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.

“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 survive thrive 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.)

Image Designed by Freepik www.freepik.com

Part 2 of a new blog series exploring the expat experience through the lens of Human Design.

In the previous post we looked at some of the main concepts of Human Design and how they relate to your expat experience. Below is a practical a direct look at HD and why to start using this tool in your expat life.

Human Design is a system you can use to stop feeling lost abroad—internally and externally

I’m going to break this down in a vey practical (Line 5) way without fluff.

HD does this by:

• Normalizing the disorientation that comes with expatriation
• Reframing your dislocation as an opportunity for radical self-clarity
• Demystifying Human Design as not some spiritual fluff, but a usable framework for navigating decisions, environment, work, and relationships in a foreign country
• Offering identity permission: showing you that you don’t need to become someone else to “succeed” in your adopted country

What Actual Expat Problem Are You Solving with HD?

“I moved abroad to feel more like myself… but I feel even more lost.” & “I went overseas because I thought I wanted to, now I’m not sure anymore.”

Human Design can help you if you feel:

• Unrecognizable to yourself
• Disconnected from your old rhythms and past successes
• Unclear about what choices are right
• Disoriented by cultural values that clash with their own
• Anxious or ashamed for “not adapting well enough”

Because Human Design shows you that:

• You don’t have to adapt to thrive. You need to align.
• You don’t need to hustle for belonging. You need to remember who you are.
• Your body already knows what works. Human Design can help you hear it again.

How does HD do this? Some examples.

If you’re dealing with a loss of identity, Human Design helps you rediscover who you actually are beneath the social roles, expectations, and personas that may have defined you back home. When you’re no longer “the job title” or “the foreigner,” your energetic blueprint reminds you of your essence.

Feeling culturally displaced? HD anchors you in your own frequency. It helps you stop over-identifying with your external environment and start understanding how you uniquely belong—without needing to blend in.

If you’re swirling in a lack of clarity, the system offers something concrete: it shows you how your decision-making actually works. Instead of relying on mental strategies that no longer serve you, you start to follow your internal authority as your true north.

When language barriers make it difficult to connect, Human Design introduces a different kind of fluency: energetic fluency. You begin reading people and situations through your body and aura, not just through spoken words.

For those battling homesickness, the system creates an internal sense of home—rooted not in geography, but in embodiment. It’s a way to carry “home” within you, no matter where you are.

If you feel lonely or out of sync socially, Human Design offers insight into your natural way of relating—and just how much (or how little) connection you actually need. It helps you understand how your aura is designed to attract and interact with others, so you’re not forcing strategies that go against your energetic truth.

Struggling with a fear of making the wrong choices is common in a new place. The pressure to “get it right” can be overwhelming. But Human Design teaches you how to trust your timing and authority—reminding you that correctness isn’t about control, it’s about alignment.

And if you’re facing confusion about your career path, especially in a new cultural and professional context, HD provides clarity. It shows how you are designed to attract opportunities—whether it’s through your network, chance encounters, invitations, or visibility—so you stop chasing and start aligning.

Human Design is well-suited for Everyone and Great for Expats

Human Design is for anyone ready to live with more clarity, but it’s especially powerful for expats. When you’re feeling identity loss and disconnection from setting up life abroad, the framework helps you make aligned decisions, relate authentically, and feel at home in yourself—wherever you are. It’s not about fixing yourself. It’s about seeing and using what already works.

In the next post, Part 3, we will look at specific aspects of Human Design and how it improves your expat life with real-life examples.

Image Designed by Freepik www.freepik.com

Part 1 of a new blog series exploring the expat experience through the lens of Human Design. If you’ve moved abroad and feel disoriented, this series is for you.

In this post, we’ll take a look at the Human Design system in a generalized way, looking at some of the foundational components.

If you’re new to Human Design, this is a great place to start.

In the next post, we’ll take a more practical look at Human Design and why to start applying it to your expat life.

The Mind as a Not-Self Authority

In Human Design, we see that the mind is not meant to run the show. It’s here for awareness, not decision-making. Correct decisions (or decisions that don’t lead to resistance in life) are made from the body.

However, the mind tends to hijack direction, especially when we’re:

• Out of our comfort zone
• Surrounded by unfamiliar cultural norms
• Seeking security, belonging, or identity in a new place

This mental hijacking is what Human Design calls the “not-self.” It’s the part of you that tries to make decisions from fear, pressure, or conditioning—often using the mind to chase safety, validation, or certainty. The not-self is loudest when you’re disconnected from your body’s true signals, especially in unfamiliar environments as an expat.

And the key point: when you make decisions from the not-self, you step out of your natural frequency—which only creates more resistance, confusion, and misalignment in your life.

