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Soul Joy: Ditch Burnout and Fall in Love with Life
Show Up, Speak Up, No Apologies: Why Your Throat Chakra Matters
Struggling to express yourself authentically? Constantly apologizing for having needs? Your throat chakra might be blocked, and the consequences could be more serious than you realize.
Dr. Julie Merriman dives deep into the throat chakra – the energy center that governs communication and self-expression. She reveals how our evolutionary history as "herd humans" created deep-seated fears of judgment and confrontation that many of us still carry today. When we stuff down our needs and silence our voices, we're not just compromising our relationships; we're potentially endangering our health.
Research from the American Psychological Association has linked chronic stress – the kind that builds when we can't express ourselves authentically – to six leading causes of death. Dr. Merriman shares her personal wake-up call when years of caregiver stress contributed to her breast cancer diagnosis, highlighting how crucial throat chakra balance is for overall wellness.
The good news? You can begin clearing this powerful energy center with simple, accessible practices. From singing your heart out in the car to performing lion's breath yoga, journaling with blue pens, or working with crystals, Dr. Merriman offers practical techniques to help you find your voice. She emphasizes that authentic communication isn't selfish – it's essential self-care that reduces harmful stress and teaches others how to treat you with respect.
Whether you're a professional helper facing compassion fatigue or simply someone who struggles to speak up for yourself, this episode provides valuable tools to balance your throat chakra and improve your overall wellbeing. Remember: showing up and speaking up without apologies isn't just about better communication – it could save your life.
Ready to find your voice? Subscribe to SoulJoy, leave a review, and visit juliemerrimanphd.com to join the email list for weekly bonus materials to support your holistic self-care journey.
Hey y'all, I'm Dr Julie Merriman and welcome to SoulJoy. This week we are moving to the throat chakra. We're going to discuss the necessity of showing up and speaking up with no apologies, because, y'all, having a balanced throat chakra is a very necessary component of holistic, sustainable self-care, also known as wellness. All right, hello, hello, hello. I hope y'all are doing great. I, as always, appreciate you taking a hot minute to hang out with me while we discuss all the stuff we need to do for holistic, sustainable self-care. So let's see, I am getting ready to hit the road. It is time to travel to Iowa. I teach for a college out in Iowa and I'm headed there this week. I've got to present at a conference along the way and then I get to hood my students during graduation. I'm very excited about that. I love. That's one of my favorite things about being a professor. So, anyway, who doesn't love a good road trip? The hubs and I are loading up and off. We go.
Speaker 1:The hard part. I don't know. Do y'all feel this way? The hard part for me is packing. I'm a mood dresser, you know. I dress the way I feel each day. So when I have to pack all these outfits, I don't know I'm going to feel that way. So, anyway, that's my biggest challenge for the day, but I will overcome it.
Speaker 1:So, okay, professional helpers this podcast is dedicated to preventing and overcoming the occupational hazards of this amazing career. We've chosen specifically burnout, compassion, fatigue and vicarious trauma. But if y'all are not in the field of helpers, this podcast is for you too. Everyone struggles with those, so what I talk about is relevant for you as well. So what I talk about is relevant for you as well.
Speaker 1:So, okay, today it's all about showing up, speaking up without apologies, because y'all those are emotional symptoms of a blocked throat chakra Having to apologize, being fearful to show up, being fearful to speak up. A throat chakra blockage can make it challenging to form genuine connections. It can leave you feeling isolated or guarded. The throat chakra y'all. It's seated in the throat and it governs communication, self-expression. Signs of a blockage here can include, like I said, difficulty speaking up, fear of judgment anybody, or maybe feeling misunderstood.
Speaker 1:So I know, when I was younger, I would always apologize for having an opinion or a need. God forbid, I would lock that information tightly in my tummy. I didn't have a strong internal locus of control back then and that prevented me from facing any type of confrontation and again, as I just mentioned, I feared judgment. I feared being misunderstood. As I just mentioned, I feared judgment. I feared being misunderstood because you know, back in the day, y'all, when we were herd humans, if you will, if we pissed people off, if they misunderstood us or judged us to be a pain in the butt, that kind of stuff got you kicked out of the pack. And if you were just a kid back, then you wouldn't survive. If you were kicked out of the pack, and if you were just a kid back, then you wouldn't survive. If you were kicked out of the pack, it was certain death. So I'll talk about that more in a moment.
Speaker 1:But there's some truth tied to some of these fears. But honestly, when I learned that being able to confront clients was 90% of what counselors do, I really thought about changing my major. I just thought maybe I had chosen the wrong profession. Now, 30 years later, it comes easily to me now. But y'all, that wasn't always the case and I have to work with my students quite a bit as we're teaching them to be counselors, because the word confrontation just kind of shuts people down. There's fear there and I think it goes back to back in the you know, ancient days when we were herd humans and had to be a part of that pack to survive. So it was real for humans once upon a time, that fear. So if you struggle with the fear of judgment or fear of being misunderstood or just fear of speaking up, no shame in that game, there's a reason. So I invite you to show yourself a little love and sit back and listen to the goodies I've got planned for you.
