True to Yourself: your soulful companion for the journey home to yourself.

031: Throat Chakra Healing: How to Overcome Fear of Rejection and Stop People Pleasing

ananta.one Episode 31

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Discover powerful throat chakra healing techniques to overcome fear of rejection and stop people pleasing behavior. Learn how spiritual practice through silence can heal throat chakra blocked symptoms and unlock your authentic voice.

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • Throat Chakra Healing – Transform throat chakra blocked symptoms through the power of silence and deep reflection
  • How to Stop People Pleasing – Break free from people pleasing behavior patterns that cause self-betrayal
  • Overcome Fear of Rejection – Release your fear of rejection and express yourself courageously
  • Bhagavad Gita Quotes – Ancient wisdom on conscious speech: is it truthful, pleasant, and beneficial?
  • Finding Your Voice – Build conviction through spiritual practice to express your deepest truth authentically 
  • Healthy Relationships Communication – Create boundaries and communicate without abandoning yourself
  • Self Love Affirmations – Connect with your higher self through silence and sacred study

This episode explores throat chakra healing through The Way of the Goddess spiritual book framework. You'll discover how spiritual practice in silence helps you stop people pleasing behavior, overcome fear of rejection, and develop healthy relationships communication.

Perfect for anyone experiencing throat chakra blocked symptoms who wants to heal people pleasing behavior, embrace self love affirmations, and master the art of finding your voice.

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"A book we all desperately need. I plan to re-read it." — Dr. Deepak Chopra
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The Ayurveda Way: 108 Practices from the World's Oldest Healing System for Better Sleep, Less Stress, Optimal Digestion, and More  
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More free resources

Living Liberated Newsletter: theancientway.kit.com
Chakra Healing Guide: chakrahealingguide.com
Digestion Healing Guide: theancientway.kit.com/digestive-healing

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Disclaimer: All resources are for educational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult your healthcare provider for medical concerns.

