Your State Is Your Transmission

Dear wild-hearted wanderer,

In my last letter, I wrote about grief, radical humanisation, and the importance of rooting in our own belonging before we can truly witness our common humanity, no matter what our personal opinions or views are. What I’ve been realising since is that this isn’t just about ideas or intentions — it’s about the state of our body in the moment we show up.

Virgo season revealed to me that my state is my transmission. I’ve noticed how my words carry one frequency when I show up with a charged nervous system, and an entirely different one when I speak from a calm and grounded presence. I am particularily aware of it as someone with a lot of openness in my Human Design and the term “amplification.” Perhaps that’s something you’d love to hear more about. In which case, do let me know.

This realisation around how our state shapes what we transmit, and why awareness of it matters felt both humbling and empowering. It reminded me that while we can’t always control what life places on our path, we can learn to take responsibility for the state we’re in when we meet it.

Yes, our words matter. But perhaps the state underneath matters more. For each word that we say carries an energetic imprint. Discernment isn’t just about what we say or don’t say, it’s also about the state we speak it from.

Therefore, radical self-trust requires radical self-responsibility.

That’s where — for me and my work — the Polyvagal Theory comes in.

Polyvagal Theory offers us a language for the terrain of our nervous system. It reminds us that we are not fixed in one state of being but we ebb and flow through shifting landscapes of safety, tension, and disconnection.

Polyvagal Theory is also called the science of safety. It maps our nervous system into three primary states:

• Ventral vagal is a system of connection. When our body feels supported, this is where we feel most at home in ourselves. Our breath flows with ease, and we feel genuinely open and steady. We’re able to meet life in all its demands with responsiveness instead of reactivity.

• Sympathetic is a system of action. When we feel overwhelmed and underresourced, sympathetic state expresses itself through urgency, tension, and overdrive. Instead of utilising this energetic surge for creativity and aligned action, we allow the charge to consume us. More often than not, we resort to our patterned responses that have kept us safe in the past.

• Dorsal vagal is a system of shutdown. When we’re underresourced and overwhelmed in the dorsal state, our body collapses and withdraws. Our breath turns shallow, movements feel heavy, and our presence recedes. We become energetically unavailable and it may feel like we’re simply going through the motions.

None of these states are right or wrong, good or bad, better or worse. They’re simply part of the terrain that we navigate daily. We can think of them as intelligent responses designed to keep us alive.

With that said, they do shape how we meet the world. They influence our transmission. Our state determines whether we transmit safety and connection, urgency or action, or shutdown and withdrawal.

Again, I want to reiterate here that we’re not looking them through the binary lens of good or bad, right or wrong. Our state awareness is simply part of embodied living. It’s all about noticing where our nervous system is operating from and taking responsibility for where we’re at. This does not mean bypassing hurtful behaviour, but it does mean that we are responsible for how we choose to respond.

This is where the knowledge and the practice of Polyvagal Theory comes in. It shows us how the nervous system influences our perception, safety, and decision-making. Our state awareness becomes the gateway for everything else.

And that’s where the thread ties back into my work with Human Design. Because the bodygraph doesn’t just show us how we’re wired — it shows us how openness and definition can filter these states.

With open centres, we may amplify the states of those around us. With defined centres, we may fall into the trap of our fixicity and assume that it’s the same for everyone else. In either case, the invitation is to bring awareness to our habitual responses. The more awareness we bring, the more choice and agency we have. Understanding how our design functions in every nervous system state allows us to distinguish between what’s truly aligned and what’s conditioned or reactive.

Which brings me back to this Virgo season lesson: your state is your transmission. The responsibility isn’t about striving for perfection or always being in a regulated state. We’re all human. We’re allowed to make mistakes. We’re allowed to stumble and fall. We’re allowed to ebb and flow through connection, action and shutdown and back again.

The real invitation here is to pause, reflect and next time choose differently.

Are you willing to be with the discomfort you are experiencing within yourself instead of reacting habitually? Is your sense of self grounded enough so that you are able to meet the other, even in your differences? Have you met the uncomfortable parts within yourself so that you can witness these parts in the other and not resort to judgement and blame?

Let me be clear: it’s not about bypassing. This is about self-responsibility within our own perceptions and differences.

It’s about awareness, compassion, and the willingness to pause before we speak, and ask:

Which state am I transmitting from right now?

If this is new territory for you, I have a practice to help you get started.

A short practice to check in with your state:

1. Take a seat with your feet firmly on the ground. If it feels correct, place one hand on your chest and one on your belly.

2. Take a slow breath in through your nose, and a longer exhale out through your mouth.

3. Check in with yourself: do I feel open and connected (ventral)? Urgent or restless (sympathetic)? Withdrawn or heavy (dorsal)?

4. I’d encourage you to explore where in your body do you feel it? If this is a new way to explore your body sensations, try not to get hung up on naming it. Simply try bringing your awareness to a place in your body where you notice a strong sensation. It could be tension in your shoulders or jaw. It could be contracting your stomach muscles. Or perhaps it’s a sense of warmth in your chest or a buzzing in your feet. Or maybe you can’t quite notice anything. There’s no right or wrong here. There’s simply you and your body.

5. If you do notice a strong sensation, the invitation is not to change anything. This practice is not about shifting your state. This is simply about noticing and naming the state you’re in. I am a true believer that awareness itself begins to shift the field. Noticing becomes the practice of presence.

Do let me know how you get on. And if you have any questions about any of it, my inbox is open.

So, as Libra season unfolds, I want to leave you with this inquiry:

When you show up in your grounded state, how does it shift the way you relate to yourself, to your work, and to the people around you? How does it shift when you’re activated or disconnected?

Sending you my love,
Silvia

This is the heart of what I explore with Your Living Body Map. It’s not just about understanding your Human Design cognitively and intellectually — it’s more about noticing how your body responds in different states, and learning to root into your own agency and alignment rather than being pulled into patterns that aren’t truly serving you.

If you feel ready to dive deeper into your own state awareness through the lens of your design, this offering is for you.

A gentle reminder: the current price £122 will be increasing to £222 on 1 October. If you’ve been clicking on that button but not followed through, this is your sign to take that leap.