Speaker 1:Today, a lot of the throat chakra balancing work is reviewing our communication styles. I'll talk about that in another podcast. We need to identify our most prevalent style of communication. Our goal is to move to assertive, not aggressive. Assertive. An assertive speaker, someone who has assertive communication styles, style, gets their needs met, and that's the whole point of communication. We're trying to discuss what we need, what we want, what we you know, things that are needs and wants. We do that through communication our needs and wants. We do that through communication.
Speaker 1:When we can't say what we mean and mean what we say y'all we suffer. When we don't show up and speak up for ourselves. We suffer when we apologize for our very existence. We suffer and I want to park this plane right here, just a hot minute. If you find yourself apologizing for everything. You step in front of someone oh I'm sorry, you say something you didn't mean to say, oh I'm sorry, whatever it might be. I want you to stop that business right this moment, because what you're telling your amygdala is that you're sorry for your existence. That is not the case Now. I want you to replace that with a beautiful. You're not sorry, you don't need to apologize, you're beautiful. Of course we want to be socially appropriate, but so often we just run around apologizing because it's just second nature and we don't even really know what we're apologizing for. But your amygdala is listening and you're getting results based on that. So I want you to stop that and replace that with I'm sorry, beautiful, okay. So this suffering that I speak of when we don't speak up, we don't show up, when we're apologizing all the time, as I said with myself, I would just stuff it down in my tummy this suffering can turn into all kinds of illnesses, y'all, I'm confident.
Speaker 1:The breast cancer I suffered a couple of years ago was spurred on by all of the stress that I was living through. I had a husband who had dire brain cancer. We had to and we were playing hospital roulette. I mean, I couldn't plan a week without having to go back to the hospital, which if we lived in Fort Worth proper and it's just a two block jaunt, no big deal, but we are two hours from the city, so that's a major ordeal. I got to pack bags, I got to make sure I can get Kelly to the car. I'm scared for his health. It was a lot. It was a lot, so we were going through that. Then we moved to Arizona for cancer treatment and that was a whole ordeal Because we have a ranch and cattle still have to ranch and cattle still have to be fed and fields still have to be planted. And I mean it's, it's. I've lived, I've been a city girl.
Speaker 1:It was a lot easier to find a cat sitter and just go trolloping off than to have to put a lot of things into place, to be gone for six months and we had a horrible, frivolous lawsuit sprung on us the day we found out he had brain cancer by an equally horrible human. It was y'all, it was just too much. I was on autopilot taking care of my beloved and all that hospital roulette and all the changes in our life. It was just too much. My body took a hit. All of that stress turned into cancer. I'm a firm believer of it. I was very lucky I caught it prior to stage one and to a double mastectomy. Later, all is well. But, my friend, that was my wake-up call to revisit my throat chakra energy. My wake-up call to revisit my throat chakra energy.
Speaker 1:See, research shows us that prolonged or chronic stress can significantly impact and contribute to various serious illnesses. This includes heart disease, cancer and, of course, mental health problems. Studies by the American Psychological Association have linked chronic stress to six leading causes of death, highlighting its indirect impact on mortality. Take that in for a minute. We have to be practicing holistic, sustainable self-care so we can avoid all of this stress. So let's dig in just a little bit more. So the studies show that stress can be indirectly linked to death. So chronic stress can lead to various health problems. Like I said, heart disease, cancer, lung ailments and accidents, because we're not functioning at our best when we're very stressed and all of that could possibly be fatal.
Speaker 1:The mental health impacts Prolonged stress can increase the risk of mental health issues like depression and anxiety, which also have serious consequences. And then we have physical health impacts. Stress can weaken your immune system, walking around with a cold all the time, making individuals you're going to be more susceptible to infections, excuse me and it can also contribute to high blood pressure, which leads to heart disease and perhaps stroke. Chronic stress can lead to unhealthy lifestyle choices, like overeating or smoking, drinking too much, which can also increase the risk of premature death. I'm really Debbie Doomsday, aren't I? I'm going to turn it around. I promise. I just want to go through the research. It even can lead to sudden death. While very rare, severe stress can, in some cases, contribute to sudden death, particularly in individuals with pre-existing heart conditions. A Yale study found that stress can induce faster and more lethal arrhythmias.
Speaker 1:Get that, I mean, this stuff is not something to play with. See, getting your throat chakra cleared up so you can show up for yourself, speak up for yourself, and do this with zero apologies, is necessary, because when you do, you relieve yourself of stress. When you stuff it, you're stuffing all kinds of stress into your body. I just illustrated how bad stress is for you, but but don't worry, I've got you. I created an easy activity for you to practice to open up that throat chakra and this will help with reducing stress. So, okay, before I go there, please subscribe to my email list to get the weekly podcast email, which includes the bonus PDFs I fix up for you, and a weekly email that comes to your inbox with the podcast already attached as well. All you have to do is hop on over to my website. I've got some pretty fun stuff on my website as well, but hop on over, sign up for my email list. Well, but hop on over, sign up for my email list. You go to wwwjuliemerrimanphdcom. Okay, so I call this activity. I've pictured those monkeys see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Well, these monkeys are saying show up, speak up, no apologies. So let's dive into this.
