cognition

your spidey-sense

top left (red) arrow

The four variables or arrows in Human Design cover PHS (Primary Health System), Motivation, Environment and View Perspective. The Primary Health System which is tied to your top left arrow tells you about your unique nutritional needs when it comes to consumption + your Cognition. Like Environment, it is tied to our Body Design (red).

Both of the top arrows (red) Brain + (black) Awareness have to do with how we take in and process information, how we consume the world around us. The Top Left arrow, in addition to our Diet/Determination offers us insight into our unique super-power aka, our cognition. This is the Sense that can be particularly heightened for you, offering you extra sensory information when it comes to decision making and honoring your Authority. We can identify out Cognition from the number in the green triangle under to top left arrow. The chart above would be a Taste Cognition with 5th Color High Sound Determination. You will also find it written in the keynotes on Genetic Matrix. If you haven’t already learned about your unique Determination and the direction of your PHS arrow, you can do so here.

the senses

This is the way your body is uniquely designed to take in information + intuit in an extra kind of way.

I encourage you to read through all of them and see what pulls at you. Connecting in to our senses is something we can all do. They are each a pathway in to greater embodiment, connection and overall fulfillment in life.

And, as I said in the audio, just because you don’t have one as your Cognition doesn’t mean you do not have access to that gift somewhere else in your chart.

I was reading Anam Cara by the beautiful writer John O’Donohue and knew that I would want to incorporate his wisdom into this module. All of the quotes below are from this book. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend.

no. 1 | smell

• the ability to sniff out something that doesn’t “smell right” or that does.

• smell your food. smell your environment. smell your partner. start to notice.

• what smells take you back, connect you to memory.

• may be drawn to unraveling mysteries whether that’s a good airport paperback, the popular podcasts, or the mysteries of self or life. leaning in to this can help draw out your cognition + nourish it.

• it’s important that the smell of your environment (and food) is appealing + that you remove (not mask) anything offensive

• bring smells you love into your space.

• breathing is obviously tied to our sense of smell so breathwork/pranayama can be supportive for you.

“The sense of smell is deft and immediate. Experts tell us that smell is the most faithful of all the senses in terms of memory. Each day we breathe 23,040 times; we have 5 million olfactory cells. The sense of smell is vital to the sense of life.

Traditionally, the breath was understood as the pathway through which the soul entered the body. At the deepest level, breath is sister of spirit. One of the most ancient words for spirit is the Hebrew word, Ruah; this is also the word for air or wind. Ruah also denotes pathos, passion, and emotion - a state of the soul.”

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“We smell each other at the deepest level through pheromones- delicate aromas and hormones emitted by the body that we take in at an unconscious level. Our sense of smell guides our intuition. As our awareness moves into this unconscious world, we get to see the subtle attachments we follow as we are drawn to certain people, foods, places and cultures throughout our lives.”
-Richard Rudd

Practice

Take inventory each evening:

What did you smell today? What scents stood out? How did smell impact your day? How did you follow your nose? What insight was offered?

no. 2 | taste

• this is tied to that internal markets specificity vibe. you need to get a taste for things, food, experiences, etc.. to see what you like and what you’re drawn to. get deeply distinct.

• make the time to taste your food + be present with your food.

• like a manifesting generator you want to try things on and see if they fit. this also means giving yourself permission to change your mind.

• variety really is your spice of life. try new things, foods, experiences, take an interesting class, explore your options.

• travel (if it feels resonant), explore other cultures through film, tv, food. astro-traveling and channeling other cultures through your supportive lines is particularly nourishing for you. maybe even learning another language.

• the Throat Toolbox for nourishment.

• tea or cocoa ceremonies could be supportive for bringing ritual to your life around taste.

“The fast-food metaphor provides a deep clue to the poverty of sensibility and lack of taste in modern culture. This is also clearly mirrored in our use of language. The tongue, the organ of taste, is also the organ of speech. Many of the words we use are of the fast-food spiritual varieties. These words are too thin to echo experience; they are too weak to bring the inner mystery of things to real expression. In our rapid and externalized world, language has become ghostlike, abbreviated to code and label. Words that would mirror the soul carry the loam of substance and the shadow of the divine.

One way to invigorate and renew your language is to expose yourself to poetry. In poetry your language will find cleansing illumination and sensuous renewal.”

Practice

Take inventory each evening:

What did you taste today? Did you take the time to consciously taste your food? What new experience did you have? What are you currently craving to try? Did you express yourself fully + with substance?

no. 3 | outer vision

• what are you seeing in the world around you? are you walking around with your eyes truly open?

• what is your unique way of seeing the world. where are you visionary?

• what appeals to you? how can you plate your food so it is appealing? what are you looking at while eating?

