By Jade Doherty 

Feeling inexpressive or sorrowful? It could be your Throat Chakra or Vishuddhi Chakra. Here is your personal guide to balancing the fifth chakra.

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What most resonates with you?

Are you feeling:

1. Feel sad, sorrowful, dejected, unhappy 

2. Grateful, thankful, blessed, fortunate, appreciative

3. Or a mix of the two

Whenever you are extremely sad or very grateful, your throat chokes, or you feel a lump in your throat, and you may find difficulty in expressing yourself. There’s a lot going on in the throat area! As you'd expect, these profound feelings of either gratitude or grief are associated with your fifth chakra, the throat chakra, known in Sanskrit as the vishuddhi chakra.

In this chakra series, we’re exploring and looking at each chakra. After understanding the root chakra, sacral chakra, navel chakra, and heart chakra in the previous posts, today we’re looking at the throat chakra. 

In this article, we’ll cover the role of the throat chakra, what it really means if you feel that your throat chakra is “blocked” (it’s not what you expect!), and the impact this has on your life. We’ll also look at healing your chakra system, specifically your throat chakra through yoga poses, meditation, and other activities, to bring it into balance, and find your authentic self, and express it in the world.

What is a chakra?

Aside from the physical body, we also have a subtle, energetic body. Within it are pathways that flow with prana or life-force, and these converge at powerful energy centers, known as chakras. The seven primary chakras are located from the root chakra (base of the spine) up to the crown chakra (top of the head).

Each chakra, or nerve center, is associated with particular qualities and emotions which express different qualities. For the 5th chakra these are gratitude and grief.

Chances are you’ve heard of people speaking about a blocked or unbalanced chakra. But chakras perhaps don’t get blocked like a pipe and they don’t lose their balance! Rather, it’s all about the flow of energy. When the energy in your chakra system is moving upwards (from the base chakra up to the crown chakra) you experience the positive qualities of the chakras. Conversely, when the energy is moving downwards (from the crown to the base) you will experience the inverse, the negative qualities of that chakra.

This may feel like you have a blocked throat chakra or throat chakra blockage, but really it’s about the direction of energy. So, to address a “blocked” or “unbalanced” chakra, what we really need to look at is the flow of energy. If that sounds a bit complicated, don’t worry! There are many simple tools you can use to bring balance!

For an overview of the whole chakra system, check out our Beginner’s Guide.

Throat chakra-at a glance

Name in Sanskrit: Vishuddhi meaning “especially pure"

Element: Ether

Location: Your throat

Qualities: Gratitude or grief

When there is an imbalance, this happens

When your energy is moving upwards through your throat chakra, you may feel extremely pure (vishuddhi) with gratitude and a sense of abundance overflowing. You are in the space of counting all your blessings and you are appreciative of all people and things around you and of life in general. You want to genuinely thank and acknowledge people and your throat may choke out of fullness. 

But when there is some imbalance and when energy is flowing downwards through this fifth energy center, feelings of sadness and sorrow take over. You may feel miserable with a sense of unhappiness and despondency. You may feel an achy sensation in the body and may find tears welling up in your eyes or even your throat may choke due to grief. There may be apparent reasons for the same or there may not be. You definitely don’t want to carry these feelings for a long time.

So what can you do to get your energy flowing upwards through your throat chakra, so that you can have a happy and healthy throat chakra?

How to balance the throat chakra—essential tools for life

Being able to choose gratitude in every situation of life is the greatest gift that you can give to yourself.  You might say, easier said than done! And I agree. 

Here are some great practices for you to try to maintain the upward flow of gratitude through your throat chakra: 

• Pick a pose

You guessed it! Time for yoga! A holistic yoga practice, that is one including skillfully sequenced asana, pranayama, and meditation, will help to get your energy flowing upwards through your throat chakra (and every other chakra too!). While there’s no silver bullet yoga posture for any of the chakras, some nice poses to connect with your throat chakra include Cat-Cow Poses, Fish Pose, Lion's Breath, which are great ways to open and move energy in your throat chakra.

Sri Sri Yoga is an incredibly beneficial form of yoga, that will get your energy flowing upwards and allow you to experience the positive qualities of all the chakras. Incorporating asana, pranayama, and meditation, Sri Sri Yoga is a great tool to start working with your chakras. 

• Channel your sadness into creativity or service

Find what works for you and your throat chakra. Maybe writing, or journaling is a great way for you to let go of feelings of sadness and sorrow. You don't even have to show anyone. You might like singing or even taking dance classes or an art class. Instead of keeping thinking about painful feelings and feeling gloomy, stretch your hand to somebody in need. Serve people in whichever small or big way you can. Contribute and make a difference- small or big, doesn’t matter. All of these help channel your tight, unpleasant, disturbing, feelings and move energy, benefitting your throat chakra.  

• Nourish yourself

Get your throat chakra quenched with drinks, drink plenty of water, herbal tea, or even some fruit juice.

• Take a seat

Meditation. A foundational solution to (almost!) all our imbalances. When you find the right practice for you, meditation is naturally calming and restorative, creating a steadiness at your core. Try SKY Breath Meditation or dive into a dedicated throat chakra meditation.

When energy is flowing upwards through all seven chakras, harmony pervades, and with it, a powerful sense of well-being. 

Begin your chakra healing journey with Secrets of the 7 Chakras. Join this free on-demand 7-day meditation journey to awaken, rebalance, and harmonize your energy. Guided by meditation master Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, it is an opportunity to dive deeper into the profound wisdom of each chakra and cleanse each one through meditation. Emerge deeply rested, relaxed, and with personal insight. Register for free here.

 

Here is the next post on the sixth or the third eye chakra.

 

Jade Doherty is a freelance copywriter, meditator, and traveler, who is currently exploring Goa, India.