Seven Signs of Throat (Vishuddha) Chakra Blockage

In Sanskrit, the word Vishuddha means pure. It indicates purity in thoughts and actions without harboring any desire for selfish material gains. The vrittis or tendencies of the throat chakra are much higher (spiritually) than those of the lower chakras, which are mainly based on animalistic nature and survivalist instincts.

When the spiritual energy or prana reaches the throat chakra, the mind becomes sharp and accesses a non-physical dimension of purity and grace. The throat chakra is associated with speech, hearing, and listening and has a sound as one of its main elements.

Opening the throat chakra enables you to grasp the true essence of spiritual life. With blocked throat chakra, we run around chasing selfish goals, and it gets difficult to rise beyond our personal motives and realize the essence of true service to humanity and nature.

As I have mentioned in other articles, energy blockages in the lower chakras have a significant impact on the higher chakras. Therefore, if your energy is imbalanced in the lower chakras, such as the root (Muladhara) chakra, sacral (Manipura) chakra, and heart (Anahata) chakra, you should work on them first.

One of the classic signs of throat chakra blockage is a feeling of anxiety. And if you notice carefully, it is mostly felt in the throat region as a choking sensation. It is the surfacing of suppressed emotions onto the conscious mind from the depths of the subconscious.

It is because of the throat chakra blockage that you’re not able to express yourself, the way you feel, and more. This dysfunction causes a whole lot of physical and psychological problems. Therefore, it’s important to balance your throat chakra as it gives you the power to put the right words into your speech.

Some of the benefits associated with balancing the throat chakra are as follows:

• It gives you the ability and confidence to express yourself freely.
• It keeps you grounded in the present moment.
• You become more spiritually oriented.
• You get rid of selfish thinking and personal motives.
• It makes you more compassionate towards others.
• It gives you the confidence to speak your mind without fear.
• You are able to make a high impact using fewer words while talking.
• It enhances creative thinking.
• You become a good listener.
• You become more confident and emotionally strong.
• Your mind becomes more clear and sharp, and that is indicated by the fluency in your speech.

Signs of Blocked Throat Chakra

Some of the physical health symptoms associated with the blocked throat chakra are as follows:

• Feeling of anxiety
• Frequent soreness and infection in the throat region
• Dizziness and fatigue
• Thyroid problems
• Headaches
• Anemia
• Neck and shoulder pain
• Mouth ulcers
• Dental issues
• Asthma

Now that we know about the physical symptoms of the blocked throat chakra let’s explore other reasons why your throat chakra may be blocked.

However, it is important to understand that the physical symptoms mentioned above are linked to the psychological reasons we discuss below. The physical symptoms are nothing but manifestations of thoughts we generate in our minds.

You are Unable to Freely Express Yourself

One of the classic signs of the blocked (underactive) throat chakra is the inability to express yourself freely. This generally happens when you’re attending a social gathering or an office meeting. You fear being judged by others, and as a result, you refrain from expressing your views.

The biggest fear we have is that if we express our views and opinions, we will be mocked or judged by others. We are often so scared that we choose to suppress our true thoughts and feelings.

Inability to express ourselves not only blocks our creative outlets but also makes our minds more restless.

Expressing yourself doesn’t mean that you have to come up with brilliant or groundbreaking ideas. It’s simply your ability to effectively communicate your thoughts and feelings about a particular subject.

For example, if you are in a meeting where an idea is being discussed and validated by your team members, you should be able to communicate your true thoughts and feelings about the subject without feeling conscious or scared.

Yes, they may laugh at you or make fun of your opinions. Let’s face it, most people are like that, and honestly, there’s nothing you can do about it. But that should not stop you from expressing your true feelings.

Let me tell you one important thing. You shouldn’t be fearful in expressing yourself, even if you feel you are wrong or that you don’t know much about the subject in question. It’s okay to be wrong. How will you learn and progress if you don’t allow yourself to be wrong?

