A Complete Guide to Balance and Heal Your Throat Chakra
A Complete Guide to Balance and Heal Your Throat Chakra
In part five of this series, we continue our journey with the throat chakra. The throat chakra, known as Vishuddha in Sanskrit, is associated with communication. Its core issue centres around self-expression. Blocked self-expression or an inability to communicate vital needs are often at the root of throat chakra issues. This chakra is associated with the element of sound. Problems with this chakra can manifest in several emotional and physical symptoms. Let’s look at some of the most obvious indications that your throat chakra needs attention.
Emotional & Psychological States
Lies: Lies are the demon associated with the throat chakra.
Fear of Public Speaking: It’s normal to feel nervous speaking to a large group — an issue is shown if this has created problems advancing your career, or has stopped you from pursuing a dream path.
Anxiety At The Thought of Sharing Your Ideas: Whether one-to-one or in a group, you can’t get the words out. You may not even have the words.
Fear or anxiety around silence: You can’t tolerate silence when in the company of others and will talk constantly rather than allow for the natural ebb and flow of conversation.
Creatively blocked: If the throat chakra is blocked, it can affect the ability to create; especially if the creation involves the voice or writing.
Issues Around Being Seen or Heard: Feeling invisible or unheard. Or the opposite — do you feel compelled to hog the conversation?
Physical Manifestations
Inabililty to Regulate the Volume of Your Voice: Can you switch between your indoor and outdoor voice? Are you talking too loudly in quiet spaces, or not speaking up when there’s heavy background noise?
Addictions: Opiates and Marijuana.
Avoiding Social Situations: You could make excuses as to why you can’t attend, but deep down you know it’s because you’ll have to interact — this involves speaking and listening.
Talking Too Much or Too Little: You find yourself getting talked over constantly, or maybe others seem to be bored with your words.
Problems with Your Vocals: Stuttering, constantly clearing your throat. Does your voice break at the wrong moment?
You Don’t Listen: More than one person has told you that you don’t listen. Or maybe you have a pattern and you find yourself constantly claiming you didn’t hear.
The Body: Problems in the throat or neck.
Balancing the throat chakra can help improve communication and self-expression. It does not matter who or what caused the problem in the first place. It also doesn’t matter whether you think your chakra is blocked or too open — the following exercises focus on restoring balance.
A Simple Meditation
The Throat Chakra Lotus
The only tools necessary here are a pen and a piece of paper. If you need help to set the mood you can light a blue, white, or black candle, and burn some incense or oil. For some suggestions, see further down this post, or use something that you know you find enjoyable. You need to lie down on your back. If this is uncomfortable for you, grab some pillows and cushions, or lay on the sofa to prop yourself up. Take a few deep breaths until you feel relaxed and able to focus — breathe in for a count of 6, and exhale for a count of 8. The goal here is to become aware of your body through your breathing. Once you feel calm, visualise the throat chakra as a sixteen-petalled blue lotus in the centre of your throat. Ask the chakra to show you why it’s unbalanced. You may see a symbol, a face, or an object. If you are sensitive you may see something more complicated. Don't analyse or judge what you see or feel; acknowledge the signs and refocus on your breathing. Once you feel you have brought yourself back to your centre, ask the chakra what you need to heal. Again, you may see a single object or something more complicated. And again, don’t analyse or judge what you see or feel. Stay in your body for another six breaths or longer if you are comfortable. When you feel ready, open your eyes and move slowly until you are upright. You can now write down any thoughts and feelings you experienced during meditation.
The next bit is crucial — you need to park that shit to one side until tomorrow or even the day after that. If you want further insight you can take the piece of paper to bed and put it under your pillow. Ask yourself to have a dream that tells you anything further you need to know — ‘give me a dream to help balance and heal my throat chakra’ is perfectly adequate. The point is to set the intention. You may or may not remember it after waking. Write down anything you can recover from memory, including how you felt when you woke up.
You can now analyse any signs and symbols you were given. Whatever you see will most likely make sense and should at least give you a place to start. Try not to hold on to your insights too tightly — the goal in the upcoming weeks is to gradually open up to new feelings so you can heal and move forward.
Your Throat Chakra Medicine Bag
As with previous posts, I’m recommending specific crystals, incense, and oils, but if you don’t have these and can’t afford them you can still use the other methods found under the Time & Energy Investment heading.
Lighting the Way
Candles are great for creating a healing atmosphere. They’re also useful if you want a focal point to set intentions. Candles can be used as a visual representation of whatever you are trying to manifest or change in your life. For throat chakra healing, the colour used is blue. I would use a darker blue to help to articulate emotion. If words are jumbled and mental clarity is needed before expressing clearly, the paler blues can often work better.
