To remind myself. So important to remind myself to slow down, look in the rear mirror and give yourself compassionate smile; to pat myself on a back and say “Good job partner!”; to shut down my mouth and open my eyes.
Three months to think, to reflect, to dig deep into myself. Physical pain is catalyst of many mental processes and quickly reminds you of main things in life. That Ironman race in Lake Placid could’ve been my last one… Looking back, it was a scary accident that could’ve put me into the coffin or at least make me disabled. It did not. It was a lesson, not the exam. A bad student was given a chance to try again. I like to think that I learned the lesson, however I also realize that the fact I allow myself to think so, proves me wrong.
It is comforting to think that the accident is over and I took the most of it and took good notes. I can turn the page now. Or I should rathe ask: Can I turn the page now?
“You can, but after you pass the exam.”
Two years ago I spent Thanksgiving with my friend in Austin, Texas. Jim signed us both for the annual Turkey Trot — fundraising event. Just starting my training/racing journey, I ran 8 kilometers in 41 minutes averaging 8 minute/mile. I ran it for fun, however competitive bug in me pushed me faster than I planned. It was a good run.
“Hey Sasha, we want you come join us for Thanksgiving this year. Will also run the Turkey Trot. The race we did two years ago, remember?”
— Jim called.
Of course I did remember and of course I would love to spend this family holiday among the people who care about me. “Hey Sasha, we want you come join us for Thanksgiving this year “ — Jim called. “Will also run the Turkey Trot. The race we did two years ago, remember?” Of course I did remember and of course I would love to spend this family holiday among the people who care about me.
“You NEED to make this race your “coming back race”. You HAVE to win your age group!!! You MUST push yourself as hard as only possible!”
— familiar voice popped up in my mind.
Hmm…. Sounds familiar. Heavy claws fell on my shoulders and immediately I recognized him… He’s back.
Sasha — the Ironman is now talking. That Sasha who almost killed me not that long ago on the course in September. I realized who was talking and the table turned. I was flashing the awareness light right into his face. Awareness gave me the right of choice. Remain a puppet of my Ego or take the captain’s post…
Yes, I will run! Of course, I will push myself hard! However, this time I will do it not because I HAVE TO or MUST, but because I CHOOSE TO. I choose to train and compete; I choose to enjoy every step I take. Now I know that every single race could be the last one and every experience is so unique and precious.
The ultimate failure in life is to achieve everything you wanted but still not find the happiness. No matter in what place you finish the race, you always lose if you did not enjoy it. It worth repeating:
No matter how well you perform, you are the ultimate loser if you did not enjoy it.
The ultimate failure in anything you do is to finish first and unhappy.
I learned to be careful setting the goals for myself. No hard numbers, no unrealistic expectations. Instead of making a statement and demanding a certain result from my body, I now ask. I ask my body: how fast can you do it, considering the circumstances? Bike accident, surgery, no training for 8–9 weeks…ups and downs. Considering all those facts, what my finishing time could be? What is the fittest you can get on a few weeks of training?
I’ve had three weeks to somewhat prepare for the run. Three weeks before the race, my surgeon allowed to resume light training and I immediately met with my coach to announce my 8 kilometers intention. Renee supported me, however warned to not set high expectations. I know, I know Renee… This is the lesson I needed to learn.
Only so few running workouts to get in shape. Each of them counts.
The work is done. I’m at the race venue. I feel so much energy. The fire within is searching for a way out. I am so grateful to be in this city, I am so grateful to be young, strong and healthy!!! I am so happy to be able to move my body, to see all this people around me, to smell the fresh morning air. So glad to be back at the start line and feel the competition.
Even the fact that I missed the start of my wave bounced off my mind and didn’t screw my mood in any way. I would run anyways, timed or not timed, rain or snow, hail or meteorite shower. I flew to the starting line, hoped over the fence and hit the start button on my watch.
Go!
I pushed it hard… and I pushed it hard again. I enjoyed every moment of the race. I loved the burning feeling in my legs and the heart pumping in my chest. Finished strong and hit the stop button.
Looked at the watch:
8.3 kilometers – 33 minutes 4 min/km 6 min/mi
Yes! Fuck yeah! So grateful, so grateful. I am back! I am alive! Mission complete…. Celebrate
It’s so important to remember all the lessons that life teaches you. It is so easy to fall back into the usual model of thinking and responding to the world.
Your body is A-MA-ZING. It’s the ultimate bio-machine ever created. Designed by trial and error, perfected by time. Enclosed system, a mini world inside of every one of us. So complex and difficult to understand, it was given to you for free. The only thing, is that it came without manual of any kind – go figure. There is no same human in the entire Universe and we all uniquely designed, came into this world already preprogrammed.
