How do I move
through the world?
A reflective framework for exploring energy, decision-making, relationships and recurring life patterns.
Human Design × Five Elements × Embodied Self-Knowledge
Know
thyself.
Live in alignment.
What if the parts of yourself you keep trying to fix are not problems to solve, but patterns to understand?
01
The philosophy
You don’t need another system telling you who to be.
You need better ways of seeing what is already there.
By My Design begins with recognition. Before we change a pattern, judge a trait, or optimize a life, we learn to observe what repeats—and what the body is already communicating.
Human Design offers one language for recurring patterns in energy, decision-making, relationships and work. Five Element theory offers another: movement, connection, nourishment, boundaries and reserves.
Neither is used here as a verdict. The practice is to notice, test, feel and decide what is genuinely yours.
How do I move
What is happening
in my inner landscape?
A traditional Chinese medicine lens on movement, connection, nourishment, boundaries, restoration and the embodied conditions in which self-awareness unfolds.
The By My Design method
Insight is only the beginning.
The work is turning recognition into something you can actually live.
Recognize
See what repeats before deciding whether it needs to change.
Respond
Experiment with choices that arise from lived response rather than mental pressure.
Regulate
Learn the conditions that support clarity, steadiness and presence.
Repattern
Distinguish conditioning and protection from patterns you want to keep.
Embody
Turn insight into a personal practice, not another idea to collect.
Five landscapes
A language for
what you feel.
Not five personality boxes. Five ways to notice the qualities moving through your life and body.
01 / 木
Wood
Direction
Movement · flexibility · frustration · vision
02 / 火
Fire
Connection
Expression · joy · intimacy · recognition
03 / 土
Earth
Nourishment
Stability · support · thought · receiving
04 / 金
Metal
Discernment
Boundaries · grief · refinement · release
05 / 水
Water
Depth
Fear · restoration · reserves · wisdom
“
Don’t begin by judging the symptom.
First understand the pattern.
— a principle that connects the two worlds
Livia BrodeAcupuncturist · Founder
About By My Design
At the intersection of pattern, body and self-recognition.
By My Design was created by Livia Brode, an acupuncturist interested in the moment when a collection of experiences begins to reveal a pattern.
The project brings together her clinical perspective, curiosity about Human Design, and a deeper question: what changes when we learn to see ourselves clearly—without turning that recognition into another box?
This is not about becoming a better version of someone else. It is about becoming more precise about what is already yours.
Follow the project as it develops ↗The journal
Ideas worth
sitting with.
Essay 01
Being Seen Is Not the Same as Being Defined
On recognition, projection, and the difference between being understood and being assigned an identity.
Coming soonEssay 02
Where Human Design and Chinese Medicine Meet—and Where They Don’t
Coming soonEssay 03
What If the Pattern Is Not the Problem?
Coming soonThe founding list
Come in at
the beginning.
New essays, early course invitations, and the evolution of the By My Design method.