What the lump in your throat may be telling you…
Many people recently have talked to me about the same set of symptoms.
Either a lump in the throat that lingers or has been there for a long time, or a feeling of contraction or extreme tension in the neck.
As someone who is always trying to find the patterns, I took a poll the other day in my IG stories and found that 85% of the people who responded to the survey, had these symptoms.
Based on what I know and have researched (through my own lenses/areas of interest … trauma healing, somatic embodiment, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the chakra system, spirituality, etc…) my *theory* is that our attention is being drawn to this area as a means of healing blockages, traumas, and stagnation, so we can free our voices in a way that will be beneficial for the future we are headed toward.
Exciting, right?! Easy? Not usually… This area of the body is so nuanced.
Most of us at some point in our lives have been told not to speak too much, to be seen and not heard, to hold our tongue, to pipe down, literally causing constriction in the energy of the “pipe” that is our energetic channel which runs up through our body from our tailbone to the top of our head. There are folks who still have part of their soul connected to a past life event of these same issues or even actual beheading or strangulation.
Some people don’t notice this sensation of blockage or contraction for most of their life… until it begins to show itself in minor ways … maybe a faint sensation of something in the throat that needs to be cleared or some minor tension building on the sides of the neck for example … and then that builds and builds to something that our mind can actually recognize as a “problem,” usually after it’s already been established there for a long time.
Our bodies are road maps, showing us places where we are either holding onto energy (blockages, constrictions, stagnation) or leaking energy (holes/leaks in our energy field).
When our throat/neck is blocked or stagnant, energy gets trapped there and can’t move up to the crown area, or down from the crown into the rest of the body.
If you feel the above-mentioned neck-area symptoms AND tightness in your chest AND/OR trouble getting your thoughts under control / your mind racing often, this stagnation + back-up could be the case for you.
We can also see a disconnection between mind and body.. so, an example of this could look like someone who has many creative impulses without the ability to strategize about them… or lots of ideas without the will to implement any of them.
There are also examples of this sort of tightening in the throat and neck being caused by lots of trauma in the body that is not processed. The body creates a protective mechanism between the felt sense of the body and the ability to perceive with the head/mind, cutting off those sensations of the body from awareness so the person can go through their day-to-day without having to be constantly experiencing the trauma stored in the body.
In TCM, they even have a term for this specific stagnation/feeling of a lump in the throat: plumpit qi, a piece of a larger manifestation called Plumstone Syndrome.
This is a symptom that for TCM is purely based on emotional repression or withholding of our emotions.
Eventually, if we don’t take care of this issue, generally with an energetic/emotional healing more so than a physical one (it doesn’t matter how much body work we get to relieve tension, if the reason the tension is there is because it’s an armoring pattern due to a subconscious emotional process that isn’t healed/completed, the tension will just keep resurfacing), it builds like a stream that has been dammed by a fallen tree trunk, with standing water that eventually breeds bacteria or algae in its stagnation …
Which can then manifest in bigger issues like constant sore throats, persistent tension and pain in the neck, thyroid problems, or dis-eases such as throat cancer.
This sort of stagnation can also travel up or down-stream, causing issues like brain fog, trouble with remembering words, a congested or sticky feeling in the heart.
Our throat chakra is our center of creative expression, of being able to speak our truth.
When we live in a culture with so many of us afraid to speak our truth or express ourselves… or even molding ourselves into an “acceptable” presentation and parroting what we think others want to hear…
(ie social media influencers or those trying to find success online in any form, constantly trying to adapt our expression to please the algorithm.. not to mention fear of being canceled for saying the wrong thing.. or just a general sense of suppressing ourselves in front of certain people in our daily lives..),..
…then these physical patterns of subduing our true expression and basically canceling our true selves… become really apparent.
You may notice this in folks who have a tiny voice when they talk, or their voice sounds constricted and kind of whiny. Someone with their throat chakra open and flowing smoothly has a voice that may be reflective of that in different ways, like a beautifully toned voice, a sing-song voice, or a voice that gives the impression of accord and balance.
The throat chakra is also the entry point of our chakra system for our absorption of the vibrations that are in our fields/surroundings. Imagine the energy waves of everything in your home, your cell phone, your computer, your wifi router, your microwave, your smart watch, your Bluetooth speakers and headphones…
All of these emit waves of energy, and the throat chakra is the point of our energy body and chakra system that takes all this in to interpret it on an energetic level.
