We were lucky to catch up with Rebeka Davila recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rebeka, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I love this question because despite attempting to NEVER make a mistake as a kid, risk has been a theme in my life.

Getting married at 20 because I was so in love. Quitting school to become a stay at home mom at 22. Getting divorced with no degree and no “big girl” work experience and 2 kids to take care of. Finishing school as a full time single mom a state away from my family. Moving back home without a job in place simply because I was exhausted and tired of doing everything by myself. Working in the local school district as a sub, and eventually a Coach Aide at the Junior High, while finishing my teaching certification. Getting rejected from one too many salaried teacher positions is what gave me the final push to take my future in my own hands and become a full time business owner.

When the Pandemic first hit I was 3/4 the way through my first year coaching, still in survival mode hoping to prove my worth to the Admin. When it was official that our week of Spring Break would be a little longer, I was relieved. Finally, I had permission to stop and breathe and heal. I had extra time with my kids. And, I had the opportunity to invest in a life coach. While working with this life coach, I realized that I could actually do that as well. I thought I had to wait until my kids were grown and in college before taking such a risk as entrepreneurship. But, before finishing the 12-week course I started my own business and got 5 new clients for my inaugural Full Heart Course.

My very own 12 week course began the week before school started. The fall semester in our new post Covid world proved challenging. Have you ever had to be in charge of 150 junior high kids at one time making sure they all stayed 6 feet apart AND kept their masks on at all times? Yeah, it’s as fun as it sounds. Despite the insanity of the new rules we always had fun in the gym, and my new role as a part time life coach gave me more confidence daily. Junior High kids don’t care too much about what I have to say, but my clients were excited to learn from me. It felt so good.

One of the clients in my course was actually my boss, Leigh, the junior high athletic director. When a Teen Leadership teaching position opened up at the school, she went to Admin to request that they hire me for the role. She didn’t tell me she did this until we found out they chose someone else, someone less qualified, and didn’t even consider me. I found out because the hiring vice principal called me down to her office to tell me, “well, you just didn’t give enough of yourself” referencing an interview I had 6 months prior for an entirely different position. I had worked in that school for 2 1/2 years making less than my rent payment all because I truly believed that they would see my value and hire me full time. How did a 20 minute interview override all my hard work?

“You need to quit.” Leigh & I sat in our office inside the girls locker room. “I told them to hire you. I told them they were idiots for not doing so. I got real mad. You’re too good at what you do. You helped me so much and I know you’ll help more people, but you can’t do it from this gym. Quit.” Nobody had ever stood up for me like that. I didn’t have any words, only sobs. The bell rang as she gathered her computer, keys, and whistle. “Here, take this.” she said as she handed me an envelope then walked out for boys athletics.

The paper was a resignation letter. She wrote it for me because she knew I wouldn’t be able to do it myself. I’d be too scared. Too loyal to the position. Too afraid to leave mid basketball season. However, when my co-coach heard what happened he urged me to quit, too. “I’ll be fine.” he assured me in his Tennessee accent. “I’ve been doing this a long time. You deserve better. Quit.”

So I did.

The three years since have been a lot of things, but mostly amazing. And, I couldn’t have gotten here without the bravery of my younger self paving the way.

Rebeka, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hey, I’m Rebeka, a Human Design teacher and guide. I have always been into figuring out humans through the lens of psychology & spirituality. Human Design found me through a podcast. One of my favorites at the time, Almost30, had a new episode titled “Human Design” and something in me said “listen to that one”. In the very next moment I thought “why? It sounds super weird.” I decided to trust my original instinct and listen. That moment changed my life for the better. By the end of the episode I had run my chart to find I’m a 1/3 Mental Projector. Thought I had NO CLUE what I was looking at my Soul felt seen and I knew that this was the right place for me.

I taught myself this system and began giving readings when I was invited to share a reading with a Facebook Group. Everything has just progressed from there. My degree in Speech Communication, my work as a Reiki Master, my work as a teacher, my interest in psychology & astrology, along with my general mom-ness all worked together to make me pretty good at helping people through the lens of Human Design.

The main problem I solve is helping people get out of their own way. I believe that everything you need is within you, and that when you choose to love yourself so fully your heart overflows that’s when life gets good. We tend to keep ourselves from that love because of the limiting beliefs we created as a kid and cling tightly to as an adult. Human Design brings you back to the beauty of yourself, guiding you to release those stories and create more empowering ones instead.

My main service is Chart Readings and one on one coaching. Sometimes I have classes or group coaching. I love working with people one on one, and I also love a good group program. My offerings are always changing, but the chart readings and one on one coaching are a constant.

The main thing I want people to know is that you are perfectly designed and my mission is to remind you of that. I rarely tell someone they don’t already know about themselves, it’s just that they’ve been hiding that gift from themselves or downplaying it. My main goal is to guide you back to yourself so you can fall deeply in love with yourself. I believe that when you fill your heart so full of love that it overflows, then you help others to fill their heart, and that’s how we heal the world: one full heart at a time. The sooner you choose to love yourself exactly how you are, the sooner we can heal this world.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was that mistakes are bad and I have to be perfect in order to be loved.

