My sister forwarded me a mailer titled “energy beats tactics.” I found it meaningful and worth sharing with us expats—with my own expat perspective added in.
It said:
“How do you cultivate high energy?’
In my experience, refined and aligned energy doesn’t come from frantic output; it’s cultivated in silence, deep reflection, and intention.
It’s born in the art of noticing. Noticing what feeds you, and what drains you. Making an effort to see what others don’t. Realizing that it is all a choice, and choosing to see the beauty in the mundane. Those are the traits of the highest performers.
Once you become aware of these things, your life quite literally changes, your energy ascends, your reverence for life deepens, and your mission feels like a calling.
Think of your life as one big experiment, reality is constantly giving you feedback on what’s working, what’s holding you back and what is keeping you stagnant…
But it is only your level of awareness that will allow you to see this feedback, once you do, you can begin refining.
This means, selectively removing and adding onto your plate for the sole purpose of maintaining high energy.”
Written & emailed out by Milan of Untethrd
Reading this, I had two thoughts.
The first is that it seems that some of us lose that “high performer energy” when we move abroad, which is partly why I’m sharing; this is a beautiful reminder to connect within ourselves.
💡Check out my 3-part blog series on how Human Design can help you to better navigate the turbulence of living abroad here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Human Design: A Tangible Tool for Alignment
Second, for those of us who like something more tangible—since tools in the 3D world can help us reach the lighter, less dense experiences Milan describes—I couldn’t help but notice how much it resonates with Human Design (which is a tool that synthesizes Astrology, the Chakra system, Kabbalah, as well as other awakening tools). HD not only teaches, but cultivates in you this ability to wait, observe, and allow life to unfold, if you follow your unique design.
In Human Design, this process is called “experimenting.” And that’s exactly what I see in Milan’s insights–and he also uses the word. What’s more, they speak of seeing what feeds you and drains you, which is what HD helps to make super clear.
In HD you experiment with line up with your geometry (your line of energy, your frequency) and through this refinement, you discover what truly works for you. And with that refinement (quietness) comes alignment & life begins to flow toward you as worries fade into background noise.
Quick Definitions
- Geometry → Your unique life pattern or pathway—the natural flow your energy follows.
- Energy → Your life force—your drive, rhythm, and presence, the electric pulse behind how you act and interact.
👉 And if you’re already familiar with your Human Design, especially if you’re a Quad Right, or have an open Ego, and/or open G-center, I’ll be sharing some practical insights for you at the end of this article on how to interpret Milan’s quote through your design without feeling overwhelmed by it.
🌱 And if Human Design is brand new to you, don’t worry, this article is written to be clear and still easy to digest.
Reframing “High Performance” & “High Energy”
I’d also like to take a moment and talk about the terms “high performer” and “high energy” from the above quote. The mind sure does love these words! That’s because it’s naturally focused on measuring, judging, and comparing. So let’s reframe them in a way that honors both mind and body.
HD shows us that there are charts designed to be ambitious, and charts that aren’t. And I’d like to add that Ra would say that financial success is born from the not-self. All charts as they are, are perfectly adequate. So what I would like to stay with my fellow expats is Milan’s phrase: energy beats tactics, and not to get stuck on performance. When we respect our form (our body), that’s how we per-form correctly. And however that looks for you is also where your mind can be most at ease and you experience more flow.
So, let’s think of high performance and high energy as living at our true self frequency—the highest expression of our essence—rather than operating from the not-self.
Awareness is the Starting Point and Scaffolded by Human Design
As Milan so aptly said, it all begins with awareness.
They also talk about selectively adding and removing to your experience, which brings me to something tangible I want to share to help you get there. The question might be: How does Human Design actually allow me to “experiment,” refine & select my energy? It does so by giving you your bodygraph, a map of YOUR unique frequency patterns.
As I’ve seen it practiced—and as Ra Uru Hu, the first teacher of Human Design, emphasized—one of the most direct paths to this awareness is through your Human Design chart, hands down.
This position is captured perfected by Ra in these two quotes:
“Human Design is a mental system, so we can finish our mental business, so we can get to the spirit. We can’t get to the spirit until we finish this mind trip.”
“And without the education, there is no way that it is going to awaken. It is not physical. It is not the body.”
This awareness starts in the mind, and our lived experience of the mind is, in a certain sense, both a blessing and a curse.
Mind continues, and will continue, to be a burden on those ascribed to the illusion and competition that is our (societally agreed upon) life. And as light and the absence of light (darkness) are not really separate but rather complementary aspects of the same phenomenon, in the same way that yin–yang polarity equals wholeness, we go through mind to overcome mind.
