Kate Allen

The Fifth Chakra- The Throat Chakra

Written by Kate • June 9, 2011 •
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The Fifth Chakra- The Throat Chakra

The fifth of the seven chakras is known as the Throat chakra. It’s located, as you can imagine, at the base of your throat, where your collarbones meet. Its function is expressing your truth, creativity, and energy.  It is associated with the color blue and the ether element.

This is the sixth post of 10 posts on the 7 Chakras System. Here is the first post, an Overview of the 7 Chakras, here is the second post, the Root Chakra, here is the third post, the Sacral Chakra, here is the fourth, the Solar Plexus Chakra, and here is the fifth post, the Heart Chakra.

As Anodea Judith states in Wheels of Life, “Each step upward [through the 7 Chakras] decreases the boundaries and separation and takes us closer to unity. We arrive at this unity through the ability of consciousness to make connections…Communication is the act of connection…Communication can be seen as a symbolic system that mediates between the abstract and manifested idea”.

We can therefore see that the Throat chakra helps us put our thoughts and ideas into the first stages of creating them, through the act of expressing them verbally and turning them into vibrations in our physical world.

Open and Balanced

When your throat chakra is open and balanced, you understand that your communications are powerful and have direct impact on those in your life and on what you create in your life.  You therefore ensure- nearly effortlessly- each time you communicate with someone, it is an expression of your highest self and your creativity and is in harmony with your spirit. As you experience your thoughts and actions, in expressing your ideas, you are expressing your creativity, your words are the start of any creation and making them come into life.

Another way to look at it is that the drive to say what you need to say, to speak your truth, comes from your solar plexus chakra. In passing the heart chakra, what you need to say is softened with love and what comes out are words full of truth, love, and respect.

Unbalanced or Weak

Signs of an unbalanced or weak chakra are the inability to express yourself well, going along with others to just get along, and it can even feel like your throat is blocked. You can also know that your throat chakra is out of balance or is weak when you are often harsh, critical, or seem to always say the wrong thing.

At either end of the extremes in which your throat chakra is unbalanced is 1) a near total inability to express yourself and you stay in silence in most experiences with most people in your life and 2) a near total need to fill the silence with chatter and you can’t stop talking.

An unbalanced throat chakra is often associated with a weak or unbalanced third chakra, your solar plexus chakra. This is because your will, your power center is also weak or unbalanced. By combining these two unbalanced chakras, you either aren’t able to say what you want because you’re too afraid of the reaction you’ll get, or of hurting someone else, or simply can’t do it due to the lack of will/power.

 

Causes

A weak or unbalanced fifth chakra can be caused by a weak solar plexus chakra, a childhood in which you had to express your natural expression either through the direct or indirect expectations of your family, or by putting yourself in situations in which you decided it would be best to not express how you feel- and it became a bad habit.

Family dynamics, in which some sort of dysfunction was expected to be ignored, or in which self-expression was extremely frowned up, can also weaken your throat chakra.

Symptoms of a Throat Chakra Imbalance

The following questions are from Sonia Choquette‘s book, True Balance:

• I speak clearly and people understand what I’m trying to say
• I understand that what I say, what words I use, are powerful.
• I can express my needs without getting angry or upset.
• I am careful not to criticize unfairly.
• I am a good negotiator.
• I can listen to others without needing to interrupt.
• I speak with optimism.

If you answered no to some or many of the above-listed questions, your throat chakra is probably out of balance.

Ways to Balance Your Fifth Chakra

Many of the balancing methods below don’t cost a thing and can take just a few minutes each day.

Speak Well

• Remember your create your life. Speak positively throughout the day- making positive predictions.
• Practice an attitude of gratitude and express your gratitude.
• Practice saying no so that you can begin saying it without guilt.
• Practice saying what you want -in advance of a situation- and then say what you practiced.

Respect Silence

• Engage in silence for a few hours.
• Respond to negativity in others with silence.
• Breathe before you speak.
• Count to 10 or 50 before you respond to someone.
• Really listen to your conversational partner. Ask yourself if your intended contribution improves the conversation. If not, continue listening.

Express Yourself

• Yell or Scream as loudly and as hard as you can. And again. And again. Yelling not only strengthens your throat, it releases some of the pent up energy you’ve been repressing and allows the energy to move through you.
• Sing out loud. Just for fun. And really belt it out!
• Give a speech.
• Join Toastmasters and teach yourself how to express yourself in front of a crowd
• Learn some good new jokes and tell them well to your friends and at parties.
• Speak the truth for one whole day.

Strengthen and Exercise Your Throat

• Anodea Judith recommends the following exercises and yoga poses as throat strengtheners:
  • Neck Rolls
  • Shoulder Stand
  • Plow
  • Fish Pose
  • Head Lifts- Lie on your back. Slowly lift your head, leaving your shoulders in contact with the floor. Try to look at your toes. Hold this until you can feel the energy move into your throat.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

Unfamiliar with EFT? Check out this page to show you the basics, for free. There are many other sites that have a more thorough explanation of the technique but they require you to provide your email address. Your choice!

EFT at the highest level: you first state your concerns and that you deeply love and accept yourself. You then release each of the specific ideas, anxieties, and fears that you are feeling. Then you state affirmations or better ideas that should replace your anxieties and fears and that make you feel better, more empowered by thinking them.

Deeply Love and Accept Yourself

You first touch the karate chop point [as shown on the link] while releasing the block through stating, “Even though I feel _______ [like I can’t say what I really think because it will hurt other people, like I don’t have the courage to say what I think because other people will hate me, like I can’t get the words out, like I can’t ever say the right thing… etc], I deeply love and accept myself.

Release

Then go through each point tapping three or four times at each point; eyebrow, side of eye, under the eye, under the nose, under the chin, the collar bone, under the breast/ribcage, under arm, and crown – while releasing whatever it is you’re experiencing.

You can go around the tapping circuit a few times until you’ve fully release what you need to.

Starting tapping at the eyebrow and going through each point: I release the feelings that I don’t have enough power to speak my truth, that I’ll lose everyone if I say exactly what I feel, that I have to keep silent…etc [Keep tapping].

I release all of this from my body. [Keep tapping].

I release from my throat chakra, from my whole body:

lack of authority, inability to express myself, fear of speaking honestly, ____ … [fill in whatever you’re feeling that is keeping you from expressing yourself as you want, from saying what you feel, from really communicating your thoughts and feelings -as you keep tapping]

Affirmations

Now you begin replacing the feelings and beliefs you’ve just released through saying affirmations that work for you, while tapping through the entire circuit again.

[Start tapping] I am powerful. I can speak with clarity and kindness. My family and friends support me in expressing myself. I can express myself well and with clarity. I can say what I need to say with kindness and clarity. I honor myself and others by telling the truth…  [Fill in what works for you….]

Keep Going

Continue with any of these suggestions from yoga to EFT, to help heal yourself so that you can communicate your creativity, your will, and your truth. These balancing techniques will help balance your chakra and make you able to feel more able to communicate and authentically connect to create a life you want to live.

Once you feel balanced, powerful, and strong again, consider looking at your next chakra, the sixth chakra.

What helps you tell the truth about what you’re really feeling to your family? To your partner/spouse? What are some things you do to keep yourself true to your own compass?

Next up: The Sixth Chakra- the Third Eye Chakra