There is no shortage of Human Design content. Books, courses, programs, each one offering its own language for understanding your design. And there’s real value in all of it.

But the lived expression? That’s the void.

This is what I’ve been craving. And for those that know me, have heard me talk about... or maybe I’ve been trying to persuade you to write a book like this (you know who you are - LOL). It’s the the lived stories that’s missing.

The kind of thing you get from reading a biography or watching a biopic. Where you see your own reflection through someone else’s life. Noticing what matches, what doesn’t, and learning from both.

That’s what this series is. Over the next 12 weeks, ten of us are going to move through each of the nine Human Design centers. Each week we’ll be sharing real experiences of what it looks like to live with a defined, undefined, or open center.

We are different types, different designs, different lives. Stories you couldn’t get from any one person writing alone. I’m so honored that everyone said yes to coming together on this.

~ Tricia

This week…
We start by introducing ourselves.

Charlotte Webb

3/5 Projector - Triple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m Charlotte, a legacy mentor for women rewriting the rules of power and prosperity. After a career in academia and creative tech activism, I had a spiritual awakening and re- wrote my own life. I trained in crystal healing, the Akashic records and coaching and am on a mission to have fun guiding women to be in their element, doing work they love.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Studying my centres has shown me who I am in a completely new way. Understanding my defined throat centre with lots of activations made sense of the power of my voice and unlocked a lot of energy! Having emotional definition has also revealed a huge amount - especially around waiting for emotional waves to pass before making decisions.

Substack Publication: CEO With a Singing Bowl

Erica Voell

5/1 Generator - Single Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m a Decision Mentor and Inner-Trust Guide. I work with women in midlife untangle from their life patterns of shapeshifting and keeping everyone else happy. No one comes to me saying “I’m terrible at making decisions” and it’s often the root of the work we do together.

My work helps my clients understand their families, and coworkers better, therefore shifting relationship dynamics that have felt hard. I love the aha moments of “this makes so much sense” or “that’s why I do this.”

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Studying my centers has completely shifted how I see myself. It helped me understand why I’ve felt the need to prove my worth my entire life. I learned that I need to sleep on my decisions after making decision after decision that I regretted throughout my life. It also helped me understand my unique voice and how I’m designed to communicate. And a huge aha was that I don’t need to take on every idea that comes into my mind. All of this explained why I burned out at 48, and it was a huge part of my healing.

Substack Publication: Unfolding: Letters from the Middle of Becoming

Jamie Siv Rognstad

2/4 Projector - Triple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

Sometimes it feels easier to say who I am not than to say who I am. I’m a creative rebel and free-spirited thinker, author, singer/songwriter, photographer, communication lover, and business coach. I am strongly convinced that everything of value and sustainability comes from within, and that we need to come out and say it as we see it. I’m not a big fan of a sharp niche. It’s totally okay to be many things, and talk about them too. If everything is crystal clear, most people can handle multiple messages.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

I’m a Projector, and something I’ve been told often is “You need to rest a lot”. I could never understand it until I found out that I have three of the four motor centers defined: Root, Solar Plexus, and Heart/Will centers. If there is something I want, I just go for it. I can work 12 hours a day if I want it enough. I have lots of drive and stamina, lots of passion, and the will to go through with it. Learning about my completely open communication center was probably what changed most for me. All of a sudden, it made sense why people always come to me when they don’t know what to say and want clear advice. I also learned that I have a triple split, and learning to bridge three sets of centers has been a true game-changer for me.

Substack Publication: Jamie🖤Sum1s Weird Productions

Jo Ellicott-Barr

4/6 Generator - Single Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I blend science and spirituality to facilitate healing and empowerment by helping people connect to their body and gifts through their Human Design, Gene Keys, functional and somatic breathwork, yoga and holistic coaching.

The body holds the somatic memory; the breath builds the bridge and when we learn to connect to ourselves again – transformative magic can happen.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

My background is in yoga and the Hindu chakra system, so when I learned the Centres in Human Design were based on the chakras, I had to delve in.

Working with the Centres has given me another route to understand and balance my energy and when you have a completely open centre, as I do with three of mine, that is valuable information to work with - personally and professionally.

Substack Publication: Follow the Sun

Kelly Quiney

5/1 Manifesting Generator - Simple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m Kelly Quiney. I write, coach and host conversations for people who have reached a point where the life they’ve built no longer feels like their own. After burnout forced me to question everything, I’ve become fascinated by what happens when we stop pushing so hard, slow down enough to hear ourselves again and get curious about what else might be possible.

In a fast world, I am learning to trust the wisdom of slowing down.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Studying my centres shifted Human Design from an interesting system into a lived experience. It helped me see where I consistently seek certainty, where I absorb pressure from others and where my own wisdom naturally emerges. I had spent so long working out what my underlying patterns were but that only got me so far. Seeing it laid bare on paper in my centres gave me the self-compassion I had been seeking for years. Understanding my centres hasn't given me answers so much as permission to trust how I'm already designed to move through life.

