Understanding Your Throat Chakra: The Center for Communication, Your Authentic Voice & Self Expression
When it comes to understanding your throat chakra, there are many things to consider about how you communicate and show up in the world. And I do not just mean how you talk to others. Here are just a few things to think about:
Do you remain quiet and swallow your words, agreeing with things you don't actually believe just to avoid conflict or rejection?
Or perhaps you find yourself talking too much or over-explaining, because you lack confidence in your own opinions.
Do you ever feel like words come out of your mouth that really aren't your own?
And the big one that most people do not realize… how connected to your higher self are you?
This is all connected to the energy of your Throat Chakra.
What Is the Throat Chakra?
The Throat Chakra is an energy centre located at the base of the throat. It's known as your body's centre of communication, self-expression, and truth. This is where your inner world ~ your thoughts, feelings, and authentic voice ~ translates into outer expression: speaking, writing, singing, even body language. It also plays a role in how you bring the creative energy of your Sacral Chakra out into the world.
From a childhood development perspective, this chakra develops during roughly between the ages 6.5–9 yrs old, but some chakra systems place it up until the age of 15. I prefer the teenager age range theory, as I can see it very clearly here.
At this stage, a supported nervous system shifts into the energy of "Am I allowed to say what I really think and feel, and how can I express my uniqueness into the world?”
This is the age where children/teens (or adults trying to heal their under-developed Throat Chakras) begin testing their voice with others. They start expressing opinions, disagreeing with adults, finding their own way of speaking about the world, and discovering their own unique ways to express their creative energy.
Think about the young teenagers you know! Look at the hairstyles and clothing choices, and how often they change these. Listen to how they try on different opinions and behave so differently with different people.
This can show up in someone's life in a variety of ways. But in general, if a child is listened to by the adults around them, and feels that their emotions and opinions matter, they learn that their voice is welcome and their truth is safe to share.
However, if speaking up was met with punishment, mockery, being talked over, or told to "be quiet," a person often learns to suppress their voice — or to perform with a voice that isn't fully their own. Their words end up being exactly what the adults around them want to hear, so they can feel accepted and loved.
The core emotion activated from an unstable Throat Chakra imprint is often the fear of being truly seen and heard. What this often results in are lies. People learn to tell lies to stay safe… even the little white lies, like saying "I'm okay" when they're really not. You can imagine the bigger lies that develop and become life patterns, the less safe it becomes for a child to be honest.
I've also found, with a lot of my clients, that those who grew up unable to speak their own truth and be their own person very often carry an intense level of anger inside.
The Core Imprints of the Throat Chakra
As you can see from what I've just discussed, the Throat Chakra doesn't hold just one theme. It has a lot of work to do!
It shapes how you experience your own voice in multiple areas of life, and it has a dramatic impact on how you relate to the world at large. Below are some of the primary ways this shows up:
1. Authentic Self-Expression & Being Heard
Were you allowed to express your true thoughts and feelings growing up? Did people listen when you spoke, or were you talked over, dismissed, or ignored?
When supported early on, a person learns:
- My voice matters and deserves to be heard
- I can say what I mean without fear of punishment or being dismissed
- My words carry weight, and I can disagree without losing my sense of self
When it isn't supported, a person often learns:
- It's safer to stay quiet
- My real thoughts will cause problems if shared
- I have to filter myself, over-explain, or say yes when I mean no, just to be accepted
Damage to the Throat Chakra at this level often leads to lying, whether it's about how you feel, how you get your needs met, or just as a way to be heard. The problem is, others learn not to trust your communication, and on top of that, your Throat Chakra becomes even more out of balance every time you tell a lie, even the seemingly innocent ones.
2. Listening to Others
When you aren't listened to, you're also taught not to listen to others. Maybe you grew up having to fight just to get a word in edgewise, so conversation became more about waiting for your turn to speak. Or maybe you were literally told who to listen to and who not to listen to, losing your own ability to discern what's true for you along the way.
When listening is supported early on, a person learns:
- I can hear someone else's truth without feeling threatened by it
- Listening isn't the same as losing my own voice
- I can listen to others and decide if the information is right for me
When listening isn't supported, a person often experiences:
- Listening feels unsafe, like giving up ground
- It's hard to stay present in conversation without already planning what to say next
- Other people's voices get dismissed, or allowed to drown out my own
3. Connection to Higher Self & Spirit
There's another important piece to this that doesn't get talked about as much: when a person isn't allowed to have their own voice, what also gets shut down is their connection to their Higher Self, their own Spirit.
