The throat chakra is also known by the Sanskrit name Visshuda which holds the meaning of ‘purification’.
This is the 5th chakra within our energy body and it is regarded as the energy center of self-expression, authenticity, communication, and creativity.
The throat chakra corresponds with the physical organs and glands in its vicinity and so it can affect the health of our thyroid, the gland that controls many of our vital functions.
The health of our throat chakra can have specific impacts on our physical, mental and emotional health and well-being.
When we experience an imbalance within this energy center, depending on the type of imbalance this can manifest as a variety of signs and symptoms that can indicate your throat chakra is not functioning in alignment with its intended blueprint.
Within this article, we will learn about the cause of imbalances within the throat chakra (both overactive and underactive throat chakra imbalance).
We will learn the signs that you can look out for, or maybe experiencing, that indicate throat chakra imbalances, and of course, we will offer a few powerful practices that you can utilize to rebalance and stay in alignment with healthy and balanced throat chakra energy.
What Causes an Overactive or Underactive Throat Chakra?
Imbalances within the throat chakra can be caused by a variety of reasons.
A chakra imbalance is usually caused by mental, physical, emotional, and even spiritual reasons (remember that on a spiritual level you may be encountered by a blockage or imbalance as a sign or catalyst for growth, expanded consciousness, depth of understanding, and embodiment ).
The main cause of both an overactive and underactive throat chakra imbalance is fear.
Fear can drive us to retreat into our shell, shrink and become as small and quiet as possible (this reaction would relate to an underactive throat chakra) or fear can cause us to puff our chest and enter an attacking mode to fend off the fearful outcomes.
Both these reactions can be survival responses and they are also unconscious reactions that are subconsciously ingrained in us from the cultures, childhood, and society we have experienced or find ourselves within.
Another cause of both an overactive and underactive chakra is repression or suppression.
This can be due to an abusive or traumatic situation that you may have experienced or it can be seemingly subtle family, cultural or societal pressures that suppress your natural expression and way of being.
When we are suppressed the reaction is similar to our fear reactions in that we may react with ‘aggressive‘ rebellion (over time this can cause an overactive throat chakra energy) or placidly conforming (over time this can cause an underactive throat chakra).
Although our reactions are often for safety and acceptance, when we get stuck in these survival mode states it can cause imbalances within the throat chakra energy center.
7 Signs Of An Underactive Throat Chakra
When a chakra is underactive it most simply means that there is a lack of energy or blockage preventing the flow of energy within the chakra.
The following are some of the key signs that can indicate that you have an underactive throat chakra:
Sign 1#: You feel like you are unable to express your personal truth
A really common sign of an underactive throat chakra is that you struggle to express your personal truth.
You may struggle to find clarity on what your truth is within yourself and you may find it challenging or almost impossible to clearly and with conviction communicate your truth.
You may find that your opinions and feeling or even experience on a matter often gets sidelined or invalidated both by your internal imbalanced state as well as by those you interact with.
Sign 2#: You feel like you are not fully heard
The throat chakra is linked to our experience of hearing, listening and being heard.
An underactive throat chakra can result in feeling and experiencing not being heard. When this chakra is underactive and you are unable to articulate your viewpoints and ideas with confidence it makes it less likely that people will actually listen to what you have to say.
This doesn’t mean you need to be loud but it is more about tapping back into the open throat chakra energy of clear communication that is necessary for conscious communication.
Blockage within the throat chakra can make you feel frustrated with not being heard.
Sign 3#: You may struggle with keeping your word
Another sign of an underactive throat chakra is that you may regard your promises and verbal commitments a bit too lightly.
You may even struggle to follow through with the action on things you have verbally committed to.
The throat chakra helps us to speak our dreams and visions into reality and so when this center is blocked it can block off this flow of energy and cause the embodiment that should follow up the promise to not manifest as intended.
Sign 4#: You find it difficult to stand up for yourself
Another sign of an underactive throat chakra is that you struggle to stand up for yourself, you may feel like you can’t stand up for yourself or you may find that your attempts of standing up for yourself aren’t effective.
As the throat chakra is the energy center of authentic expression and the ability to speak your truth when this chakra is underactive it can make it really tricky to communicate your needs and to effectively share or defend your viewpoint and your equally valid experience.
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Sign 5#: You may develop the tendency to lie
Lying can vary in degree of seriousness but bottom line is that a lie is a lie.
A lie can even be withholding the truth.
Lying is not always with malevolent intent but it often has detrimental effects and can further distort your throat chakra vibration.
When the throat chakra is underactive and underactive this may also manifest as the habit or tendency of telling lies.
This may be an attempt to protect yourself, in an attempt to avoid conflict or situations that you feel you are not equipped to deal with from this underactive throat chakra state.
Sign 6#: You are blocked off from your musical expression
If you are experiencing an underactive throat chakra you are likely feeling cut off or blocked from expressing yourself musically.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be able to sing and play instruments in front of a huge crowd, but if you get uncomfy and shy singing to yourself in the shower or even singing along with your children or friends then this is really a sign of throat chakra blockage.
Music is an innate and enjoyable part of being human that allows us to raise our vibrations and feel into the energy of our own voice and unique expression.
Expression of music is also related to self-confidence and self-acceptance.
If you experience ambivalent and avoidant feelings surrounding your musical expression your throat chakra is likely in an underactive state
Sign 7#: You may experience the health issue known as hypothyroidism
One of the main physical structures that our throat chakra corresponds with is the thyroid gland. This butterfly-shaped gland at the base of the neck controls many vital functions for our physical body.
When the throat chakra is underactive it may have an impact on this gland by causing the gland to become underactive and this is known as hypothyroidism.
The symptoms of hypothyroidism include slowness, irritability, fatigue, weight gain, and many more symptoms that you should research further.