Substack Publication: Kelly Quiney - The Slow Coach

Leanne Chesser

5/1 Manifesting Generator - Single Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m Leanne Chesser, relationship coach and creator of Connection for Couples and the Connected Relationship Method.

I help couples and individuals in relationships move from disconnected roommate energy into deeper connection, better communication, emotional safety and lasting intimacy.

My work blends relationship coaching, Human Design, self-awareness, communication tools and deeper pattern work. I care about the real stuff that actually creates change.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Studying my centers, especially my Ajna, Throat, G, Solar Plexus and Spleen, has given me confirmation of things I knew about myself as well as deep awareness into significant challenges, core strengths, fears, how and what I speak in the world and identity. I’ve had many, “Oh, that’s why” and “that makes sense” moments of self-understanding as well as insights about my potential that I’m working to become.

Substack Publication: The Connected Relationship

Michele Marie Neyers

2/4 Generator - Simple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

Hello, I’m Michele! I’m the creator of The Sacred Art of Becoming HER and HER Front Porch on Substack – a quiet and spacious place for the woman who is ready to consciously tend to her becoming.

I believe we are forever becoming — not as a single event, but an ongoing evolutionary spiral. The most interesting question isn’t what will I do next — but who am I consciously becoming? I write for the woman in the sacred liminal space between who she believed she was and who she is now becoming. I help her navigate this threshold with grace, love, and compassion.

With love & front porch vibes, Michele

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

The Centers are my favorite aspect of Human Design to study — perhaps because of my love of frequency and energy flow. Discovering that my biggest life lessons live in my undefined centers gave me a curriculum uniquely my own. Studying my defined Identity Center was the most profound — it helped me stop relating to my body as the enemy and begin seeing it as a perfectly designed vessel for the purpose I'm here to fulfill.

Substack Publication: The Sacred Art of Becoming HER

Polly Rusyn

4/6 Generator - Simple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m in the early years of transitioning from a decade of running a photography business into coaching and guided healing. I’m also a writer (a published author of three street photography books). These days I’m often left wondering: am I what I’m paid to do, or am I all the things that fire me up and that I love doing? Which makes me want to introduce myself as a photographer, coach, healing guide, writer, and tropical garden-sitter!

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Understanding my Human Design has, more than anything, helped me make sense of patterns I was already noticing. It’s definitely increased my self-acceptance, strengthened my appreciation for individuality, and reinforced my belief that people thrive when they understand themselves rather than trying to optimise themselves into someone else’s version of success. If anything, Human Design has been more of a mirror than a map, helping me trust myself more.

Substack Publication: Emotional Wealth

Tricia Edwards

6/2 Generator - Triple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I find that I want to share the breath of who I am rather than a title or niche. I’m here to be inside what I call “my aliveness.” Some days it’s making art, others being outside, and of course, sharing my how I deepen my aliveness here on Substack and through my business. It’s inside>out. It’s about what feels good first. It’s starting with what’s already strong. It’s body-led.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

For me it was like categorizing the different types of energy flowing through me. It helped me to separate mind from emotion, emotion from thriving, thriving from the urge to move. I started to feel how all of the centers connected and where mine didn’t. I found an organized system to how I felt, thought, and moved.

Substack Publication: Being Inside>Out with Tricia Edwards

Stef Carlstedt

3/5 Manifesting Generator - Single Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

Hello, I’m Stef - a Human Design guide, mom of four, and someone who spent way too many years thinking something was wrong with me.

I discovered Human Design shortly after losing my dad and was completely lost. I started implementing it into my own life first. Then I spent a year helping business owners use it to build in alignment with who they actually are instead of someone else’s formula.

And then it expanded… into families, into parenting, even into relationships!

Because once you see how this changes everything for you, you can’t help but want it for the people you love most.

My favorite work I do is with families… helping parents finally understand their kids and themselves at a level that creates real ease, real joy, and real connection.

That’s what I’m here for.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

I’m 42 years old and I feel like I’m 16… but loving myself this time.

That’s what studying my centers has done for me.

My open heart center explained years of overgiving, over-proving, and trying to earn my place in every room I walked into. I wasn’t broken. I was just trying to find worth in a center that was never designed to define it.

My defined throat showed me that my voice was always meant to be heard… that speaking up, speaking out, and saying the thing nobody else was saying was never too much. It was my design!

Most of all…studying my centers showed me that the places I struggled weren’t failures. They were invitations to evolve. Nothing was ever wrong with me. And nothing is wrong with you either.

XOXO,
Stef

Substack Publication: The Return to Yourself

Over the next 11 weeks

We’ll be moving through each of the nine centers together. Nine articles, each one focused on one center. We’ll share real life expression of it as a Defined, Undefined, and Open center. Then we’ll wrap it up with some extra goodies in the last two weeks.

The Real Life of the HD Centers
A co-authored Human Design series with 10 voices & 9 Human Design Centers

Which center are you most looking forward to exploring?

Human Design: Progress - The Gate of Change

Gene Keys: Wormholes and Miracles

BG5: Progress

Exploring through embodied language of lived and witnessed experience. Because what’s strong already becomes leadership.