I remember the moment, at 6 years old, that I committed myself to never making a mistake. As a kid, my brother and I often went with my Dad to the “playport” (as my mom called it). We would run all around, ride bikes, play hide and seek between the hangars, and just hang out while Dad worked on airplanes. One afternoon while playing with my Barbies I sat in the shade of the hangar between my Dad’s Cassutt Special and his friend’s Cub when one of his friends walked by in pursuit of some tools.

“Oh, hey there.” he said around his cigarette. I never understood how he could just keep it in his mouth while he talked like that. After grabbing the tool he needed, he stopped for a moment, observing me playing with Barbies – perhaps contemplating his own childhood, who knows – when he said “Hey, you wanna know the secret of life?”

I looked up in time to see his him remove his cigarette, exhaling a cloud of smoke. A rush of excitement circled my tummy. Was he really going to tell me THE SECRET to life?? Is there a secret? Wow, I feel like such a grown up!

“Yeah.” I replied, so excited at the prospect of this secret I still clutched my Barbies.

“Learn from other peoples’ mistakes.” he stated simply. And with that, he moved the cigarette back to his mouth, shifted the tool to his cigarette-free hand, and sauntered off to the other hangar to complete whatever project was happening over there.

In that moment, my tender little 6-year-old mind heard “do not ever make a mistake” and my little heart decided that I would do my best to never be a person someone has to learn from. I did a very good job for the next 20ish years of stressing myself out in every effort to be perfect. Somehow I had internalized his message as “If you learn from others, you’ll do great. If someone has to learn from you, you’re a screw up.”

At some point I realized what he was actually trying to say, and I began to allow myself to relax, but it was difficult to let go of the perfectionism. Nearly 30 years later when I found Human Design, I learned that I’m a 1/3 which, funnily enough, basically means that I am designed to experience things (make mistakes) in order to master them and then teach what I know to others. One of the biggest mantras is “there’s no such thing as a mistake for 3s”. This is because the 3 has to experiment and observe in order to integrate the lesson and make things stronger. Expansion, lessons, growth, and mutation can only happen when someone is brave enough to try something new, fail, and get back up again with new insights.

Everything is about perspective. Mistakes are only bad if you wallow in them and make them mean something about you. “I’m a failure.” “I’m so dumb, how did I let that happen.” Those stories just simply aren’t true because the mistake is not about you, it’s about the instability of the structure. Mistakes are insights. When I turn to observation instead of judgement, then I can see what that mistake is actually telling me. The “mistake” holds an answer that wouldn’t have been found without the experimentation.

My soul knew on some level that I am meant to teach from my experiences. Perhaps that’s why his message hit me so hard. And, my 6-year-old logic confused things a bit, but how poetic is that? The mistake was in trying to be perfect. Now that I’m older than this man was at the time of his imparting his wisdom I would amend the statement. “There’s no such thing as mistakes. Only feedback. Learn from it all. Embrace it. Mistakes are where the juiciness of life is hidden.”

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I do not have a business partner, but I do have a Podcast CoHost who is amazing.

My business as a Human Design Reader & Teacher means that I live my life through this lens. I am a 1/3 Mental Projector which is honestly kinda confusing most of the time. Early on in my experiment, I was lamenting about life, deep in a Martyr “woe is me why am I cursed with this destiny” kind of vibe. Laying on the floor of my bedroom, feeling hopeless, you would’ve thought I was locked in a dungeon in the 16th century being forced into slavery or something. (please tell me I’m not the only one who gets extra dramatic when things aren’t going the way you want them to in life.)

Searching for answers, I turned to Spotify and typed in “1/3 mental projector”. Janelle’s podcast popped up with various episodes about Mental Projectors. I immediately pushed play on one where she interviewed another 1/3 Mental Projector. I’m not alone! Yay! It was honestly such a relief to hear others’ experiences and insights in these episodes.

I sent her a message to thank her for the podcast and the interviews telling her how they helped me feel less alone and I’m so grateful. After a week of chatting I got to be a guest on her podcast! It felt so good to think that maybe one day someone else would be deep in a martyr rabbit hole and maybe my story could help them out of it. Gotta love a good full circle moment.

We quickly realized that we clicked and started our own podcast adventure together. For a year we talked about the transits. Each episode highlighted through which gates the sun and earth were transiting. It’s the same as Astrology. You know when people say “Mercury is in retrograde in the sign of Virgo” or whatever is happening. We just get a little more specific in the Human Design space.

After a year of that, it felt like it had run its course, but we were getting excited to push the envelope a bit. So, we started a new podcast called Human Design Hot Topics. We push the boundaries a bit and explore topics that are kinda taboo in the Human Design community. We also have had the opportunity to interview some big names! It has been an amazing adventure, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rebekadavila.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.rebekadavila/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@the.rebekadavila/videos
• Other: TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@the.rebekadavila

Image Credits
Rebeka Davila