Even our words we speak and the sound waves we hear constantly (TV, music, podcasts, audiobooks, the news, radio, all the different reels and TikToks we watch with sound on..), including the speech of those around us (ex: parents who have chatterbox kids (side note: around age 4/5, most children talk constantly to anybody who will listen and this is the beginning of the most potent period of development for the throat chakra as well, if we can foster it!) or spouse.. or a TV that is always on).
These are all energy waves coming into this throat chakra as a “port of entry” to our whole energy body.
This is a lot of discordant energy, potentially…
To me, it makes sense that some of us have developed “armoring” or stiffening of this area and the surrounding tissues, as our throat chakra tries to keep us safe from this onslaught of energetic frequency.
Another interesting connection I’ve found with all of this is that for people with yonis, our throat and our CERVIX are connected.
In this system, one is the “top” of this pathway (the throat is how we express energy), and one is the “bottom” (the cervix is how we gatekeep who and what energy enters this system).
Embryologically, the throat and the womb develop next to each other and then move away from each other as the embryo grows.
Because of this we have specific webs of interconnected fascia that run from our tailbone all the way to the tip of our tongue.
The vagus nerve, the most complex of our cranial nerves, contributes to every aspect of our nervous system’s ability to regulate, and it runs … can you guess?… from the brain to our throat… and terminates in the .. cervix!
So if you experience the above-mentioned symptoms in your neck and throat area, plus you are also experiencing associated issues with the “other end:” pelvic pain, endometriosis, incontinence, constipation, painful sex, or painful periods… these are likely to be two sides of the same coin or emotional issue in your body expressing themselves concurrently.
Something that I’ve personally experienced with regards to neck and throat tension is this pattern that is seeded or stems from a childhood of not being able to express myself. I wasn’t able to use my voice to express my own thoughts or feelings or boundaries in my family growing up.
This lack of expression built itself into rage, and it for SURE wasn’t safe or acceptable for me to have or express rage in my childhood or adulthood until I created that container for myself within the last few years.
This rage became super apparent during the postpartum time after my first child was born and I felt a ton of self-shame and self-limitation, which expressed itself physically, because my rage was not an “appropriate” emotion to express at ALL (to me), especially in front of a tiny child.
So due to that feeling of lack of safety to express the rage that was a consequence of my childhood lack of ability to use my voice …. I developed tightness in both my neck and my pelvic floor.
I had a lot of issues with my vulva and vagina post-birth, for years, plus chronic tension in my jaw to the point that it started popping and cracking when I was using it at times..
Once I began to honor and “complete the cycle” for all of those emotions, the rage and the shame and restriction from childhood (and past generations in my family), my tension in my neck and my yoni melted away over time.
I’m sure you can imagine there are a lot of nuanced topics and expressions connected to these two areas — womb and throat — of our bodies:
Feeling uncomfortable with our sexuality and not being able to speak that out loud… feeling traumatized by our birth experience and not being comfortable or able to share about it… discomfort being seen and expressed as a fully sexual being once we become a mother (or even before motherhood)…
There is so much connection energetically and emotionally between these two areas.
The Sanskrit name for this chakra is vissudha, which means purification.
This chakra is literally the purifier of our entire energy field/etheric body/aura… Which is a big part of how we interact with the world around us in resonance or in discord, depending…
If this chakra is blocked, and not able to purify the energy coming in or going out of our entire field, the results are all-encompassing… from the way our cells interact with each other to the way we magnetize or repel certain people and situations into our everyday lived experience.
This part of our body is literally how we consciously create the world around us.
Each moment, through our actions, expressions, and communications.
This area of the body is the key to the expression of the life force that you have taken in through your lower chakras.
In order to have a harmonious life, we must balance this part of our body.
I believe collectively we are experiencing a greater awareness of this issue by means of our sore necks, tightness, blocked or tight throats, because we are being invited to heal and evolve in a way that will be beneficial for us moving forward.
So… what is the pathway toward releasing these blocks, constrictions, tensions?
There are many!
I am not in a position to tell anyone on this email list exactly what is going on in their life which is causing neck/throat tension, or what will work to help it feel better, so none of what is listed below is definitive and it’s not all going to be relevant to everyone experiencing these issues..
AND.. I’ll list some ideas below you might want to try. I would also invite you to ask your higher self for clarity on the pathway toward healing that is perfect for YOU. With all of these options, please be sure to love what comes up, love yourself completely in your expression, and resource yourself by giving yourself love as you navigate these big issues. Titrate your experience by slowly taking steps in a way that is not overwhelming to your nervous system.
Create more resonance in the sounds you take in and the frequency of all the devices you surround yourself with. Limit the amount of frequency by turning off all devices completely (even your wifi router) at least overnight while you sleep. Unplug all the cords from the walls, too. Limit your intake of “sonic data” to healing sounds, less often, while you journey to heal this area.
