Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Namaste, and welcome
back to the True to Yourself
podcast, a place where weexplore the power of authentic
living.
I'm your host, Ananta ReepaAjimera, and today I want to
talk to you about healing yourthroat chakra and freeing the
power of your most authenticexpression.
This is a very, very significanttopic for those of us who've
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struggled any time with fear ofrejection, of fear of judgments,
of fear of just expressing whoit is we truly are.
The throat chakra is very muchconnected to our emotions.
It's connected to our biologicalmother and to our whole maternal
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ancestor lineage.
So this is a pretty huge placeto heal.
In my book, The Way of theGoddess, the throat chakra is
connected with the biologicalmother, avatar, of the warrior
mother goddess Durga.
The avatar skandamatha is hername, and she is the mother of
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the powerful warrior skanda.
This is very symbolic of howwhen we take the time to really
nurture and heal our innerchild, we too emerge like the
warrior Skanda, ready to take onthe world, courageous, strong,
and brave.
And the key actually to unlockthe power of your voice through
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the throat chakra is the powerof silence.
Actually, tapping into the powerof silence is what allows us to
free the power of our mostauthentic expression.
There's a really amazing buildupof how this actually works.
And it's a practice that you cantry and to implement in your
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day-to-day life to reallyexperience a proud profound
transformation in your abilityto really express yourself
authentically and fully.
The process begins in silence,and what happens in the silence
is that we have a space finallyto engage in really deep
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reflection.
This deep reflection helps tobuild up our conviction, and
that conviction leads to theembodiment of the courage it
takes to actually express ourdeepest truth.
And I often talk about the powerof silence.
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I really practice the power ofsilence.
This was actually something thatI was very strongly invited to
do many times when I first beganmy spiritual journey in the
lineage-based traditions that Ilearned Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedanta
philosophy, and ancient goddesswisdom from.
I was told that I would find alot of insight and growth as a
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person through actually beingmore quiet.
I was the kind of person whoalways felt like I needed to
talk, I needed to fill in anyquiet spaces and to be really
engaging because this wassomething that my grandmother
had felt and that my mom thenpassed on to me that we have to
always be filling in the spaces,never allow there to be an
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uncomfortable moment.
We should always be using ourspeech to please others, to win
approval, and to gainvalidation, basically for
ourselves.
It's a very common way ofapproaching speech.
That's how probably all of us atsome point are default
conditioned to be when we talkto people, right?
We're never told, oh, you shouldjust come across as a hostile,
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angry person, which no, weshouldn't.
But in the space of silence, ifsome anger and hostility perhaps
is lingering somewhereunderneath, then instead of
expressing that through ourspeech, we have a space to
actually heal our emotions byfirst of all learning to observe
our emotions.
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And whenever we engage in theprocess of observation of
something, such as our emotionsand our speech and the emotions
underlying our speech, we get toseparate ourselves from what it
is we're observing.
So we are not identified withthat.
We are not, you know, thinkingthat we are that, right?
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A lot of times we identify somuch with our emotions that we
will even say, I am just anangry person, I am a fearful
person, I uh get camera shy, Iam, you know, constantly
excited, I'm stressed, I'mfrustrated, I'm always happy,
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right?
Like so many people expressthemselves this way, or they'll
even define themselves in theirInstagram profile online as what
their dominant emotional stateis.
And we so often say that aboutourselves and others that we
start to believe in that.
But actually, when we go deepwithin, we understand that for a
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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 trueinto the future.
And when we think about that,then our emotional states are
definitely not who we arebecause our anger passes, our
fear can be overcome.
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And any passing emotional stateis really just that.
It's temporary, it's not thetruth of who we are, and it's
not even real because it's notthe truth in all passages of
time.
It may not have been true fiveminutes ago, although it may be
true now, and it may be overcomein the future.
So we can never identifyourselves with a passing
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emotional state.
We can honor that we feel acertain way in a certain moment,
however, and just in thatprocess of naming how we feel,
we're able to gain a criticaldistance from it.
That critical distance is whatallows for observation to
happen.
And this observation reallyhappens best when we have a
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space of silence, even inbetween what it is we're trying
to communicate.
When we start to actually listenreally deeply to the voice that
comes from deep within, we areable to really connect what we
say with what we believe, withwhat we feel will actually
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benefit not only ourselves, butthe one or ones to whom we are
communicating.
There is a lot of power toengaging in silence to be able
to feel whatever it is you needto heal.
Normally, whatever theseunderlying emotions are, we are
running away from actuallyfeeling them by busying
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ourselves with the noise of theworld.
We get busy on our phones, weget busy turning on the
podcasts, turning on the music,tuning into anything to fill
that void of painful silence.