As an expat, the mind often becomes louder — trying to make decisions based on:

• What “should” make sense
• What is “normal” in your host country
• What is “normal” in your new country
• Fear of failure or regret
• Comparing yourself to people back home and local counterparts in new country

This over-reliance on the mind is intensified when you’re in unfamiliar territory.

✧ The real work is noticing when the mind is narrating your life story or pressuring you to figure out your direction, identity, or value — and gently returning to your Strategy and Authority.

The Program (Transits + Conditioning Field)

The “program” refers to the cosmic weather — transits, collective conditioning, and mass consciousness.

As an expat, you are literally immersing yourself in a new conditioning field:

• Cultural values and taboos
• Language and communication codes
• Unspoken rules about success, belonging, and self-worth
• A new set of energetic auras influencing your open centers

This can either amplify your conditioning (e.g., trying to fit in, speak the language fluently, appear successful) or create enough dissonance that it may crack you open to question everything to such an extent where you no longer trust yourself or those around you.

Deconditioning as an Expat

Being an expat can accelerate your deconditioning because:

• You’re removed from the familiar (often conditioned) roles and expectations of your native culture and life back home
• You start seeing yourself from the outside — the “observer effect” heightens
• You’re more likely to experiment with alternative lifestyles, communities, or belief systems
• You have fewer assumptions about “how life is supposed to work” — this creates space for real inner authority to emerge

But it can also slow or distort your experiment if:

• You’re stuck in survival mode or trying to “prove yourself” in the new environment
• You’re using your mind to “figure out” where to live, who to be, what job to do
• If you have an Undefined G Center, to become like the people around you, rather than honoring your true self (but can still be true of Defined G Centers)

In Human Design, deconditioning is the process of shedding the behaviors, beliefs, and choices that come from trying to be who you’re not—what you’ve picked up from family, culture, school, or survival strategies. It’s not about fixing yourself, but about unlearning what isn’t you, so your true nature can operate more freely.

The Early Expat Phase May Help Deconditioning

This window can be especially powerful for new expats, before the adopted culture begins to feel normal and shaping you in subtler, less noticeable ways.

In the early stages, when everything is still strange and your nervous system is heightened, you’re standing at a kind of energetic crossroads: you can either begin absorbing the new conditioning field in an attempt to adapt and belong, or you can become attuned to your Design.

The unfamiliarity creates contrast — and in that contrast, you can sense what is yours and what is not— if you’re willing to listen.

What to Watch For (Questions for Self-Inquiry)

Am I making decisions from fear, confusion, or pressure — or am I honoring my Authority?
Am I trying to “find myself” through this new environment or relationship — or am I recognizing my own design first?
Is my mind obsessing over where I should go, who I should become, or what I should do?
Am I adapting in order to be accepted, or am I anchoring into who I really am?
What part of this experience feels like truth in my body? What feels like performance?

The Unique Opportunity of Being an Expat in the HD Experiment

Looking at it from this angle, living abroad perhaps allows you to pull you out of your old programming in ways that your friends and family back home can’t. Maybe this gives you a unique chance to rebuild your life from your Design outward, rather than from society inward.

When nothing around you is familiar, your Strategy and Authority become the only reliable compass.

In Human Design, Strategy and Authority are the foundation for living in alignment. Your Strategy shows you how to engage with life—when to act, when to wait, and how to respond. Your Authority is your body’s unique way of making decisions. Together, they help you move through the world without overthinking, forcing, or second-guessing. As an expat, this internal guidance system becomes especially valuable when external cues—language, culture, expectations—are unclear or overwhelming.

Through Strategy and Authority, presence replaces performance, the body replaces the mind, and place becomes a mirror, not a mold.

Hop over to the next post to read more about why Human Design is the tool for you and your expat journey.

Image Designed by Freepik  www.freepik.com

Why Paris is ideal for my Caves Environment.

Living in Paris as someone with a Caves environment and a Line 1 body in Human Design has helped me understand why I feel so at home in places others might find restrictive or overwhelming.

The city’s layout, with its arrondissements, périphérique (ring road highway), narrow streets, small apartments, and dense architecture, offers a level of containment that feels stabilizing rather than stifling. While some people might see these features as limiting or even oppressive, for me they create the kind of structure and predictability that my body intuitively responds to, and I DIG it.

That’s because Caves people are wired for security, protection, and the kind of regularity that comes from familiar patterns and clearly defined spaces. Paris provides all of that for my system.

When I first came to Paris on a college trip with my French professor in 2008 I felt something come alive in me. There was an energetic vibration in my legs and knees and I just felt happy!

Caves people are wired for security, protection, and the kind of regularity that comes from familiar patterns and clearly defined spaces.

I’m from the countryside in the States, and I was agitated all the time back home. The small restaurants and dim lighting on offer in Paris were exciting and comforting to me. So were all the limestone buildings and monuments. And I loved sitting with my back to the glass exterior of a quaint café terrasse doing nothing but sipping wine and people watching through my dark sunglasses.

