Saturn Returns with Caggie - 5.10 Map of Self: The Chakra System with Dr Erica Matluck

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

Dr Erica Matluck, aka 'Seven Senses,' a trained naturopathic doctor and reiki healer joins Caggie to discuss the 7 different chakras and what to do if they are blocked. They discuss manifestation in relation to the chakras, specifically the throat chakra, and the third eye. They explore core wounds, fear of abandonment, inner child work and how to create boundaries in your personal relationships particularly if you are an empath or tend towards people-pleasing. --- Follow or subscribe to "Saturn Returns" for future episodes, where we explore the transformative impact of Saturn's return with inspiring guests and thought-provoking discussions. Follow Caggie Dunlop on Instagram to stay updated on her personal journey and you can find Saturn Returns on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.  Order the Saturn Returns Book. Join our community newsletter here.  Find all things Saturn Returns, offerings and more here.

Hello everyone and welcome to Saturn Returns with me, Kagi Dunlop. This is a podcast that aims to bring clarity during transitional times where there can be confusion and doubt. We really need to use language appropriately when we're working in the spiritual quadrant, especially with the throat chakra, because if I make a statement like, I'm trying to get pregnant, then I will create a future where I am in the state of trying. And what I actually want to do

if I'm working spiritually with things like manifestation and creating a new future is use my language in the present moment to actually make it so. Which would be what? I am pregnant. Today I'm joined by Dr. Erica Matlock, a trained naturopathic doctor, Reiki master, massage therapist, and vinyasa and kundalini yoga instructor.

She goes by the name Seven Senses online and in this episode we're talking specifically about the body's seven chakras and how you can use them to tune into what might be going on for you under the surface. So a bit of background on chakras as we do get into the nitty-gritty in this episode. There are seven chakras in the body starting at the root chakra located at the base of your spine and rising all the way up to the crown chakra located at the top of your head. Each of these seven chakras have different themes associated with them. For instance the root chakra is associated with stability and security. You can see it as the root of your body and the throat chakra is associated with self-expression and speaking

your inner truth. As Erica discusses in this episode we can have blockages in each of the seven chakras. According to Erica's practice these blockages can manifest in the body and mind in four different ways physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. To address and heal a blockage you need to understand each chakra's core wound and then try to heal that. Erica talks about how these ideas can complement traditional medicine and it seems like a good opportunity to remind people that if you are taking medication or have a specific diagnosis, do be sure to check in with your doctor before changing anything. The ideas we discuss in Saturn Returns are powerful, but everyone is

individual. So make sure you get individual advice before making any changes. I wanted to speak to Erica because I've had a lot of personal experience when I've gone to see healers or any kind of esoteric practitioners where they say that I have a blocked throat chakra. For me, for those of you that know, I have been a singer in the past and this is something that I've struggled with in my self-expression also you know Saturn is in my house of communication so that's also been something challenging for me to communicate my truth and I guess that's kind of why I started this whole show to be able to do that and so I found it a really really interesting topic to dive into and I'm sure you will too.

But before we get into any of this, let's check in with our astrological guide, Nora. There are seven main chakras in the chakra system, and each one of them has a correspondence to the seven planets, from the Sun to Saturn. And when these are aligned, we tend to have a balanced inner and outer life. When imbalanced, it manifests into a variety of issues we experience on a mundane level, but also a spiritual, emotional, mental, physical level. Saturn relates to the qualities that relate to the root chakra, the Muladhara center. When this isn't in balance, it can make us feel unsafe, restricted within our own bodies, can cause a pessimistic attitude, a scarcity mentality or sometimes even an overly cynical mentality. Oscar Wilde described this kind of mentality best when he said,

the cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. During Saturn return, it is often the root chakra that gets the most attention and gets activated. Because this relates to the root of our lives, and often it's informed by the boundaries we've set for ourselves throughout our lives. We're being confronted by behaviors that we now realize cross our boundaries, our sense of safety. We're being reminded of the notion of being enough as we are and to build a foundation that honors our self-sovereignty. We're being asked to let go of scarcity mentality and of any kind of fight or flight responses. We might have internalized at some point in our lives, during our most vulnerable states,

that this is normal. So this is where the reparenting starts. It starts where we tell our inner child, you are safe and accepted. You are loved. You are enough. accepted you are loved you are enough Erica how are you I'm good thanks thanks for having me and where are you in the world right now I'm in upstate New York in Woodstock oh okay very cool you look like you're in the woods somewhere Woodstock is pretty country. It's, I mean, you know, that's amazing. There's a big reservoir in front of me and then forest in the back. Heaven. Well, I'm very jealous.