And why silence feels painful isbecause there's something
underlying that we are actuallyavoiding in refusing to engage
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with the silence.
Usually that thing or thatassortment of emotions or things
will surface pretty efficientlywhen we actually just enter into
what I like to think of as thevoid of silence.
And in this void of silence, wewill come face to face with
everything we've been avoiding,with our fears, with our anger,
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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 toactually see it and feel it and
know that we are not that.
And I find that that is supercrucial to do, so much so that I
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actually really look for pocketsof time where I can ideally once
a week have a whole day ofimmersion in silence.
I'll do all the things I need todo.
I'll even write emails, I willtext people, but I just quiet my
voice and I don't engage inverbal communication.
And I find that thatautomatically allows me to enter
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a space of listening deep withinto connect with whatever is
really, really true for myself.
An exercise that I would inviteyou to do if you're new to
silence or even if you're aseasoned veteran of silence is
to actually take a pen and ajournal or a notepad and write
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down a couple of questions foryourself to reflect on in this
space.
The first question I wouldinvite you to ask is what is it
that I truly value?
And really give yourself sometime in that space of silence to
deeply reflect on what it is youvalue.
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You may come up with some thingson the surface to begin with,
like say I value my job, I valuemy family, I value my friends.
That's very normal, right?
I value the home I live in, Ivalue the kind of community I
have.
Great, great.
But what is it that isunderneath those things that is
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actually more lasting than theactual family members, the
actual work that you do, theactual community that you may be
a part of, the actual friendswho you have?
Is it a sense of belonging?
Do you value love andconnection?
Do you value discipline and hardwork?
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Do you value loyalty?
Do you value commitment?
Do you value integrity andtruthfulness?
As you go into this realm ofquestioning, it will become
clearer what is it that'sunderneath the surface thing
that you might put down onpaper?
Even if, say, you value money,what is it about money that you
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value?
Is it the safety that it givesyou, or the secure feeling that
you have, or the ability toprovide for those you care
about?
What is it that is underneaththe thing that may come at the
beginning of this reflectionthat is actually driving you?
And once you know this, then thenext practice would be to ask
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yourself, how can I actuallylive my life in such a way that
I really practice embodying thisvalue in ways that I may not
have anticipated before?
So for example, if I am sayingthat I value integrity between
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my values, my thoughts, myspeech, and my actions, then for
me, the action I started to takewas to carve out this regular
time and space for silence to beable to ensure that I give
myself an opportunity to assesswhere am I aligned between what
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I value, what I'm thinking, whatI'm doing, what I'm saying, and
what I'm feeling and what I'mactually doing, right?
And what I'm actually saying,what I'm actually feeling.
How can I reorient myself?
And usually that for me, thatsense of direction for me comes
in the space of silence.
When I'm engaged in a lot ofconversations and
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communications, I find that it'sreally easy for my mind to be
pulled back into the oldpatterns of wanting to make
another person happy or toplease another person, often at
my own expense.
This is something I believe alot of us as women, especially
grow up learning that we have togive to other people at the
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expense of ourselves.
And ultimately what happens inthat is that we betray
ourselves.
And that's actually the reasonwhy I created this podcast as
the true to yourself podcast.
For me, being able to come onhere to share with you, to be
able to stay connected to thisintention of being true to
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myself and no longer abandoningmyself or betraying my own self
to please another has been ahuge, huge fire of
transformation in my own life.
So much so that I wanted to makeit a part of what I offer to the
world through this particularplatform, which then supports me
to continue to engage in theprocess of reflection, to come
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up with my own conviction, tothen have the courage to come
and express it with you.
And I really find that it's thespace of silence that allows for
that to happen.
A couple of people recently havetold me that they really
appreciate how concise I am.
I thought that's an amazingcompliment because I think I
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worked really hard to beconcise.
I used to be very long-winded.
When I listened to myself, Istill sometimes feel that I am.
But in the cultivation ofsilence and the reflection, the
conviction comes out so stronglythat it's very clear and can be
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communicated then veryconcisely.
I feel that this concision isreally a sign that the practice
of silence and building upconviction is really working.
We shouldn't feel that we haveto over-explain ourselves.
That's what I used to feel.
I used to feel that I needed toearn people's interest, that I
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needed to gain their approval,that I needed their attention,
and therefore I needed theperfect thing to say to make
them feel happy or to get thatapproval or validation from
them, or in some way take careof their needs while abandoning
my own.
Now that I have made a zerotolerance for myself to engage
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in such behaviors, I just find Ihave less than I need to say.
And the words then carry a lotof weight because they've been
contemplated.