Strength: Experience

Leadership Style: The Expansion of Experience

Leadership Loop: Experience → Expand → Progress

Read more

So here we are at the end of this thread. The one we’ve been pulling around motivation language, and what it actually takes for a word, or a phrase, or a whole statement to move us rather than just it sounding right.

And the thing that came into sharpest focus for me is something I started with. The way I feel when I’m writing a word, or when I read it back to myself, is the way it gets imprinted. That’s the signal that goes out. Not the meaning I intend. The state I’m in when the word leaves me.

I’ve known for a while that my body responds before my mind catches up. I check in with myself when I’m writing, noticing what opens and what tightens. And that practice has served me. My business reflects it. Year after year, the version of me that returns to her body while she writes does better than the version that didn’t know to look there.

But this thread added a layer I wasn’t tracking before. Feeling good and creating movement are two different things. A word can feel smooth, settled, true to me, and still not do anything. It can keep me in place. And if I’m building motivation language, that staying in the same place can feel like recognition, but it’s not how I move… the very point for motivation.

So I started testing for both. Does this feel right in my body? And does it pull me forward into what’s next? It’s something I talked about in The Live Experience.

Here’s where this got real for me. I’ve been sitting with a new identity statement, one I’m not treating as a goal. The identity is that someone buys something from my Boutique every single day. And I played around with how to write that. Gratitude language felt warm and settling, it felt good. But I didn’t feel like motivation.

So I played around, did something that has me feeling like I’m moving into action. Here it is.

Read more

Human Design: Enthusiasm - The Gate of Skills

Gene Keys: Magical Genius

BG5: Skills

Exploring through embodied language of lived and witnessed experience. Because what’s strong already becomes leadership.

Strength: Mastery

Leadership Style: The Mastery of Skill

Leadership Loop: Practice → Refine → Perform

Read more

Human Design: Contemplation - The Gate of the Now

Gene Keys: The Sacred Om

BG5: Contemplation

Exploring through embodied language of lived and witnessed experience. Because what’s strong already becomes leadership.

Strength: Presence

Leadership Style: The Presence of Now

Leadership Loop: Notice → Act → Impact

Read more

This experience will be the first of our quarterly Live Experiences!

I’ve been looking forward to this, to share a process I’ve been doing for several months now. And each time, I’ve refined it to what I’ll be leading us through in the Live.

There’s not much to prepare…

1. If possible, join from a space where you feel comfortable closing your eyes to observe…

Read more

Read more

Human Design: Holding Together - The Gate of Contribution

Gene Keys: Diamond of the Self

BG5: Contribution

Exploring through embodied language of lived and witnessed experience. Because what’s strong already becomes leadership.

Strength: Contribution

Leadership Style: The Uniqueness of Contribution

Leadership Loop: Express → Contribute → Amplify

Read more

I’m bringing a few of these Letters here. This one went to her on May 15, 2026. I’ve left it mostly as it arrived... just without her name at the top, because now I’m leaving a little space for yours. And when you feel your own moment of recognition, there’s a place for you too at the bottom of this letter.

Before Friday came Monday and Wednesday, and here’s the emails.

Friday, May 15, 2026

Thursday, May 28th, I’m hosting the first Live Experience inside The Red Thread Lab.

Remember how we’d show up to something just to be in the mix? To be with others doing the same thing? Like going on a walk with friends, yoga in a studio, or for me recently, meditating with others. It’s the experience of something rather than another place to figure out your funnel.

This Live Experience is about how your body responds to the words you use. I won’t be teaching or promising an outcome. It’s being inside this with other women doing the same. Women who are here to business from the inside>out. Who are creating their legacy work through self-leading.

All you need to bring is one sentence.

A goal statement. A motivation statement. A CTA. A line from your website. A sentence from a sales page. A reminder you wrote to yourself. Something you’re using to move yourself or someone else toward an action.

And we’re going to feel it.

Word by word.

Because that’s what this week has really been about for me. The busyness in my business. The work that may look inefficient from the outside, but from the inside, gives my energy somewhere satisfying to go.

On Monday, I shared how I let a task take longer than it needed to because something in me was being filled by the doing.

On Wednesday, I shared how, as a Generator, my energy wants somewhere to go. How response moves through my body. How some kinds of busyness help me stay inside the real work.

And now I’m seeing another layer.

The task I chose that day was written on my list in my own natural language. I didn’t dress it up. I didn’t make it sound professional. I didn’t force it into business words. I had jotted it down in a way my body recognized.

It was soul-connected.

Because language can move us into action.

Or it can leave us standing outside the door, wondering why our willpower can’t get us across the threshold.

So in this Live Experience, we’re going to look at the words already in front of you and notice what your body does with them.

We’ll start with one sentence. You’ll experience a deeper connection to your own language, and you’ll have the process to use again and again with any statements you want to explore.

It’s happening inside The Red Thread Lab.

Thursday, May 28th
9:30 AM PT / 12:30 PM ET
1 hour on Zoom

Join The Red Thread Lab here

The Live Experience is included with membership.