Scent
If you don’t like the smoke and ash that incense produces — candles anointed with oil or an open-flame oil burner offer a cleaner way to enjoy the benefits of scent-based healing. The newer electric wax melt burners are available as a lamp, and also as a plug-in. The electric mist diffusers are another great way to disperse aromatherapy oils. You can, of course, use a few drops of oil on a tissue, or create a scent pouch with herbs or crushed-up incense. Blending a personalised combination of essential oils into a base oil such as avocado oil or jojoba oil would mean you can apply the scent directly to your body.
Each of the following essential oils is said to be beneficial for the issues associated with the throat chakra, and you can often find them in incense stick form too:
Basil: Anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-microbial. Basil is calming on the body and uplifting for the soul.
Clary Sage: A fantastic mood lifter, but also great for reducing anxiety.
Lavender: The marmite of essential oils. Lavender can help to improve sleep quality thanks to its calming and relaxing properties. It is known to be anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and antioxidant.
Peppermint: Useful for clearing the mind, especially if you have congestion. Some people find that smelling peppermint oil can help reduce feelings of nausea.
Chamomile: Good for reducing symptoms of stress such as anxiety. Promotes relaxation.
Eucalyptus: A natural decongestant that can improve mental focus and clarity.
Other oils and scents worth mentioning are frankincense, cypress and spearmint. You can also use ready-made blends, whether incense or essential oil. Think about using the blends created for maintaining a clear airway, or those designed for healing the throat chakra.
L-R: Blue goldstone Ganesh, raw blue calcite, tumbled angelite, dumortierite, labradorite, chrysocolla, azurite tower, amazonite bracelet, blue lace agate tumblestone, lapis lazuli, apatite, sodalite, kyanite, aquamarine pendant.
Crystals
For the crystals, it’s good to focus on any or all of the blues.
Lapis Lazuli: One of the oldest stones. I mean, I know they're all technically very old. But Lapis was used by the Ancient Egyptians in talismans, amulets, and jewellery over three thousand years ago. It's said to help with speaking your truth, wisdom, and intuition.
Aquamarine: A personal favourite. Shades range from turquoise-green to ice blue. Back in the day, it was said to protect sailors from drowning. It's a good stone for helping to calm the mind and soothe emotions.
Sodalite: A lovely stone for enhancing intuition. Some people call it 'the thinker's stone', others refer to sodalite as 'the poet's stone'.
Kyanite: Very easy to wear as a pendant because it is relatively light, and usually available in thin slices. Self-cleansing and calming. Kyanite can help with communication, and fostering loyalty.
Blue Calcite: I love blue calcite. The rock is dense and heavy. It is said to help with reducing stress, calming emotions, and increasing tranquillity and peace.
Azurite: This stone can be an excellent ally if you want to increase your creativity. Azurite is often listed as a third eye chakra stone, but it can also work well on the throat.
Apatite: A turquoise blue stone that can help improve your communication and creativity. Some like this stone for reducing anxiety.
Amazonite: Thanks to its name some associate the stone with increasing courage, but others like to use it for better seeing spiritual truths and emotional healing. The raw form feels almost powdery on the surface.
Angelite: A dense baby-blue-coloured stone that is relatively new to the market. It can help you connect with your spiritual self and it promotes a feeling of calm.
Other stones worth mentioning are: dumortierite, chrysocolla, and blue lace agate. Honestly, there are so many blue crystals it’s impossible to mention them all — go with what feels right.
Take Control of Your Diet
Food is naturally influential for healing of any kind. Having linked previous chakras to colour groups, I hit a bit of a wall with this one. There are hardly any naturally blue foods.
Include foods that make you feel good about yourself — but if they’re high in bad fats and sugar, use sparingly.
Here are some foods that can help balance your throat chakra:
Blue Fruits: Blueberries, bilberries, concord grapes, damson plums, and blackberries.
Vegetables: Purple cabbage (the water turns blue when cooking), and blue corn.
Flowers: Borage, cornflowers, and butterfly pea flower.
Other Random Blue Foods: blue spirulina, blue milk cap mushrooms.
Herbs & Spices: Try herbs that clear congestion such as sage, or maybe star anise.
Fruit Teas: Try herbal blends that promote vitality, or maybe those to help de-stress the body. Honey and lemon is a nice blend that soothes the throat.
Limit mucus-producing foods: I don’t usually suggest limiting anything other than sugar and bad fats, but some other foods are known to provoke the body into making more mucus than necessary. If you find you’re always stuffy, it might be a good idea to try smaller portions of dairy food if your diet is generally high in milk and cheese. Added sugar, fried food and processed foods are also known to increase phlegm and mucus. Some say that spicy foods can also act as a trigger, yet other sources say ginger can help to clear it all out.