SPEAKER_00

Namaste, and welcome back to the True to Yourself podcast, a place where we explore the power of authentic living. I'm your host, Ananta Reepa Ajimera, and today I want to talk to you about healing your throat chakra and freeing the power of your most authentic expression. This is a very, very significant topic for those of us who've struggled any time with fear of rejection, of fear of judgments, of fear of just expressing who it is we truly are. The throat chakra is very much connected to our emotions. It's connected to our biological mother and to our whole maternal ancestor lineage. So this is a pretty huge place to heal. In my book, The Way of the Goddess, the throat chakra is connected with the biological mother, avatar, of the warrior mother goddess Durga. The avatar skandamatha is her name, and she is the mother of the powerful warrior skanda. This is very symbolic of how when we take the time to really nurture and heal our inner child, we too emerge like the warrior Skanda, ready to take on the world, courageous, strong, and brave. And the key actually to unlock the power of your voice through the throat chakra is the power of silence. Actually, tapping into the power of silence is what allows us to free the power of our most authentic expression. There's a really amazing buildup of how this actually works. And it's a practice that you can try and to implement in your day-to-day life to really experience a proud profound transformation in your ability to really express yourself authentically and fully. The process begins in silence, and what happens in the silence is that we have a space finally to engage in really deep reflection. This deep reflection helps to build up our conviction, and that conviction leads to the embodiment of the courage it takes to actually express our deepest truth. And I often talk about the power of silence. I really practice the power of silence. This was actually something that I was very strongly invited to do many times when I first began my spiritual journey in the lineage-based traditions that I learned Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedanta philosophy, and ancient goddess wisdom from. I was told that I would find a lot of insight and growth as a person through actually being more quiet. I was the kind of person who always felt like I needed to talk, I needed to fill in any quiet spaces and to be really engaging because this was something that my grandmother had felt and that my mom then passed on to me that we have to always be filling in the spaces, never allow there to be an uncomfortable moment. We should always be using our speech to please others, to win approval, and to gain validation, basically for ourselves. It's a very common way of approaching speech. That's how probably all of us at some point are default conditioned to be when we talk to people, right? We're never told, oh, you should just come across as a hostile, angry person, which no, we shouldn't. But in the space of silence, if some anger and hostility perhaps is lingering somewhere underneath, then instead of expressing that through our speech, we have a space to actually heal our emotions by first of all learning to observe our emotions. And whenever we engage in the process of observation of something, such as our emotions and our speech and the emotions underlying our speech, we get to separate ourselves from what it is we're observing. So we are not identified with that. We are not, you know, thinking that we are that, right? A lot of times we identify so much with our emotions that we will even say, I am just an angry person, I am a fearful person, I uh get camera shy, I am, you know, constantly excited, I'm stressed, I'm frustrated, I'm always happy, right? Like so many people express themselves this way, or they'll even define themselves in their Instagram profile online as what their dominant emotional state is. And we so often say that about ourselves and others that we start to believe in that. But actually, when we go deep within, we understand that for a statement even to be truthful, it needs to be truthful in all passages of time, in the past, in the present, and it will continue to be present and true into the future. And when we think about that, then our emotional states are definitely not who we are because our anger passes, our fear can be overcome. And any passing emotional state is really just that. It's temporary, it's not the truth of who we are, and it's not even real because it's not the truth in all passages of time. It may not have been true five minutes ago, although it may be true now, and it may be overcome in the future. So we can never identify ourselves with a passing emotional state. We can honor that we feel a certain way in a certain moment, however, and just in that process of naming how we feel, we're able to gain a critical distance from it. That critical distance is what allows for observation to happen. And this observation really happens best when we have a space of silence, even in between what it is we're trying to communicate. When we start to actually listen really deeply to the voice that comes from deep within, we are able to really connect what we say with what we believe, with what we feel will actually benefit not only ourselves, but the one or ones to whom we are communicating. There is a lot of power to engaging in silence to be able to feel whatever it is you need to heal. Normally, whatever these underlying emotions are, we are running away from actually feeling them by busying ourselves with the noise of the world. We get busy on our phones, we get busy turning on the podcasts, turning on the music, tuning into anything to fill that void of painful silence. And why silence feels painful is because there's something underlying that we are actually avoiding in refusing to engage with the silence. Usually that thing or that assortment of emotions or things will surface pretty efficiently when we actually just enter into what I like to think of as the void of silence. And in this void of silence, we will come face to face with everything we've been avoiding, with our fears, with our anger, with our pain, with our shame, with our resentments, with our guilt, with our frustration, whatever it is we're trying to not feel, we will be invited to actually see it and feel it and know that we are not that. And I find that that is super crucial to do, so much so that I actually really look for pockets of time where I can ideally once a week have a whole day of immersion in silence. I'll do all the things I need to do. I'll even write emails, I will text people, but I just quiet my voice and I don't engage in verbal communication. And I find that that automatically allows me to enter a space of listening deep within to connect with whatever is really, really true for myself. An exercise that I would invite you to do if you're new to silence or even if you're a seasoned veteran of silence is to actually take a pen and a journal or a notepad and write down a couple of questions for yourself to reflect on in this space. The first question I would invite you