced them by quite a bit. And I feel better. I have more energy.

My brain is clearer. My mind is clearer. Okay. So that’s what you can start to benefit from playing with your digestion. Now, the second profile is taste. There is open taste and closed taste. Really what taste is about is selection. Choosing your food. Choosing it based on your taste.

I know this might not sound terribly groundbreaking for something when we’re talking about food, but if you think about information, if you think about the way you take in information, it will be selective. It will be you choosing. There is a bit of a connoisseur in the taste category here. So if you have open taste, you are going to be choosing different things. You’re going to maybe try the buffet and then you’re going to decide and you’re going to say like, okay, I’ve tried it all.

I’m never eating any of that stuff again. I’m only eating this thing. Now you might feel like maybe you were told when you were a kid that you were a picky eater. Taste people tend to be picky eaters, but you’re meant to be. You know what you like, and you’re not really meant to eat the things that other people tell you you should like.

It’s really yours. Closed, you might only eat one thing. You might be like, I only like this thing from this place. Because the ingredients feel good and that’s you being in tune with what is right for you. So you are just sort of the ultimate decider in this. It’s your intuition that’s going to guide you there.

It’s just sort of a natural feeling of what is right for you. You can take this to impeccable taste. Right? You might only eat certain types of fish. You might only eat things prepared a certain way. All of this would fall into that taste category. So the conditioning for this would be people telling you, you should try more things, you should be more open, you should try all this stuff.

And you’re really like, well that’s not me. Maybe you feel forced into that, and you shouldn’t. Don’t acquiesce to people who are telling you to do it their way. Don’t just give up your power. Stand in your power and be like, no, that’s not my way. I know what I like. And I don’t like that. I don’t need to try it.

If you’re closed taste you probably will not try many things. And people might ridicule you for that. So all of this is about empowering yourself. And then experiment. See really if you eliminated the things that you didn’t choose. How do you feel? When you’re very selective about your food, when you’re selective about the ingredients, when you’re selective about where you shop, right?

All of this might be the organic only people. It’s what feels right to you. You might be like, I only eat cheese from France. That might be how you are. There’s a bit of the diva here. Like I said, it’s a connoisseur. The third piece, the third digestion profile is thirst.

Now this one, it has to do with liquids. It does, but what we’re dealing with here is now we’re getting from what we eat to more the quality of the food that we eat, the quality of the liquid particularly. The quality of liquids. What we’re really getting at is body temperature. Your body temperature needs a certain temperature of liquids.

Now again, this all might sound a little crazy, but please try it. See if it works for you. Because you have hot and you have cold. If you have hot thirst as your digestion type, then you are meant to drink hot and warm things. If you have cold, you’re meant to drink cold. This is about what we’re getting to here now, it’s about how the food is processed.

It’s going to also be hot foods, cold foods. It’s going to extend past just the liquids, but this is what we’re getting at. We’re getting to like how the food is prepared. So if you are cold thirst and you find that you’re not digesting well, and all the food that you eat is hot or over prepared, over processed. Then you’re really going to want to look at that like I say, experiment with it.

Try things. See how you feel before you throw it out as woo woo. But also, don’t just take me at face value. Try it. See what it is. Because really what we’re doing here is we’re balancing your body temperature. In order for your body to digest the food properly, in order for it to break it down properly, It needs a certain temperature.

You run hot, therefore you need cool things, right? Your digestion has a certain temperature, so you’re counterbalancing it with the hot or cold food. That’s what we’re talking about here. Now, you might also find that you prefer hotter or colder climates based on this as well. Again, something for you to experiment with.

If you’re looking for productivity, can you play with that? Can you play with being warm or being cold? You might find that that’s just a natural state for you. Okay? Now, touch is the next digestion profile. Touch just like all of them, has two variations on this. Now we’re getting, so appetite, taste, and thirst have to do with what you take in and the quality of that food.

It’s about the internal process of the food and of the information. Now when we get to touch, sound, and light, which are the other digestion profiles we’re going to go through. We’re getting more to the environmental conditions that you consume things in. We’re getting to that feminine side of things, which is more how than what.

Now when we come to this one, touch, we have calm and nervous. So the environment that you’re in, is it a calm environment or is it a more kinetic, busy environment? Is there emotional stimulation when you eat, when you work? I work from home, but thank God my husband is here and it can feel like distraction, but I need activity.

I need things around me in order for me to balance and be able to, work productively in a way that feels fun and easy for me. So again, something that we experiment with. That’s through my trial and error, figuring out how I could work with that. And I noticed sometimes if I’ve been alone too long, if I’m too quiet for too long, suddenly I’m like, I can’t do anything.