I’ll be inside,
Tricia

These letters are different from my articles here on Substack. I get a little more personal and share a bit more from inside my studio. It’s a small list. I know nearly everyone on it in some way. And it’s one of my favorite things to write each week.

You can subscribe to the letters here: https://creative-extension.kit.com/posts

I’m bringing a few of these Letters here. This one went to her on May 13, 2026. I’ve left it mostly as it arrived... just without her name at the top, because now I’m leaving a little space for yours. And when you feel your own moment of recognition, there’s a place for you too at the bottom of this letter.

Before Wednesday came Monday, and here’s the email.

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

I’m still thinking about busy work, Lovera, because from the outside... it probably looked like one of those moments where someone would say, “Is this really the best use of your time?”

Jeeeeesh! I’ve heard that a lot in my time.

And I’ve studied enough productivity ideas in my life to know the language. I have tried to be efficient about efficiency. Productive about productivity. I have studied my productivity so I could be more productive at studying my productivity.

Please read that sentence again and let it fully swirl around in your mind for a second or two. LOL

Because yup, that was me.

And what’s funny is that while I was trying to eliminate busyness, I was often creating more of it. More systems. More tracking. More reviewing. More ways to make sure I was doing the right things in the right order at the right time with the right amount of focus. Testing how I could get the ultimate formula.

But this week I’m looking at busyness differently.

Especially through the lens of Human Design.

If you know your Human Design type, you may already know whether you’re a Generator or Manifesting Generator. If you don’t know, this may still be useful because Generators and Manifesting Generators make up a big portion of the population, like 70%. So if this doesn’t sound like you, it may sound like someone you work with, live with, love, serve, or communicate with in your world.

And I want to talk about it from the inside.

Because being a Generator, at least for me, means I am here to be in response to life.

It’s often described like being pregnant. In month seven, you can’t initiate labor pains to give birth no matter how impatient you get or over it you are because nothing fits. It’s not initiating, but it’s also not passive.

It’s more like the world is always engaging with me. Things arrive.

A conversation. A craving. A project. A person. A question. A color. A sound. A task on my list. A weird little nudge to make a doodle bird while I’m preparing for the first Live Experience for The Red Thread Lab.

Something comes toward me, and my body responds.

Shoulders tighten or fall.
Eyes squint or widen.
Lean in or sit back.
Perk up or shrink.
Good or icky.

That’s part of what can feel so alive about being a Generator or Manifesting Generator. There is so much to respond to. Life gives us so many entry points. And when we trust our response, we can feel the energy begin to move.

But there’s also something else I’ve noticed.

My energy wants somewhere to go.

In Human Design, there are four motor centers. I have three of them defined. So for me, energy isn’t only an idea. It’s physical. It’s emotional. It’s alive in my body. It builds. It moves. It wants to be used, expressed, worked with, danced with, spent in ways that feel satisfying.

And if that energy has nowhere to go, I feel it. Sometimes in my body. Others in my mind. Or in my emotions.

Sometimes when I’m trying to fall asleep and my system is basically sitting there with a tiny clipboard of its own saying, “Actually, we still have some unused energy to discuss.” And the worries creep in.

This is where busyness has started to look different to me. Because the busy work I talked about on Monday was something I was responding to. It made no logical sense if I only looked at it through the lens of efficiency. I could have done the task faster. I could have moved on. I could have decided that spending an hour on it was too much time.

But my body wanted that kind of doing.

It wanted something with my hands. Something with my attention. Something low-pressure enough that I didn’t need to pull from deep thinking, but engaging enough that I still felt connected to my work.

This wasn’t distraction or avoidance.
That’s a response.

And I think this is where the conversation about busyness in business gets interesting. Because from the outside, someone might look at a task and call it busy work. But from the inside, it may be the exact kind of experience that helps your energy complete a loop.

Making doodle birds is like this for me too. On paper, could I call that busy work? Sure. It’s not always directly tied to a sales page or an offer or a clean little “needle mover.” But you know how I feel about doodle birds.

They give my energy somewhere to go. They let my hands participate. They let my body stay in the conversation. They help me see what I’m feeling before my mind has words for it.

They’re purposeful.

Because for a Generator or Manifesting Generator, satisfaction doesn’t usually come from conserving every drop of energy and only spending it on the most strategic tasks.

Satisfaction comes from using energy in a way that feels alive.

It comes from the exchange.

• Something comes toward you.

• You respond.

• Your energy moves.

• You feel what happens.

• Something else comes toward you.

• You respond again.

And somewhere in that exchange, you being to know yourself.

So now I’m wondering what happens when I stop treating all busyness like it’s a problem to eliminate and start noticing which kinds of busyness brings me back into rhythm.

The kind that settles the body. That uses the energy. The kind that gives my energy somewhere satisfying to go.

Because sometimes the busyness in your business is not taking you away from the real work.

But helping you stay inside it.

Responding as I go,
Tricia

PS.

After Wednesday came Friday, and here’s the email.

