Shin Shin Kaizen

What if making change gets to be really easy… Would that make it more desirable to you?

I first came across the concept and practice of Kaizen in my Compliance Executive days, (many moons ago). I spent some time working in a company that had many arms to its business, one being manufacturing high end frames and casings for artwork and many other interesting things.

The Kaizen (改善) approach was introduced to manufacturing processes to help them become more efficient. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means small and continuous (good) improvement.  It was made well known in manufacturing as part of ‘lean manufacturing’, an approach developed by Toyota to reduce waste and defects whilst promoting productivity. The approach carries guiding principles based on inclusivity, curiosity, contribution and empowerment (beyond the scope of this share, but check it out if you are curious) which in essence, boil down to being actively present and aware of every part of the business whilst holding the belief that everything can be improved…..

Kaizen resurfaced as part of my Reiki studies. If you haven’t yet come across Reiki, it is a hands on healing system based on the teachings of Mikau Usui a Japanese teacher who rediscovered this ancient hands on healing potential through his study of scriptures and dedication to inner understanding. Reiki was brought to the west by Hawayo Takata and her teachings helped to support the exposure of the healing method outside of Japan.

The Reiki system consists of an integrated approach to changing one’s life which I learned as I moved beyond receiving Reiki sessions from a Reiki practitioner into studying. Level 1 Reiki is anchored in self healing (and sharing Reiki with those closest to us) which means daily self healing sessions, meditation and contemplation of the Reiki Precepts. It is from the Precepts (Codes of Practice) that the sentence shin shin kaizen Usui Reiki Ryoho is taken.  The translation loosely invites in the idea of small and continual improvement of our minds (spiritual, mental and emotional) and bodies using the Reiki system as a way to attain true happiness and connection with our true nature.

A daily life long commitment to be with ourselves, to be aware of our habits, our automatic reactions, the places we hold ourselves captive and play small all the while knowing that through this level of awareness we have a choice, we have another way to approach ourselves and our lives.  We have the option to be curious, we have the option to be tender, compassionate and kind, we have the inner resources to contribute meaningfully to who we want to be and how we want to be that way.  This is a beautiful concept and approach to the inevitable human desires - finding happiness, purpose, meaning, fulfilment, following dreams and living a life that feels good to us, for us.

Because life offers so much distraction, minutes, hours, days, months and years can pass us by without us realising the incremental shifts we acquire until what we notice in our habits, or physical experience, or persistent thoughts, emotions and beliefs becomes overbearing and we want to ‘sort’ ourselves out right away… but that is not always possible. So many components intertwine to create who we are everyday that despite the idea of immediate resolution being enticingly attractive, it is not only not sustainable, it short changes us on the magic of getting to know and understand ourselves more deeply.

Presence and the awareness presence makes available is so simple and yet so life affecting and altering. Being with ourselves, noticing the little things in the misplaced moments where we shift into safety mode and pick the thing, thought, action, reaction, feeling that has always been there (even if we don’t like it, and we don’t really want it) changes everything. The little things add up to big things over time that add up to a lifetime of unwanted things if we lose connection with ourselves. So knowing that the same can be not only true, but powerfully true and effective in the reverse is the stuff of dreams.

Taking responsibility of who we are and choosing to say yes to simple, small changes every single day knowing that they may not rock our world overnight, but with dedication, devotion and commitment they amount to a tidal wave of effective and maintainable change on all levels of our being is delicious and it gets to contribute to a lifetime of intentional, deliberate living that shapes who you are…. Are you in?

A Little More by Design

Human Design is a system that was first shared with the world through Ra Uru Hu in 1987. It is called the ‘Science of Differentiation’ as it shows how every single one of us is uniquely gifted with talents to share with the world. Synthesising ancient wisdom systems of Western Astrology, The I-Ching, The Kabbalah Tree of Life and The Chakra System with modern quantum physics to help us understand the particular energy we are imprinted with roughly 88 days before our birth and at the time of our birth.

The map of a person’s energy is presented through a BodyGraph Mandala which is a detailed picture showing where we receive consistent and fixed energy through our physical body in our energy centres of which there are nine in Human Design, and it also shows us how the particular flavour of the energy in our centres is expressed through us in the combination of gates and channels present in our design. The BodyGraph is an intricate graphic of colours and shapes that is very intriguing and confusing to make sense of at first, but it holds some fascinating insights into who we are.