And just to explain to our audience, so someone actually from the Saturn Returns community sent me a message with your instagram account for seven senses and it was one of those things that was a real sort of nudge from the universe because and i messaged you saying i would love to have you on to talk about the throat chakra but of course we're going to explore chakras and like a lot of people have requested that as a theme. But specifically for me as a person, every time I've gone to a healer or whatever it may be, when they put like crystals have gone on my throat, it is the point where I have so many blockages. And it's a problem for me. So that is why I was like specifically I would like from a selfish perspective, like to explore that and basically what what someone can do to like unblock that and just dive on in really into the kind of

work that you do. Cool. I love that. I love how, you know, like, you put something out there on Instagram, and it travels through travels across oceans and time zones and finds the people that it's meant for. So let me start by saying this, that the work that I do is really holistic. And really, my background is quite diverse from like working in the conventional medical setting to doing Reiki and energy work and body work. And I'm licensed and trained as a naturopathic doctor. So my sort of like lens on health and how I use the chakras is a little bit unique. And what I always like to start by saying is that what I love about the chakra system is it sort of provides us like a map of the self of the holistic self. And each one of the chakras has different frequencies,

different themes associated with them. But when I look at those themes, what I what I'm looking for is like how and where they're showing up because they can show up physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. And the difference between those things can not only be experienced very differently, but they can all, it can also be treated very differently. Right? So like, if we're talking specifically about the throat chakra, some people I work with are coming into me because they have hypothyroidism. And maybe we're working with medications or supplements or diet, but I'm always thinking about these underlying themes of the throat chakra. And some people are dealing with a blockage there emotionally.

And emotionally, the wound of the throat is guilt. And we'll talk more about that. And then sometimes people are dealing with it mentally. And for me, I really like to separate out mental and emotional experience because emotions really are hormonal. It really is like a chemical binding to a messenger and bringing about a state that we feel, whereas our mind, really our thoughts and beliefs about who we are and the world. So a lot of the time for a throat chakra blockage, if we're looking at how that comes up in the mind, a lot of the time it's belief that someone is not worthy of the life of their dreams. Or it's a belief that there's not enough in the world for all of us to live out the lives of our dreams. So we operate from competition or scarcity. And these are like limiting belief systems as opposed to the emotional experience of feeling

guilty. Okay. So can we talk about distinguishing between the mental and the emotional, the distinctions between the two? Is that right? Yeah. Because I think it sounds like it's quite hard to be able to differentiate between which one it might be. Because kind of as you mentioned each, I was like, yes, that's it. And then you mentioned the next one. I was like, that's it as well. Then you mentioned the next one. I was like, oh, that's it too. So maybe I just have a trio of throat chakra blockages. Well, that's not uncommon. And actually, you know, theoretically, that's the way it should work, right? If there's an imbalance here, there's no reason why we

wouldn't experience it in these four different domains of self. But what I think is an important distinction in my work that is different than what I see happening in say like conventional medicine is that we need to watch where the themes move, right? So for example, if someone is experiencing a hypothyroid and then we throw a medication at it. And a lot of the symptoms of hypothyroidism improve. But they say, I don't really want to be on this medication for the rest of my life. Usually in the world of conventional medicine, they say, we don't have any other tools. Like that's the deal with hypothyroidism. But when we think about the throat chakra as sort of a holistic mechanism

then we can say okay so that's great that your symptoms of hypothyroidism are feeling better you're feeling better physically but what's happening mentally what's happening emotionally and what's happening spiritually because as we start to work with those pieces too spiritually, because as we start to work with those pieces too, then a lot of the time, the whole system comes back into balance. And maybe there is a possibility that then we can ultimately get rid of that medication. And so I think it doesn't mean, I'm not suggesting that, you know, people only experience these imbalances in one or another area. But I'm suggesting that if we really want to get to the root of certain problems, we have to understand how they look different in the different parts of our experiences, and we have to meet them differently, right? So we might

like meet an emotional experience differently with different tools or different practices. Then we would meet a physical experience. And one of the really important things to understand when you're thinking about, well, how do I heal emotionally versus mentally versus physically versus spiritually is time and our relationship to time because the physical body is always present. So if we want to do something to change our physical experience, we have to be doing it now in the moment. And it's very sensory. When we're working with the mind, a lot of the time the mind is not present, right? This is sort of the problem with the mind. It's often back in the past, you know, reliving patterns that didn't go the way we wanted them to, or it's often the future anticipating the worst case scenario