Eating mindfully and with intention can help support the healing and rebalancing of your throat chakra.
Time & Energy Investment
Yoga
Yoga
Yoga for the throat chakra will generally focus on opening the neck area energetically. Some of the beneficial poses include:
Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana): A simple back bend that lifts the top half of the body. Good for strengthening the lower back and stretching the shoulders. Increases vitality.
Cat-Cow (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana): Fantastic for improving flexibility in the spine, but also gives a great stretch to open the front of the neck.
Fish Pose (Matsyasana): This pose can be done more comfortably with blocks. Opens the throat, chest, and belly.
Bow Pose (Dhanurasana): This gives a good stretch to the front body, and improves flexibility and strength in the back. Bow Pose is also good for stimulating internal organs. You need a reasonable amount of flexibility to do this one.
Camel Pose (Ustrasana): This pose helps to open up the hips and chest while improving stability and strength in the lower body. Great for improving balance.
Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana): This pose can be easier to practice than Bow or Camel if you have limited flexibility. Opens up the front body and strengthens the shoulders, quads, and glutes. Stretches the spine.
Neck rolls and neck stretches:
Ujjayi breath and lion’s breath are breathing exercises often practised in Hatha Yoga. Both could help with healing issues that stem from the throat chakra. Ujjayi is excellent for encouraging calm and deeper breathing.
Holding each pose for several breaths (between three and five minutes for a yin-style approach) will encourage your inner body to slow and calm down. As with the other chakras — don’t worry too much about whether you’re getting everything right. And don’t think you have to do any of the poses exactly as shown if you can’t physically do so — all yoga needs practice, and plenty of it, to develop the flexibility and balance required for a pose. The Yin yoga video by Kassandra will be the calmest out of the bunch. If you’re not confident in your body, try the Yoga With Adriene Throat Chakra Yoga video.
Mantras, Affirmations, & Sound Baths
Mantras can be a single word or phrase and are believed to carry magical properties. The mantra ‘HAM’ is a one-syllable Sanskrit word used as the sacred sound for the throat chakra. Ham is used to cleanse the chakra of negativity. You can chant this however you like, but some say it needs to be done 108 times because that number is sacred in Hinduism. It represents the number of spiritual completion — or the distance between our body and the god within.
Affirmations can be used like mantras but differ in that what we are doing with an affirmation is vocalising what we need with the intention we can manifest what we are chanting. Some useful affirmations are already included in the yoga videos above. If you skipped over that part, the more common ones associated with the throat chakra are:
I communicate effortlessly and openly
I communicate honestly and courageously
My voice is a vessel for my truth
I listen mindfully to all that is said
I express love through my words
I communicate my needs with confidence
My words matter
I express my feelings openly and without blame or shame
It is safe for me to express myself
Not surprisingly, mantras and affirmations are a compulsory element of throat chakra work. Pay attention to the words that get stuck in your throat. What's happening inside your body when you hear yourself speak?
Sound baths can be a great way to relax for an hour. If you are sensitive to sound, this method could work wonders for you. The best frequency for the throat chakra is 384 Hz. The throat chakra is associated with the G note. The first two videos are examples of contemporary sound produced for alternative healing. I have found using headphones helps enormously while listening to binaural beats and other sound therapies. This is a link to an 8-hour-long black screen version of the first video for use during sleep. A crystal singing bowl is used to create the sound. The second video is a single pure tone. You can use the sound bath videos when meditating because they are not jarring and will not interfere with your inner journey. The third video “Empower Your Voice: 384Hz Throat Chakra Healing Meditation” is more like music, but with little variation in the sound. It’s very calming, and like the other two, it won’t be jarring on your psyche or disturb you during meditation. As it’s just over an hour long, it’ll get you to sleep, but use one of the other videos if you want something playing through the night.
Is It Healed Now?
As always, it is important to recognise that healing is a process, not an event. Along with the exercises in this post, you may find it helpful to keep some written notes. Whether you write it online in a blog or on scraps of paper thrown into a spare drawer, having a record serves as evidence of progress. Problems with self-expression can develop from several dysfunctional patterns, so it's impossible to list them all here. Facing violence if you spoke out, not being listened to as a child, and a simple lack of confidence are three of the most obvious root causes. If you find it difficult to say things out loud, try writing them down and then read the words back to yourself. Try recording yourself speaking, and then listen to it until you feel less self-conscious. Don't be afraid to make yourself feel uncomfortable with this one. Practice self-soothing while you do the exercises if needed. You need your voice!