These letters are different from my articles here on Substack. I get a little more personal and share a bit more from inside my studio. It’s a small list. I know nearly everyone on it in some way. And it’s one of my favorite things to write each week.

You can subscribe to the letters here: https://creative-extension.kit.com/posts

I’m bringing a few of these Letters here. This one went to her on May 11, 2026. I’ve left it mostly as it arrived... just without her name at the top, because now I’m leaving a little space for yours. And when you feel your own moment of recognition, there’s a place for you too at the bottom of this letter.

Monday, May 11, 2026

I said yes before I really thought about it, and that’s the part I keep coming back to, Lovera,

One of my mentors asked me if I wanted to be a concierge for one of her masterclasses, and it was almost like my body answered yes before my mind had a chance to pull out a clipboard and start asking questions. While my mind was scrambling, the yes had already come out of my mouth.

And I know enough about myself now to pay attention when that happens. Because a lot of the things I say yes to are not because I’ve figured out exactly what I’m going to get at the end. I’m usually saying yes because I want the experience. That’s something I’ve seen in myself over and over again.

I’m drawn to experiences. To being inside something. To feeling what happens, especially when it’s something that helps me see more about myself. I don’t always need the outcome to be clear before I begin. In fact, I often feel less moved to join when the outcome is the focal point.

Tell me what I’ll experience, and my body starts listening.

Tell me what I’m supposed to get, and my mind starts side-eyeing the whole thing like my son does to me when I ask for a hug every morning.

So I said yes to being a concierge. And it has been such an interesting experience. I’ve learned so much about myself in it. How I engage. How I respond. How much I enjoy supporting a space when I feel connected to what’s happening inside it. How much I love being part of something where I can feel the energy moving between people.

And also… how spent I can feel afterward.

One day last week, after being in that kind of people-energy for a while, I had about an hour left in what I consider my workday. I could feel that I was tired. Physically tired. Mentally tired. My body and mind wanted rest.

But there was another part of me that still wanted to be in my work. I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s the part of me that dances on my skin.

I wasn’t ready to close the laptop and step fully into the evening. I wasn’t ready to be done with the workday. But I also knew I didn’t have the clean thinking available for anything that required strategy, deep writing, or making a bunch of decisions.

So I looked at my list.

And I noticed what I was scanning for.

Busy work.

That’s the honest truth.

I was looking for something I could do with my hands, my attention, and just enough of my mind to stay connected to my work without needing to pull from the part of me that was already done for the day.

I used to do this when I was a fashion designer. We’d call them copy time. Just let me make all the photocopies I need. Mindless, little effort, but I’d see all the sketches I made multiplying.

And there it was. A task I wanted to get done. Something that was part of a bigger project. Something I probably could have done in fifteen or twenty minutes.

But I spent an hour on it.

And I enjoyed the whole hour. I let myself tinker. I let myself stay inside the task. I wasn’t trying to optimize it. I was just there, doing the thing, letting the busyness of it hold me.

And when I finished... I was still physically tired, but internally? I felt fuller. Smoother. More settled.

I put my work away, had dinner with my family, watched something funny with my husband, sang to my son before bed, and there were no worry thoughts looping in the background. That was the part I really noticed.

Before the busy work, my shoulders were holding themselves in place.

After the busy work, my body loosened.

And that has me thinking about busyness versus business.

Because we hear so much about busy work in business. How it keeps us from the real work. How it keeps us from the needle movers. How it’s the stuff we do when we’re avoiding what matters.

And sometimes, sure. That can be true.

But what I felt in my body was something else.

What looked like busyness from the outside was actually helping me regulate from the inside.

It wasn’t moving the needle.

It was moving me.

And maybe that matters more than I’ve given it credit for.

So this is the thread I’m following this week... Busyness that brings us back into rhythm. The kind of work that may look inefficient from the outside, but inside the body, it creates steadiness, satisfaction, and a deeper connection to the work itself.

Because I don’t want a business where I’m always rushing through one thing to get to the next thing.

I want to experience my work.

I want to be inside the parts I love.

And apparently, sometimes that means letting a task take twice as long because something in me is being filled by the doing.

​

Inside the busyness,
Tricia

PS.

After Monday came Wednesday, and here’s the email.

These letters are different from my articles here on Substack. I get a little more personal and share a bit more from inside my studio. It’s a small list. I know nearly everyone on it in some way. And it’s one of my favorite things to write each week.

You can subscribe to the letters here: https://creative-extension.kit.com/posts

Subscribe now

For those who would rather list…

There’s a moment before the word is chosen. A pause. A sensing. Something in the body checking before the mind decides. Most writing advice starts after that moment. The Red Thread Lab starts before it.

The words we use are always doing more than we think. They carry meaning… and… they move energy through the body. Creating openings or closings. Your body is responding to your words before the mind has finished reading. This is the thread I keep following. This is where I follow it out loud.

What the Red Thread Lab Is

The Red Thread Lab is a small corner of my studio practice where I explore the energetics of language in business and creative expression.

And just to be clear… not copywriting formulas or borrowed strategies.

Instead, we explore how your voice, your energy, and your design shape the way your words land.

