INTRODUCTION

       ‘I wanted to dismiss Human Design as cobblers,but you read me to the point where I couldn’t deny it.You should write a book about this one day.’

       DS, Yorkshire, UK

      ‘Just be yourself,’ they say. How many times have we heard that? It’s often said to help ease a nervous first date, a daunting social invitation or the first day on a new job. There is always someone armed with that well – intentioned advice: ‘Don’t worry, just be yourself and everything will be fine!’

      The problem is this: how many of us know what being ourselves actually means? Who is this ‘true self’ – the private inner being that hides behind the mask it wears for most public interactions, that real person we are when stripped of our ego and acts of social graces aimed at winning respect, approval or popularity?

      Psychologists the world over would say that millions of people pass through life without ever realizing what comprises their true self. It’s as though we have forgotten our unique individuality in the collective rush to be all things to all people; to fit the picture – perfect portrayals in magazines, television dramas and movies. It’s as though the naturalness and authenticity with which we were all born – and which we unleashed with unaffected abandon as children – has been crushed, repressed or even disallowed.

      Instead, conformity and responsibility in adulthood have combined to distort or shrink our true natures. Millions of us parade as someone other than our true selves without even realizing it, adopting an ‘acting personality’ shaped by the conditioning of our pasts and the judgements, expectations and rules of others. Along the way, we’ve picked up and collected traits and acceptable responses that are deemed the ‘norm’, so there’s always a tendency to act as we believe we should act, or how we’ve been trained to act, all the time keeping our inner beings bound and gagged.

      In that regard, I am reminded of a woman who sought me out to help rediscover a lost connection to the real person who, she said, had mysteriously disappeared during her marriage. Jayne told me:

       ‘All I want is to be myself again, act like myself again, feel like myself again. I don’t want to be this person I’ve created and become. I know the real me is different, waiting to get out and be braver, less afraid of being hurt, less worried about the judgements of others, less afraid of taking on the world, desperate to laugh and dance again. She’s in there. I know she is. But I’ve no idea where to look anymore. I need to be reminded of the me that has become lost.’

      Like Jayne, most of us adopt a persona – a word which originates from the Greek for ‘mask’. But what really matters is the authentic person behind the mask; that we are ‘seen’ and recognized for who we truly are.

      In writing this book I hope to bring you back home to the essence and safe harbour of your inner being, reuniting you with the person you were born to be and the life you were meant to live. That’s why this is not a self – help book, but a self – reminder, directing you to rediscover the essence and uniqueness of the real you.

      What I’m introducing is a one – of – its – kind system and self – awareness tool called ‘Human Design’, a system where science meets spirituality, a system which intends you to be loved, accepted and understood for who you are. Which is why it asks one question at the outset: ‘Are you living your human design?’

      This system is built on the wisdom that the acceptance and embracing of your true nature are the essence of finding personal happiness, fulfilment and freedom which, in turn, can lead to finding and creating healthier relationships.

      This book is the culmination of 15 years in the field of Human Design. I have immersed myself in its truths, giving one – on – one readings and holding group seminars, and it has been a long – held wish of mine to share its prescient insights with a much wider audience because of the quiet revolutions it kick – starts.

      I have lost count of the people who have walked through the front door of this system and emerged through the back exit as someone renewed and invigorated. Once its truths become apparent, it induces an awakening which is both empowering and transformative. It provides concrete information for you to act on by altering the way you view yourself and approach interactions with others.

      In the words of American educator Stedman Graham: ‘When you have a sense of who you are and a vision of where you’re going in life, you then have the basis of reaching out to the world, and going after your dreams for a better life.’

      Once you apply this system’s knowledge to your life, the possibilities are endless. But knowledge is not the only qualification I bring to the table. Experience has also been my teacher, and I personally have Human Design to thank for bringing me back ‘home’ and changing my life – a life which was seemingly going nowhere back in 1975.

      I was sure the perfect storm was going to consume our 100ft motor yacht. There almost seemed a surreal lull in between the heaving rolls of the 40ft swell as we were driven across the Atlantic Ocean, a lull between life and death. I remember the chill, the pitch darkness and freezing spray of Atlantic water as this hurricane storm suddenly struck two days out of Bermuda. I was at the wheel, between Nassau and Malta, when the mother of all waves hit and the boat was knocked sideways. I gripped the wheel for dear life, convinced we were capsizing and that death was imminent.

      Then, with agonizing slowness, the boat righted herself. It was a terrifying experience and the rocky ordeal lasted for nine days and nights. I remember tying myself onto a bunk with ropes, wedged between two wooden drawers, and disappearing into a place beyond prayer. Two days