Imagine being told, again and again, that your self-expression and imagination aren't valid. As a child, all of that energy comes through your connection to your own Spirit. So every time an adult tells a child that they're wrong, that their imagination is foolish, or that their ideas are irrelevant, it's one more blow to that child's connection to their spiritual energy. The Throat Chakra ends up getting blocked by the judgments and opinions of the adults around them — leaving the child disconnected from their Higher Self, which is the ultimate connection needed in life to receive the best guidance from their own intuition, for their own wellbeing.
Blocks in the Throat Chakra can also shut down connection to other higher realms — the ability to communicate with other dimensions, such as light beings, to receive light language, or to communicate with other aspects of the spirit world, such as the Elementals or the Animal Kingdom.
When supported early on, a person learns:
- My inner world and imagination are valid
- I can trust my intuition and stay connected to my own guidance
- My connection to something greater than myself is real, and mine to keep
When it isn't supported, a person often learns:
- My imagination and inner knowing don't matter
- I can't trust my own intuition
- I've lost touch with something greater than myself
Over the years, I've worked with many clients whose connection to their own intuition, or even to the higher realms, becomes more active once they've done healing work on their Throat Chakra. So many of them have learned to trust their own inner wisdom over what others have tried to tell them.
I believe COVID was a very powerful era for activating throat chakra healings. So many people had to learn to speak their own truths, to find their own voice amidst the landscape of mainstream media, social media, work environments and family dynamics. And the deeper opportunity here was to learn to trust their own inner wisdom over the voices of others.
What Are Other Signs of a Throat Chakra Imbalance?
There is more to be said than just those core imprints. When this chakra is balanced and you speak with clear, calm confidence, the vibration of your words matches your truth.
Others sense this!
An Underactive Throat Chakra may manifest as:
- Missing out on opportunities such as jobs or certain relationships
- A very quiet or soft-spoken voice, especially when you have something important to say
- Others perceiving that you lack self-confidence
- Feeling unheard or invisible in conversations
An Overactive Throat Chakra may manifest as:
- Talking excessively, interrupting, or dominating conversations
- Gossiping or speaking without much of a filter
- Using words as a weapon (sarcasm, criticism) rather than honest expression
This is a great time to talk more about the Kabbalistic concept of "evil speech."
The words you speak matter!!
There is a vibration to every word you say… and it all comes back to you in some way, or pushes away what you desire most.
If you're speaking poorly about others, you're really speaking poorly about yourself, and that energy will manifest as less true abundance and joy in your life. When you speak poorly about yourself, and your words reflect victim energy, that's what the universe hears, and what you get back is more of the same.
This kind of negative energy, in and out of your Throat Chakra, can also cause tears or holes, and affect its directional spin and the energy level it's actually able to function at. This kind of damage can have a multidimensional impact.
How Is the Throat Chakra Connected to the Physical Body?
The Throat Chakra is closely tied to your throat, neck, mouth, jaw, thyroid, and vocal cords ... the physical instruments of your voice.
Based on its location, some physical experiences may include:
- Chronic sore throat, frequent throat clearing, or a "lump in the throat" sensation
- Jaw tension or teeth grinding (holding back words)
- Thyroid issues
- Speech areas of the brain
- Mineral balance and hormones (in relation to the thyroid and parathyroid glands)
- Cervical spine, neck, and shoulder tension
- A tendency to lose your voice during stress
- Hearing problems
My own personal experience with this is that when I have unexpressed anger, the back of my head and neck get so much tension that it feels wobbly and extra loose once I get this emotional energy out of my system.
What physical symptoms do you hold in your neck and throat that might be a reflection of a Throat Chakra issue?
How Do I Heal My Throat Chakra?
There are many ways to heal this chakra, and I believe it takes many actions to actually heal it! Many people might tell you that you just need to "learn to speak up more" or "just start a podcast or a YouTube video"… as if it is just so easy!
Ummm .... NO! It is not that simple!
Especially if you have been criticized, shamed or abused in some other way your whole life for expressing your feelings, opinions or ideas. Or, if you have observed this happening to others on a consistant basis.
The truth is that many people have deep trauma affecting their Throat Chakra, whether it's deep religious programming, emotional or physical abuse, or very strong limiting beliefs about what they can and cannot say based on family patterns. And when you read further, you will see that the connection to the Sacral Chakra, amplifies these issues.
I have seen numerous occasions where my clients have cords into, or veils of energy covering, their Throat Chakra. These come from others, because the other person has been so insistent on controlling how this person expresses themselves. It is often under the guise of "protecting" the person, but in the end, this is all some form of self-protection.
Voice and expression built without addressing the underlying imprints can feel forced or performative rather than truly free. And what I have observed is that you literally never get anywhere… except exhausted from trying so hard, and frustrated from still being ignored.
