The Throat Chakra

Hello! We are a long way through our chakra journey, now at the throat chakra. This chakra is associated obviously with speaking and communication. But it is far more than that - it is about how we express ourselves in our totality in the world, and how we communicate our truth and the essence of who we are. It is also the gateway between what is stored in our unconscious (i.e. our body memory) and what is stored in our conscious mind (our brain.) When we feel unwilling to look at or be with what is in the unconscious, this can block the throat chakra.

The throat chakra is associated with the throat, the neck (this is the back of the throat chakra), the mouth, the teeth and the gums. Imbalances in the throat chakra show up as such issues as tonsillitis, laryngitis, coughs, sore throats, stiff neck, and all teeth and gum issues.

When someone is balanced in this chakra, they will speak their truth with grace and ease, and they will manifest their life's purpose easily. Imbalances can be either a deficiency which shows up as not being able to speak up for oneself, not being able to say difficult things, and a feeling of not being heard, or an excess which manifests as someone being loud and domineering, often forcing their own views and opinions on other people.

A feeling of not being heard can, in my experience, be particularly hard to accept, as it can appear that it's something objectively "out there", i.e. the behavior of other people. However, as I began the work of balancing my throat chakra, I was amazed to find that people began to listen to me, hear me and respect my opinion much more.

At first I thought this was some change in them, but then I realized that somehow energetically I had changed the way I was expressing myself.

There are many ways of working with these imbalances. The first is just bringing awareness to how we communicate, when we feel we are holding back and when we feel we are maybe too forceful in our communication.

Bringing this awareness can mean that we can experiment with different ways of communication that may challenge us - daring to speak out in the case of the deficiency, and maybe saying less or being less dogmatic in the case of the excess. In the case of healing the deficiency, it is really common for people to go the other way at first - and almost be too forceful or too direct. If the people around you are aware of this, prepared for this, and also happy to support you in your process, this can be really helpful. After a while of "practicing" like this, it tends to settle down into an appropriate balanced communication.

I believe that energy healing is very helpful in healing the throat chakra. The healings such as the inner child healing, the relationship cords healing or the past life healing give the person a chance to go back to events where they were maybe unable to express themselves at the time, and express themselves within the safe context of a healing. Releasing the stuck energy involved here can be very liberating and lead to profound healing of the throat chakra. It is also possible to go back to the root cause of the excess or deficiency behavior, and to release the conditioned, learned behavior of not being able to express oneself, or expressing too forcefully. It is often the case that a child learns that it is unacceptable to express herself fully, and so learns to keep that expression inside. Or conversely, she may learn that the only way to be heard is by forcing your opinions and ideas on others. Going back to that time can be amazingly powerful in releasing blocks at the throat chakra.

Sound healing is also -unsurprisingly!- great for healing the throat chakra. In sound healing, the healer can tune into the different chakras, and sound the imbalance that she feels there, If it feels appropriate, the client can join in, although this is not necessary for healing to take place. This sounding can release the stuck energy. Alternatively, the healer can sound the balanced sound of the chakra, which invites the chakra into resonance. It is my feeling and experience that working like this works on the throat chakra as well as the chakra where the imbalance is.

For me, this is the chakra where there have been the most obvious changes. I always knew I loved singing, but was very reticent to sing in front of others, even if I knew them well - sometimes with my boyfriend, but even that was not always straightforward! I was also very shy about speaking in front of a group of people. I have discovered I have a strong and powerful singing voice, and also now actively enjoy both singing and speaking in front of groups of people. Along with this, the sense of not "being heard" (extremely painful) has also receded - it seems that people listen to me now when I speak - as a result of the way my communication has changed through healing my throat chakra.

The throat chakra can also be balanced by the chakra meditations I have written about before, particularly the chakra toning meditation. The color of the balanced throat chakra is blue, and the sound is "AY."

So, that's the end of the exploration of the throat chakra - we will move on next to the territory of the third eye chakra.