We examine hooks and openings, calls to action, the rhythm of a sentence, the emotional weight of a single word. The subtle shifts in phrasing that change how something feels in the body before the mind even catches up.

Sometimes I’ll bring something I’m currently exploring. Sometimes we’ll look at examples together. Sometimes it’s simply noticing what happens when we change one word.

This space is less about learning rules and more about developing sensitivity to language.

What Happens Inside

Inside the Lab I share:

• reflections from my current explorations

• breakdowns of language energetics in business writing

• examples from real posts and conversations

• small experiments you can try with your own words

We explore in Threads

Each one following a theme across multiple pieces. Right now we're inside a thread on Motivation: how the language of motivation lands differently depending on whether it's moving from the inside out or the outside in.

Running alongside the Lab Threads is Through the Gates — an ongoing exploration of all 64 Human Design gates as they transit through the sun this year. Not definitions. Lived language. What each gate feels like as a strength, a leadership style, a way of moving through the world. Written in real time as each gate transits through the Sun position. Here’s where we started:

And each quarter, we gather for a Live Experience on Zoom. A guided exploration, an extension of the Lab work, but in real time, together. The next one is Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 9:30 am PT.

Members are welcome to participate, share what they notice, or simply observe.

There is no rigid curriculum.

This is a living laboratory for voice and expression.

Who This Space Is For

Maybe you’ve built your writing around formulas that worked for someone else and wondered why they still felt slightly off. Maybe you’ve sent something that looked right and then waited, sensing something wasn’t quite popping the way you meant it to.

Or maybe you just have a long-standing suspicion that the way your voice works doesn’t quite fit the usual containers. That something about how you express yourself is a little outside the frameworks you’ve been handed.

For many of us, that feeling exists because our voice doesn't originate in the mind. It begins somewhere deeper. This space is devoted to letting it move from there.

Monthly Membership

$16/month

Monthly members receive access to all Red Thread Lab explorations: The Language Threads, Through the Gates, and the quarterly Live Experiences along with two foundational guides:

Aligned to Share

A guided process that helps you center yourself so your writing comes from your inner yes.

Awaken Your Content

A workbook to help you identify the natural energy that comes through your work and expression.

Both are foundational to the philosophy of this space:

write from yourself first.

Annual Membership

$96/year

Annual members receive everything in the monthly membership plus an additional exploration:

The Rhythm Report

This report offers a starting place for understanding your creative rhythm through Human Design, How your energy moves, how your expression naturally flows, and how to work with that rhythm rather than against it.

It’s an invitation to notice the patterns that may have been there all along.

Subscribe now

A Note About This Space

The Red Thread Lab is not a course.

It’s closer to a studio or salon, a place where ideas are explored in real time.

Some explorations will be simple.
Some may open deeper threads.

You’re welcome to observe quietly or join in when something sparks.

Either way, you’re welcome here.

I love exploring the energetics of language, how words land in the body before they land in the mind. Human Design is one of the lenses I use to understand voice, expression, and creative rhythm. The Red Thread Lab is a small corner of my studio where I explore these ideas in real time.

~ Tricia

Share Being Inside>Out with Tricia Edwards

I’m bringing a few of these Letters here. This one went to her on May 8, 2026. I’ve left it mostly as it arrived... just without her name at the top, because now I’m leaving a little space for yours. And when you feel your own moment of recognition, there’s a place for you too at the bottom of this letter.

Before Friday came Monday and Wednesday, and here’s the emails.

Friday, May 8, 2026

After a week of refinement, here’s the 6-week expansion statement that finally felt like me:

I’m noticing how steady and expansive it feels to be inside what I’ve already created, allowing it to breathe and circulate. Moving with what’s alive as I feel the warmth of my red frequency glow and the people who choose to join me. Receiving through the ease of being me.

When I read this back to myself, my whole body says yes. Not just my mind agreeing with the concept, but that full-body recognition I wrote about Monday. Like when I chose straight, not right because it felt like ease. It was light, loose, not like how I tighten up when trying squeezing into something or trying to avoid it.

This is what I mean about motivation language that moves your mind AND your body.

Most motivation guidance speaks only to the mind: “I will hit my revenue goals” or “I’m building a successful business” or “I’m becoming the leader I’m meant to be.” These sound right, but they don’t create movement. You probably feel your body shrink... “that’s not me.” Even if you add the “yet” at the end. Still a body shrinking.

I believe that real motivation language touches something deeper. It aligns with how your body actually moves through the world.

Like with my Touch determination, I need words I can literally feel on my skin. “Steady and expansive” feels differently than “settled and growing.” “Receiving through the ease of being me,” creates a different internal experience than “I am generating revenue.”

This is what we’re exploring together in The Red Thread Lab. Finding the language that doesn’t just sound motivating, but actually moves you. Language that your mind understands AND your body responds to.

When you aren’t hitting your targets, you probably are motivating through words that feels forced.

If your goal language creates pressure instead of pull... If you know what you want but the words you use to describe it keep you hesitating... this is exactly what we’ll work with in our very first Live Experience.