trying to keep us safe. And so a lot of the time, you know, if we're working on our thoughts and beliefs about something, it's appropriate to go back and revisit something that happened in the past, or it's appropriate to jump to the future and start envisioning what we want. When it comes to emotions, we really sort of have to like ride the wave i mean the emotional aspect of the self is present but it's so fleeting and often what happens when we're doing some sort of emotional healing work is we get we get it sort of intertwined with our thoughts and beliefs and we have an emotion and rather than just sort of letting that emotion morph into something else, we come up with an explanation for it. And then

we get stuck on this hamster wheel of like, this is my reality. Over-identifying. Exactly. And then an emotion that in theory would have lasted, you know, minutes or hours is now like a state of depression. And then spiritually, which I think is probably a fun topic for your community, is timeless. It's past, present, and future all in the quantum field. They're all the same moment. And they're all the same moment and they're all happening now. And so this is where it gets fun because we really need to use language

appropriately when we're working in the spiritual quadrant, especially with the throat chakra, because if I make a statement, like I'm trying to get pregnant, then I will create a future where I am in the state of trying. And what I actually want to do if I'm working spiritually with things like manifestation and creating a new future is use my language in the present moment to actually make it so. Which would be what? I am pregnant, right? And so, you know, so a lot of the time, so I like to think about when we're thinking about manifestation and how we create a new future.

And really the throat and the third eye are probably like the two real masters of that domain. But the lower down we are in the system, the closer we are to like our earthly experience. And so when we're working from the throat, it's important to come up with statements that are somewhat believable, right? So for example, if I'm trying to manifest money and I start using affirmations in my voice to say things like, I am a billionaire.

If I don't really believe that that is a foreseeable outcome in the near future, then it's a little bit harder to create that from the throat. I might want to choose a statement like I'm a millionaire or I'm abundant or I have enough or I am wealthy. Something that like my mind can actually get on board with. Yeah. To make it so. So it's got, you've got to give yourself a believable statement. At the throat, you really need to give yourself a believable statement. When you get to the third eye, you don't.

There, it's more like fantasy and imagination land and vision. And so I always like to tell people the throat is probably my favorite place to create from. It's the most fun to manifest from because it's closer to the ground. So you tend to see the results quicker than you would up in the third eye where you're like beyond time and space. You know, if I'm manifesting here with my vision, I can exceed all limitations of my mind. But what I create may not come to fruition until the next generation or until, you know, the next decade, because our sense of time up here is so much more vast. Yeah. Actually, funnily enough, when you were explaining it, something I did this morning, I was driving. I don't drive that much and I'm not the most confident driver when it comes to

parking. That's a story that I tell myself. but it's true that I'm terrible at parking and I don't like parking in London I don't like parking when anyone can watch me and I was driving around to the place where I was going to park and there was like someone in his car this man in his car just behind where I need to park and I was like no I can't I can't let him see me what I might do and then so I drove around again I went back around and he was still sitting there and instead I was like told myself I was like you are an amazing parker you are incredible at parking cars and I went in and I reversed and I did it perfectly which was like probably the only time that I've ever parked a car in one go like that. So I'm into it. I'm

into this philosophy. That's it. That's really it. And it's like, you know, the more you practice it in like these little simple circumstances, the more you really start to develop the ability to use it to then sort of manifest and create things in your life. What are the common things that you see from people who have a blocked throat chakra? So that's a great question because like there's so much when you listen to people talk about chakras, language can sort of be confusing. People talk about open chakras, closed chakras, blocked chakras, wounded chakras, you know, all of these different things. And I don't necessarily think there's a right or a wrong here. But the way that I like to think about the energy of

these centers is like, either it's flowing, or it's not. Either there's an excess or there's a deficiency. And then we can also sort of look at them as having sort of like a shadow state or a wound or having a gift. So what we've been talking about has been more about how do we access the great gift of the throat chakra? Because the gift here is that we can transmit thought forms into the material world through sound, through vibration. But what do we do if it's blocked? What do we do if it's wounded? What do we do if we can't access the gift? And that's sort of what I think what you said, when you work with healers and people, there's always this like block there. And so then there's also this issue of like, how do we heal a chakra?

