Healing The Throat Chakra

The throat chakra is all about speaking your truth, effectively communicating your needs, and expressing yourself. The following meditations, crystal techniques, essential oil applications, and yoga postures will help you connect with what you may be holding in this chakra, and, most importantly, initiate the connection with this energy vortex within you, so that you may open into the wisdom it holds.

1. Meditations

Here’s an easy, tried-and-true meditation and visualization to connect with your throat chakra:

1. While sitting or lying down comfortably, take three slow, deep breaths. Each time you breathe in, imagine the breath energizing the notch at the front of your throat. Each time you exhale, release anything you may be holding in that area—any fears, pain, or even expectations of how you’re supposed to feel while doing this meditation. Personally, I find that holding my hands over my heart as I meditate on each chakra helps me connect to the chakra I’m concentrating on more quickly. You may want to place one hand on your heart chakra and the other hand at your throat.
2. “Wake up” the connection with this chakra by gently tapping at the bone in front of the notch at the front of your throat, or by gently massaging the area in a small, circular motion with your first two fingers.
3. With each following breath, inhaling and exhaling through the nose, continue directing your breath to your throat chakra. Imagine that there is a light blue sphere of light in that area, pulsing and growing larger. Those who identify most with male energy should whirl the sphere clockwise, and those who identify most with female energy should whirl the sphere counterclockwise.
4. As you drop deeper and deeper into a calmer state, ask your throat chakra what it needs right now. Allow yourself a few more breaths to see if you receive any feedback. It could be in the form of a word, sound, song, image, color, feeling, or intuition. Then act on the feedback you get. If you don’t get any immediate feedback, not to worry! It will come as you continue practicing.
5. If instead of the intuitive hints listed previously, you feel an awareness similar to a sensation of opening, widening, or expansion in your throat area, you are connecting with your throat chakra!
6. At the end of your meditation, take three slow, deep breaths, directing the energy of your inhale into the soles of your feet, grounding yourself. Gently open your eyes.
7. Caution when doing this meditation/visualization: Because this practice takes some time to cultivate, be patient with yourself. If you notice that you’re feeling pain in your neck, you are pushing yourself too hard. It’s time to take a break and revisit when you’re more rejuvenated. Also, as you perform your meditation, understand that even seasoned meditation practitioners get what’s aptly termed monkey mind, where other thoughts begin to enter your mind and may momentarily distract you. Just take this as a chance to observe the thought without judgment, let it pass through, and gently bring yourself back to the center.

2. Crystals

To use crystals to connect with your throat chakra, make sure that they are first cleansed from the energies of others who may have handled them before you, and that your intention for how they will be used is set. You can clean your crystals by:

• Smudging with white sage. Simply light the tip of a white sage bundle until it begins to smoke, blow out the flame, and hold your crystal in the rising smoke for a few seconds, setting the intention that you’ll be using the crystal to help you connect with your throat chakra. This is my favorite method because after your cleanse your crystal, you can also cleanse your body by directing the smoke toward your chakras (and the rest of your body) with your free hand.
• Laying them out overnight under the moonlight to soak up the moonbeams.
• Running water over them or soaking them in saltwater. When cleaning with water, use caution. Any stones that rate low on the Mohs hardness scale (a scale that helps identify mineral specimens and compares the resistance to being scratched) may get damaged or dissolve as a result.

Now that you’ve cleansed and charged your crystals, you can work with them in a few ways:

• Get into a comfortable seated or lying down position. Hold your chosen crystal in your left hand—the receiving hand—so you can receive the healing energy from the crystal. Notice what you pick up from the crystal. Does it feel like a throbbing in your hand? Like static prickles? Or just a simple awareness of its energy? If you don’t feel any of these things, that’s okay. Sometimes it takes a while to create awareness with a stone’s energy. Ask the crystal to help you connect with the wisdom of your throat chakra. Allow your mind and heart to open to feedback in the way of images, colors, sounds, words, memories, emotions, or other impressions that may flow through. Keep in mind that working with crystals can take some getting used to. So, if your throat chakra doesn’t open into an epiphany right on the spot (which is unlikely on a first try, but anything is possible!), understand that you are still one step closer to being more connected with it. Be compassionate with yourself. Know that it is on its way.
• While lying down, place your selected throat chakra crystal at the notch at the base of your front neck. Take three slow and deep breaths. Allow yourself to drink in the energy of the crystal. As with the preceding holding technique, you may feel the energy at your neck pulse, like a gentle heartbeat. You may feel slight static energy. Or you may have an awareness that the crystal’s energy is interacting with your energy. If you don’t feel any of these things, that’s okay. You may want to say the affirmation listed in the last paragraph of the Essential Oils section (below) to more intentionally connect with your throat chakra.

3. Essential Oils

• Lavender, rosemary, frankincense, German chamomile, and hyssop are the essential oils that correspond with the throat chakra.
• To use a single oil (or blend of oils) to help you connect with this chakra, add 5 or 6 drops maximum per oil to a dime-size portion of carrier oil (such as jojoba oil). Apply with a cotton ball to the throat chakra, located at the notch at the base of the throat, to anoint yourself.
• Alternately, put the mixture in your hands and rub them together. Through friction, you will release the scent and energy of the oils. Open your palms to release the fragrance. Then, deeply inhale the scent.
• Whether you choose to anoint your throat chakra or activate the properties of the oils by rubbing them between your palms, take the time to intentionally create a connection with your throat chakra. Say something like, “I now intend to create a connection with my throat chakra. May I be in touch with my will to live and may I speak my truth in this world authentically, creatively, and easily. I release all fear that keeps me from listening to my inner voice. I ask to be supported in all forms of personal expression, so I may communicate my needs effortlessly, and trust that I will be heard. And so it is.”

4. Yoga

The throat chakra is about speaking your truth, so neck flexibility helps with fluency here. Most poses have a specific focal point (otherwise known as drishti) for the eyes—the head follows the eyes, and the body follows the head. The neck has to be open for the head to turn. Great yoga poses for this are Warrior II, Camel Pose, Bridge Pose, Triangle Pose, Extended Side Angle, Shoulderstand, and Plow Pose. Most twisting postures can aid the throat chakra as well.

5. Other Tips

• Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
• Practice chanting, singing, reading aloud, or humming.
• Chant the mantra sound for this chakra: “HUM.”
• Wear the color light blue.
• Drink teas that soothe the throat, such as peppermint, slippery elm, and spearmint.