There is a system that explains how you were built and it explains how you respond to the world. It’s called Human Design. It’s a logical system that uses astrology, chakra systems, and quantum physics to reveal your genetic design. A BodyGraph, also called a Human Design Chart, is calculated using your birth date, time, and place.
Human Design provides two main sets of tools – Strategy and Authority. This information can help you make decisions that are most in line with who you are, which will ultimately lead you in the direction that is right for you. Acting in accordance with your body’s natural energies instead of against them, you will experience less resistance in your body and life. This information will help you to know how to move through the world, and what things to engage in.
Human Design studies – simply help you to understand how you are hardwired
Live as yourself, affirm who you really are, understand and let go of what you are not. Work with your natural energy instead of working against it.
Every person is unique, but we can still group people into four groups. They are called STRATEGIES:
Generators
70 percent of the population – they are the life force of the planet, the builders. They respond, instead of initiating.
Projectors
20 percent of the population. This type of people wait for recognition and invitation. They have the ability to see deeply into others.
Manifestors
9 percent of the population. As natural initiators, they inform those around them of their decisions before they take action. Manifestors have a powerful aura and they can make others feel off balance.
Reflectors
1 percent of the population. If you have all of your centers open then you are a Reflector. You have a resilient aura that samples the energies around you and reflects them. They process experience in very different way than other types. They have the potential to see what is happening in a way that no one else can. Their greatest gift is to read others and their environments.
There are nine centers of the body that we put and receive the energy through. They are called BODY CENTERS.
Another quality to learn is authority type. Your Inner Authority is your body’s knowing or intelligence, how you know if a decision is the right one for you.
“Follow your intuition…”, they say. What is it and how do I follow it?
Human Design shows exactly where your intuition lies in your body. By intentionally practicing with your true Strategy and Authority, you align with your unique path and who you are. Things naturally fall into place, in your life, job, and relationships.
Emotional Authority
47 percent of the population falls into this type authority. This type rides their emotional wave and experiences all of its nuances. They are slow to learn and pick up information and its best for them to make decisions after they wait some time. “sleep on it” before making decisions.
Sacral Authority
35 percent of the population has the Sacral Authority. Their natural tendency is to wait for something/someone to show up in their field so they can respond. They don’t “go and get stuff done”, instead they wait and get familiar first.
Splenic Authority
11 percent of the population, and is characterized by an intuitive sense or recognition in the moment. Spleen is our oldest center, faster than the mind, and deeply rooted in survival, health, and well-being.
Environment/No Inner Authority
3.53 percent of the population. People of this type receive information through their open centers. They use other people as “sounding boards” in order to hear the truth/not truth. Being in the right environment is important for them.
Self-Projected Authority
2.8 percent of the population. This people are deeply non-energetic, and powerful, beings. They haveability to listen and hear their inner voice. They find the truth through the core of their identity (the G center).
Lunar Cycle Authority
1.39 percent of the population. They have a special connection with the moon. Before making an important decision, these types should wait through a twenty-eight-and-a-half-day moon cycle.
Ego Authority
1 percent of the population. These people trust what they say and do spontaneous things. Ego is the voice of the moves them, if they allow it.This authority has a willpower that is unmistakably engaged, or not.
Ok we’re done with the basics, let’s see what the body graph tells us. The goal is to take the information from your BodyGraph (Chart) and use it to make better decisions and learn more about your strengths and weaknesses. Use it as a tool for self-knowledge. Learn to make decisions using your Strategy and Authority (it’s different than making decisions with your mind). Below I share my own example and the things I learned from it.
OLEKSANDR’S TERESHCHUK USER MANUAL
Type
Generator
Strategy
To Respond
Not-Self Theme
Frustration
Signature
Satisfaction
Definition
Single
Authority
Solar Plexus – Emotional
Profile
Heretic – Investigator (5/1)
Incarnation Cross
Left Angle Cross of Limitation (32/42 | 56/60)
As a Generator I am described as the life force of the planet, I am a “builder”.
I have “Defined” Sacral Center (red square on the mid-bottom). It’s a tremendous energy generator that gives me all the energy I need to do things.
My life is all about RESPONSE. Instead of chasing after life, I should let the life come to me.Sacral can not initiate, it can only respond.
This means that the more I try to initiate or force things the more frustrated I get. Without responding, I will end up deeply frustrated. Frustration is an early warning sign that I’m out of sync with life and engaged with the wrong work, people or situations. “Generators” often find themselves in this situation as a result of impatience with waiting, mental decision making, and the influence of others. The key here is waiting to respond, and only engaging when there is an energetic gut-level “yes”, a feeling of being “turned on” as though your energy comes alive in relation to something you encounter. It can often be experienced like a natural rising up of energy inside you that wants to engage.
