Human Design Centers Explained - Defined Centers, Undefined Centers & Open Centers

In this episode, I explained the differences between defined centers, undefined centers, and open centers.  Centers are one aspect of the human design chart. There are three different configurations of centers in the human design chart defined, undefined, and open centers.

Defined centers provide a consistent source of strength and energy, while undefined and open centers receive and amplify energy from others. Gates within undefined centers in human design can be used as anchor points to discern one's own energy and avoid external influences and conditioning. Open centers in human design allow for fluidity of energy and a wide range of experiences. Overall, understanding and utilizing one's unique human design blueprint through the centers can lead to more success, joy, and abundance in both live and business. 

Let's dive into human design centers - defined, undefined, and open explained. 

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Hello, hello, hello and welcome. Today I am very excited to chat with you about defined centers, undefined centers, and open centers. So when we think about a human design chart, the centers are really sort of this focal point for where a lot of the nuance comes from in a chart. It's really a big element in a chart, right? Because in each center we have gates and channels, and then each gate and channel is also so associated with a line level. So our centers and the definition of our centers gives life to our unique energetic blueprint. So today I really want to talk to you about the differences between define undefined and open centers. And I really want to talk about a little bit of the nuance that's there in those centers. So we're going to start with defined centers first. So define centers are really this idea that these are your strengths.

They're fix, they're static. And really I like to say you kind of become more of who you are in that energy over time. When we have a defined center, we get definition because we have one gate coming off of one center. So for example, the head center, and then we have another gate coming off the Ajna Center, and they're both part of the same thing. So say you had Gate 61 in the head and Gate 24 and the Ajna, that forms a channel, which gives you to define centers. So when we think about that, when you have a channel, this is a consistent way for you to access this strength. Anytime we have defined centers, think of that as a strength. That is something that you can tap into on demand. You will, as you age, only become more of who you are in that center.

And I have found that to be pretty true, particularly when you become aligned to that energy over time. So defined centers and the channels that are within them discern our strengths that we can consistently on a regular basis tap into. And then we can use those strengths to support other people, develop offers in our business, understand how we're likely to show up, understand the optimal expression of that defined center or not. Then we have undefined centers. So undefined centers are centers that are white in your chart, and we'll often have, or you will have in an undefined center, a gate coming off that. So you'll have just a gate, and that gate doesn't connect to the center on the other side. So in an undefined center, you have just a gate. And with undefined centers, I really think that this is energy that is present, but we can't necessarily connect to it on demand.

But when we think about what an undefined center does, anytime you have an undefined or an open center, you can take in the energy of those around you and you can amplify it and you can mirror it back and you can almost use that energy to read other people. So when we think about an undefined center, the gate that you have present in that is your energy. I like to call it an anchor. In an undefined center, your gates are anchors to help you discern which energy is your own, okay? Because in an undefined center, this is where we can get conditioning. We can take on conditioning in an undefined center because we're taking in the other energies from other people. So in this undefined center, I'm taking in, I'm taking all this energy and I'm amplifying it back to the people around me. And ultimately these undefined centers, we have to almost allow that energy to filter through us and not attach to us so we don't get conditioned by it.

And then we use our gates as an anchor point for the energy that is ours in that chart. So I'll use myself as an example. I am a projector. So I have an undefined sacro center, but I have gate nine and I have five gate nine placements. I have a lot of gate nine placements in my chart. And the theme of gate nine is focus. So I can read my client's energy in this gate, I can take in their sacral energy, say if they're an MG or a G, and I can discern how best they focus that energy. I can take that in and I run it through my lens of focus. But say I was with the client and they had gate five, but I don't have gate five, right? Say they had actually say they had the channel, the five 15 and five is the gate of consistency.

And I just saw this client, and then I'm sitting there trying to plan for the rest of the day, and I'm like, oh, I really got to be consistent. I got to show up consistently, and I'm really pressuring myself around this. And the reality is that's not my energy. That's energetic residue left over from the person that I was just with. So in an undefined center, we actually have to clear out the energy. That's not ours in that center. Same goes for open, and I'll talk about that more in just a minute. But the reality is the gates that we have in these undefined centers give us an anchor point to say, oh, this is our energy, right? This is mine. Everything else, if I'm experiencing something other than that gate nine focus, it's not mine. If I'm feeling like my husband has, he's a fellow projector, he's got gate 30, 34.

So if I'm feeling like I really need to exert my power, probably not my energy, it's probably his energy there. And I need to let that go, right? Because I have the 10 and he's got the 34. So when we're together, my sacrals lit up and I'm like, no, that's not my energy. So that's why when we think about conditioning, whether it's societal or people, specific people in our lives, or it's sort of cultural norms or generational norms or whatever it is, that is why some conditioning ultimately turns us into this not self, right? It's because we attach to that energy and it stays there. So if I'm always feeling like I need to be in this gate five consistency, and I don't have that gate in that undefined center, then I am, there's a reason why I'm feeling like that, right? And I've done, for me personally, I have an undefined identity center, and I have a parent who has a very defined identity center.