How do we heal the wound of guilt? And I usually think most of the time, if something is blocked up here, it probably starts lower down. And the first thing we always want to do is are usually in the lower three chakras like the first wound to develop. And what it's about is that when we're babies and in the first years of our lives, we're sort of stuck in this tug of war between attachment, which is necessary for survival at that time, right? We need actually to be loved and cared for by caregivers to survive. And then authenticity, which is like us actually fully expressing who we are. And when we're babies and toddlers, we're so sensitive to the energy of our parents or our caretakers. And we're constantly getting feedback about whether or not our behavior leads to love and acceptance and secure attachment, or it potentially threatens our survival.

And at that time in our lives, that's a real thing. Of course, you know, now we're adults, and we know that if someone doesn't love us, it's not going to threaten our survival. But remember that the spiritual quadrant of the self is timeless. So this is like where inner child work comes in. That part of you on some level still exists. And this is why fear of abandonment can be so terrifying as an adult. abandonment can be so terrifying as an adult. It's like we're actually being triggered in the sense that our survival mechanism is coming online. And then we go into the fight or flight response and adrenals get impacted and all of this stuff. So that's the root. Then there's the sacral. And the wound of the sacral is denial.

And this is really like the home of the emotional body. And what we're in denial of here is that we're constantly just reacting to our feelings. And reacting in the sense that we want to do things that create more pleasure and less pain or discomfort. And we get stuck in these unconscious cycles, right? So rather than being able to just sit patiently in discomfort, I'm constantly trying to wiggle out of it and create something that feels better. And if we look at this biochemically, this is like, I want more serotonin and dopamine and oxytocin, and I want less of the, you know, cortisols and the adrenalines. So at the sacral, we're healing denial. We're healing that denial.

And then at the level of the solar plexus, we're healing the wound of shame. And this is really like the next center to develop. And it's a big one for a lot of us because this is really where we start to develop our identity, who we think we are. And it happens in our teen years when we're getting a lot of feedback from the world about the things that we're good at, our strengths that make us feel confident and worthy. And then we're not getting the same kind of feedback about the things that we're not so good at, our weaknesses, our imperfections, you know, the things that we're not naturally gifted with. And a lot of the time we put those things in hiding.

We sort of shove them down and we overexpress the things that make us feel confident. And then we kind of come up with like, this is who I am. On the one hand, that can serve us really well, you know, because like you're confident and it drives your successes and academia or professionally. But eventually we hit this limitation where we want to connect with someone or try something new. And it's so terrifying to express our vulnerabilities or imperfections that that like inner critic is like, no, you don't like don't even try it. Right. This is like the imposter

syndrome and the perfectionism. And so much of what we have to do to heal this wound is self-acceptance it's like inviting all of those imperfections and vulnerabilities and insecurities back into the psyche to be integrated so we can become more whole and we can start to sort of like melt all those limitations around who we think we are. Yeah. Most of us have work to do in one or all of those domains. It's not me. And part of the reason it's so important to do that work of the lower chakras before crossing the bridge of the heart and coming into the upper chakras is because down in the lower three, this is sort of like the home of our animalistic instinct.

And down here, we are separate, right? I am Erica and I am separate from you. and I am separate from you. And when we get up into here and we start working with sound and vision and oneness, up here, we are all one. So up here, when I create and I, you know, work from my upper chakras, I need to be aware that it's not just about me as this separate entity. And so oftentimes, if there's unresolved wounding and work to be done in the lower chakras, when we come up here, this is where people want to manifest, you know, yachts and billions of dollars and designer items and things. But when we've done the work in these lower chakras, by the time we get to the throat and we're manifesting and creating with ease, we're thinking about prosperity for the collective. We're thinking about service.

And we're thinking with a level of integrity that, you know, we want to travel through sound waves, right? We want your prosperity to not just be about your apartment and your life. We want it to touch all those who you work with and we want it to touch the environment around you. work with and we want it to touch the environment around you. And if that's not happening, there's still work to do. There's still healing to do in these lower centers, because sometimes we have to clear down there before we can really get movement up here. And how do we clear down there? It's not the easiest thing to do in a one hour conversation. But what I try and do often, like on my Instagram, or through my writing is write a lot about the qualities of these wounds, and how they show up. And then what I'm

inviting people to do is say, you know, read this, try these on and really think about what resonates with you. And if it's, you know, the root chakra issues that resonate, then I say, okay, start doing some work there. And at the root, it's all about creating safety. root, it's all about creating safety. So it might be, you know, if you want to approach that physically, for example, with yoga, it's very simple postures, feeling your feet on the ground, grounding, you know, getting out of the city into nature, feeling like the sand or the earth beneath your feet, really looking at the ways that this dynamic of like attachment versus authenticity shows up in your life and starting to lean into some of those fears about being authentic. And, you know, when, when I'm working with this, with people, a lot of the time we're looking at then superimposing on top of the wound.