to ask is what is it that I truly value? And really give yourself some time in that space of silence to deeply reflect on what it is you value. You may come up with some things on the surface to begin with, like say I value my job, I value my family, I value my friends. That's very normal, right? I value the home I live in, I value the kind of community I have. Great, great. But what is it that is underneath those things that is actually more lasting than the actual family members, the actual work that you do, the actual community that you may be a part of, the actual friends who you have? Is it a sense of belonging? Do you value love and connection? Do you value discipline and hard work? Do you value loyalty? Do you value commitment? Do you value integrity and truthfulness? As you go into this realm of questioning, it will become clearer what is it that's underneath the surface thing that you might put down on paper? Even if, say, you value money, what is it about money that you value? Is it the safety that it gives you, or the secure feeling that you have, or the ability to provide for those you care about? What is it that is underneath the thing that may come at the beginning of this reflection that is actually driving you? And once you know this, then the next practice would be to ask yourself, how can I actually live my life in such a way that I really practice embodying this value in ways that I may not have anticipated before? So for example, if I am saying that I value integrity between my values, my thoughts, my speech, and my actions, then for me, the action I started to take was to carve out this regular time and space for silence to be able to ensure that I give myself an opportunity to assess where am I aligned between what I value, what I'm thinking, what I'm doing, what I'm saying, and what I'm feeling and what I'm actually doing, right? And what I'm actually saying, what I'm actually feeling. How can I reorient myself? And usually that for me, that sense of direction for me comes in the space of silence. When I'm engaged in a lot of conversations and communications, I find that it's really easy for my mind to be pulled back into the old patterns of wanting to make another person happy or to please another person, often at my own expense. This is something I believe a lot of us as women, especially grow up learning that we have to give to other people at the expense of ourselves. And ultimately what happens in that is that we betray ourselves. And that's actually the reason why I created this podcast as the true to yourself podcast. For me, being able to come on here to share with you, to be able to stay connected to this intention of being true to myself and no longer abandoning myself or betraying my own self to please another has been a huge, huge fire of transformation in my own life. So much so that I wanted to make it a part of what I offer to the world through this particular platform, which then supports me to continue to engage in the process of reflection, to come up with my own conviction, to then have the courage to come and express it with you. And I really find that it's the space of silence that allows for that to happen. A couple of people recently have told me that they really appreciate how concise I am. I thought that's an amazing compliment because I think I worked really hard to be concise. I used to be very long-winded. When I listened to myself, I still sometimes feel that I am. But in the cultivation of silence and the reflection, the conviction comes out so strongly that it's very clear and can be communicated then very concisely. I feel that this concision is really a sign that the practice of silence and building up conviction is really working. We shouldn't feel that we have to over-explain ourselves. That's what I used to feel. I used to feel that I needed to earn people's interest, that I needed to gain their approval, that I needed their attention, and therefore I needed the perfect thing to say to make them feel happy or to get that approval or validation from them, or in some way take care of their needs while abandoning my own. Now that I have made a zero tolerance for myself to engage in such behaviors, I just find I have less than I need to say. And the words then carry a lot of weight because they've been contemplated. They've been churned in the silence. And then any emotional residue that may not be healthy has also been released through the power of spiritual practices that I do and that I share about in my book, The Way of the Goddess. And I feel that, you know, it's it's so amazing that the Bhagavad Gita has also given us some really practical guidance for how to really express ourselves powerfully and also how to evaluate any statement or communication we're about to make to see if it passes some basic tests before we give birth to our expression. In the Bhagavad Gita, and this is actually the quote that I use to frame chapter five of my book, The Way of the Goddess, I have quoted the Bhagavad Gita in chapter 17, verse 15, where it is said that the speech without excitement, which is truthful, pleasant, and beneficial, and also the practice of sacred study, are the practices for conscious speech. If we really break that down, we are getting some really amazing helpful guidance. The first parameter through which we're evaluating our speech before we release it and before it then creates karma for us is asking, is it truthful? As I had shared earlier, to really be truthful, a statement would be true in all passages of time, in the past, in the present, in the future. Is this true then would really make us evaluate, was this true in the past? Is it true now? Can I confidently say this will continue to be true in the future? Our emotions are not truthful then in that sense. Our mind and thoughts are not truthful. The most truthful thing that we will find is knowledge and especially the knowledge of the soul. The soul is considered to be eternal. Therefore, it is existing in the past, it's existing in the now, and it will continue to exist in the future. The teachings of spirituality that reflect the nature of the soul and the nature of the universe, like the five great elements, for example, are considered to be very close to that truth because they're describing the nature of that which is eternal. And that is also why the practices for conscious speech include the practice of sacred study. When we take time to really study the ancient spiritual wisdom that comes from these texts, that is reflecting to us the nature of the truth and how to connect with that truth and really identify with who we are as an embodied spiritual being, we will find that we come closer and closer to truth. And in that process, we feel very peaceful. We feel a natural sense of contentment without any particular cause for that. Another gateway through which to evaluate your speech before you say it is the question: is it pleasant? Is what I'm about to say something I can say in a pleasant way? And that actually is a pleasant statement. When we say something that's really mean, for example, in a pleasant way, it