I first came across Human Design 7 years ago during my Breathwork training in Italy. One of the trainers was studying Human Design and offered to look up the Aura Types of the participants. He told me that I was a Projector, quite a rare aura type making up 20% of humankind.  He also shared general characteristics of Projectors that rang true for me at the time, and I enjoyed having the information. Over the years that followed I brushed with Human Design on and off because of the synergy between the work I was doing and the Human Design system. I later found out that both my daughters were also Projectors much to their delight as the Projector Aura Type is not designed to work  ;) 

Every time I endeavoured to look a little deeper into the system I became overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information, and much of the language that was used  - it was very specific and not what I would describe as readily accessible. But everytime it called me back I delved a little deeper into understanding what some of the terms meant. Words such as ‘Authority’, ‘Strategy’ and ‘Not Self Theme’. Unlocking each part of my particular code helped me see deeper truths in what my design showed about me. Then during lockdown life the calling to look into Human Design came too many times for me to ignore. 

It began with my ‘experiment’ with my design. The premise of Human Design is that along with giving us a detailed and very individualised ‘user manual’ to who we are, we are also encouraged to not just hang onto this information at a conceptual level, but to put in to practical application by actually ‘living’ our design in real life experimentation on what it feels like to listen to our spleen, or pay attention to our sacral authority or take the time needed to come to our decision if we are an emotional authority. We can also go deeper and pay attention to how we feel when we come into contact with family members for example so that we can become aware of the conditioning effects of others’ energy on us.  It is said that growing up in the energy of others will have an influence on how we experience and express our own energy. The more heavily influenced we are by conditioning the more we will be disconnected from and misaligned in our energy causing us to display the lower level expression of our design - the low or shadow expression. The more we decondition from the effects of external influences and energies the higher and more true or closer we will move to the gift expression of our unique design.

I found it deeply interesting the way these concepts of energy were expressed and how there were parallels in the idea of conditioning energy and the correlations that may exist with trauma.

The more I learned the more interested it became in me seeing more of how I operated in my own design, but the fascination deepened as I looked into my girls’ designs - that really blew my mind!

As the 3 of us are Projectors I could see the parallels between the way we saw life and interacted with the world around us, the little patterns and levels of energy we had which on face value I could have previously attributed to the fact that I raised them.  The detail of the information goes too deeply to ignore however.

As I started to learn about their individual authorities in comparison with mine and each other’s I was so intrigued. I have splenic authority which means I have present moment intuitive hits about what feels right and true for me. I have learned over the years that I am to ignore these whispers at my peril; this also means that I will just ‘know’ what is right, right now.  Nialah on the other hand needs time to make the correct decisions for her because she has an emotional authority. So for her, the only correct decisions come when she is able to feel her way into what feels correct for her. That vital piece of information changed so much in my understanding of our dynamic.  Because I reached my best truth spontaneously, I had expected her to be able to do the same and I would often ask her things off the cuff and not understand why this would fluster her….  The mantra for the emotional authority is - ‘there is no truth in the now’.

When she learned what having an emotional authority meant it was a relief for her, her process was articulated in a way she didn’t know she needed confirmation of in order for it to feel ‘normal’ and accepted.  Having her validated also brought me into her world, I could now adapt my style to accommodate her and this helped to smooth our interactions. The things I needed to have her considered input with, I made sure to give her the space and time she needed to work things out. 

Nikkie’s authority - ego projected made so many things jump into place it was quite wild! The ego projected authority is driven to make decisions that they have the heart and will to commit to, if they don’t feel it, it’s a no go. This had been translated into Nikkie using language which was expressed as her not ‘caring’ to do the things she didn’t want to. To me that sounded incredibly selfish, and yet it was according to her design and the way energy flows for her, the completely correct and desired way for her to act. Having this insight allowed me to look completely differently at her process and give up the frustration I felt because she was indeed honouring what felt right to her.

I continue to delve more into the magic of HD through my own experiment, my reader studies and the joy of learning my daughter’s designs.

If you would like to find out more about your Human Design Blueprint please visit this page here