Thursday, May 28th​
​9:30 AM PT / 12:30 PM ET​
​1 hour on Zoom

I’ll guide you through the same process I’ve been using for my statements, CTAs, positioning, and more. By the end of the session, you’ll have language that feels like an extension of your body. Words that actually move you instead of words you think should move you.

This is what it looks like to business from the inside>out. Start with what’s true in your body, find the words that match, and watch how differently you move through the world.

Join The Red Thread Lab here

The Live Experience is included with membership.

I’ll be inside,
Tricia

These letters are different from my articles here on Substack. I get a little more personal and share a bit more from inside my studio. It’s a small list. I know nearly everyone on it in some way. And it’s one of my favorite things to write each week.

You can subscribe to the letters here: https://creative-extension.kit.com/posts

I’m bringing a few of these Letters here. This one went to her on May 6, 2026. I’ve left it mostly as it arrived... just without her name at the top, because now I’m leaving a little space for yours. And when you feel your own moment of recognition, there’s a place for you too at the bottom of this letter.

Before Wednesday came Monday, and here’s the email.

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

I’ve always known I’m a maker. If it involves doing something with my hands, I’m down for it. I started crocheting at age 5, sewing at 6, knitting at 7, cooking probably earlier than all these. I’m the kind of person that wants something for my hands to do no matter what I’m doing.

Watching tv, I’m either eating, crocheting, sketching or on my phone. In a meeting, I’m usually doodling, or talking with my hands. Just thinking, my hands clasp, fingers stretch, caress, always looking for that touch input.

Because that’s really what it is... I touch things. It’s how I take in the world around me. Like how a one year old sits for twenty minutes turning a single block over and over in her hands to get to know it. To feel the textures, to see the colors, of experience it moving through space. That’s me.

And when I found out that my Human Design included this, wow. I knew this about myself, yet didn’t quite get how to use it. That’s what happens to me repeatedly with Human Design. I see my chart says something, and I’m like, “OMG, that’s so me!” BUT the difference is... I start to see how I can use it.

So it’s no longer just one of the quirks that makes me me. It becomes an ingredient for my strategies. Like this six-week thing I started last week. “Touch” is something I intentionally use because it’s so me.

When I wrote out my statement for this six weeks, I felt into how the words motivate me. How my body responds. If it contracts, nope, not using that word. If it opens, oh that’s good. If it moves me into action, I check to be sure that’s the action I want.

For me this all relates to touching. In Human Design it’s called your Determination, but it’s also referred to as Digestion or PHS. Basically it’s how you take in everything. Touch is a why I like certain foods over others. Touch is why I wear the clothes I do. And sometimes I find I purposely limit touch input because it’s too much. Others I crave more.

In my body, the words can feel like how I respond to touch. Think of it this way...

• Touching a hot iron, a fast pull away.

• A stuffie or snuggly blank, wanting to sink into it.

• Thinking coarse sandpaper, knowing I won’t rest my elbows on it.

Some words just give me the hot iron. And others are snuggly. I pick the words that align with ease and the actions I want. Because as I engage with everything, I know how powerful touch is for me.​

There’s six types of Determination in Human Design. I’ll keep it simple here. Like every part of HD, there’s always more nuance when you go deeper, but this gives a good starting point. You’ve already heard me talk about Touch, so here’s the remaining five.

Appetite - consuming when hungry, not on a schedule

Taste - sampling before committing

Thirst - fluid or flow based approaches

Sound - your preferred acoustics, eliminate noise

Light - the right lighting in your environment

And if you don’t know yours, drop a comment or send me a DM. I’m happy to send it to you.​

Everyone has their own way of sensing what’s right. Appetite people might feel words like hunger. Taste people might need to sample phrases first. Sound people might need to hear words spoken aloud. I touch mine to see how my body responds.

This is something I’ll be adding to our first Live Experience in The Red Thread Lab on May 28th.
​

Touching words,
Tricia

PS.

After Wednesday came Friday, and here’s the email.

These letters are different from my articles here on Substack. I get a little more personal and share a bit more from inside my studio. It’s a small list. I know nearly everyone on it in some way. And it’s one of my favorite things to write each week.

You can subscribe to the letters here: https://creative-extension.kit.com/posts

I’m bringing a few of these Letters here. This one went to her on May 4, 2026. I’ve left it mostly as it arrived... just without her name at the top, because now I’m leaving a little space for yours. And when you feel your own moment of recognition, there’s a place for you too at the bottom of this letter.

Monday, May 4, 2026

I had a moment on my walk today. It’s Sunday, and I’m writing this the day before you get it.

I had a whole other topic planned for the emails this week, but after this happened... I knew it would be what I’d share. Because it struck me in a way that I had never noticed. It was like experiencing my mind and body connection in slow motion. And they were NOT on the same page. Signals misinterpreted. Nearly steering me down the wrong path.

So let me slow down a bit here and share what happened at the beginning of my walk. It was thirty minutes before sunrise, so just starting to see the hint of daylight. And as I walked... ten feet from my house some wild animal squeals pierced the calm of the dawn. I paused and started to take in the scene. Because we do have wild animals in my neighborhood.

