Let's Chat about Self-Worth... Because Most of the World has an Undefined Heart Center
Self-worth is hard! It’s not something that can be easily measured, there is no easy way to “attain it,” and if you’re part of the 60% of the world’s population that has an undefined or completely open heart center in your Human Design, having a natural concept of worthiness probably alludes you. I am one of those people.
What is the Heart Center?
As a bit of background, the heart center (also called the will or ego center) is a powerful motor center that drives willpower as well as ego – it controls our will to survive in a community with others and thrive in the material plane. Ra Uru Hu, the founder of Human Design, explains the heart center as the bedrock of society. It is designed to connect us with our Tribe, and as such, it corresponds to a feeling of support derived from community approval. The drive of this center enabled us to build entrepreneurial societies, Ra explains “Community organization created a safe, interdependent environment, that made it possible for people to specialize, take their unique skills to great heights, and progress as groups or individuals.” You take actions for the betterment of the collective and you’re rewarded with love, support, and material gains.
Now, enter our current society that has taken this “drive” and twisted many of us into a very unhealthy mode of feeling we have to prove ourselves to society if we want to have financial success, love, acceptance, you name it. Rather than seeing ourselves as a reflection of a whole, where each one of us is a valued and important part of the collective, we fall into the traps of the undefined or open heart center – “I’m not enough,” “I have to prove myself,” “I need to do this so I can be like that person who has gained approval and acceptance.” Lessons of the heart center are NOT easy.
Open Heart Center in Real Time
When I first learned about the pitfalls of the open heart center, I thought I understood it all instantly (defined head/ajna here). I recognized the feeling of needing to prove myself before I was worth attention, love, or financial support on such a deep level and my reality came into stark contrast. I’m not a competitive person, I know who I am, I love following my own path, and I am very resilient. YET, here I was without a boundary in sight, terrified of being anything but perfect, and pushing myself to ignore my gut instinct and just do whatever I needed to gain other people’s approval. Cool cool cool. I felt validated that most of the world has this center undefined and I learned how to be better with boundaries (thanks to my wise defined heart center friends), gave myself a pat on the back, and figured that was that.
In the Definitive Human Design book it says, “ People with completely open Heart Centers do not naturally have a good, solid grasp of what worthiness is, how to measure it, or what one needs to do to achieve it.” Part of the wonderful hilarity of working with Human Design is it is not as simple as intellectually knowing something – it’s about living it and aligning your consciousness with the actions you take every day. Defining worth isn’t something that comes naturally to me and I’m here like – I’ve achieved it, I’m fixed! Oh, sweet, sweet naive me.
As someone who is in the process of building a Human Design business that in large part requires community buy-in to be successful, the open heart lessons have shown up over and over again. Instagram will show you all the ways other people are more “loved than you,” and presumably, selling more as a result (idk, open heart talking!). The idea of building a community that comes from just being yourself is laughable because that’s not how I’ve experienced the world … and yet, here I am doing it. I’ve unwittingly placed myself in the center of possibly the most personally difficult test.
The other day I caught myself feeling jealous and a bit frustrated and the second I started moving, the download hit me “This is the open heart.” The experience of not knowing what to do, how to gain approval, if people like me, if I can trust my own judgment, and if I’ll ever thrive financially flooded in and I could see it for what it was. It’s how I experience the world, but it’s not reality.
This is my open heart center, this is the lesson I am meant to learn – gaining wisdom about the trustworthiness of what is shown to me, how to use money and personal power correctly on the material plane, and how to truly release and accept that I have nothing to prove.
I’m not alone here, I have the guidance of my Strategy and Authority – I’ve got a big Generator aura that magnetizes the right things right to me (IF I let it), and above all, I know that I can make my own definition of self-worth because the one that “society” is using just simply doesn’t work for me. I mean, how misleading is it that we call it SELF-worth but it’s dependent on the approval of others?!
I’ll End With This…
If you have an undefined or open heart center, this is the lesson for you too. When you have no set “Ego,” then you are free to be a channel for the will of the universe. The will of the collective isn’t necessarily the people right in front of you, but something much, much bigger that serves all of our higher consciousnesses. So instead of asking yourself why you’re not getting enough likes, people aren’t showering your with dollars, or why someone is doing something better than you –– ask instead, “Are my actions working to elevate everyone, including myself?” “Am I expressing myself in an authentic way?” “If no one else was around to judge, would I still be doing this?” “What brings me joy, even if it never makes me a single cent?”
I’m still in the process of testing this, so I’ll keep you posted, but I have a feeling (mainly derived from the flood of messages and signs I’ve been seeing on this topic) that once you let yourself shine just as you, all of the “gifts” of the heart center will be yours. In truth, they’re already yours.
Want to learn more? I’d love to do a foundational reading with you – details here.