What is Caves Environment? In a few words…

The Caves environment is the first of the six in the Human Design system, part of the bottom trigram of the hexagram. These lower three environments are personal and connected more to hardscapes than to open (and transpersonal), panoramic landscapes. This means I connect with myself and function best in urban settings where I can physically and energetically sense the security my surroundings provide with clear lines of entry and exit. 

I’m Blending Caves, so this means that my Environment Variable Arrow is facing Right, so I’m more passive about who I let in to my space. Someone who is Exclusive Caves (left arrow) is more strategic about who comes into their surroundings.

My Tiny Parisian Apartment is Perfect for my Design

As someone with a Line 1 body, I need to feel safe before I can relax and vibrate at my correct frequency. Ra Uru Hu even referred to the Line 1 as “the caveman” and would emphasize the caveman’s “one thing at a time” approach. Caves, being the first color in the hexagram, best allows for this level of control.

And while my Left mind may sometimes enjoy the stimulation of movement or openness, my physical body craves containment and consistency. My Paris apartment with its thick walls, clearly defined rooms, and single entrance is not just a home, it’s a container that regulates my nervous system.

There’s something incredibly grounding about closing the metal window shutters from the inside and knowing that no one can enter unless I choose to let them in. In those moments the outside world fades, and I can return fully to myself.

This sense of security is reinforced by the architectural and cultural features that define Parisian living for me. Like many buildings here, mine has a reinforced front door with a solid metal core and multiple locks. There’s a coded entry at street level, a buzzer system, and second double door to pass through before reaching the elevator.

Each added barrier creates another layer of energetic insulation, another boundary that helps protect the frequency I live in. It’s not about fear or avoidance; it’s about control over access and the ability to retreat on my own terms. I don’t function well when I feel exposed or overly accessible because my vibration is off kilter. I need to sense that my space is mine unless I choose to open it.

The Importance of Environment in Human Design

Understanding the role of environment in Human Design has been one of the most important turning points in my 2.5 year deconditioning process… and yes that half counts! So much difference in even one month! 🤪

Environment isn’t just about aesthetics or lifestyle, it’s frequency. Your correct environment is where your body, the vehicle, naturally aligns with its own intelligence. This is not surface stuff, meaning we have no conscious access to it. This is why is the Red (or unconscious) part of our chart.

Environment is not a bonus feature, it’s a structural component. This isn’t a concept to skip over in Human Design. It’s where your body finds coherence. And it’s not something the mind chooses (aka the personality, or the black in your HD chart); it’s something the body recognizes and responds to.

Environment is not a bonus feature, it’s a structural component.

Isn’t this, of course, what all of us humans do on this 3D plane… we react to stimulus. Why, then, would you want to be somewhere where the stimulus isn’t correct for you, where the likelihood of the decision you make be misaligned and therefore lead to more resistance?

When you’re in the right environment, your brain (cognition) functions correctly and you see what you’re meant to see (perspective). Taken together, things begin to click into place without force.

Projectors and Environments

For Projectors like me, this is critical! The energy flow comes from others, and it must be the correct other or else we’re stuck burning ourselves out using energy that’s not mechanically correct for us.

We’re designed to wait for invitations, and those invitations don’t find us when we’re energetically scattered or in environments that distort. Our correct environment helps tune our system so that we’re more likely to draw the right people and invitations toward us.

Paris is Urban, Caves is Urban = Perfect Fit for me

Even the parts of city life that many people find challenging—like the noise, the traffic, or even the pollution—have an oddly grounding effect on me. As someone with a Caves environment, I’m not looking for wide-open vistas or fresh mountain air. I do well with density, with grit. The hardness of city life isn’t an obstacle, it’s a texture that reinforces sense of enclosure.

The sound of street cleaners in the early morning, the low hum of cars, or the distant voices echoing through the courtyard all create a kind of contrast that enhances my sense of security. When I’m inside, I can still sense the world happening outside—but I’m not part of it unless I choose to be.

That contrast, between the activity outside and the calm I’ve created inside, deepens my sense of safety. It’s like hearing rain while you’re in bed—it reinforces the fact that you’re protected.

The hardness of city life isn’t an obstacle, it’s a texture that reinforces sense of enclosure.

Living in Paris, then, has become a daily expression of my design. I’ve come to trust the instincts that guide me toward particular corners of cafés, smaller side streets, or seating with my back to the wall. Paris, with all its layers of structure, rhythm, and tradition, offers me not just a home but the environment that allows me to function at my best—physically, energetically, and emotionally.

This city is my jam! Even if I do spend most of my time alone at home 😂 Hey, Caves is still Caves… We need our solitude! But when I am out and about, the energy is exhilarating. Check out this video of me beaming on about this city for a first-hand look 🙂