The Throat Chakra: Opening To Your Inner Truth

Do you want to be more in touch with your inner wisdom? Do you want to transform and express your True Self? Then, you’ll want to use this info from The Chakra Energy Diet to help balance your Throat Chakra.

If you agree with more than 3 or 4 of the following statements, you may want to look at ways to heal your Throat Chakra…

THROAT CHAKRA ISSUES

1. I don’t have time to cook.
2. I tend to gulp down my food.
3. I tend to overeat, but still feel the need for more.
4. I have or have had bulimia or anorexia.
5. I get frequent sore throats.
6. I have difficulty expressing myself.
7. I have an oral fixation–always chewing gum or my pen or fingernails.
8. I drink too much or am addicted to cigarettes.
9. I have a slow metabolism.
10. I’m hyperactive, in talk and emotions.
11. I often have a stiff neck and/or tight shoulders.

The Throat Chakra is associated with communication, the ability to speak honestly, to receive and process information, to know and speak your inner truth and to listen and hear what other people are really saying.

Tony was one of my workshop participants who, although handsome and buff (a regular weight lifter), often got tongue-tied around women because he felt that whatever he said would either be wrong or misunderstood. He usually pushed too hard, too fast, to cover up his shyness. Most of his calories came from alcohol to relax, and protein shakes to help build muscle.

Slowing things down, Tony joined a Macrobiotic cooking class, which started to make a world of difference in his life. After a session of chanting, the class would cook meals beginning with miso soup, as the appetizer to more healthy dinner entrees. He began spending more time listening to his dates and learning more about them and what they wanted in life and in a relationship. He realized he had been too focused on impressing women with his bragging, instead of being his true self – warm, compassionate and caring.

The Fifth Chakra: The Throat Chakra is located at the front of the throat and is associated with the thyroid and parathyroid glands in the neck. Signs of an unbalanced Throat Chakra are an inability to express oneself, feeling stagnated, and holding on to unexpressed emotions (which can manifest as holding on to excess body weight too). This can lead to frustration, inability to find the right words or even excessive talking, shyness, sore throat, stiff neck, and addictions to tobacco, street drugs, alcohol and binge eating.

When the Throat Chakra is balanced, we feel creatively inspired and able to express ourselves well. We have confidence in our beliefs and the self-confidence to share them, and the capacity to listen to others and truly hear them as well.

The Throat Chakra’s balance is intimately tied to the health of the thyroid gland, which secretes hormones that control your metabolism, so a sluggish thyroid (hypothyroidism) will make it hard for you to lose weight, maintain energy, warm your hands and feet, or even stay in a positive mood. A hyperactive thyroid also causes severe metabolic and immune system problems. So foods that nourish the thyroid will also nourish the Throat Chakra.

Throat Chakra Healing Foods – Soothing Liquids or Blue in Color

Fifth chakra foods are soothing to the throat and nourishing to the thyroid gland. There aren’t many foods in nature that are BLUE in color – but be sure to include blueberries and blackberries, as well as licorice and slippery elm bark (soothing demulcents for the throat, esophagus and stomach). Soups, especially those containing vitamin-, mineral- and fiber-containing vegetables, are especially soothing to the throat chakra. Seaweeds, like nori, wakame, dulse, arame, hijiki, kelp or kombu, contain iodine to support thyroid function and have a demulcent action on the throat.

How you eat your food is of utmost importance to the Throat Chakra, as well as to your whole digestive system. Chewing your food consciously and thoroughly will exercise the Throat Chakra and unleash the nutrients in the food for easier digestibility. Have you ever gulped down a large meal and still not felt satisfied or nourished, but rather still hungry?

CHEW each bite at least 20 times, more if you have food sensitivities. It’s hard to chew and talk at the same time, so savor at least one meal per day chewing in silence and awareness. Also chew your liquids (soups and teas) to mix them with digestive-aiding enzymes found in the saliva.

“Drink your food, chew your liquids,” I was taught by my Macrobiotic teachers.

Dairy products can clog your throat and the lactose in them can affect your blood sugar as well, so avoid them if you are congested. Drink plenty of water, especially first thing in the morning, to cleanse your system.

My favorite menus for the Throat Chakra are ones that provide the five tastes – spicy, sour, sweet, bitter and astringent foods all in one meal, e.g., miso soup with wakame seaweed as a starter to an entrée of stir-fried vegetables over brown rice with a spicy Thai peanut sauce, and a salad with a balsamic-blueberry dressing. For dessert, I love to make a blueberry sorbet.

Taste the Healing Power of Throat Chakra Recipes: To make miso soup, sautee some sliced onions in 1 T. sesame oil. Add 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, and add a 3” strip of wakame seaweed cut up in small pieces, and other veggies such as chopped kale or carrots, then cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and dissolve 1 T. of miso into the soup by stirring in the paste through a strainer.

Look for non-GMO Light Yellow Miso or Chick Pea Miso in the refrigerator section of your health food store. A good source of protein and B vitamins, unpasteurized miso paste also contains friendly bacterial enzymes for your gut, and helps cleanse radiation and nicotine from the body.

For a delicious Blueberry Sorbet, just freeze blueberries and peeled bananas, then blend them together for a creamy, sweet, soothing and satisfying alternative to ice cream.

Yoga Poses for the Throat Chakra

In my Chakra Yoga Flow, I like to move from the Cobra Pose to the Lion Pose to open up Throat Chakra energy. The pose looks funny, but is very effective, especially if you feel you are getting a sore or scratchy throat.

These poses can also be added to your yoga repertoire to open the Throat Chakra: the Half Shoulder Stand, Shoulder Shrugs and Circles, and the Fish pose, as well as pranayama breathing exercises.

Throat Chakra Healing Activities

Use this general affirmation or grace before cooking and eating for the Throat Chakra:

“May this food bless and nourish my body and help me communicate my truth.”

Sound Healing is very powerful and harmonizing for the Throat Chakra. Singing, toning and chanting are beneficial. Drumming, and any exercise involving rhythm will also help balance this chakra. I especially recommend Ecstatic Dancing and the Dances of Universal Peace where you dance while singing loving words.

Walking is a perfect exercise, as it relaxes both body and mind, that anyone can do to support the Throat Chakra.

Throat Chakra Visualization

Imagine healing green light from the heart chakra moving up the spine to the throat, where it becomes a beautiful sky blue. Breathe in the blue light, then fill your lungs and let your throat open wide and sing whatever tone or note feels right… AAAH! Release any negativity and cynicism and open yourself to communicating as a holy being.

You know what to say and what not to say, how to communicate well. Feel yourself singing out clear energy, loving notes, healing vibrations for yourself and the entire universe. Make yourself heard and listen well to the love that returns to you, as your audience, your universal family, stand up and clap for you.

The Chakra Energy Diet is available on Amazon.com, to help you balance all your chakras and end any confusion on what diet is right for you.

Namaste!

Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries, Chakra Secrets, Balance Your Chakras-Balance Your Life, and The Chakra Energy Diet

www.theChakras.org

http://www.thechakras.org/