How to Diagnose, Unblock & Heal Your Throat Chakra

Find out the symptoms of imbalance in the Throat Chakra, and learn how to heal and regulate its energy.

Introduction

The Throat Chakra is connected to communication, self-expression and hearing one’s truth. It is the fifth of the seven main chakras in the throat area. In Hindu and Buddhist traditions, the chakra system is an indicator to help you observe and understand the energetic fields inside your body. Each chakra is connected to a specific organ, nerve bundle or gland and helps you balance your health and well-being.

The Vishuddha, or Throat Chakra, is connected to your truth and how you can listen and express your mind. It is associated with purification, clear and refined thoughts, communication with yourself and others, and creativity.

Takeaway

Throat Chakra Imbalance Symptoms

When your chakras are in balance, you say your body and mind have reached a state of homeostasis, or optimal functioning, on the energy, chemical and physical levels. Any emotional or physical mistreatment of yourself and others may change how your internal system regulates itself.

Your life is constantly changing; you will notice health issues or imbalances in certain areas every now and then. It is therefore important to listen to your true thoughts and intuition, as well as to take a close look at each chakra, to be able to incorporate practices that will align yourself with your life energy.

An imbalanced Throat Chakra is not getting and producing the amount of energy it naturally should. We can notice blockages on a physical, emotional or spiritual level if we pay attention to how we feel at each moment.

Health issues, such as a sore throat, neck tension, laryngitis, thyroid imbalances, and pain in the jaw and shoulders, are some ways your body signals to you that something is out of balance.

You might find difficulties with being honest and speaking the truth, or you may feel a sense of shyness, insecurity and anxiety in social gatherings and might experience a lack of self-confidence.

Physical Throat Chakra imbalance symptoms:

• Throat health problems
• Thyroid problems
• Jaw pain
• Dental issues
• Ear infections
• Nose blockage
• Sinus infections
• Hearing problems
• Shoulder tension
• Neck Pain

Emotional Throat Chakra imbalance symptoms:

• Dishonesty
• Anxiety
• Shyness and lack of confidence
• Overconfidence and arrogance
• Difficulty in expressing your needs
• Not understanding other people’s needs
• Low creativity
• Difficulties in decision making

How To Tell If Your Throat Chakra Is Blocked?

You can find out if your Throat Chakra is blocked by asking yourself some questions:

• Am I honest with myself and others?
• Do I confidently speak my mind?
• Do I listen to and respect my own needs?
• Am I outspoken in social gatherings?
• Am I always feeling anxious?
• Do I feel insecure and guilty when asking for what I need?
• Do I feel lost within my thoughts or don’t seem to understand others?
• Am I going over conversations I had with others in my mind all the time?
• Am I insecure about opening up to others and myself?

If you answer to most of the above questions above was yes, you may be dealing with a Throat Chakra blockage or an underactive Vishuddha Chakra.

Opening up your Throat Chakra

You can open up your Throat Chakra by incorporating certain healing, loosening and cleansing practices into your yoga or daily routine.

If you are looking for tips to clear blockages and open up your Vishuddha, you can try some of the techniques below.

1. Practice neck stretches

Gentle stretching of your neck and shoulder areas supports your Vishuddha Chakra opening.

Neck and shoulder stretch:

1. Roll your shoulders forward and backward until you feel relaxed in your upper back and neck areas.
2. Inhale and turn your head to look to the right, exhale and return to the original position. Next, inhale and turn your head to the left, exhale and return to the original position. Keep the movements within your natural range. Start gently; after warming up, you may stretch your neck muscles a bit further.
3. Inhale, lift your chin and look upwards, exhale, and return to the original position. Inhale, draw your chin to the chest and look downwards, then exhale and return to the original position.
4. Draw circles gently with your head in both directions, following your in and out breath.

Do each stretch at least six times following a slow, deep breathing pattern.

1. Gentle neck and face massage

Relieving tension and blockages in the Throat Chakra can also be done by doing neck and face massages. Using clean hands, you can do a dry face and neck massage or add a few drops of facial oil if you like.

