The throat chakra, known by the Sanskrit word Vishuddha is the fifth primary chakra. It is represented by the color blue and is associated with our sense of expression and creativity.
Healing the throat chakra is all about learning to express yourself in a healthy and balanced way. When a chakra is blocked this isn’t just an energetic issue but one that permeates our day to day lives.
For many of us our expression was mocked or even punished throughout childhood, therefore our throat chakra becomes blocked. The ways in which we were taught to communicate may no longer be beneficial to us.
In this post I’m going to go over some of the signs your throat chakra is blocked and how to begin opening and healing it.
Signs Your Throat Chakra Is Blocked
A blocked or unbalanced throat chakra can manifest as:
- Being fearful to speak your truth
- Being a chronic people pleaser
- Not able to voice and set clear boundaries
- A sore throat
- You find silence uncomfortable
Although some of these symptoms sound unrelated to the throat, when our very expression and speech is limited this affects all aspects of our life.
It doesn’t allow us to set clear boundaries, or to move forward with our goals, it causes us to self-censor and relate to others in an unhealthy manner.
When I first meditated on the chakras by pushing my awareness up through each one I felt an immediate block in my throat. My awareness could no go any further.
So I placed my focus on this area and allowed any emotions or impressions to come to the surface. I got the image of a version of myself from a past life who was frightened but incredibly relieved to see me doing this work.
This version of myself had been unfairly hurt and prosecuted for simply being truthful in their expression and voicing their beliefs at time when this was frowned upon.
This is a common theme for many of us in the spiritual community, when we begin to work on the blocks we encounter in this life we find they also stretch back to past lives that we’ve had.
Open Your Throat Chakra
So you’ve figured out your throat chakra is blocked but aren’t sure what steps you can take to heal it. How does one even begin to work with such life-long blocks?
Here are some easy ways you can start to stimulate the throat chakra and get the energy moving freely:
- Sing
- Scream or laugh
- Chant “HAM”
- Breathwork: expanding your lungs.
- Reciting positive affirmations with conviction.
- Visualize a blue energy ball in your throat area and feeling it spin.
- Do neck and shoulder rotations. These exercizes allows energy to move through the throat area.
- Keep hydrated, drink plenty of water or tea (ginger is a great option).
- Use blue crystals such as blue agate, blue celestite and lapis lazuli. You can carry these around in your pocket, bag or wear them on a necklace.
- Use essential oils such as lavender, peppermint and chamomile.
- Daily journaling allows you to pinpoint your own unique voice.
- Keeping a dream journal is a great way to get in touch with your throat chakra. What we leave unexpressed in waking life is represented in our dreams, get in tune with these messages.
- Get comfortable with silence
- Practice deeper listening
- Listen to music that makes you feel uplifted and confident.
- Listen to binaural beats tuned for the throat chakra.
- Learn to set clear boundaries.
- Talk to someone.
These suggestions only scratch the surface so don’t try to do them all. Simply chose a few that resonate with you and incorporate them into your daily life.
How to Heal the Throat Chakra
Healing the throat chakra is all about learning a new way to communicate. From the ages of two to seven we are creating our subconscious beliefs and patterns that will influence the rest of our lives.
It’s only through unlearning the patterns that are no longer helpful to us in adulthood and replacing them with better ones, that true healing can begin.
It starts with becoming mindful of your inner voice. Our inner voice is made us of all the voices we have heard throughout our life, from parents to teachers to friends. This can either help or hinder us.
Don’t be afraid to contradict this inner voice. Don’t be afraid to let go of voices that are not your own! Let your inner dialogue be uplifting , positive and affirming. We spend so much time in our own heads, make a it a place you want to be.
When our inner voice is us rather than the disapproving voice of someone else we have internalized, we can more easily express ourselves.
Practice setting boundaries and being firm with them! Realize that it is totally fine to cut off a conversation when someone is making you feel uncomfortable, or making your needs known.
We get trapped thinking that we simply aren’t allowed to have boundaries, that stating what we are comfortable with is infringing on another person. However boundaries are there to show others how you would like to be respected – they are crucial!
Learn to embrace your own inner silence. Many of us with an imbalanced throat chakra make the mistake of overcompensating: we fill every silence with words because we don’t know how to deal with it.
Set some time each week even if it’s only an hour, to spend alone meditating and writing in your journal. When we are comfortable with ourselves and our inner silence we know better when our voice is needed.
The Throat Chakra & Shadow Work
As I said above working with the throat chakra is a lot deeper than just doing a few visualization, affirmations or using certain essential oils and crystals. To speak our truth means coming to know who we are on a deeper level.
For a lot of people this brings up a lot of fear and shame, speaking our truth involved being incredibly honest!
We become aware of our shadow (unconscious) side which we hide from ourselves and others. This is the part of ourselves that contains our negative thoughts, beliefs and qualities but also the positive attributes we haven’t fully appreciated.
One of the side-effects of opening up our throat chakra is beginning to hear others more clearly too. We have to start listening to ourselves more intently and taking our gut feelings more seriously, this self-awareness is extended out to others.
For those who have been silenced in the past, unlearning the tendency to make ourselves smaller means we become more aware of when other people are shrinking themselves, people pleasing or trying to fit in.
While we might associate the throat chakra with the heart or solar plexus on an energetic level, it is also closely related to the ears and lungs on a physical level. This is why breathwork is such an underrated exercize for the throat chakra.
Signs Your Throat Chakra Is Opening
- You feel comfortable setting boundaries
- You can speak up when needed
- You are comfortable with silence
- You can hear others more clearly
One of the things I noticed as I healed my throat chakra was that my throat felt clearer on a physical level too. When I went to speak up on something that bothered me, or wanted to set a boundary, I didn’t feel the same tension in my throat as before.
Eventhough chakras are represented as individual centers in the body, they aren’t isolated like that in practice. Each chakra links to the others like a web that extends throughout our entire energy body. When we open one chakra, the others open in order to accommodate that new flow of energy.
So it is common to feel more self-assured, confident and open when our throat chakra starts opening or healing. All chakras can benefit from our clearer communication, when other chakras open we can express that energy vocally.
I have a whole section on throat chakra healing in my energy work guide.
Dive deeper into psychic development with my energy work guidebook.
Is your throat chakra blocked? What is your experience working with it?
Hey there, I’m Ashley. I hope that by sharing my experiences with deepening my intuition, I can help you find that ‘spark’. That magic we can all experience when our energy is aligned and we feel deeply supported by the Universe.
This has been extremely helpful and a good learning tool for me. Thank you.