The Throat Chakra

   This energy centre corresponds to the fifth plane of consciousness, which is all to do with words, communication creativity. Here is an exercise designed to purify this chakra, while developing your creative inspiration. It involves spontaneously writing down phrases without using your intellect. It may be that you won't understand your writings until afterwards, when you read back over your text.

               "Inspired writing" exercise

   Take a sheet of paper and write down a word vertically, leaving a couple of lines between each letter. Close your eyes for a few moments, breathe calmly and deeply, and relax. Raise your consciousness, as though you were climbing a staircase of light, and ask the "little inner voice" of your Soul to inspire you. Then, starting with each of the letters in the vertical word, you are going to write out horizontally, firstly a word which begins with that letter, or even one or two phrases. Don't think about it. Write down the first thing that comes into your head. Don't "sort" the ideas, just write spontaneously. You'll often be amazed at the result, even if you're not successful every time. Remain open: the vertical word can represent a query, on which you would like to obtain some guidance, some enlightenment.

   The way we speak, and in particular our tone of voice, betrays lots of things about our inner life: our moods, emotions, states of mind, conditioning. In fact, the voice is an instrument of self-affirmation. Someone whose voice is muffled or faint often has problems pushing himself forward and asserting himself in front of others.

   Being difficult to understand is a way of "mobilising" your audience more strongly, and therefore taking energy from other people. Also, you can amuse yourself by identifying the people around you whose voice seems "strangled", either because it doesn't appear to go with that person, or because part of their energy is being "retained".

                   Voice exercise

   Then, you can gradually work on your voice:

   First of all, observe yourself when you are speaking, to sense what is happening in your throat, with regard to the energy you put into your words, into your oral expression. Then, when you feel that you are holding back, be brave and commit yourself more forcefully, by raising your tone or by speaking with more gravity. Try to sound really involved in what you are saying. You will find that the people around you perceive you differently. This kind of exercise is very effective for purifying and stimulating the Throat Chakra.

   Finally, allow yourself to have a good shout from time to time, in your car for example. This is probably one of the best places to do it, without being heard or upsetting anyone. We don't have enough opportunities in our civilisation to express ourselves by shouting. It is however very liberating, and a shout never killed anyone. Yet we stop ourselves from doing it. You certainly shouldn't take the attitude that there's something "ridiculous" about it.

   When you are speaking, you should always feel in contact with the ground, "rooted" in earth energies. This link between our voice and our "anchorage" gives weight to the words we say - they seem better "grounded", more real, quite firm. This is a considerable asset, if you really want to make yourself heard, or to inspire other people's confidence.

   Do this work on your voice as often as possible, because it has very positive effects on the 3^rd and 5^th chakras, consciously clearing them of certain kinds of conditioning. This leads to more effective self-affirmation and also boosts creativity and inspiration.