It All Began With My Gremlin
Using the gifts of the archetypes to change the narrative of your life.
Hello and happy Fall everyone!
I’m excited to announce a new private group for exploring your Human Design! Please read to the end of the post below for details. This will be a small interactive group to begin, and we’ll be discussing and exploring YOUR specific design questions and challenges. We’ll begin in October and I’m limiting the group size at first so everyone can feel comfortable asking questions and supporting each other.
I look forward to having you join me in the exploration!
~Suzanne
Many years ago (1990 to be exact), a friend and mentor gave me the book Taming Your Gremlin by Richard Carson. 34 years later, I still have that same book sitting on my bookshelf. That was the first time I was introduced to the idea of looking into myself for the root of my life challenges. This was the first time I realized that my issues were solely mine and I could control them.
This doesn’t mean I actually took this knowledge and applied it, but it opened up the idea that whatever challenges I faced in my life come from within me somewhere and somehow I could fix them.
A number of years later (sometime around 2007) I was introduced to the writings of Carolyn Myss. Studying her archetype definitions gave me an even deeper understanding of the gremlins from earlier in my studies. With guidance from my teachers during a three year energy medicine program, I discovered and began to face my 12 primary archetypes, specifically the shadow sides that had challenged me throughout my life.
This shadow work defined even further the subtleties of how I was using my own habits against myself and, even better, some hint on how to change the narrative.
Again, knowledge is nothing if not applied, and while I tried to understand how I was living in the shadow, applying the light side proved difficult.
Then I began studying Human Design, with yet another extrapolation and application of the archetypes and how they manifest in our lives. This time however, there wasn’t all the archetypal jargon and pretense. It simply stated:
here is where you probably face challenges in your life
here is what that means to you and your choices
and here are ways to flip that narrative and begin living authentically as you, shadows and all, in your daily life
The lightbulb went off that not everything that was previously defined as a shortcoming actually was. My challenges still came from within, but I didn’t have to change who I was, I just had to understand how who I am fits into the world!
My biggest challenge…
On major problem in defining my “overachiever” gremlin (the one who has too many projects going on at once and doesn’t always finish all of them) is that it was defined by my early conditioning: Finish what you start. Finish everything on your plate. Don’t start a new project until you’ve given 100% to the last one. Complete your tasks even if you don’t feel like it, just push through. Don’t be a quitter or an underachiever.
For me, this was miserable, both in continuing to do things that no longer interested me and in trying to focus on just one thing at a time.
This same shadow showed up as the Dilettante archetype, the Jack-of-all-trades but master of none. In a time where going to college and pursuing one course of study to become an expert in that career was the norm, my preference to know a lot about a lot of different things didn’t fit the mold.
I failed at being focused on and successful at just one career. My husband at the time emphasized that failure often as compared to his multiple degrees and letters behind his name.
Over the years, (and if You’ve read my bio you already know this) I’ve held many different jobs, pursued many different careers, and even run a few businesses. I’ve traveled, written books, and learned most of what I know from experiencing life in many different ways and learning from many different teachers and mentors. This is not only most comfortable for me, but the most successful way for me to make a living. But I still felt I wasn’t finding my life purpose… that ONE thing that would define me and the gifts I had to give the world. I was still failing because I didn’t, couldn’t, fit into that “focus on one thing” mentality.
In Human Design, my type is called a Manifesting Generator. I’m designed to be busy doing a lot of different things. It’s how I thrive. And, it’s how I bring my gifts to the world. Also, my 6/2 profile and Incarnation Cross define my purpose even further: to use my experiences and lifelong learning to help others realize they too can live from their heart and know the importance of who they are authentically, and not who others think they should be.
The realization…
What one person called a gremlin, another called a shadow archetype, and yet another called an energy type and profile. All three are correct. How I interpreted the information and applied it to my life has made all the difference!
That overachieving gremlin is actually a friend who reminds me that I can choose what I do, when I do it, and for how long. The dilettante is not a dabbler or a quitter, but a multi-faceted, deeply inspired, knowledge seeker. And applying both of these traits to my Human Design, everything I’ve done in my life, the experiences I’ve chosen all revolve around this same theme. Not the theme of an indecisive, failure, and underachiever, but that of an experimenter who becomes the role model, paving the way to show others how to follow their hearts courage.
What does this mean for you?
Have you encountered your gremlins? Have you faced your shadow archetypes? Has interpreting and challenging these personality traits proved frustrating? After all that, are you still feeling lost and in search of your place in the world? Maybe it’s time to reframe those messages and understand how to embrace their guidance.
This fall I’ll be leading a private online group to explore your Human Design and learn how to understand and apply the different facets to your daily life.
✨If you’d like an invite to the group when it begins in October, comment below or message me privately. I’ll send you a link to run your free human design chart and basic report so you can start exploring before we begin.
✨I’m limiting the group size to 15 members to start so everyone can feel comfortable asking questions, discussing their challenges, and get answers without feeling lost in the crowd.
✨The group will primarily be in chat format and we’ll go live together only on occasion so times zone differences won’t be a big issue.
Let me know before September 30th if you’d like to be a part of this initial group. My vision is for it to eventually expand so that those who have been in a while and have learned a bit, can then help others newer to the group.