A balanced throat chakra allows you to express your thoughts and feel free. It allows you to be more confident in your mannerisms and the way you present yourself to others. You no longer feel intimidated in presence of other people. You no longer hold yourself back with the fear of being wrong or mocked by others.

Lying and People Pleasing

People-pleasing is an unhealthy behavior that indicates underactive throat chakra. From the psychological perspective, people-pleasers constantly seek validation from others because they themselves have low self-esteem and lack confidence in their own abilities.

People pleasers often make commitments to people that they are not able to fulfill. They are scared to say ‘No’ and they’d rather lie than saying no to people.

For example, a very common scenario I see in workplaces is that people-pleasers agree to take up challenges much beyond their current capacity in order to create a good impression. They very well know that the task they have agreed to take on is much beyond their capacity, but they still agree to do it.

Making a good impression within the team is the first priority for them. They do it even if it’s crushing them inside. What happens is that they eventually feel burned out by the pressure of work and then resort to lying and making excuses in order to justify themselves.

They hate to admit that their decision was not based on rational thinking and logic. As a result, such people cause damage to their own reputation, as well as to that of others. They constantly operate in fear and have serious issues in their lower chakras.

Even while talking to their teammates and coworkers, they are very cautious about the words they choose to communicate. I have seen people spending almost an hour composing a simple email. They’re scared of offending others because they believe that others might hate them for it.

Balancing the throat chakra gives us the ability to develop high self-esteem and confidence.

Excessive Talking and Inability to Listen

If you find yourself talking excessively without paying much attention to what the other person has to say, you have an overactive throat chakra. The reason why you talk excessively is that you feel you’re not able to express yourself in the manner you want to or that your words don’t have a high impact.

There comes a time when people get tired of listening to such people talk endlessly because their topic of discussion is almost always centered around them.

It’s all about what they did, their achievements, their disappointments, or what they need in life. And if you carefully notice, they keep repeating the same things over and over again.

The problem is that they are not able to channel the energy properly through their throat chakra. The energy flow within their throat chakra is in access, and it’s also impacting the lower chakras.

Again the main issue here is that they cannot deal effectively with their inner feelings and emotions. They constantly try to justify either how perfect or how miserable their life is.

They make extra effort to ensure that the other person has well understood their situation. They lack the ability to sit still and analyze their own thoughts.

It’s important to understand that such people should not be judged for how they are because excessive talking is a mechanism they adopt to soothe their worry and anxiety.

It’s just that their overactive mind is manifesting itself physically as excessive talking. You can think of it as a form of emotional release.

But unfortunately, this kind of emotional release does not help them in any way. They need to balance their energy flow and calm down their overactive mind by practicing deep breathing, meditation, and mindfulness.

Engaging in Gossiping and Negative Criticism

This is again a sign of overactive throat chakra. Engaging in gossip and criticism of others is a clear indication of low self-esteem. A famous quote by 19th-century Irish poet Oscar Wilde says, “Criticism is the only reliable form of autobiography”.

People generally criticize others for shortcomings they themselves have. For example, someone who is conscious of his or her looks will always pass comments on others. People who don’t dress up nice end up critiquing others for their fashion sense.

When you balance your throat chakra, you get rid of such negative vrittis (tendencies), and the tones of positive energy reverberate within you.

Sometimes we engage in gossip in the garb of passing time or taking a break from work. I remember I used to engage in gossip and criticize my boss during break times. The excuse I gave was that “It’s just casual fun. We don’t mean any harm to anyone”.

But over time, I made it into a habit. The people I used to gossip with started bitching about me behind my back, and that negativity came back full circle to haunt me. It’s never casual or fun when it happens to you.

When you give out negative energy, you retain some part of it within yourself. Over time this negative energy accumulates and becomes dominant within you, affecting your own prana. This dominant energy affects your chakras and gives rise to a host of serious problems in life.

Interrupting Others While Talking

I notice this a lot when I see famous people on talk shows or in corporate board meetings. They ask questions as the host but don’t let the guest complete their sentence.