comes across as sarcastic. When we say the same thing in a sincere way, then that pleasantness is really conveying the message that was intended. Like, you know, you can say, oh, thanks a lot. And you know that deep down you're not happy about it. It's very different than when when you say, oh my gosh, thank you so much. You can just feel the difference, right? Like, thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. It's the tone that we use that conveys the sentiments that we have. So we have to really watch that when we're communicating. Another barometer that I find to be the most challenging of them all, and the most important, therefore, of them all, is the question, is it beneficial? When we ask, is what I'm about to say beneficial? What we're really evaluating is whether what we are about to say benefits both ourselves as the communicator and the one or the ones who will listen to this. For it to be a conscious statement, the statement must benefit both. And we have to really discern on that one. Does it benefit me to say it? And if it only benefits me to say it, but not the person listening, then it's a self-centered statement, which would not be leading to good karma, basically, right? It will lead to negative karma, negative consequences. When we say something to help another or to please another or to gain the approval of another, it may be beneficial to them, perhaps. But if it's not beneficial to us, if it hurts us in some way to do what will please another person, then it's again going to bring us some negative karma. When we say something that is going to be uplifting and helpful and truly beneficial to another, and it benefits us to say it as we feel called to say it, then if we have the desire to help that person, it will bring about good karma in our lives. If you really want to go deep and actually have your speech be a platform, a gateway or an avenue for spiritual liberation or moksha, then the question to ask is whether what I'm about to say is something that benefits me to express, that benefits the other to hear, but there is no desire lacing that statement where we want something to happen that's even good for another person. It actually comes from a space of may I be an instrument of nature, of truth, of a higher power to work through and simply say what needs to be said for the benefit of whatever is to come or even not to come. It could be that nothing happens, but we speak the truth in a way that benefits ourselves and another because it's simply the right thing to do. Then that itself will free us from any karma, negative or positive. Depending on your intention, you can kind of choose what you feel. What actually makes this to me a much more challenging practice is that we have to really assess and discern whether a person we wish to communicate with or we feel called to communicate with is actually ready to be able to benefit from what we have to say. Sometimes we may find that we don't know this. We might find only in saying something whether they're pushing back or actually receptive to more. And that's how we know also the boundaries of our own speech. Speech is a form of energy, it's a form of, you know, currency, if you will, of the body. And we have to be really mindful of this energy to contain this energy so that it carries power. And we, when we're trying to tell something to someone about something that's really going to be good for them, and we know it's gonna help them, and we want to help them, and it benefits us to say it, and we feel it will definitely benefit another person, but they're simply not ready for it. They're not interested in it, then continuing to talk about it is just depleting our own speech currency. It's depleting our own vitality to overly explain the value of something that someone is just not ready for at this time. What we should do instead, and what I've learned the hard way as I've gone along my journey, is just simply do the thing that we find to be so valuable ourselves. Ultimately, it's our own example that will set the tone for any change we wish to see in another. The more we benefit, the more we quietly emanate a kind of peace and joy that perhaps we did not emanate prior to doing this practice, the more it will naturally inspire at least curiosity in people to come with the question: what is it that you do? Why is it that you're so happy? How did you go through this change? And then that can lead naturally to them asking you, how can they then go through the same? And then when you're invited to share, don't overshare, but just share the right amount that you feel they may be receptive to. And make sure you're really getting a person's buy-in and interest at every stage of your communication. This is how we really are able to use our speech and use our ability to connect with our emotions in silence and our values to transform our communication. And when we transform our communication, we really transform our relationships. We transform also our relationship with our own self in the space of silence. We talk in the spiritual teachings of Vedanta about how we have three relationships in life. One set of relationships is with objects like this computer and the camera that I have, which are available for me to send this communication out to you through another medium of the podcast platform. These are all objects. I have relationships with them, clearly, to be able to have a relationship with you, which leads to the second kind of relationship we have. We have a relationship with other people. This is what makes us feel more vulnerable. Our objects don't talk back to us, but people do. When we engage in relationships with people, all of our emotions can get triggered, right? At different times. And that's where having a relationship then with your own higher self, the third type of relationship, is so important for even the relationships that you have with other people and to some degree the relationships you have with objects. When we cultivate silence, what we're actually doing is really developing that third relationship with our higher self. When we have a great relationship with our higher self through the regular practice of listening to our own self, our own deeper truth, we're going to find that it's a lot easier to express ourselves authentically in our relationships with other humans. We're going to find that we're not so affected by whether they accept or reject us. We're because we're connected with something bigger at this point. When we tap into the silence with the intention of connecting with a higher truth and with the higher self and the higher teachings and knowledge that really set us free, we are able to develop a relationship with that higher power or that spiritual source within us and within all beings. And that's ultimately what we're looking for. We think we need other people to make us feel a certain way, to approve of us, to validate us, to be there for us, to love us. When we learn through experience that it's actually all within ourselves, deep within ourselves, then we start looking to ourselves. We start looking within ourselves