I spoke with Human Design Life Coach, Aypril Porter late last month, where we learnt what Human Design is and how it can help you in your life and in particular in a grieving journey after losing a precious baby.
So I was just introducing you and our topic today, would you like to just expand on that? Who you are, what you do, your mission, where you're from?
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (01:19)
Sure. I'm April Porter, I'm a human design life coach. I'm in the United States, I'm on the west coast and I help people to find their truth, live their truth, find their authenticity, and I help parents to learn to raise their kids in a way that is really true and authentic for both the parent and the child. So a lot of what I do is parent coaching with the human design chart, reading the charts. I have a book on human design parenting and that's really what my focus is.
And what made you get into human design?
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (02:26)
Yeah, so I was working as a nutritional therapy practitioner and an email came across my desk one day and it said something about human design and I was like, what in the world is this? And so of course I started googling it and looking for what does this even mean? I'd never heard of it. And I quickly found that you could run a chart and it was kind of like astrology in a way. Like you put in your birth date and time and place and it gives you this chart and I was like, oh so cool. Right, but what does this even mean? There's so many numbers and shapes and lines and it was so confusing to me, but I knew it was something that I had to learn more about. It was just one of those moments where you're like, I don't know what this is, but I know I need to know. And so I kind of danced around with this off and on for a few years where it was like I would go in and I'd try and learn and then I'd take it back into my life and I get a little frustrated because it wasn't showing up just the way that I thought it should. And it was a little difficult to decondition in the beginning, but the more I played with it, the more I started bringing it into my sessions in nutrition and people started to have these little AHA moments and I started to put more and more together. And then I started looking at, well, what are my kids charts and how can I help support them? And so it just kind of evolved from there.
How do you think it (Human Design) could help in the loss space?
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (04:03)
I would say that the human design chart, it helps us to connect back into who we are at our core, how to best support our needs. And I think that in the loss and grieving space, there's often a societal element that says that we can only grieve for so long or we can only do it in certain ways. And I think that the human design chart really allows us to see what is true for us, how we process our emotions, how we feel things, how we feel pressure from other people or life in situations. And it allows us to sink deeper into that truth of what we really need, how we connect to people and how we can best support our own needs and how we can let others know that they can support us as well.
And how can people work with you? What services do you offer?
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (04:03) So I offer human design readings, I'll do individual readings, I'll do family readings, I'll do relationship readings. There's lots of different readings. And then there's also return readings. So each phase of our life has a different we have a few different phases in our life. One is around age 30 where there's a transformation in our life and sometimes we'll feel like things start to fall apart or we're not sure why things are happening to us. And there's a chart that actually we can run based on our birth time. A birth chart. This is called the Saturn return chart. And that can give us understanding of what elements and energies and challenges are being brought to us at that time. We have another one around the age of 40, another one around 50, and then 60. So we go through several different transformations in that time. And each time we hit one of those cycles, there's a learning curve. There's a new element that's being brought to us that deepens our awareness to the truth of who we are in that birth chart and what it tells.
Your human design would be a massive contributing factor to the way that you handle those things that come to you at those phases in your life. Right. So understanding that is so beneficial to you when you're going through those phases because you can react accordingly, right?
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (06:35) Yeah. So there's an element in the chart, for a lack of better term, in traditional human design is called the channel of struggle. And sometimes when I see that somebody has this energy in a chart, what it means is that this is an energy that they are becoming really familiar with in this lifetime. It's bringing this element to them on a regular basis so that they can learn to harness it and understand it and learn to know what is worth fighting for, what is worth pushing through, and when is it time to just let the little stuff go and focus on what's really important. And sometimes people can go their whole life and not understand that this is something that they're learning about in this life, in this way, and it's meant to be part of their growth experience. But when we don't know that, we just feel like, what is the purpose of this? Why am I going through this pain and suffering? And why does it always feel like it's me? There's this element that we turn in on ourselves and we go, Why? But why? And so the human design chart really gives a purpose to some of the pain that we end up going through in life.
And it's not that we're meant to suffer. It's just that we're meant to grow. And we have these challenges sometimes that really push those boundaries so that we can grow and we can help other people, too.
And so for somebody that's completely new to human design, what would be their first step in terms of getting their head around what it is or how to go about it? What would you recommend would be their first sort of step into that space? Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (08:05) Yeah, there's a lot of resources out there. So I would say that, first of all, run your chart, learn what energy type you are. So there's four main energy types and then a fifth kind of subtype. So there's manifestors who are here to initiate and do and have big ideas. There are generators who are here to find work that they love and to create this like, overabundance of this beautiful energy that spills over into life around them. Manifesting generators, which are a subtype of the generator and they are here to do similar to the generator, but they do lots of different things at the same time, so they can be very multi, passionate people. There's projectors who are here to guide and then we have reflectors, which are the rarest type, representing less than 1% of the population and they are kind of our barometer into the world around us and what is going on in our environment. So understanding which one of those you are can help you understand how you interact with the world. For example, the manifesto is here to initiate, but they need to inform before they just start doing things. Otherwise the people around them can kind of push back and then that can feel upsetting to them. The generators and the manifesting generators are here to respond to what life brings them. So rather than going out and pushing for things to happen, they just have to sit back and wait for life to bring something and then they get to respond through this gut response that they have. And then the projectors, I'm a projector, we have to wait for an invitation, which kind of sounds like a lot sometimes. When I first learned that I was like, no, I do things. I do lots of things. Come on now. That was part of my learning curve, was to stop pushing so hard. And so once I learned that, then the invitations start to come and then the reflectors are they actually have to wait a lunar cycle. So there's a lot more waiting and patience involved for them and giving them the space to just really feel into what's going on around them and who they truly are and what's right for them. So I think that understanding that element and how you work with the world is the first, most basic piece that you'll need to know. And then from there you can learn about your profile, which is kind of like personality based a little bit, and then you can learn about what you want to learn, your strategy of how you respond to what life brings you or how you respond to the invitations and things. And it can go really deep from there. But I would say staying on the surface with those things is really where you're going to get the most benefit initially.
