Healthy Communication

For the past several weeks we’ve been considering the heart chakra and have had many opportunities to reflect on love, empathy, caring, and doing good for others. Now we continue our series on Unity Consciousness and the chakras by moving to the throat chakra, known as Vishuddha in Sanskrit. On the physical body the Throat chakra encompasses the throat, neck, ears and mouth. Its energetic imprint is communication.

The throat chakra is probably the one that’s most out of balance in our society. Do you agree?

We have information coming to us constantly from all directions, and sometimes we are not very skillful in deciding what to take in and when to turn it off. Is it any wonder we feel overwhelmed and confused? Healthy eating is a great example of this confusion and overwhelm. There are so many diets, each of which is backed by article after article singing its praises. At the same time, contradictory information makes it difficult to know who is right.

While ancient yoga practitioners did not have the internet and 24-hour news, they did recognize that information overload was not good for the body and mind. They discovered that by caring for the throat chakra they could become more discerning of which information to keep and use and which parts to let go. Here are a couple of practices to try to strengthen your throat chakra:

Lie down on your back in Supported Bridge pose (Supta Bandha). Place a yoga block, small bolster or thin stack of blankets under your pelvis. Cover your eyes with an eye bag or scarf. This gentle inverted backbend supports your lymphatic and nervous systems while also stimulating the throat chakra, especially the thyroid gland. Stay for 5-10 minutes with gentle breathing.

Chanting or humming is also good for the throat/thyroid and will heal problems with the ears and sinuses. One way to practice is by taking a deep breath in and exhaling with a hum. Do this at least seven times. Another way to practice is to chant a healing mantra 108 times. OM SHANTI OM is a beautiful way to send peace into the world while also strengthening your own peaceful nature.