The last 4 people I have treated in my Energy Medicine practice – all very recent – have had issues with their throats. Their fifth chakras have been blocked, and in my analysis, I suggested to two of them that they have their thyroid glands checked by a physician. One of them indeed had a tumor on her parathyroid gland, the glands which sit behind the main thyroid gland and regulate the amount of calcium in the blood.

Each of these people have issues, they claim, with “speaking their truth.” Now I have never understood this phrase, as I try to listen literally, but what I have gleaned from what they have said is that they have not been successful with speaking in an authentic way. They are dishonest in their work, with their spouses and partners, with their children.

We are bombarded with noise. So much noise that our nervous systems are damaged even after the blast of the most recent “assault,” such as a siren, or teenagers yelling when we walk through the door, has diminished.

I will never forget the transition each weekend when my husband and I left Manhattan for our peaceful oasis in the Berkshire mountains in Massachusetts. I would vibrate Friday evening for about an hour as the noise and pollution discharged from my system. By Saturday morning I would feel resonant and peaceful. It was truly a difficult return to our East 73rd Street apartment on Sunday night.

Everyone needs to be rhythmic and find resonance with the sound world around them. Being bombarded with ‘noise’ – be it muzak or loud music in a restaurant or cars honking or someone speaking too loudly – or, and this is what bothers me a great deal – female vocalists who sing in a nasal whine played too loudly at Ralph’s – leaves us irritable and discontent whether we recognize it or not.

Just think of how you feel after a piece of beautiful music. It stays with you for a while, doesn’t it?

This is called entrainment, or rhythmic resonance. This is something which we can accomplish daily in our lives with a fifth chakra that is not blocked with lies, excess, deficiency, or a story about something else. One of my clients has a ‘story’ about congested sinuses’ referring to her throat, making her clear her throat often. She claims this comes from allergies to corn, wheat, dairy, her husband….

She is unable to tell her truth, to speak honestly, and no matter how many foods she avoids, the blockage in her throat chakra refers up to her sixth chakra, and this is the chakra which governs her sinuses. She is basically doomed until the fifth chakra and its’ attendant issues of shame and childhood traumas are addressed.

This woman is a warrior. She is working hard in psychotherapy on clearing her issues of shame, trauma and abuse. I am confident she will not have to somaticize much longer.

I recommend, besides psychotherapy and energy medicine, toning and chanting. The ahhhhh sound does wonders for opening the throat. Using a mantra during meditation is quite effective. I say “Om Namah Shivaya” and often chant it around my house. Any raga, or tune, will do. YouTube has many ragas. Pick one. The reason this is a great mantra is because it is chaitanya or enlivened by the usage of many masters over time.

And finding the beauty of silence to return to again and again for at least 1/2 hour a day, through disciplined meditation practice, is essential. In this way, we can heal so much. We can bring possibly dysfunctional lower chakras into balance to harmonize with the 5th chakra. In this way we become congruent – aligned in thought, word, and action. In this way, we not only vibrate to a higher consciousness, but we also entrain to a rhythmic pulsation in harmony with everything. Nothing is to be feared, nothing is to be avoided.

Healing our throats is no light task. So, begin now.

Love, Gopita