Create time and space for deep listening. Most of us are not used to sitting in silence with our own thoughts an feelings. This practice is a good way to begin to re-establish this relationship between the mind and the body through the channel of the throat/neck. Remove all distractions and set an intention to listen to your body. Maybe sensations will come up, or emotions, and you can allow yourself to get curious about them and ask them what they’d like you to know. You can even speak directly to the sensations in your neck and throat and ask them what purpose they are serving in your life. And if it’s “protection,” ask it “from what?” This can create healing as well as establishing more of a pathway of energy where your blockage has been.
Breathwork. If you have a lot of acute or chronic trauma stored in your body, I would suggest working with a trained breathwork facilitator who can be there with you holding a container of safety as you journey into your body or into the cosmos through your breath. If you’re just curious and feel resourced enough to do so, you can search for some guided breathwork practices online.
Creative expression… this is not an extra… this is an imperative part of working with opening the throat chakra. Journaling, painting, drawing, coloring, creating digital media, building something with your hands, working with clay, making a craft. Incorporating creative expression is a pathway to healing this area.
Journaling about manifestations, and planning steps to take to get there. Honoring whatever comes up.. This is a step toward feeling secure in your relationship with yourself, and to build comfort in your abilities to move forward in time and create what you will to create.
Explore themes of shame and safety in your body. Do you feel safety in your body? Do you have areas of shame? Either physically or in other aspects of who you Be? If we don’t feel safe to exist, we will protect the expression of our inner world from going out into the outer world. This protection comes in the form of tight throat, tense shoulders and neck, throwing our head out of alignment with the rest of our body. Making time to explore with self-inquiry creates clarity, which we can then use to take steps to heal.
Explore secrets you may be keeping. Either out of shame or fear or just because you’re not sure how to communicate properly. This can happen due to a childhood where you weren’t talked with like a human being, without folks asking you questions about your thoughts and feelings (which is how we learn to express what is inside of us!).
Singing: we can not express through our throat chakra without touching emotions. So if you’re prepared to explore the emotional foundations to your throat/neck issues, please give singing a try! It helps activate and express what is there, if you’re unsure of exactly what emotions are potentially causing or contributing to your throat/neck issues. It also stimulates the vagus nerve in a calming way at the same time.
Toning, chanting, humming. This not only activates the vagus nerve in a calming way, but ancient schools have associated specific tones with each chakra. The tone for the throat chakra is Ham (“hahm”) and the vowel sound is Eeee (like in “sleep”). Experiment with the tone and the vowel sound together or each on their own to see what affect they have on your system. You can find examples of these sounds on YouTube.
Learn communication skills. Sometimes it’s just as simple as that. When our body doesn’t feel comfortable communicating because it never learned how to do so in a way that feels aligned, it can close down this area of our body. There are a lot of different modern schools of communication, from Conscious Communication to The Circling Method to Non-Violent Communication. Find a pathway that feels resonant to you and dive in!
Get in touch with your tension and ask what’s underneath there. Is there a feeling that it’s not safe to express yourself? Is it a feeling that you’re not allowed to exert your boundaries and your truth safely? Whatever it is, try to create the safe, loving, accepting container for yourself to do what hasn’t been safe previously. If there’s rage, express that by punching a pillow or screaming or whatever is needed. This will signal to your nervous system that you CAN express a boundary, you CAN express your truth… this is like signaling to your nervous system that you CAN protect yourself, with your voice. And the world will seem like a safer place because, according to your nervous system, you will have the tools to “come correct” to whatever danger may present itself. Your body will relax in that feeling of safety and protection from your voice, instead of holding the tension in your body as armor.
Use crystals to assist your throat and neck to heal. Examples of crystals people typically use to support these processes are typically blue like: lapis lazuli, blue agate, celestite, amazonite, aquamarine, blue chalcedony, sodalite, azurite, larimar, etc…
Use yoga poses to help stretch the neck and and open this area, like cat pose, cobra, camel, etc… The cool thing about yoga is that it’s not just physical stretching… it’s a spiritual healing pathway as well. I would advise working with a yoga practitioner who can help you make adjustments for exactly your issues.
Phew! If you’ve made it this far, bless you :)
What do you think? Does this feel relevant to your experience at all? Are you going to try any of these suggestions? Please keep me posted and let me know how it goes!
And if you’re looking for more support or guidance through a trauma-informed spiritual somatic embodiment pathway toward healing and releasing and integrating what may be stored in this area…
I’m your gal :)