They've been churned in thesilence.
And then any emotional residuethat may not be healthy has also
been released through the powerof spiritual practices that I do
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and that I share about in mybook, The Way of the Goddess.
And I feel that, you know, it'sit's so amazing that the
Bhagavad Gita has also given ussome really practical guidance
for how to really expressourselves powerfully and also
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how to evaluate any statement orcommunication we're about to
make to see if it passes somebasic tests before we give birth
to our expression.
In the Bhagavad Gita, and thisis actually the quote that I use
to frame chapter five of mybook, The Way of the Goddess, I
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have quoted the Bhagavad Gita inchapter 17, verse 15, where it
is said that the speech withoutexcitement, which is truthful,
pleasant, and beneficial, andalso the practice of sacred
study, are the practices forconscious speech.
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If we really break that down, weare getting some really amazing
helpful guidance.
The first parameter throughwhich we're evaluating our
speech before we release it andbefore it then creates karma for
us is asking, is it truthful?
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As I had shared earlier, toreally be truthful, a statement
would be true in all passages oftime, in the past, in the
present, in the future.
Is this true then would reallymake us evaluate, was this true
in the past?
Is it true now?
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Can I confidently say this willcontinue to be true in the
future?
Our emotions are not truthfulthen in that sense.
Our mind and thoughts are nottruthful.
The most truthful thing that wewill find is knowledge and
especially the knowledge of thesoul.
The soul is considered to beeternal.
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Therefore, it is existing in thepast, it's existing in the now,
and it will continue to exist inthe future.
The teachings of spiritualitythat reflect the nature of the
soul and the nature of theuniverse, like the five great
elements, for example, areconsidered to be very close to
that truth because they'redescribing the nature of that
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which is eternal.
And that is also why thepractices for conscious speech
include the practice of sacredstudy.
When we take time to reallystudy the ancient spiritual
wisdom that comes from thesetexts, that is reflecting to us
the nature of the truth and howto connect with that truth and
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really identify with who we areas an embodied spiritual being,
we will find that we come closerand closer to truth.
And in that process, we feelvery peaceful.
We feel a natural sense ofcontentment without any
particular cause for that.
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Another gateway through which toevaluate your speech before you
say it is the question (18:08):
is it
pleasant?
Is what I'm about to saysomething I can say in a
pleasant way?
And that actually is a pleasantstatement.
When we say something that'sreally mean, for example, in a
pleasant way, it comes across assarcastic.
When we say the same thing in asincere way, then that
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pleasantness is really conveyingthe message that was intended.
Like, you know, you can say, oh,thanks a lot.
And you know that deep downyou're not happy about it.
It's very different than whenwhen you say, oh my gosh, thank
you so much.
You can just feel thedifference, right?
Like, thanks a lot.
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Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot.
I really appreciate it.
It's the tone that we use thatconveys the sentiments that we
have.
So we have to really watch thatwhen we're communicating.
Another barometer that I find tobe the most challenging of them
all, and the most important,therefore, of them all, is the
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question, is it beneficial?
When we ask, is what I'm aboutto say beneficial?
What we're really evaluating iswhether what we are about to say
benefits both ourselves as thecommunicator and the one or the
ones who will listen to this.
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For it to be a consciousstatement, the statement must
benefit both.
And we have to really discern onthat one.
Does it benefit me to say it?
And if it only benefits me tosay it, but not the person
listening, then it's aself-centered statement, which
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would not be leading to goodkarma, basically, right?
It will lead to negative karma,negative consequences.
When we say something to helpanother or to please another or
to gain the approval of another,it may be beneficial to them,
perhaps.
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But if it's not beneficial tous, if it hurts us in some way
to do what will please anotherperson, then it's again going to
bring us some negative karma.
When we say something that isgoing to be uplifting and
helpful and truly beneficial toanother, and it benefits us to
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say it as we feel called to sayit, then if we have the desire
to help that person, it willbring about good karma in our
lives.
If you really want to go deepand actually have your speech be
a platform, a gateway or anavenue for spiritual liberation
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or moksha, then the question toask is whether what I'm about to
say is something that benefitsme to express, that benefits the
other to hear, but there is nodesire lacing that statement
where we want something tohappen that's even good for
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another person.
It actually comes from a spaceof may I be an instrument of
nature, of truth, of a higherpower to work through and simply
say what needs to be said forthe benefit of whatever is to
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come or even not to come.
It could be that nothinghappens, but we speak the truth
in a way that benefits ourselvesand another because it's simply
the right thing to do.
Then that itself will free usfrom any karma, negative or
positive.
Depending on your intention, youcan kind of choose what you
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feel.
