Unburdening the Mind from Decision-Making

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Unburdening the mind from decision-making will give it enough space to do what it excels at.

Imagine leaving a five-year-old in charge of your home and driving off to your full-time job.

• The kid would help themselves to all the candy in the house.
• They’d probably stick their finger in an electrical socket.
• They might try to climb somewhere unsafe, fall off, and injure themselves badly.

No sane adult would leave a five-year-old kid in charge of their home. Why? Because a kid simply does not have the skills or the emotional maturity to do the job.

And yet, most sane adults trust their mind with high-level decision-making.

If you’re going “huh?” stick with me while I explain.

The mind is a wonderful tool. It can analyze, learn, categorize, plan, remember and recall. But it was not designed to solve our inner problems or make decisions about relationships, career choices, or financial commitments.

We burden our minds with all kinds of problems it is not equipped to solve.

• How can I find the confidence to share what I know?
• What’s the best thing I can do right now to stop them from being disappointed in me?
• How can I hold it all together and not let them see how anxious I am?

Now, the mind is floundering. It searches its database and comes up empty. Because its job is not to help us find answers to our inner problems. Its job is to find logical solutions.

The mind is good at solving these kinds of problems.

• How much fabric do I need to upholster my two armchairs?
• What’s the best system I can find to organize my computer files?
• How can I organize my presentation in a way that all my points are explained clearly?

The mind is invested in always, always, always keeping us safe. The easiest way to do that is for it to yell so loudly (like a hyper vigilant parent) that we don’t try anything new. Let’s say you have a friend who sounds something like this:

I can’t believe you did something so stupid!

You’re not qualified enough to know how to do this.

Don’t disagree with them or they’ll be upset with you.

Would you go to this friend when you needed advice?

This is how our mind speaks to us and we still choose to go to the mind and ask for its opinion when we have a decision to make about whether to say yes to the job or not; rent the apartment or not; marry the person or not; spend $ on a six-month coaching program or not.

The mind is our small, scared self. It’s terrified to step out of what’s known and familiar. Everything outside the comfort zone is danger to the mind.

This is why I love Human Design so much. Human Design says the mind is not where we must go for decision-making; we must trust the wisdom of the body.

Let’s say you’re lit up by the thought of teaching a mindfulness workshop. Typically we go to the mind first because that’s what we’ve been taught to do. Should I teach this workshop? Do I know enough about mindfulness? How should I price this workshop? Will anyone even show up?

And your mind will most likely reply: No, you’re not ready to teach this workshop because you’re not qualified enough. Do you really think people are going to register and pay for this?? What if nobody turns up? You’ll feel humiliated.

If you know your inner authority in Human Design and have integrated it over some time, you’d go to your body first. As a Generator with sacral authority (gut response) you’d feel the “nudge” internally first. Then maybe someone asks you a question about mindfulness on Instagram about whether you teach this kind of thing and your gut is now giving you a “hell yes!”

You follow that gut response and take aligned action next. Now the time is right for the mind to step in. You research yoga studios in your area. You develop content for the workshop. You write a newsletter to let your community know about the event.

As a Projector lit up by an idea, you’d start learning all you can on the subject and share what you know so that you receive recognition and then are invited into a paid opportunity.

Every energy type in Human Design (Generators, Mani-Gens, Projectors, Manifestors, and Reflectors) have their unique way of creating aligned opportunities and your chart will tell you which part of your body you’re meant to use for decision-making that’s correct for you. Book a Human Design reading with me to learn more.