How is it showing up most deeply? Is it physical? Is it emotional? Is it mental? Is it spiritual? And then I'm usually sort of helping them to come up with practices or challenges or contemplations or activities that like really target those specific areas of themselves. So there's like, you know, as, as complicated as like, you know, medicine is conventional medicine where it's like, you sort of start with a diagnosis and then you look at

the different treatment approaches. I approach this the same way I say let's start by honing in on like which wound is underneath at all and let's start to move that with you know different types of tools and I have different tools for like each level well well just just I mean I'm obviously just listening and trying to actually as you're explaining it feel in my own body what's resonating and where certain things are coming from um it's it's hard to I don't even know if I can. So it's like feels almost at the very, very bottom of my stomach. It's probably either the sacral or the solar plexus. And, you know, everybody is different. Some people like have a real deep somatic connection with these things

and feel it the way you just described. Like I'm feeling something in a particular part of my body. And then a lot of people don't necessarily connect to this framework in that way. But when they hear the stories, right, or they hear like, oh, a sacral imbalance is like classic people pleasing behavior. And then they're like, oh, a sacral imbalance is like classic people pleasing behavior. And then they're like, oh, that's me. That's like the thing that I can never stop doing. What would the people pleasing thing be then?

So at the level of the sacral, a lot of what the way that the issues come up are in relationship. Right. shoes come up are in relationship, right? So we talked a little bit about how it's, it's about cultivating the ability to sit with discomfort. And one way we experience discomfort is like in our own, you know, bodies or experiences. But another way is like in disappointing another, in disappointing another, right? So a classic experience of a sacral imbalance is it's so hard for me to sit with you in pain or to sit with you when you're disappointed in me or you're upset about something

that rather than just like being in that space with you and letting you learn whatever there is to learn from the experience, I want to like jump in and fix it for you. I want to solve it, right? And so I start sugarcoating things and I start telling you all the things you want to hear, or I start offering solutions. And it's a lovely quality that many of us have. We want to help. We want to be of service. We really care about the people that we love.

But what we're doing when we do that is we're often robbing the people that we love of their greatest teachings, right? Which sometimes is to sit with that disappointment and like learn something from it. And when the sacral is out of balance, you're a victim of everybody else. Right. And, and this is like a really, a really, really difficult chakra for empaths to work with. And I'll bet you have a lot of them in your community and I'll bet you are one. And, you know, when we're children, nobody really teaches us what an emotional boundary is.

And I'm, I'm empathic too. And, you know, when you're young and you're empathic and you go in a space and you feel things and you don't know if they're yours, or if they're someone else's, but you take them on. And so if you really think about how that impacts your life, it's really dramatic, because you will then start reacting or taking actions based on the things you feel. And those feelings might not even be yours. Yeah, I've had it in relationship a lot. I can honestly feel, even when we're not together,

because there's an energetic cord that's been made, I can feel what they're feeling when they're away. And so much of what I carry most of the time isn't mine, but I don't, I've never been good at setting boundaries at all. And right now, like I'm just having quick fire lessons that are kind of making me feel like I'm being knocked out in the ring again and again of like having to set boundaries. And I find it so hard because it's that thing you said

of feeling responsible for other people's feelings, not wanting to like rock the boat and wanting to people please. Even now talking about it, it's it coming up here and this is where it blocks. And even when I try and communicate, it like comes out shaky. shaky. And so this is a perfect example because for you, when you like start to work with this, and I have some ideas, I would start down at the sacral. I wouldn't even worry about the throat yet. But what I'd start to do is think about how you can safely set emotional boundaries, because what's happening then is you're not in control of the emotional field that you are. And so what that means, that's a magnetism. And so you're attracting in probably some of the wrong things, right?