What actually makes this to me amuch more challenging practice
is that we have to really assessand discern whether a person we
wish to communicate with or wefeel called to communicate with
is actually ready to be able tobenefit from what we have to
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say.
Sometimes we may find that wedon't know this.
We might find only in sayingsomething whether they're
pushing back or actuallyreceptive to more.
And that's how we know also theboundaries of our own speech.
Speech is a form of energy, it'sa form of, you know, currency,
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if you will, of the body.
And we have to be really mindfulof this energy to contain this
energy so that it carries power.
And we, when we're trying totell something to someone about
something that's really going tobe good for them, and we know
it's gonna help them, and wewant to help them, and it
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benefits us to say it, and wefeel it will definitely benefit
another person, but they'resimply not ready for it.
They're not interested in it,then continuing to talk about it
is just depleting our own speechcurrency.
It's depleting our own vitalityto overly explain the value of
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something that someone is justnot ready for at this time.
What we should do instead, andwhat 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 valuableourselves.
Ultimately, it's our own examplethat will set the tone for any
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change we wish to see inanother.
The more we benefit, the more wequietly emanate a kind of peace
and joy that perhaps we did notemanate prior to doing this
practice, the more it willnaturally inspire at least
curiosity in people to come withthe question: what is it that
you do?
Why is it that you're so happy?
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How did you go through thischange?
And then that can lead naturallyto them asking you, how can they
then go through the same?
And then when you're invited toshare, don't overshare, but just
share the right amount that youfeel they may be receptive to.
And make sure you're reallygetting a person's buy-in and
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interest at every stage of yourcommunication.
This is how we really are ableto use our speech and use our
ability to connect with ouremotions in silence and our
values to transform ourcommunication.
And when we transform ourcommunication, we really
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transform our relationships.
We transform also ourrelationship with our own self
in the space of silence.
We talk in the spiritualteachings of Vedanta about how
we have three relationships inlife.
One set of relationships is withobjects like this computer and
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the camera that I have, whichare available for me to send
this communication out to youthrough 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, whichleads to the second kind of
relationship we have.
We have a relationship withother people.
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This is what makes us feel morevulnerable.
Our objects don't talk back tous, but people do.
When we engage in relationshipswith people, all of our emotions
can get triggered, right?
At different times.
And that's where having arelationship then with your own
higher self, the third type ofrelationship, is so important
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for even the relationships thatyou have with other people and
to some degree the relationshipsyou have with objects.
When we cultivate silence, whatwe're actually doing is really
developing that thirdrelationship with our higher
self.
When we have a greatrelationship with our higher
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self through the regularpractice of listening to our own
self, our own deeper truth,we're going to find that it's a
lot easier to express ourselvesauthentically in our
relationships with other humans.
We're going to find that we'renot so affected by whether they
accept or reject us.
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We're because we're connectedwith something bigger at this
point.
When we tap into the silencewith the intention of connecting
with a higher truth and with thehigher self and the higher
teachings and knowledge thatreally set us free, we are able
to develop a relationship withthat higher power or that
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spiritual source within us andwithin all beings.
And that's ultimately what we'relooking for.
We think we need other people tomake us feel a certain way, to
approve of us, to validate us,to be there for us, to love us.
When we learn through experiencethat it's actually all within
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ourselves, deep withinourselves, then we start looking
to ourselves.
We start looking withinourselves for everything we
previously outsourced to otherpeople.
We learn that love actuallylives here in my own heart.
We learn that safety andsecurity are something I
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cultivate for myself through myown practices, behaviors, and
choices and the people I chooseto engage with or not.
We learn that even abundanceultimately has to be a state of
mind that will allow us to beabundant in whatever way we wish
to be abundant, right?
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Everything we think is outsideis ultimately inside.
And the whole journey of life,right, is ultimately leading to
this goal of liberatingourselves and realizing that
whatever we're looking for isactually here in this third
relationship that we cultivatewith our own highest self.
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And when we have that, we becometotally unstoppable.
Then we can engage with anyperson, anything, and we won't
be so bothered by it anymore.
We will find that we're able tobenefit it, and that we're able
to benefit from it throughmutually beneficial exchanges
and experiences.
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We will find that we'llnaturally have healthier
boundaries, that we will nolonger be betraying ourselves
for the love or approval ofanother.
It's only when we reallycultivate this third
relationship and when we knowwhere to look for it and how to
connect with it that we'rereally going to experience the
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kind of joy, freedom, vitality,and strength that we're looking
for from the objects and beingsof the world.
In the Vedic spiritualtradition, there are four goals
of human life.