Usually nothing much to worry about as long as we respect each other’s side of the road. Skunks, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, parrots, and the occasional opossums. Oh and lots of stray cats. And it only took a few minutes before I saw the fighting. A car put the brakes on, and their lights revealed three raccoons having it out in the middle of the street.

They scampered off. One going down a street I wasn’t going to walk. But the two other... I think they went down the very street I wanted to go. I choose to walk the opposite direction. And found a stray cat lounging... so I assumed everything was cool. And kept going.

Did my rounds in the park. All throughout my walk, I practice body-led. I simply let my body guide where I go. It usually feels light, energizing, warm, or tingly on my skin. If it’s on the left, I go left. If it’s on my back, I turn around. I’m sure you get the picture.

On the way home, I got to a corner. I can go straight one block, then right to be home. Or I can go right one block, and then left to go home. And that’s when things happened in slow motion. Like a split second became a full minute. Enough for me to really see what was happening. Kind of a weird thing, but also very cool.

I heard the thought to go right. And it made so much sense because those raccoons had gone down the forward path (like an hour earlier though). I could feel it like a loop. Let’s go right - makes sense danger is straight ahead - yes right is safer.

Yet.... the right side of my face was squeezing. And while I was standing at the corner, my attention shifted to the tightness of my face. Why does going right feel so tight? The left side of my face was loose, normal, light. Then my right shoulder and neck tightened. And my eyes focused on the path straight ahead, not right.

I kept playing this over in my mind. Oh and yup, I went straight. No raccoons seen. Easy walk home. But the rest of the way home, I was thinking about my body.

Why would I choose to go where I felt I had to brace myself when there was another direction that had ease?

Not to look for an answer, but to just ponder it. Because of course I’m choosing ease. Ease leads me to the things that feel good when I’m doing them. Towards the things that compound the areas of my life that are rewarding. Being the person I love being.

It’s why I’m careful about choosing the words that I use to motivate myself. I’m looking to support my choice for ease, alignment, and self-sourcing. No matter if it’s a statement, CTA, checklist of things to do, or reminder I write on a sticky note.

I wrote about my six-week expansion experience statement recently on Substack.

My walk reinforced this concept of leading with my body’s response rather than being logical. Because I saw how my logic was picking the path where my body was tensing up. And how odd.. seeing how you’d think... it would have tensed for the direction I last saw the raccoons. But it didn’t. Doesn’t seem like my logic was very logical - LOL.

​

Feeling it,
Tricia

PS.

After Monday came Wednesday, and here’s the email.

After Wednesday came Friday, and here’s the email.

These letters are different from my articles here on Substack. I get a little more personal and share a bit more from inside my studio. It’s a small list. I know nearly everyone on it in some way. And it’s one of my favorite things to write each week.

You can subscribe to the letters here: https://creative-extension.kit.com/posts

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Human Design: Splitting Apart - The Gate of Assimilation

Gene Keys: The Alchemy of Simplicity

BG5: Assimilation

Exploring through embodied language of lived and witnessed experience. Because what’s strong already becomes leadership.

Strength: Simplification

Leadership Style: The Expression of Insight

Leadership Loop: Know → Simplify → State

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Human Design: The Receptive - The Gate of the Direction of the Self

Gene Keys: Returning to the One

BG5: The Driver

Exploring through embodied language of lived and witnessed experience. Because what’s strong already becomes leadership.

Strength: Direction

Leadership Style: The Compass of Direction

Leadership Loop: Sense → Orient → Guide

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Here’s where I thought I landed…

But it wasn’t quite sitting right with me. I had felt into the words, and adjusted to what felt good. Picking words that have pure meaning for me and feel good in my body. Like…

Steady - before I had settled. I like that word, but settled can mean settling for something rather than getting what you really want. So nope.

Expansive - I just adore this word. I feel it every time.

Be Inside - It might sound weird to others, and I know 2 years ago I would have never used this. But it works for me. It’s always good for me when I think about being inside looking out rather than naming something external trying to bring it in.

Circulate - One of my favorite new words. I like it for circulating air, books circulating from a library, my Gate 47 circling an idea until something pops. For me it means you don’t have to add more, create more, do more, be more… just let what’s here room to move.

Moving, Alive, Warmth - always good words for me. My body just loves these. And I’m sure you’ve noticed that I use them like a lot.

Glow - One I’ve used before, but right now it’s glowing for me. There’s something about it. Standing in place. Radiating from there. Let the glow be enough.

Receiving - Another word I’m feeling is so now for me. When I’m steady, and inside myself, I feel my aliveness, it glows, and when I let it circulate on it’s own, the moving is external (I don’t need to), when I stand in this, I only need to receive.

But today, another piece came…

I got an email talking about how we are not all meant to visualize in order to receive. How for some, visualizing can actually push away what you desire. And my Gate 47 (conscious sun) perked up. Time to walk around this, let’s circle and explore to see what pops. And boy did something pop.

Read more