Like you start attracting in things that aren't truly meant for you. They're meant for whoever's emotions are in your space. So one of my favorite tools for an empath, it's to like, get really clear about what feelings belong to you and what feelings you're feeling that don't belong to you, right? So what this could look like is like, I'm getting ready for my day. I'm leaving my house. And I just take a moment to acknowledge, like, what am I feeling? I'm feeling excited. I'm feeling good about the day. I'm feeling really happy. you know, whatever, whatever the things are that I feel true in that moment. And then I go to my coffee date or whatever it is with this

other person. And, and I don't have to speak it out loud. But I check in and I'm like, what am I feeling now? And now I'm like, Hmm, I feel kind of anxious. I feel like, you know, something feels chaotic or not right. I don't really know what it is. And in that moment, I'm like, okay, that's not me. Right? And like, you draw a boundary when you remember what your feelings are and like, what are the feelings that are already in the space that you came into? And then you basically say, this is what I'm responsible for the things that are mine. And I am not responsible for any of the other feelings in this space because they don't belong to me and I don't even need to know who they belong to. And that's how you set an emotional boundary.

And you could do it for a really long time as a practice, just in your head, just setting it up for yourself. And then eventually, you know, in your relationships, particularly the intimate ones are the ones with the people that you trust, you can start calling it out. And you can say, you know, like, I was having a really wonderful day and feeling really calm and good. And you came home. And now like, I feel this tension in the house and like, what's going on, you know, and then like, you know, with the right people in your life, the people who can sort of meet you and want to work through this stuff with you, they can also start to develop boundaries and say, okay, you're, you know, you're right. Like I came in with this

heavy energy and I'm sort of projecting it on you. Let's think about like, what are some practices we could either do together or apart? So I don't do that again, because I know that you're really sensitive. What are some of those practices? Well I think like everyone's kind of guilty that especially in like romantic partnerships is you know in an ideal world we're with conscious partners and we're able to take personal sovereignty and responsibility over our emotional states but quite often old habits die hard and we kind of project onto the other person emotional states, but quite often old habits die hard and we kind of project onto the other person. We get quite enmeshed in each other's energy. So I think it's a really interesting one to explore how we create that separation and I guess, emotional autonomy.

So I think that there are like the best thing to do is have these conversations in partnership when you're not in like a heated moment, obviously, because it's harder to not react in those moments. But, you know, I think for like what's worked very well in my partnership is we name it. And, you know, if I'm sensing that he's either projecting something onto me or he is like carrying a heavy energy, I have permission to say, Hey, this is what I'm feeling from you. And it doesn't feel good. What's going on. And, you know, and then we can have a healthy dialogue about it and he can sort of claim it as his. And then I, I'm free to say either a, I can hold space for you while you move through

this anger or this grief or the sadness or whatever it is that's coming up. That's like feeling really heavy in this space. Or I can say, you know, I'm like, I don't feel like I have the capacity to hold this for you right now. Can we take some space? Can we be in other rooms? Can you go for a walk? Can I go for a walk? And like, I think if we can be real with each other about that, because the reality is, we're not always in a place to be able to hold that space for another. Absolutely. I actually had an interview with someone quite recently talking about this stuff and how, you know, there's a massive difference between supporting our partner and holding space for them versus taking on responsibility for their emotional state and like like you just were able to explain those two options like basically do you have the capacity to hold the space for the other person it doesn't mean you're responsible for how they're feeling in fact it's like nothing to do with that

at all it's just being able to allow them the grace to process it versus when you can be honest with yourself like I don't have the capacity right, which I think if we were able to communicate that we would avoid so much conflict versus like people just shut down, you know, when they can't or stonewall or gaslight or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Or if we, to take it back to the sacral, what we do is we react, right? So rather than just like calmly pausing and saying, Hey, this is what I'm feeling right now. Can we like explore what's going on here? I get triggered and I, you know, say something nasty or I leave and then that triggers his or I leave. And then that triggers his abandonment wound or, or whatever his, his deep thing is. And I really do think like the, the beauty of this is that the soulmate relationships in our lives really are the people who like, whose wounds trigger our wounds. And then our reaction to those triggers trigger their wounds and it's

about two people choosing to wake up together and heal the wounds as opposed to just like you know throwing salt on them back and forth for years and years and years yeah what if one person doesn't want to i, then I think a lot of the time it's not going to work, unfortunately. But, you know, in a relationship, both people have to be willing to take responsibility. One person can't carry the weight of the whole thing. Yeah, I definitely do. But I have a tendency when something does trigger me or make me feel uncomfortable. It's like a panic, you know, it's like, how can I fix it? How can I change it? And then I often feel very cornered by things, then find it hard to express boundaries or like