If you feel that you are experiencing this underactive thyroid as a cause of an underactive throat chakra you should take action to heal and rebalance your throat chakra in combination with holistic health care specifically intended to rebalance this vital gland.
7 Signs Of An Overactive Throat Chakra
When a chakra is overactive it simply means that this chakra is distributing too much energy and that the energy is resonant with a non-harmonic or misaligned vibration.
These are the signs that your throat chakra is overactive:
Sign 1#: You find yourself in arguments often
The first sign that your throat chakra is overactive is that you get yourself into arguments quite often.
As this chakra is the energy center of balanced and conscious communication when it is overpowered you will communicate in an out-of-balance way that can stir up misunderstandings and arguments.
Sign 2#: You talk too much, or too loud or both
Another key sign that your throat chakra is overactive is that you may talk way too much or too loudly or both!
This does not mean it’s wrong to express yourself or have a naturally loud voice but when you know that you speak even when it is unnecessary or speak in a noisy frantic manner this can point to overactivity.
Another aspect to consider when looking at this sign is asking yourself if you have been speaking with pure intention, this will give you a better view of how you communicate, are you saying necessary things in alignment with your intentions?
Sign 3#: You probably aren’t the best listener
When your throat chakra is overactive you are likely so preoccupied with getting your point across and being heard that you overlook the other super important half of conscious communication, truly listening.
When you notice or it is consistently pointed out that you are not very good at listening this can be a sign of an overactive throat chakra
Sign 4#: You offend people often
Another sign of an overactive throat chakra is that you find that you offend people.
This may be unintentional or you may get a bit of a secret thrill going against the grain and being offensive.
Conscious communication is all about honoring our unique truths but this includes basic respect for others' perceptions even if you don’t agree with them.
When your throat chakra is overactive your ability to consciously communicate is distorted and so you will probably find that you offend people quite often.
Sign 5#: You tend to exaggerate a lot
Exaggerating when you speak may just be a part of your personality but it can also be a sign of an overactive throat chakra.
You may exaggerate upon facts or exaggerate when relaying your experiences or have exaggerated responses. This can sometimes be a dramatic quirk but when done too much can distort and distract from clear, flowing, and conscious communication.
When you notice that you exaggerate too much this can be a sign of an overactive throat chakra as there is too much energy moving chaotically within this center and it can manifest as an exaggeration when communicating and expressing yourself.
Sign 6#: Your main focus in conversations is being right
Conscious conversation as embodied by a healthy throat chakra is a discussion that should aim to bring understanding to both parties involved.
Sometimes we can get stuck in a pattern of behavior where we approach conversations with competitive energy and do everything to get our point to be the conclusion.
When your main focus within conversation is to be right and to “ win” the conversation this can be a sign of an overactive unbalanced throat chakra energy.
Sign 7#: You are critical of yourself and others
As we have seen in the signs above that when your throat chakra is overactive it can make you seem quite overconfident and dominant in your communication.
This is actually stemming from a place of internal imbalance.
Imbalance within the throat chakra can cause you to be really critical of yourself which will mostly be expressed inwardly and within you through your emotions.
The loudness or the need to be right can be a coping mechanism compensating for these feelings of self-critique and lack of self-acceptance.
Part of this sign of imbalance is that you will also be quite critical of others.
Ways To Rebalance An Overactive or Underactive Throat Chakra
Now that you have learned about a lot of the signs of both an overactive and underactive throat chakra you can choose to include intentional practices intended for throat chakra healing.
These are some of the practices that can assist you to bring your throat chakra back into balance:
Meditation
Meditation is such a powerful tool for self-healing and intentionally rebalancing your energy.
You can choose to intuitively explore within your meditation practice a specific focus on the healing you need within your throat chakra, which could include relevant visualization, crystals, mantras, and mudras within your practice.
You can listen to guided meditation specifically created for balancing the throat chakra.
You can find many of these available online for general balancing as well as for specifically rebalancing an overactive or underactive throat chakra.
Sound healing
The throat chakra is related to communication and self-expression primarily using your vocal and hearing abilities. This makes sound healing a very powerful method to work with for rebalancing this chakra.
Sound healing can be utilized in the form of frequency embedded music (741Hz resonates with harmonic throat chakra energy), singing bowls, tuning forks, harmonic instruments, chanting specific mantras for throat chakra balance (the mantra seed sound for the throat chakra is ‘HUM’).
You can learn about vocal alchemy for balancing this chakra which is all about getting in touch with intuitive vocals and using your voice to move stagnant energy, transforming this energy through the power of music.
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Affirmations
Affirmations are an incredibly powerful and easy way to balance your throat chakra.
To learn in detail how affirmations work, how to use affirmations for chakra healing as well as a list of intentional throat chakra healing affirmations specifically for an underactive and overactive throat chakra you can read our article entitled 121 Throat Chakra Affirmations + How To Effectively Use Them.
Working with any practices mention above that resonate will contribute to your embodiment and effort of healing your throat chakra imbalances.
You must intentionally bring to your mind, heart, and spirit a level of self-awareness, self-acceptance, and willingness to commit to conscious communication and expression through this energy center.
After reading this article, specific points may have come to light for you.
For example, you may have realized you are not a great listener.
If so, you now need to decide if you are accepting this observation of yourself and then decide that you want to improve, and as best as you can, remind yourself and practice being a better listener.
The conscious embodiment of open throat chakra energy along with powerful intentional practices will help you to heal and to maintain the health of your throat chakra.
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Yasmin is a freelance creative, working through the mediums of fine art and writing. She loves deeply exploring themes related to the natural world, the metaphysical world, concepts and embodiments of spirituality as well as esoteric contemplations. An overview of some of her work can be viewed at https://www.instagram.com/faeiirie/