I can’t get into action. So I need to create some emotional stimulation. I need to be in an environment that is buzzing a little bit because mine is nervous. But some people have calm where they need the opposite. Thankfully, my husband has the same one. I always go in and I’ll eat lunch with him so that we are together and we can stimulate each other.

We can talk, we’ll have a podcast going. There’s just something happening in the room and that helps our digestion. It also, it means that we’re not as hungry. We don’t eat as much. We eat the right amount of food for us and then we move on. I’m not hungry for the rest of the day. I’m not finding that I’m hungry later on.

And I’m also finding that I’m not losing my appetite. Sometimes if I’m sitting by myself, if I’m home alone and if my husband and son go out, and they’re not here, I don’t eat while they’re not here. I’m like not hungry. There’s nothing going on. If it’s too quiet and I’m too still, the last thing I’m thinking about is food.

That’s by design. That’s how my digestion works. The next type is sound. Again, the quality of the environment. What are the environmental conditions? Is it high sound or low sound? Is it lots of noise or very, very little noise? Experiment with this and see how you do by creating the environment for you to digest information and food properly.

See what works for you. See how it affects you. Try these things out. Turn on some music, put on the TV. Go outside, go out to a restaurant where there’s some noise going on or not. Or eat in total silence and see how that affects you. Are you more satisfied with your meal? Or are you hungry right away?

If you find you’re hungry all the time, can you look at it and say, am I eating in a quiet environment and I’m really meant to be in a high volume environment? These are the things that you can start playing with. The last one is light. This one’s tricky and one of them is way more tricky than the other.

And again, we’re getting to experiment. Do your best. I have found from lots of clients that have this particular one, this is what my son has, is light. And there’s direct light and indirect light. Direct light meaning that you need to be in sunlight.. You need natural light to eat and to digest information and to digest things properly.

Okay? And indirect light means you need the opposite, you need darkness. That can be weird, right? How do you eat during the day? Like, when are you eating? I guess it becomes easier In the winter months when it gets dark at 5 o’clock, you can eat dinner but I don’t know this one feels tricky.

With my son, I do wait until the sun comes up before I give him his breakfast and I do make sure that he eats before the sun goes down I’m not him and he doesn’t really know what we’re doing, I just tell him that that’s how we feed him. So I can’t get a read from him personally, I just know he seems healthy and clear and has lots of energy and is not hungry all the time anymore than children are.

He seems fine. But I have had several clients come to me either through readings or in my program who have had direct or indirect light and they’ve said it has been very helpful for them, particularly the more sensitive types, so projectors, reflectors, have said that PHS, the variables, have really helped them to tune in and balance themselves on an energetic base frequency level.

Right? So, this one I have heard from several people that whether it’s easy for them or not, and some that were in, like Eastern Europe. Where it’s dark for a good portion of the day at certain times of the year, and they’re like, I make it work, and they’re direct light, and they make it work.

But they have found that it’s worth the trouble of making it work, or they’ve gotten lights that are supposed to mimic sunlight, and played with things and tried to work it that way and experiment with things that way to see if it helps, and they say that it does. So those are the six different digestion profiles and then the two variations for each of them that you will find on your chart.

And these are the things that will nurture your brain and your body in a proper way, in the correct way, so that you can be clear headed. You can be focused and you can be digesting your food and not feel hungry all the time and just generally feel healthier on an energetic and a physical level.

So, I hope that you enjoyed the episode. I hope that you’re excited for the next three episodes in this series where we will dive into the other three variable types which are motivation, environment, and view. We’re going to dive into all of those, and they’re going to each get their own episode. If you want the guide DM me variables on Instagram, I’m @NicoleLainoOfficial, or go to nicolelaino.com/variables, and you can download it there. 

Download the variables guide: nicolelaino.com/variables

And if you want to enter the contest to win a reading here on the show, all you have to do is take a little snapshot, a little screenshot of you listening to the show, and tell us what you loved about it. Tell us what you love about the series.

Tell us what you love about human design. Tell us what you love about the show. Anything that you want to share and tag me. Don’t forget to tag me so that I can record your entry. I’m @NicoleLainoOfficial. 

Enter to win an HD Reading on the show by sharing the series on Instagram and tagging Nicole (@nicolelainoofficial)

Thank you so much for being here. I’m excited to dive into the other three types with you. In the meantime, have a wonderful rest of your day.

And remember, in order to have an unshakable business, you must first become an unshakable human. So thanks for letting us help you become unshakable with human design, everybody.

We’ll see you next time.