This is why working with an experienced healer is one very powerful way to heal and find your voice in the world again. And it's not just about using your voice, it's also about being able to express the creative energy generated in your Sacral Chakra out into the world, which brings me to another topic: The Sacral-Throat Connection
In many chakra systems, the Throat Chakra and Sacral Chakra are considered energetic partners or "polarity pairs." The Sacral governs creative and sexual life-force energy, while the Throat governs how that same creative energy gets "expressed" outward. The idea is that sexual/creative energy is generated lower in the body and travels upward, ultimately finding voice through the throat.
This matters for blocked expression because if someone was taught that expressing sexuality/desire was shameful, unsafe, or "too much," that same suppression pattern often shows up as difficulty speaking up in general, not just about sex, but about needs, boundaries, and authentic self-expression.
To sum it up, healing your voice can unlock stuck creative and sexual energy, and healing the Sacral and creative blocks can free up your ability to speak your truth! They are seen as expressions of the same underlying life-force energy, just at different points in its journey through the body.
The point here is that the throat becomes one place where unexpressed sacral energy gets stuck. So when you approach Throat Chakra healing within yourself, you can also anticipate that you will be addressing the Sacral Chakra as well.
Daily Practices to Support Throat Chakra Healing
Below is a list of ways you can pick from to start this healing process on your own.
- Humming, chanting, or toning (the vibration directly stimulates this chakra)
- Journaling as a way to access truth before speaking it aloud
- Wearing blue clothing, or a blue lace agate or aquamarine crystal necklace (the Throat Chakra is associated with the color blue)
- Neck and shoulder stretches to release held tension
- Essential oils like geranium or chamomile
Practices that may be more specific for reclaiming your voice:
- Saying conflicting ideas out loud, to feel in your body what's true and what's not for you
- Practicing pausing before agreeing, to check in with yourself if it's actually true for you
- Noticing when you go quiet, and asking yourself why
- Joining a community choir or taking singing lessons
- Joining Toastmasters or another public speaking support group
- Creative writing and art (also healing for the Sacral Chakra)
I had one client who came to me specifically for a Throat Chakra healing, as she knew she was ready to release what she had been holding there. The following week, she won a high-level speech contest that she was quite nervous about.
And, going back to my earlier discussion on the concept of "evil speech," I think one very important way you can start to heal your Throat Chakra is to start paying attention to everything you say.
I will say it again… the words you speak matter!!
The same is true for the conversations you are willing to listen to. This is about setting boundaries on your throat chakra … yet another way to heal it.
Your words have power… the spoken word is one of the most powerful forces of creation we have.
If you want to heal your Throat Chakra for any reason, this might be the main one.
Think about it… many of us are communicating with others ... all day long!
A Note on Healing
Energy healing can be incredibly powerful in this process. It allows trauma to be witnessed and released in ways that traditional talk therapy doesn't always access.
That said, there is no one "right" path. There are many ways to heal, but what matters most is that you seek healing in whatever way feels best for you! Find a way to help you address the root causes, and use daily self-practices to integrate the healing into daily life.
Remember, you cannot force any healing - it just does not work that way. Instead, set intentions and begin by allowing space for it. This is not a one and done thing. Healing is a process which unfolds in its own time with the right support.
Bringing It All Together
Healing the Throat Chakra is something I work with a lot, both with myself and with several of my clients. In fact, I can honestly say it is probably something that comes up in the vast majority of the women I work with.
Eventually, when you do this deep work for yourself, you will begin to understand that:
- Your voice is actually needed in this lifetime
- Your truth not only deserves to be spoken, but somebody needs to hear it
- Silence is a choice, not a requirement
- Being heard starts with giving yourself permission to start hearing yourself first
- Your connection to your higher self is stronger than you ever realized
Here are some questions worth sitting with as you begin to work through this:
- Where in my life am I lying either to myself or to others?
- Whose voice have I been performing instead of my own?
- What communication patterns can I easily clean up right now?
Each time I make a decision to clean up my own boundaries, whether that's the conversations I'm having, how I speak, what I'm willing to discuss and not discuss, or the people I've chosen to disengage with because of chronic negativity, my world shifts and opens up to more supporting energies for me.
With time, your healed Throat Chakra will allow you to communicate freely from your heart, and express your truth and creative energy with confidence into the world!
If you recognize these Throat Chakra issues within yourself, and you're ready to free up this stuck energy ~ so you can communicate with ease and authenticity ~ I will be grateful to be your guide.
If you wish to join my waitlist for a 7 week group chakra healing series: CLICK HERE.
It starts when I finishing writing my blog series on the chakra system;)
In the meantime, if you have not read my other posts in this Chakra Series, you can start with the Beginner's Guide to the Chakra System HERE. Or if you are wanting to learn more about Energy Healing before booking a session, start with my post called Understanding How Energy Healing Works.
Next, we move into the Third Eye Chakra - where your intuition comes online. (Stay tuned… it's coming soon)
