Reflector, Who Are You?

One of the first things you may have noticed when you discovered you're a Reflector is that all the shapes in your chart, called centres, are open.

 
What this means is you have no consistent way of experiencing each of the facets of these centres, so you pick up on what other people feel or you become interested in things they're excited about, and you may even find yourself taking on some of the personality traits of those you spend the most time with.

So, who are you?

Every Reflector on the planet has been brought here to share their unique gifts. Whether you're brand new to Human Design of you know the ins and outs of your chart, you are part of the 1% of the population that operates completely differently than the rest.

Part of why you're so unique is because you take on bits and pieces of those around you so you can reflect back to them the overall state of things in a non-judgey way. And in doing so, it can be tough to pinpoint which parts of your beliefs, actions, and personality are yours and which ones are being sampled from your surroundings.

If you've ever felt invisible, overlooked, lost in the mix, or not able to confidently say "I am ____", then you're in good company. Reflectors are designed to be chameleons throughout life. Learning about new topics and becoming fascinated with them for a while before moving onto the next thing. This can apply to relationships, career paths, and your location as well. Ok fine, it applies to absolutely everything! Even the foods that you love today may turn out to be blah tomorrow. It's all part of the game.

Our present day life typically demands that we pick a career path early in life and stick with it until retirement. We can feel huge amounts of pressure to make life-long decisions quickly without much wiggle room for growth and change along the way.

And those kind of things are perfectly fine for the other human design types. Not Reflectors though. For us it can be crippling.

Here are a few things Reflectors are designed to do differently than literally everyone else:

• Make decisions: For big ones like job changes, relationship commitments, and relocating your home, taking the full 28 day lunar cycle to decide can feel like an eternity but you're likely to experience serious disappointment if you rush things.
• Show your feelings: Depending on who you're with at the time, you may feel totally closed off, fully expressive, or somewhere in between.
• Change: Even though the outside world rubs off on Reflectors a little more than the other types, you are still YOU throughout these changes. Think of yourself as being made of Play-Doh rather than concrete. You can grow, shift, stretch and become someone totally new…and still be yourself in the process.

Asking "Who am I?" is a brave question for Reflectors because the answer may surprise you. And that's exactly the point. Each day you get to wake up and wonder who you'll be that day, without trying to fit into a box of who you should be.

Ready to get to know yourself?

Your true Reflector self, that is. If so, you can start by choosing one thing to be fully open to each day. I started with breakfast. Nothing earth-shattering! Each day I allow myself to have zero expectations around what I'll eat for breakfast, and I see what happens. For years I ate exactly the same thing at exactly the same time each morning. I did this because I had to commute and get out of the house super early to make it to work. But in trying this experiment I realized there's no rule that says I have to eat before I leave the house, and there's definitely no one telling me I must eat the same food everyday.

Nowadays my breakfast might be oatmeal at 7am one day, leftover lasagna at 10am the next, and grazing on nuts and a pear the next.

It's a safe, fun way to play with my openness but it also sets the stage for trying it out in other areas of life.

The concept of Reflectors being open and undefined in their centres makes it sound like we float around without any thoughts or actions of our own, and that couldn't be farther from the truth. We are simply experiencing things in the present as they happen, and that's a pretty amazing way of living life to the fullest.