Using the Mind Without Being Ruled by It
Milan says, “selectively removing and adding onto your plate for the sole purpose of maintaining high energy.” I’d now like to point out the irony expressed by the notion of “selection” and “adding and removing” as this is the reintroduction of “mind,” which is the true source of our suffering, and offer some wise words: We can use the mind constructively in order to connect to our body.
Over time, the body learns not to trust the driver—your mind is who you think you are, and your mind also thinks it is the one taking control. The turning point comes when you realize you’re actually the passenger. In that moment, trust starts to return: the body trusts you, and you trust the body. Because ultimately, it’s the body that truly knows what’s good for us. The body does the selecting. You just have to get to a place where you can hear its choices.
…reality is constantly giving you feedback on what’s working, what’s holding you back and what is keeping you stagnant…
Milan, Untethrd
But it is only your level of awareness that will allow you to see this feedback, once you do, you can begin refining.
“I Don’t Know How to Cultivate High Energy…”
🔔 For those not versed in Human Design, I encourage you to read this section with an open mind. You’ll still find practical insights and advice you can easily apply!
📚 And for those who know your HD charts, a thoughtful concern was raised by someone with a Quad Right configuration (all four variables, or arrows, pointing right — indicating a passive, non-strategic orientation): “I honestly don’t know how to cultivate high energy.
My Response:
First, don’t get caught up on the phrases “high energy” and “high performer.” This is especially important if your distraction is power, no matter whether your variable arrows point left or right.
If we step away from the Human Design lens for a moment, try reframing it as “higher (Self) energy.” Think back to moments when you’ve been fully in flow—that sense of alignment, ease, and clarity. That is your Higher Self in action, and that’s the energy to cultivate.
Also, when the mind fixates on negative thoughts it creates resistance and obstacles. This is because thoughts are creative. This means that your thoughts quite literally create your reality:
Dr. Joe Dispenza, a bestselling author and researcher who bridges neuroscience, quantum physics and personal transformation, reminds us of this power in his book, “Becoming Supernatural“:
“Everything starts from a conscious thought. As conscious thought slows down in frequency, it slows down in energy until ultimately it takes on form and becomes matter.”
When you focus on something your attention gives it shape by isolating it in your awareness, giving it definition and form. This is what Dr. Dispenza describes as thought slowing down until it becomes matter. After all, information is quite literally in-FORM-ation.
As this is a universal truth, then your role is to become like a hawk or watchdog of the mind. Begin simply by noticing your thoughts without letting them run the show. Over time, you can learn to gently redirect them.
Also, recall that the head center, whether yours is defined or not, is a fuel center. Like a car, your body operates better on fuel that’s made well. This fuel drives your thoughts and these thoughts become intentions, which become action.
[Learn more about the creative nature of thought from Joe Dispenza in this YouTube video.]
A few HD practices and reminders:
- For Quad Rights: Trust that you are not here to be strategic in any sense of the word. So what to do then to
survivethrive on this plane?—You align with your body as your guiding beacon. To do so: Are you living your Strategy & Authority, following your dietary regimen and paying attention to your correct environment? This is how you connect with your body, the true driver. Also, notice your circle—Quad Rights are tapped into by the people they surround themselves with. This means that the other brings out your intellect—or not. You are quite literally smarter when you’re with the correct people. - For open Ego and G-Center: Pay attention to conditioning from others. These undefined centers can leave you vulnerable to external pressures about proving yourself or feeling concerned about needing direction. Open Egos have nothing to prove. And open G-Centers are meant to have fluid direction and to heed the eternal call for their place and their people. Following your Strategy & Authority allows you to move beyond these conditioning pressures.
Again, awareness here is key to reclaiming your natural flow—and as we’ve seen, HD helps get you there.
So in short: cultivating “high energy” is absolutely not about pushing yourself to “do more,” as Milan beautifully writes. Add Human Design in the mix, we see that it’s about trusting the wisdom of the body and stepping out of the mind, through the education of mind.
A Correct Tactic for Awareness
So going back to the title to that email my sis forwarded, “energy beats tactics,” I couldn’t agree more! My addition on it however is that it is possible to use the right tactics to get you to that sweet spot of high self (vs not-self) energy, hence this post.
Human Design is the gift of learning to listen to your body and getting out of mind. You will get to the point where you no longer need to actively “select” anything off your plate once you start experimenting and sensing. Then, life comes to you.
Human Design is groundbreaking, that is, if you let it sit with you in stillness and reflection as Milan so justly describes.
Start your experiment.
I really do think this is a tool that can help improve the expat experience.
(Stay tuned—because in an upcoming post, I’ll share what it means when your Human Design chart shows that your adopted city may not actually be aligned for you.)
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