• it’s important that your space is visually appealing. that you like what you see on a day to day basis in your life. put things in your environment that you enjoy.

• pay attention when you are looking at things that “seem off”. If something doesn’t look right, get curious.

• you can strengthen this by actively seeking and noticing your surroundings. hunt for beauty.

• games that call out this skill like, my personal favorite, “Where’s Waldo?” or “I Spy” are nourishing this ability.

• balance screen time with real world images.

“The universe finds its deepest reflection and belonging in the human eye.

When you really look deeply at something, it becomes part of you. This is one of the sinister aspects of television. People are constantly looking at empty and false images; these impoverished images are filling up the inner world of the heart. Television and the computer world are great empty shadowlands. To look at something that can gaze back at you, or that has a reserve and depth, can heal your eyes and deepen your sense of vision.

An interesting question to ask yourself at night is, What did I really see this day? It is a startling truth that how you see and what you see determine how and who you will be. An interesting way of beginning to do some interior work is to explore your particular style of seeing. Ask yourself, What way do I behold the world? Though this question you will discover your specific pattern of seeing?”

Practice

Take inventory each evening:

What did you notice in the world around you? Did you hunt for beauty? What appealed to you about what you saw today? How does this fit with your unique sight?

no. 4 | inner vision

• what is your unique way of seeing things.

• practice presence + mindfulness in the big moments and the mundane.

• slow down in your life and stop rushing. take your time.

• eat with all of your senses. chew your food. a lot.

• keep clarifying your inner vision for your life and what you want to create. keeping a journal of the future you are leaning in to with as many details you can connect to through as many senses, including how you want to feel.

• meditate daily.

• Third Eye Toolbox for nourishing support.

“Kathleen Raine, a Scottish poet, says that unless you see a thing in the light of love, you do not see it at all. Love is the light in which we see light. Love is the light in which we see each thing in its true origin, nature and destiny. If we could look at the world in a loving way, then the world would rise up before us full of invitation, possibility and depth.

The loving eye sees through and beyond image and effects the deepest change. Vision is central to your presence and creativity. To recognize how you see things can bring you self knowledge and enable you to glimpse the wonderful treasures your life secretly holds.”

Practice

Take inventory each evening:

How did you bring mindfulness to your day? In what ways were you present (and not)? Did you allow yourself to slow down? Did anything today offer you clarity around the vision you are cultivating for your future?

no. 5 | feeling

• this is about getting a feel for things. what do the sensations in your body tell you?

• honoring when you “just have a feeling” about something

• part of your authority is going to be feeling it out before making a commitment + recognizing those hunches.

• what feelings might be clogging up your intuition. emptying out is going to be really important for you, processing your emotions, having a good cry, moving through anger, etc..

• keeping your energy + the energy of your space clear… salt baths, salt lamps, plants, cleansing the air with herbs, protecting yourself from EMF’s, shungite, turning off your wifi at night, limiting electronics in the bedroom, swimming in the ocean, protective crystals, etc..

• using film, books, music etc.. to move through the feels + let yourself feel to nourish this sense.

“The senses are our bridges to the world. Human skin is porous; the world flows around you. Your senses are large pores that let the world in. By being attuned to the wisdom of your senses, you will never become an exile in your own life, an outsider lost in an external spiritual place that your will and intellect have constructed.

Being in the soul, the body makes the senses thresholds of soul. When your senses open out to the world, the first presence they encounter is the presence of your soul. To be sensual or sensous is to be in the presence of your own soul.”

Practice

Take inventory each evening:

What did you feel today? What are the sensations in your body communicating? How did you follow your feels? Are there any feelings that may be clogging up your intuition that need to be cleared/released?

no. 6 | touch

• you receive and share information through touch

• eat + prepare food with your hands.

• wear fabrics that feel good to the touch, layer different textiles.

• have lots of textures and textiles in your home that feel good.

• a worry stone, beads, or a fidget spinner can be beneficial, something to play with in your hands. 

• physical contact is intrinsic to your well-being and cultivating this gift. 

• watch films or read books that “touch” you.

• The Root + The Sacral for support.

“Touch and the world of touch bring us out of the anonymity of distance into the intimacy of belonging. Our skin is alive and breathing, always active and ever present. Human beings share such tenderness and fragility because we live not within shells but within skin, which is always sensitive to the force, touch, and presence of the world.

Touch is one of the most immediate and direct of the senses. The language of touch is a language in itself.”

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“I touch therefore I am.” -Descartes

Practice

Take inventory each evening:

What did you touch today that stood out? What information did you receive through touch? Did you get enough physical contact? Did you feel touched by anything (film, music, art, experience)?