Begin with a gentle face massage, and later move on to your neck and shoulders. Moving your hands up and down your neck stimulates blood flow and allows cleansing energy to pass through. Do this intuitively, listening to what you need at that moment. Or you can follow a guided self-massage practice.

Practice creating sounds and humming

Since the fifth chakra is connected to sounding out and speaking our truth, you can use the vibration of your voice to loosen and open up your Vishuddha.

Humming can be done naturally without any specific patterns.

1. Calm down and deepen your breath for five minutes in a relaxed seated position with your spine erect.
2. Once you find a comfortable rhythm for your breathing, guide your attention toward your throat area.
3. Take a deep inhale, keeping your mouth closed, and produce a humming sound on the exhale.
4. Turn your awareness to your throat area and imagine your fifth chakra loosening and opening up with a light blue color surrounding it.
5. Do not force or strain your voice. The tone should be comfortable and natural.
6. Play with the pitch at the beginning to find the vibration that feels most natural to you.

Practice this humming technique for up to five minutes at least once daily. After getting used to the practice and the feeling of how your body is responding to it, you may increase the duration and frequency.

1. Try yoga poses for the neck, spine and shoulders

Each chakra has specific yoga poses which can help connect, open and activate the energy in a specific place.

Yoga poses for the Vishuddha are usually the ones that focus on the neck, spine and shoulders. Some of the recommended Throat Chakra yoga poses are:

Cat-Cow´s Pose with additional Lion’s Breath

• Camel Pose (Ustrasana)
• Baby Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)
• Plow Pose (Halasana)
• Fish Pose (Matsyasana)

1. Use the Throat Chakra Bija Mantra regularly

As with humming, mantra chanting can also strongly affect your body, mind and soul. Sounds and vibration have been used in many ancient healing practices and in modern time holistic practices as well.

Each chakra has its unique bija mantra, which is a single-syllable sound. When used regularly, the bija Vishuddha mantra, HAM, is said to help with balancing and activating energy within the chakra.

To chant the sound of this bija mantra, make sure you first connect to your breath and are in a comfortable position. Breathe in slowly, and begin chanting the H-A-M slowly on your exhale. Your tone and volume should be natural and comfortable.

Is Your Throat Chakra Overactive?

To check if your Throat Chakra is overactive, meaning it is receiving too much energy that it is not able to process it properly, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I always critical of myself and others?
• Do I tend to overtalk others?
• Do I often lie to gain an advantage?
• Do I often interrupt other people?
• Do I tend to speak loudly or shout?
• Do I find it hard to still my mind?
• Do I tend to overthink and exaggerate?
• Do I often argue with myself and others?
• Do I find it hard to apologize and admit to a mistake

If your answer to most of the above questions was yes, you might be dealing with an overactive Throat Chakra.

Look for any infections, inflammations and chronic diseases in the throat and neck area. These may also be connected to imbalances in your fifth chakra.

Throat Chakra Healing Tips

Apart from the above practices, you might also like to incorporate daily changes to support Throat Chakra healing.

• Surround Yourself With Blue Energy

In traditional teachings, each chakra connects to a specific color and vibration. The Throat Chakra, connected to purification and truth, is associated with the color blue. Surround yourself with blue flowers, plants, stones, and crystals or add more blue-colored food to your diet.

• Practice listening

Since the Vishuddha is connected to communication, a good to start healing is to listen.

Listening to yourself and allowing space for your true and honest thoughts to surface is the place to begin. At the same time, practice listening to others without judging.

• Practice self-expression

The fifth chakra also governs creativity and self-expression. To help with this area, try to express yourself through various art forms – visual, vocal and movement.

Find time for journaling. It helps you to express your thoughts and maybe see them from a different perspective.

The Bottomline

Whether you are working with an underactive, a blocked or an overactive Throat Chakra, healing starts with self-awareness, kindness and discipline. Being regular and patience is crucial to healing. Be humble enough to ask for support and advice from other practitioners who have been down that road before. If you are interested to learn more about the Chakra System and deepen your practice, join our online Understanding Chakras course.