One is the pursuit of noblevalues or dharma, which allow us
to be a person of character andintegrity.
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These include values that arereally common to all traditions,
like the Ten Commandments or theYamas and Niyamas of the Yoga
philosophy.
These are things like notstealing, speaking truthfully,
controlling our senses, havingdiscipline, you know, being Like
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a very mindful person with howwe're managing our energy and
being honest, being loving,forgiving, letting go of anger,
right?
These are all attributes ofnoble values that we live by.
Then we have a goal of pursuingabundance, right?
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Through our work, through ourmaterial resources, through
investments, through evenrelationships that we have,
we're looking for a sense ofsecurity 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 ofhuman life is moksha, and that
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is a term that signifiesspiritual liberation.
And for this goal, we actuallyneed to cultivate that
relationship with our higherself.
Silence is a perfect pathway tobegin that process.
The spiritual teachings that setus free will be amazing to
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engage within that space ofsilence.
I actually really like to writestatements of truth over and
over again, such as this versethat I read to you from the
Bhagavad Gita, because everyverse of the Bhagavad Gita is so
full of amazing insight thatreally, really helps to free our
mind from its preconceivednotions and from its projections
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onto reality that cause us tosuffer.
We get to reprogram our mindthrough the study of
spirituality, and especiallywhen we cultivate that study in
the space of silence and in thespace of tuning in and really
listening to these truths andinternalizing them and allowing
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them to transform some of ourself-destructive emotions,
behaviors, and habits into moreconstructive behaviors,
emotions, and habits.
We are always looking forliberation and we may not know
that.
And that's actually why we tendto go to addictions.
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That's why actually we go,because we think that it's in
the sugar, we think it's in thepartners we have, we think it's
in the money we make or theattention we receive or the
followers we have on socialmedia.
And so this ego gets lost in theworld of the senses, in the
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world of people and things andstimulation, when actually it's
a misdirected search forsomething that can't be found in
any of these places.
Ultimately, what we're reallylooking for in the sugar, in the
sex, in the clothes, in thefollowers and attention and
likes on social media is we'relooking for freedom.
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We are looking for peace.
We are looking for happiness andlove, and all of that comes from
inside.
It comes from knowing who it isyou truly are, your own higher
self.
And so, in this practice ofsilence and the conscious speech
guidelines that the BhagavadGita gives you, there's such a
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beautiful invitation to reallyknow yourself in a different
way.
And as you know yourself, youwill then be able to express
yourself in such a way that youreally can give birth to the
power of your most authenticexpression.
That's my invitation for you.
If you are a therapist, coach,or healer yourself and you're
(33:49):
looking for a place to reallygive birth to your most
authentic expression, I wouldlove to invite you to be a part
of our circle of life community,where we regularly engage in
this type of communicationthrough medicinal storytelling
circles, our healingroundtables, and really powerful
member-led workshops to allow usto continue to learn from
(34:12):
healers, therapists, and coachesand teachers of all different
modalities while continuing toexpand our ability to help
others and to make an impact onthe planet we live on.
You can learn more about thiscommunity at theancientway.co,
couldn'tgethe.com.
So it's theancientway.co slashcommunity.
(34:35):
And we would love to connectwith you and see if we're a
great fit to include you in thiscommunity.
The first tier of membershipwith these three live events per
month is completely free ofcharge because we don't want any
soul who is committed to helpingothers to be without community
and without connection.
And we also have a really richmember library, which allows you
(34:58):
to deepen your spiritualpractices, including what to do
in silence, right?
And that's available as oursecond tier of membership.
We have a special foundingmember rate that's going on
right now as we speak, and itwill only increase as we
continue to have such valuablecontent going into that library.
(35:18):
So definitely, you know, checkit out as soon as you can if
that's of interest to you.
We have Ayurveda classes inthere, chakra healing resources,
recipes, and so much more.
And then we also have our circleof impact coming up in 2026,
which will allow you to learnhow to really have the impact
(35:42):
that you're looking to have onthis planet.
So there's three tiers ofmemberships.
We also have two amazingprograms.
One is called Take Health intoYour Own Hands, which takes you
through a journey to be able tolive in harmony with nature, to
prevent and address any chronichealth issues that you have.
(36:02):
And the second is called Becomethe Hero of Your Own Journey.
This is a really deep hero'sjourney through the nine chakra
path of the way of the goddessbook.
And actually, the circle of lifecommunity also goes through this
nine chakra pathway.
So you will be able toexperience this come to life for
you as you know join thecommunity andor any of these
(36:26):
programs.
So we'd love to have you, and Iwish you all the best on this
beautiful journey of reallyawakening to the power of your
most authentic self.