Speaker 1:To clear the throat chakra and reduce stress, you've got to incorporate practices like vocal exercises. Seeing your freaking heart out to the radio in the car, that's a vocal exercise. Sing in the shower vocalal exercise, but also chanting and affirmations, along with techniques like yoga and meditation, are all very helpful. You don't even have to leave the house for yoga. There's lots of great yoga channels on YouTube which are absolutely free. These methods can help release blockages and improve your communication and promote a sense of calm, which leads to less stress. Okay, so let's look at vocal exercises and chanting Engaging in singing in the car, chanting, which includes the hum mantra. A lot of that's on YouTube, for free too. This helps loosen up the throat, or even simply humming can stimulate the throat chakra and help release tension.
Speaker 1:Now, buyer beware I noticed this when I'm working with my clients and we're working on throat chakra. That's going to release some tension and you could become tearful, you could become emotive. It's fine, hold space for that. I've got all kinds of podcasts talking about how to hold space. Go back and check some of those out. But just be forewarned as you begin to balance this chakra, you could experience some emotions that have been pinned up and causing you stress. Okay, the next thing is to practice affirmations, positive affirmations like I can communicate clearly, I can speak up for myself, I can speak my truth freely. These can help reprogram some negative thought patterns and help enhance your self-expression. You're talking to that amygdala, you're trying to rewire neural pathways, and these positive affirmations are very helpful in doing this. And I encourage you to sit in front of a mirror and really make good eye contact with yourself as you're doing these Yoga and deep breathing practices like lion's breath.
Speaker 1:Hop onto YouTube. You can find a YouTube that shows you how to do that. These involve a deep exhale with a loud roar, these lion's breath, deep inhale and a they're gonna do it too loud. I don't want to blow your ears up, but a loud roar and I'm talking honey loud where your husband's going to run back here, your wife or your kid. What is going on? I am balancing my throat chakra, but this can stimulate your throat and chest area, helping to reduce stress and cleaning out blockages. Inversions during yoga, like a shoulder stand or a plow pose, can also help release tension in your throat and your thyroid.
Speaker 1:Meditation and journaling In the workbook I fixed up for you for today with this podcast, I have also included a journal with the activity. But you want to focus on the throat chakra area during meditation, and writing in the journal can facilitate self-reflection, allowing for expression of suppressed emotions. Now, y'all, blue is the color of the throat chakra, so use a blue pen maybe as you're writing, focus on a blue color as you're meditating. There's all kinds of fun flashlight apps on your phone that flash up beautiful primary colors and you could go to the blue to do your meditation and journal.
Speaker 1:Energy medicine. Big believer in this, consider exploring energy healing therapies like Reiki or sound baths, which help balance the throat chakras, energy flow. I love to hop over to YouTube and find a sound frequency for whatever chakra I might be working on. I can feel it vibrating in that chakra as I'm doing that. It's very powerful, very powerful. And I've got a great reiki girl in fort worth. She's not a girl, she's a grown woman lady in fort worth, texas, who does, um, just a beautiful job in moving some stuck energies for me. But they're everywhere. Try it, try it. It's worth the time and effort. Crystals and stones again, wearing or keeping blue crystals close to your body, like lapis or a blue well, there's lots of blue stones but these may help to balance and harmonize your throat chakra. And then, as I said at the beginning and we'll talk more about this next week mindful communication You've got to pay attention to your communication patterns and we'll talk more about this next week.
Speaker 1:Mindful communication You've got to pay attention to your communication patterns and express yourself authentically, authentically. Don't say shit because you think someone wants to hear it. Don't agree just because it's going to save having to confront somebody or it's just going to be easier. You are robbing yourself of the ability to be stress-free. When you do that, be honest in your communication. You teach people, we, you, me, everyone. We teach people how to treat us in the way we respond to them. Think about that. We're giving away our power if we're not communicating openly, authentically and honestly.
Speaker 1:And then therapy and support. I mean, yes, I'm a therapist and I specialize in therapy for other therapists, but I'm a big supporter in we helpers everyone. Really, if you've survived childhood, you need to go to therapy. Life happens, man. No matter how wonderful our families are, life happens. So therapy and support is always out there. If you're experiencing significant throat chakra blockages or difficulty communicating, consider seeking professional support from a therapist or counselor. We have got to take care of ourselves, and that should therapy should be a cornerstone of your self-care plan. It's very important. So, okay, friends, that's it for today. Subscribe to my podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, please leave a review. That helps me reach more people and until next time, take care of you.