speak my truth in a non combative, non emotionally hijacked way. speak my truth in a non-combative, non-emotionally hijacked way. And you're probably really good at fixing things and solving things for other people. And, you know, and then that becomes really comfortable. And it sets up these patterns because people probably come to you for that. And I mean, this isn't easy work. But what I would be really interested in for you is seeing if you actually bring more attention to this, what happens at the level of the throat? Because I'm not sure if the fact is, you sometimes can't speak your truth because there's like a block here or if it's like you can't speak your truth because the block is lower down and it it does you don't have like the the flow for it to like come up into the voice and come out

that sounds about right you know and I think in general, like for most of us, the really hard work is like the work of the lower chakras. These are like the patterns that we're just, we're stuck in for years and years and years. And we keep seeing them in like different forms or different masks. And most of the time, once we get up here, like, and, and, you know, it's not like we've ever fully healed anything. But most of the time, when we get to the place where we're really ready to sort of create from up here freely the healing work is easy the blocks are sort of easy to move because it's lighter it's like we're moving from dense to light so if anyone was interested in exploring like chakra work what is the best thing to begin? So, you know, one of the reasons I started building all of this stuff is

because I didn't feel like there were a lot of great resources out there that really take people into the realm of the chakras in a holistic way. And so what I've tried to do, and I do a lot of work with my partner on this, sort of all of our offerings approach the chakras from a holistic way, meaning that we're touching on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual expressions of each of these themes. And so there are a lot of different ways to dive into this, whether people want to, you know, work with healers or read about chakras. But if they feel resonant with the way that I talk about the chakras, then I'd usually guide them first to either my website where there's a little chakra quiz or to articles

that I've written that are quick reads on MindBodyGreen. And they can sort of get a sense of like, what are the themes and what resonates most with them? And then from there, it turns into, okay, now how do I want to sort of treat this? How do I want to work with these themes? But I do encourage people as they're working with the themes to make sure that they're touching on all four of those quadrants. Because oftentimes what happens if we just say, you know, do a physical yoga practice for the root chakra is maybe we do move some of the ways that those themes are imbalanced in our body, but it just shows up over here, right? In the mind space or in the emotional field or in the spiritual experience. And if we're not really aware of how, what that looks like, or what that experience may be for us, then we're sort of just chasing the same themes

for, you know, eternity. And so for me, I think the most powerful piece of the whole thing is awareness. If you know what these themes are, you know how they tend to show up for you and you're like in tune enough with your own experience to see them, then you can respond to them. So there are tools and there are you know I I have all these like specific things that I use but I also just want to say you know for your listeners and for for people out there that the the awareness alone is probably the most important piece of the healing and the change. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Lots to think about. It's all very interesting to me. So thank you very much for talking about it. You're welcome. It's a big topic. It's a massive topic. And so there's so many things that you touched on that really resonated and I think are really appropriate for

you know the overall theme of the podcast which is you know in essence is about personal sovereignty and responsibility and actually becoming the authority over our lives and all these things that we've explored really apply to that it's just it for some reason well because of experience and childhood and everything it can feel like a terrifying thing to do or place to go. And it's an unfamiliar pattern, I think, for a lot of people. Yeah, I agree with you. And I think it's a great way to use your voice, you know, and even just being a podcaster. you know, and even just being a podcaster, it's so interesting to be on with you and for you to say the throat chakra is where my block is, you know, but like, look at what you're doing

in the world. You're actually using your voice and not just your voice, but you also understand that your voice is inclusive of the voices of others and you're letting a very important message come through you yeah so don't forget that piece yeah thank you for that I feel a bit emotional all right Erica I won't take up any more of your time but thank you very much for joining me on the Yeah. Thank you for that. I feel a bit emotional. All right, Erica, I won't take up any more of your time, but thank you very much for joining me on the show. Thank you for having me. I love what Erica said about healing your lower chakras first before you get into the throat and upper ones. I hope that this information and this episode is useful for some of you. I think these

kind of practices really allow us to better understand ourselves, our bodies, our emotional state. I know loads of you loved the episode on human design and I feel like these two can complement each other really, really well. You can find more about erica on instagram at experience seven senses or at experience seven senses.com saturn returns is a feast collective production this episode was produced by laura gallop and the exec producer is kate taylor thank you so much for listening and remember you are not alone goodbye