So I've had to do a lot of deconditioning work to find self-love, right? To find or to come to terms with the fact in an undefined identity center, my purpose is more fluid, or I'm not necessarily here to have a uniform every day. My identity might show up a little bit different. And so I share this with you because I think when we think about these undefined identity centers, we don't think about how the gates that are present can act as anchors for us. And I think when we don't consider the anchor, we can come to this conclusion that this energy that's here, none of it's mine. And the reality is an undefined center that isn't the case. You have strengths there, and you have this ability to take in this information, but you're not here to attach to it. So that's the piece that you have to keep in mind when you're considering an undefined center.

Now, when we think about open centers and open centers are the centers that are white, but there's no gate there. There's no colored in gate there at all, right? It's just completely open. So when we think about open centers, open centers function similarly to undefined centers in that they take in information and they amplify it back, or they mirror it back. But with an open center, there's no gate there. And one of the things that's really beautiful about both undefined and open centers, but particularly open centers, is that an open center can experience all of the gates inside of that center. So if you have an open center, you have the ability to experience all the energy that is in there based on who you are around, based on the transits. And the thing that makes that really cool is you have this beautiful fluidity.

You have this beautiful fluidity there that can really operate in a great way to read the energy of others. And when I teach inside any of my programs, I always talk about how our undefined centers, that our undefined centers, how we read the energy of other people, and then we use our defined center strengths in order to provide consistent support, consistent information to other people based on the energy that we just read. So we take it in through our undefined centers, and then we use our defined centers to consistently figure out what's the plan. I'll use myself as an example again. So I have gate nine in my undefined sacral. I'm constantly taking in people's energy and figuring out, okay, this is the energy that's here, where should they focus it? And then I rely on my 1762 for my ANA to throat to say, okay, what's the big picture?

And then all the details along the way for that focus. But when we have an open center, we don't have an anchor there. So it's completely fluid. And when it's complete completely fluid, we don't have any way to identify what is ours and what is not. And so any time it comes to the themes of whatever center that you have that's open, you have to understand that none of the energy there is yours. In our open centers, we are, from my experience, more susceptible to actually taking on conditioning from other people because we don't have that anchor point. And I often notice that when we think about open centers, they tend to exist in the extremes. They tend to exist on the edges of the theme. So if we think about an open head as an example, an open head is going to be constantly over consuming or consuming, nothing at all, right?

An open solar plexus, as an example, is going to be constantly overly emotional or not emotional at all. Same thing for an open sacral. I'm going to be constantly overworking, overworking, overworking, or completely burned out or say in a spleen. I'm afraid of everything. I have no relationship with fear whatsoever. I will literally try and do anything. I have no fear. So when we think about these open centers, they're living in these extremes more often than not, because we don't have this ability to anchor ourselves into saying, oh, this is my energy. We identify with all of it because we're taking in the energy of other people and we're amplifying it. And that is why I spend so much time with the people in my world talking about how can we actually clear the filter of these centers? How can I clear the energetic filter of this?

How can I clear the energetic residue left behind as part of moving about the world? And this is where I recently did a podcast on nutrition. This is where nutrition can come into play, right? Because if I'm feeding my body and I'm aligned to my variables on the digestion side and on the environment side, and I'm feeding my body properly, guess what? I'm less susceptible to the not self. And then in terms of how do we actually clean these, discard this energy that's in our bodies from other people in an undefined or open center, that's really where these practices of grounding and connecting our body come into play. So food obviously is a really big one. And food and nutrition, exercise, water intake, getting outside, connecting with nature. I know I use my P E M F mat a lot and really just use the grounding to earth frequency, walking, swimming, stinging, meditating. There's so many options. Options here are limitless. And one of the things that I say to people in truth three, five fashion, experiment with it. Figure

Out how to do it. I will often change my clothes at the end of the day if I've had a lot of calls. Or I'll take a shower and I will literally go through the visualization process of washing other people's energy off me, or I'll zip up my energy at the beginning of the day. But it's all these little things that we often forget to do where we start to slowly over time, take on conditioning. And the reality is we can understand and have the knowledge and the depth of I know what a defined center is. I know what the definition of this center is. I know what the definition of the channel or the gate is that I have. I understand what an undefined center is, but we actually have to learn how to embody that information and live that information. It's not enough just to know it.

