CHAKRA SERIES: CONNECT TO YOUR VOICE - THROAT CHAKRA
Chakra: Throat/Vishuddha
Element: Ether (Spirit)
Color: Blue
Sound: HAM
Location: Throat/mouth
Endocrine Gland: Thyroid and Parathyroid gland
Aspect: Communication
The first of the three upper chakras, the throat chakra acts like a channel between the physical (lower) and spiritual (upper) chakras that allows all the other chakra energies to be expressed. While the heart chakra acts as the bridge, the throat chakra acts like a pure channel, enabling us to understand and communicate our highest truths. It is fitting that its name in Sanskrit, Vishuddha, means purification.
Located in the region of our throat, shoulders, and mouth sometimes we use phrases like “lump in my throat” to describe a blockage in this energy center. Have you ever been unable to speak or formulate how to say something in a situation due to fear of revealing your true feelings? With a balanced throat chakra there is no inner and outer world and we are able to be and express ourselves freely.
I’m so grateful to have movement and sound alchemist Katya Seymour back this month to answer some questions related to this energy center. With her open and honest answers to these questions she shows us how keeping a balanced and clear throat chakra can help us be a loving channel for our highest truth.
(Tara, Founder, THARA SACRA)
The throat chakra is the bridge between our inner and outer selves. Who we are and how we express it out into the world so tell me a little about you. What is your life’s mission and how do you express it?
So honored to explore this very important and dear to me subject.
Who am I really? I alway find this question difficult to answer, because I am so many things and don’t want to belong to just one description of self. Whether it’s based on gender, occupation or status, I am so much more!
A human BEING, one who is finding comfort in being divinely feminine, a witness, a traveler, a seeker.
My mission in this world is to find deep healing for myself first and foremost, to speak through experience and to inspire through honest communication.
“The Vishuda Chakra is the bridge between the heart and the mind, a bridge between who we truly are and who we aspire to become.”
The Vishuddha Chakra is the bridge between the heart and the mind, a bridge between who we truly are and who we aspire to become. I am learning the importance of searching my heart before I open my mouth. People listen. The last thing I want to do is mislead another or promote something detrimental to ones mental or physical well being. I am learning to be careful.
Not every thought deserves to become word, for words carry a stronger vibration. Words spoken with anger do unthinkable damage much like thoughts spoken with love carry purity, and hold within them powers of healing. Unchecked thoughts are the aftermath of undealt with emotions, so checking in with our intentions before speaking or before withholding information really makes communication an art form.
As a sound therapist I get to remind people that their thoughts, words and voices are powerful tools.
For good or evil. Mindlessness and ignorance can lead us own a shady path knocking on all the wrong doors, you know?
Was there ever a time in your life where you felt unable to express yourself or silenced by fear? How did you access your highest truths and find your voice?
I have had countless experiences of being unable to express myself I remember moving to South Africa from Ukraine as a teenager and being very limited in my English. While I scrambled to understand, read and learn, I also felt entirely lost and isolated. Which caused me to become painfully shy while feeling painfully foreign. I was afraid to speak because I didn’t want to say something wrong and disrespect the language.
There was a constant lump in my throat and I blushed profusely, symptoms of a suppressed throat chakra for sure! I felt like pot of boiling water with a lid on, unable to let the steam out, all the words bubbling inside of me…
Funny enough healing came through music. On my 13th birthday I finally convinced my parents to buy me a guitar and found endless creative expression through writing songs and singing. It was like magic. I couldn’t stop! I wrote these sad songs. letting my feelings out, pouring them onto paper daily. This is also when I started journaling.
Sure enough, my friend circle grew in tandem with my confidence.
I have been in abusive relationships and sticky situations, and the exit strategy always involved mustering up enough courage to stand up for my beliefs by using my throat chakra, saying NO and making it very clear to the Universe that I will not walk this path again because I’ve learned this lesson.
How does a movement practice like yoga help us tap into our creativity and find our inner voice?
I absolutely LOVE movement as therapy. When we move our physical bodies, we move the energy, we remove blocks and create space for growth. So many people come to yoga to get out of the funk and clear their minds. Being in a creative, inspired environment speaks to our inner creative. Becoming comfortable and aware in the body gives us power. Yoga will inevitable lead you to ask yourself : WHO AM I?
Pranayama in particular is such an incredible tool. Focusing on the breath, the quality, the duration, the sound of it. Audible breathing in class is therapeutic to say the least and creates a truly great atmosphere. Many people find so much relief in being told that it’s okay to breathe loudly in public after the initial discomfort of course. It’s like receiving permission to just be yourself and live out loud.
Breath is sound, it’s what LIFE sounds like. Our breath is the sound or our life, yet we rarely stop to listen and forget that it’s a bodily function we control. A perfect metaphor for how we forget that on many levels we are the creators of our own reality. There is life within us but we decide how we breathe it!
“I look at everything in terms of energy. I don’t believe in separation, separation occurs when we choose to disconnect and stop paying attention.”
Our throat chakra rests between our physical (root, sacral, solar plexus, and heart) and spiritual (third eye and crown) selves. How do you link the physical and spiritual aspects of yourself?
I look at everything in terms of energy. I don’t believe in separation, separation occurs when we choose to disconnect and stop paying attention. And no, I haven’t mastered this.
Our physical is in constant communication with us. Stubborn emotions create blockage in the energy body, suppressed feelings live out their purpose by becoming physical pain. Our nervous systems are in constant communication with the outside world, nothing is still and nothing is silent!
Whenever I forget that I am one with the WORLD, I go back to sound. I feel the vibration of sound physically and it never fails to remind me that all is one.
What actions do you take daily to insure you are living an authentic life and expressing your highest truth?
Intention setting. Yoga practice. Writing. Voicing. Making eye contact.
The throat chakra is deeply connected to vibration through sound. What is your favorite way to experience vibration of sound? (In other words, give me some killer beats!!!)
YES it is!!! I quite literally feel sound physically, which can be amazing and rather overwhelming. It feels as though my cells are vibrating and energy is surging through my nadis ( energy channels ) it’s intense.
I own a series of singing bowls and I intuitively pick one or two for my personal meditation to hum or tone to. It is amazing how the energy shifts and flows if you let it. Some days it’s loud and other days it’s quiet.
But when I listen to music or jam out in my car with my kids, it’s not Binaural Beats!
Hip Hop can be pretty darn grounding too. I don’t really discriminate, yet some styles of music don’t resonate with me.
It’s is so personal.
I’m really loving Obongjayar, WIILS, and Elder Island. All completely different!
You use a lot of my blends in your classes and practice, how do you use the Throat Chakra Blend AFFIRM?
I love all of your blends, they are so thoughtful. AFFIRM is one of my favorites for early mornings. I apply it to my pulse points before teaching my morning yoga classes, as I set my personal intention and center before the students arrive. It’s really beautiful during class to catch a whiff as I am teaching, inhaling a reminder of why I am there and what my truth is.
So beautiful. Thank you Katya.
Find Katya hosting movement and sound therapy classes at California Yoga and Fitness Shack in Sylvania, OH about an hour outside of Metro Detroit. For more of her inspiring words, follow her on Instagram at vira_movement. Learn more about the throat chakra essential oil blend Affirm here.