The problem is that they want to accept only that piece of information that falls within the perimeter of their personal beliefs and ideas.

These people have a highly inflated ego, and they don’t behave nicely when someone contradicts them. This indicates an overactive throat chakra. The excess energy makes them restless and impatient.

They operate mostly under the influence of ego and arrogance, and their desire to dominate plays a big factor in their life. They interrupt because they assume that they have understood what the other person is trying to say or can do a better job by supplementing additional information with their own facts.

Such people should also work on healing their heart (Anahata) chakra and throat chakra.

Suppressing Your Thoughts, Feelings and Emotions

People with underactive throat chakra tend to suppress their thoughts and feelings. This generally begins during early childhood when we are subjected to social and cultural conditioning, which otherwise teaches us to behave in a particular manner and to keep up with the norms of society.

A person who does not follow the norms of society is generally considered an outcast. The fear of being an outcast forces us to behave in the manner society wants us to. We are told by our parents, friends, and close relatives that’s it not good to talk about our real emotions.

To give you an example, I see a complete stereotyping of roles for both men and women at workplaces. For example, if a woman is the CEO of a company, she is expected to behave in a particular manner. I’m shocked to see women in such roles suppressing themselves and emulating the behaviors of men.

Now I understand that being in the top position requires a person to demonstrate stability and firmness, especially when it comes to making decisions, but we must understand that the way women feel is completely different from the way men do.

If a woman feels overwhelmed or intimidated in an environment, she should have the right to express her feelings and emotions. That does not make her weak or vulnerable. And the same goes for men as well. The real courage is on the inside and not an outward show.

But the cultural stigma is so strong that we end up labeling such people weak and unworthy. A person’s ability to express his or her emotions without fear is one of the biggest traits of being an effective leader. Emotional intelligence is one of the core qualities of people in high positions.

Suppressed feelings and emotions can cause energy blockage in the throat chakra and chakras below it. If not worked on, this can cause serious mental and physical ailments.

Social Anxiety

The simplest explanation of social anxiety that comes to my mind is extreme shyness. However, it is a deep psychological issue, the roots of which can be traced back to an individual’s childhood.

People who are not able to express themselves are generally shy and have a weak voice. They even feel shy about calling a server at the restaurant to take their order.

They feel scared that the server may ignore them and, therefore, cannot gather the strength to speak with a firm, impactful voice. Sometimes all you can hear is a weak mumble.

Let me make it very clear here that having a weak sounding or soft voice is not always an indication of psychological problem or blocked throat chakra. Mahatma Gandhi had a very soft voice but he demonstrated extra ordinary resilience, brilliant ideas and leadership skills.

The problem is only when the weak voice is because of fear, and there’s tension involved. SAD is an indication of an underactive throat chakra.

Final Thoughts

Now you very well know about what causes blockages in the throat chakra. If you’re interested in healing your throat chakra, you can refer to the article Ultimate Guide to Healing the Throat Chakra, where I talk about meditation, affirmations, yoga, healing crystals, essential oils, and other ways of healing.

When your Vishuddha or throat chakra is balanced, the focus shifts from ‘Me’ to ‘You.’ As I mentioned earlier, you develop empathy and in general, become more compassionate towards people.

You don’t think about yourself that much. You develop an abundance mindset and always think about creating value for others.

When I started this blog, I never thought, “what’s in it for me.” I kept writing even when no one was reading my articles. My main mission in life is to raise human consciousness without expecting much from myself in return.

As I write this article, I don’t make enough money from this blog, but the happiness I get by spreading joy to others has no parallel.

I have a strong belief that when you help others without expectations, the universe starts providing sooner or later. I don’t keep the expectation of making millions of dollars, but I know I will be taken care of.

It’s time for the world to wake up and realize that we are all one. The reason for our existence here is to raise our consciousness and help ourselves to realize who we are and where our true destination is.

Help spread the message!