We actually have to become it. We actually have to embody it and integrate it into our being and inhabit it in our ecosystem and in our environment. And the reality is that's that piece when we get into a practice. So as an example, if you have an open head or an open journaling might be really helpful for you because you are going to have a very fluid way of thinking about things. So that means you're not going to have a consistent way you process information. If you have a defined head or defined, you're going to have a very consistent way you process information. Your undefined or open counterparts do not have that. So how can you create some frameworks for yourself to one, dispel and discharge the energy that's in there from the people that you've been around? And then I think more importantly, how can you get clear so that you're not taking on this conditioning?

So if you are somebody with an open Aja as an example, and you're constantly around somebody with the 1156, you might find yourself picking up those traits of that person, right? Because you're taking on that conditioning. And we know in the low expression, the 1156 can exaggerate its stories. And every telling of the story in the 56, it gets exaggerated more and more and more exaggerated. And so when we think about how conditioning can take over, it happens slowly over time, and it sort of erodes away at the beautiful fluidity in an open or an undefined center. But particularly in open centers, I know this to be a real challenge with people. And oftentimes what happens is, and I've seen this over and over and over again, we get into these open centers and people are often labeled, right? They'll go to a traditional doctor and they're labeled, they're labeled bipolar, they're labeled with a D H D, they're labeled with this or that, or an emotional disorder.

And the reality is, at the end of the day, more often than not, when I see that appear in their chart, and then I hear about it in the real world from them, these extremes that happen where they've gone to traditional medicine are often as a result of an open center where they've taken on some conditioning where they're in the not self. And the reality is, look, I am not a medical professional. This is not medical advice. Please do consult your doctor, et cetera, et cetera. But also, I encourage you to do your due diligence here, right? Because I think a lot of times when we have these open centers, we often think that there's something wrong with us because we don't necessarily operate in the same way that other people operate. My nine year old, he's got a completely open sacral. And let me just tell you, this kid runs the extremes from being on to, I just want alone in solitude.

And since we know this about him, and we know he's a manifestor and we know he is a one three, we work as a family really hard to honor his need for alone time. We honor his need for sort of space and rest when he needs it. And so all these little nuancey things, when we think about our centers and our definition are really important to consider when we think about how to actually get congruent with our design, how do we become synonymous with our design? And the reality is we not only have to have the knowledge, but we also have to embody it, and we embody it, and we become it, and we inhabit it, and we bring it into our ecosystem and the environment around us through these practices that allow us to sort of cleanse and clear the future, the filters of our undefined and open centers.

And I think here, here's the thing to remember. This is what I'm going to leave you with. So if we think of this from the perspective of a defined center is you've got this cup and this cup, you use the same cup every day, and the only liquid that goes in this cup is coffee. It's a special cup, it's just for coffee. You don't put anything else in that cup, right? Then we have another cup. And that cup can be for anything, right? Anything can go in that cup, right? That's undefined centers. And then for open, there is no cup right there. It's almost like there is no cup. Where's the cup, right? So if that metaphor works better for you there, use that one. But I truly default to the fact that defined centers, these are fixed. You, these are consistent. You can tap into them.

On demand are on defined centers. The gates that are present, there are anchors that gives us an anchor to say, Hey, this is mine. This is my energy here, this is mine. And then we've got open, which is fluid, right? And oftentimes I hear people too. Somebody recently posted on my Instagram and they were looking for hope with their open centers. Cause I think they had three open centers and they were struggling to see the positive aspects of these open centers. And the reality is when you kind of clear off that conditioning and you kind of dust off all the energetic residue that's been left behind, or the wake of somebody else's energy, the reality is open C centers provide this depth of wisdom because they can experience all of the energy that's there. And there's a great deal of wisdom and knowledge and compassion and understanding that can actually emerge from those centers when we can with more awareness, go into situations with other people as we move about our life with the knowing of, Hey, I got to after this situation, at the end of the day, I got to go clear my energetic filters here.

And I think that's the thing. This is not something where you do one exercise one time and you're good when you have an on definer and open center. It's like a practice to incorporate into your life. And particularly if you're in business and you're working with lots of people and you're constantly interacting with other folks, this is something that you want to incorporate on the regular. Okay? So please do let me know if this resonates or you have any questions. You can always post them on the blog in the comment section. And I would like to invite you to our ideal client design, ideal client design with Human Design workshop. I am going to be doing a workshop in the coming weeks on how to discern your ideal client through your unique human design blueprint. This is not a, let's look at your conscious X, Y, Z to discern your ideal client. It is more nuanced than that, and it is something that I've discovered through repetition and experience with lots of clients and my own journey. So I hope that you'll enjoy, join me for that. It's Ideal client design with human design.com if you'd like to join us. Thank you so much for tuning in, and have a fantastic day.