My aura is a powerful magnet, that brings to me everything I need to fulfill my purpose.
If I give my energy to something that I don’t feel passionate about, I burn out. Fast.
Those of us who have this center defined are supposed to wait until something light us up and then respond to that. We are absolutely not supposed to initiate. We need to figure out a way to ignore our habit of living by logic and reason.
SLEEP is super important!
We use our energy to respond to the things that light up during the day and then sleep when that energy is exhausted. If you find yourself having a hard time sleeping – you didn’t burn off enough of this energy during the day. You are supposed to empty out this center during the day and recharge it overnight. Physical exercise can also help.
I am gifted with enormous reservoir of power, and my goal is to find personal expression and satisfaction doing work I love, or by creating and raising children, or both.
SATISFACTION is the signature for Generators. It’s all about self satisfying work. Selfishly, it means that I got to be doing only what brings me satisfaction. My life is all about doing what I love and only what shows me who I am and brings me happiness. ONLY the things I love… easy, right?
People with Single Definitions are usually attracted to long distance relationships because they give them freedom and allow them their independence. Such people have a hard time with depending on or needing others. They get attracted by people who is reliant and have a sense of themselves outside of the relationship. Single Definitions believe that another relationship will come along, and they feel totally comfortable going through life convinced that “the one” is out there somewhere. Single Definitions recognize that no matter what partner they are with, they will always have a sense of individuality and are wired to be self-sufficient.
Finding the right balance of independence and reliance, of care taking and being cared for in relationships is key for Single Definitions.
If you have Emotional/Solar Plexus Authority in your chart, you should never make any emotionally charged decisions! Feel all the feels, and then when you feel calm, decide. Such people never feel 100% sure about their decisions… 70-80% at best.
80% certainty around a decision is actually my body’s version of 100% and is all I need to feel confident taking action.
Main two rules of having a defined Emotional/Solar Plexus Center:
1. NEVER MAKE DECISIONS WHEN YOU’RE IN YOUR FEELINGS. 2. NEVER MAKE DECISIONS WHEN YOU’RE IN YOUR FEELINGS.
Don’t suppress your feelings. Feel the HIGHEST HIGHS and the LOWEST LOWS, wait for calm and 80% clarity around a YES or NO, and then take action.
People with the 5/1 profile are brilliant problem solvers
They usually deliver practical solutions. They can spend their whole lives meditating alone on the mountaintop when their strategy and authority guide them so, and their purpose would be fulfilled. They don’t need other people =)
When someone meets a person with the 5/1 profile, they immediately project onto the 5/1 profile being their savior. They project on the 5/1 profile being the solution to their problems. These problems can be health-wise, job related, private, sexual, etc. People project on a 5/1 person to be the best partner, the best lover, the best boss, the best employee, the best healer, the best president, the best father, the best mother, etc.
People with a 5/1 profile are very cautious with their reputation. A good reputation is essential for their success. When not delivering the practical solution, they mutate in the eyes of others from a savior to the devil!
Find something you love and genuinely want to explore and investigate. It should be fulfilling to you and simultaneously of value for others.
Famous Generators: Albert Einstein, Dalai Lama, Elvis Presley, Bill Clinton, Meryl Streep, John Lennon, Madonna, James Dean, Vladimir Lenin, Carl Jung, Timothy Leary, Oprah Winfrey, Meg Ryan, Greta Garbo, Margaret Thatcher, Deepak Chopra, Frederic Chopin, Marie Curie, Hillary Clinton, Clint Eastwood, Sigmund Freud, Mahatma Gandhi, Steffi Graf, Marie Antoinette, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimi Hendrix, Pope John Paul II, Janis Joplin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Nixon, Yoko Ono, Prince, Jaqueline Onassis, Martin Luther King, Vincent Van Gogh
Final Thoughts
I have never heard before about Human Design Studies or Body Graphs. Skepticism and rejection is a natural response to everything new and foreign that human-beings don’t understand. I kept my scepticism low I gave it a shot with my mind opened. I was impressed by precise accuracy of the body graph’s description of some of my personal qualities. It confirmed the knowledge of myself and shined the light on other things I was not aware of. It took quite a bit of time to make sense of all the metrics related to my personality, however the information I received is really valuable. For everyone, who is looking to understand themselves better and uncover some new personal characteristics, I definitely encourage to give the Body Graph a shot. Knowing the way you are wired will help to make better decisions and life more balanced, healthy life. This is a great tool to keep in your toolbox and come back to it in times of crisis or mental fog. You can also use it to understand the people around and overcome some communication or other interpersonal issues.
If you don’t know yourself, how can you demand other people to understand you?
The most important relationship in your life is relationship between your mind and soul. If there is a constant battle in your head and you are not happy with yourself, you will never build strong and fulfilling relationships with others.