for everything we previously outsourced to other people. We learn that love actually lives here in my own heart. We learn that safety and security are something I cultivate for myself through my own practices, behaviors, and choices and the people I choose to engage with or not. We learn that even abundance ultimately has to be a state of mind that will allow us to be abundant in whatever way we wish to be abundant, right? Everything we think is outside is ultimately inside. And the whole journey of life, right, is ultimately leading to this goal of liberating ourselves and realizing that whatever we're looking for is actually here in this third relationship that we cultivate with our own highest self. And when we have that, we become totally unstoppable. Then we can engage with any person, anything, and we won't be so bothered by it anymore. We will find that we're able to benefit it, and that we're able to benefit from it through mutually beneficial exchanges and experiences. We will find that we'll naturally have healthier boundaries, that we will no longer be betraying ourselves for the love or approval of another. It's only when we really cultivate this third relationship and when we know where to look for it and how to connect with it that we're really going to experience the kind of joy, freedom, vitality, and strength that we're looking for from the objects and beings of the world. In the Vedic spiritual tradition, there are four goals of human life. One is the pursuit of noble values or dharma, which allow us to be a person of character and integrity. These include values that are really common to all traditions, like the Ten Commandments or the Yamas and Niyamas of the Yoga philosophy. These are things like not stealing, speaking truthfully, controlling our senses, having discipline, you know, being Like a very mindful person with how we're managing our energy and being honest, being loving, forgiving, letting go of anger, right? These are all attributes of noble values that we live by. Then we have a goal of pursuing abundance, right? Through our work, through our material resources, through investments, through even relationships that we have, we're looking for a sense of security and stability and survival. And this is called Artha. Then we have a goal of kama, which is pleasure. And that we all know very well. The fourth and final goal of human life is moksha, and that is a term that signifies spiritual liberation. And for this goal, we actually need to cultivate that relationship with our higher self. Silence is a perfect pathway to begin that process. The spiritual teachings that set us free will be amazing to engage within that space of silence. I actually really like to write statements of truth over and over again, such as this verse that I read to you from the Bhagavad Gita, because every verse of the Bhagavad Gita is so full of amazing insight that really, really helps to free our mind from its preconceived notions and from its projections onto reality that cause us to suffer. We get to reprogram our mind through the study of spirituality, and especially when we cultivate that study in the space of silence and in the space of tuning in and really listening to these truths and internalizing them and allowing them to transform some of our self-destructive emotions, behaviors, and habits into more constructive behaviors, emotions, and habits. We are always looking for liberation and we may not know that. And that's actually why we tend to go to addictions. That's why actually we go, because we think that it's in the sugar, we think it's in the partners we have, we think it's in the money we make or the attention we receive or the followers we have on social media. And so this ego gets lost in the world of the senses, in the world of people and things and stimulation, when actually it's a misdirected search for something that can't be found in any of these places. Ultimately, what we're really looking for in the sugar, in the sex, in the clothes, in the followers and attention and likes on social media is we're looking for freedom. We are looking for peace. We are looking for happiness and love, and all of that comes from inside. It comes from knowing who it is you truly are, your own higher self. And so, in this practice of silence and the conscious speech guidelines that the Bhagavad Gita gives you, there's such a beautiful invitation to really know yourself in a different way. And as you know yourself, you will then be able to express yourself in such a way that you really can give birth to the power of your most authentic expression. That's my invitation for you. If you are a therapist, coach, or healer yourself and you're looking for a place to really give birth to your most authentic expression, I would love to invite you to be a part of our circle of life community, where we regularly engage in this type of communication through medicinal storytelling circles, our healing roundtables, and really powerful member-led workshops to allow us to continue to learn from healers, therapists, and coaches and teachers of all different modalities while continuing to expand our ability to help others and to make an impact on the planet we live on. You can learn more about this community at theancientway.co, couldn'tgethe.com. So it's theancientway.co slash community. And we would love to connect with you and see if we're a great fit to include you in this community. The first tier of membership with these three live events per month is completely free of charge because we don't want any soul who is committed to helping others to be without community and without connection. And we also have a really rich member library, which allows you to deepen your spiritual practices, including what to do in silence, right? And that's available as our second tier of membership. We have a special founding member rate that's going on right now as we speak, and it will only increase as we continue to have such valuable content going into that library. So definitely, you know, check it out as soon as you can if that's of interest to you. We have Ayurveda classes in there, chakra healing resources, recipes, and so much more. And then we also have our circle of impact coming up in 2026, which will allow you to learn how to really have the impact that you're looking to have on this planet. So there's three tiers of memberships. We also have two amazing programs. One is called Take Health into Your Own Hands, which takes you through a journey to be able to live in harmony with nature, to prevent and address any chronic health issues that you have. And the second is called Become the Hero of Your Own Journey. This is a really deep hero's journey through the nine chakra path of the way of the goddess book. And actually, the circle of life community also goes through this nine chakra pathway. So you will be able to experience this come to life for you as you know join the community andor any of these programs. So we'd love to have you, and I wish you all the best on this beautiful journey of really awakening to the power of your most authentic self.