So if somebody's coming in as a newbie, you could help them through that process. Is that right?
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (10:49)
Yeah. So in human design reading, I'm going to pull the chart, I'm going to spend a couple of days with it beforehand and really just sit with the energy and see what I see here because there's a lot of connections that come up and I kind of intuitively sit with it, too. And then I read the intake form of what this person is experiencing life. And then we enter into a space together where we're one on one, and we have a conversation about what is life bringing you, and then also here's these basic elements that you need to know. And then we work with those elements and add to it where it's really relevant. So I don't ever want to overwhelm somebody with too much information. I just want to give them the foundation to start and then know what's really important to them right now, because we can always come back and add to that knowledge later
there's so much to the surface that you got to try and navigate your way through that before you try and sort of go deeper.
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (11:57)
Yeah, absolutely. And if we go back to RAW's teaching, and Raw was the founder of human design, he always said, if you know nothing else, if you take nothing else from this know your type, strategy and authority. Strategy and authority is everything, and it will get you everywhere. If you really understand and harness that, the rest of the chart will eventually fall into place. Yes. It makes it easier if we know some of these other elements and we understand what's happening. But really, if we follow our strategy and authority, we will end up in the place we're supposed to be.
But really, if we follow our strategy and authority, we will end up in the place we're supposed to be.
So we've spoken about HD, we've spoken about the services that you offer. We've spoken about the mission that you're on. How can people connect with you? Have you got a website? Is it social media the best place to find you? How do people find you? Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (13:14) Honestly, being a projector, I am on Instagram sometimes, I'm on Facebook sometimes. But you can always find me at my website, which is Ayprilporter.com, or email. hello@ayprilporter.com. That's the best way to get to me because I check my email regularly, but the others not always as much. I know that you said the first step would be to find out what your HD is, and I know that there's a tool available online to do that, but I don't know if that is what you would recommend people do. So would you like to just advise people how they can go about running their chart?
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (14:31) Yeah, there are several free tools out there, and there's some apps depending on well, you're in a different country, so I'm not sure what the apps if they were the same, but there are some free ones that you can do. So I like to have something that's in my pocket that I can always run a chart real easily on. Geneticmatrix.com is one. They have an app for the phone too. Myhumandesign.com is another one. They all generally offer you a free chart. If you want to run additional charts, then there's a fee involved in that. But yeah, any chart that you run, it should be the same in any of the software that's out there. Those just might look a little bit different
You also mentioned that you have a book. Would you like to just touch on my little bit more? Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (15:31) It was written to help parents understand their kids. But the way that I tried to write it was that we could also understand our childhood and our parents as well. You can look at this. I mean, I have people who have responded and messaged me and said, I don't even have kids. And I've gotten so much out of this because I understand myself and I understand my parents better. And I can see my parents as people, not just as the parents who raised me and my experience as a kid now. So I think that you can look at it in a lot of different ways, and it can be helpful. And I tried to write it in a way that somebody who is pretty new to human design could come in and pick it up and understand it and start using it and not feel just completely overwhelmed by it.
I'd love to learn a little bit more about my parents and how they actually educate them as well, because I'm 100% sure they would never have even heard of human design.
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (16:51) I also think that anytime I've had somebody come in and they say, oh, I've done this work, and I've learned this about myself through this system, I can go to the chart and I can say, oh, yeah, I see that in the chart here, too. So it's so fascinating to me how it lines up with so many other modalities and wisdoms that are out there. And it is based on the Kabbalah, the Iching, the Chakra systems, astrology, quantum physics. So there's a lot of crossover there where different elements are being pulled in. But it's almost like a shortcut to some of the other things that I've been through, and I've heard other people go through their processes. It really gets you to the heart of the information so that you can make that change now
I feel like it's something that everybody should know about early on in life so that they can live accordingly, you know what I mean? And make decisions accordingly and understand where they're at because on their chart and why
Guest Speaker: Aypril Porter (18:06) Oh, my gosh, if I had known about this as a kid, I would have had such a different life, I swear. Because as a Fifth Line profile so the Fifth Line profile has this projection field that we live in, and I went through a period of being bullied by some of my best friends and other things in my life, and I really didn't understand what was happening. Why was this information coming at me the way it was? And it was really hurtful, but at the same time, I learned and I grew through that, but now I can look at it and go, okay, so the projection field is like we're a Karmic mirror. We're here holding up the mirror so that other people can see what needs to be healed within them. And so sometimes that is projected at us. But if somebody has a Fifth Line profile and has that AHA moment, they can see that. It's like, oh my gosh, so many relationships make sense all of a sudden, and there's so much freedom in that.
You can watch the entire conversation with Aypril here - Episode #20, you can check out her website here, you can follow her over on IG here and you can find her book "Parenting the child you have" here
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As a Virtual Pregnancy Loss Coach, Tayla supports heartbroken loss moms by assisting them to cope with their grief & ease the overwhelm that comes with life after loss. With her lived experience, sense of humour, & realistic approach to living a meaningful life after loss, she has earned a world-wide following & a passion unlike any other. Learn more here