Have you ever wondered if you're working hard or just working against your natural flow?

In this episode, Emily Paulsen sits down with Sam Nelson, a certified life and health coach and human design analyst. Sam helps people reconnect with their energetic blueprint and move through life with more ease. Together, they explore what human design actually is, how it synthesizes ancient wisdom with modern science, and why understanding your type, strategy, and authority can help you stop forcing things and start flowing.

Emily and Sam discuss the five human design types and what they mean for how you work, rest, and relate to others. They explore why we minimize our own gifts, how deconditioning helps strip away who we think we should be, and why doing less might actually be the key to accomplishing more. Sam also challenges the cultural obsession with self-sacrifice and encourages listeners to start celebrating ease instead of struggle.

This episode is a reminder that you don't have to believe in human design to benefit from experimenting with being yourself, and that sometimes the fastest way to age is to keep doing the same thing every single day.

Key Takeaways:

• Human design is a practical map for being yourself: It synthesizes astrology, the I Ching, Kabbalah, chakras, and quantum physics to create a user manual for your energy and how you're designed to operate.

• We minimize our gifts because they feel easy: If something comes naturally, we assume it's not valuable when in reality ease is a sign you're aligned with your strengths.

• Deconditioning means stripping away who you were told to be: From childhood, we mold ourselves to fit perceived expectations, and human design helps identify what was never yours to begin with.

• Doing less can accomplish more: Instead of adding more modalities and to-do lists, removing what doesn't serve you creates space for what genuinely brings you joy and energy.

• Self-sacrifice shouldn't be celebrated: We bond over hardship and compete over who's most exhausted, but there's no prize for running yourself into the ground.

Want more from this conversation? Sam and Emily continue their discussion on Substack, where Sam shares her childfree journey, her experience with tube removal, breast implant illness, and the medical system's treatment of women's bodies. Join the Curious Life Club for free at curiouslifeofachildfreewoman.substack.com to access this bonus content.

We're bringing the podcast into the real world with our first ever in-person event! An evening of curiosity and conversation hosted in downtown Chicago, February 19th, 2026. Picture an intimate dinner party stacked with speakers, all guests from some of your favorite episodes, and space to make new childfree friends. Seats are limited so you can read all the details and get your ticket by visiting

curiouslifeofachildfreewoman.com/2026-event.

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Host Emily Paulsen is an accomplished entrepreneur and happily childfree woman shining a light on the childfree-by-choice perspective. Whether interviewing experts or positioning leaders to scale through her Brand Studio, Electric Collab, Emily's power lies in allowing people to feel seen and celebrated for who they are.

Learn more about Emily at: www.curiouslifeofachildfreewoman.com

Connect on Instagram: @curiouslifeofachildfreewoman

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The guest on this episode, Sam Nelson from Human Aligned, is a certified life and health coach and human design analyst who helps people reconnect with their energetic blueprint. With expertise in identity refinement, Sam guides clients to move through life with more ease and clarity by understanding their unique design. She's also childfree by choice, a topic she explores in depth in the bonus Substack conversation.

Find your free human design chart and connect with Sam at: www.humanaligned.com

Follow Sam on Instagram: @humanaligned