A post about wellness through expression…
This post is inspired by a conversation at a recent drum circle. We were talking about skipping in public. 🙂 I’m in!
Finding your voice (and using it) is more than just speaking your truth. It’s more than overcoming fears of public speaking. It’s more than working on good communication. Yet… all those things can certainly improve quickly by knowing this!
So what’s a metaphorical voice, and how can you exercise using it? We’ll take a lesson from the throat chakra, and also from shamanism, though it’s really all one thing.
Very simply, shamanism teaches that illness is caused by a lack of personal, truthful, self-expression. That means that healing occurs through personal, truthful, self-expression. This goes for all kinds of healing – physiological and psychological/ emotional. Truthful self-expression is thee biggest deal.
The throat chakra, also known as the 5th primary chakra, is responsible for your ability to speak your truth, to communicate, and <drum roll> to express yourself. When your throat chakra is blocked or out of whack, you might have trouble with all three of these things. And while all chakras and your whole energy system are important, not being able to speak and express your truth means living as someone else and basically being an actor to your own demise. It is suffocating, and it can cause people to wonder what they’re living for. Think about it. Who would not wonder that – if they are pretending (probably because they think they must, and I know this well) to live as someone else and express themselves as someone else?
But life doesn’t have to be that way. It’s a great idea to go to a reputable energy healing facilitator, perhaps for Reiki, though there are other modes of healing as well. Why not get help making a new start, especially because the whole energy system should be worked in order for that 5th chakra to be well? But if you can’t do that right now, or if going to someone feels too awkward, I propose making your way “in” to that throat chakra through a form of self-expression – specifically, a form that fades away.
Why start with a form that fades away and what might that be?
Unrecorded sounds (it doesn’t have to be music) that you make by yourself is an example. Make some noise and find your rhythms or melodies, but don’t record it! Not yet.
You can make some art, then throw it away, and make some more art again soon after.
You can dance and not record it, sing and not record it, write and not publish it, dress up, dress down… anything!
If you really have issues with speaking and expressing your truth, you’re likely to be uncomfortable, at first, with the result of your own expression. You might not be able to see yourself or hear yourself as the real you. You might think, Oh my god.. did I just dance and yell and skip around the house like I’m ten?
Don’t let thoughts of awkwardness or permanency keep you from feeling good. Safely express yourself, then let it go. Unrecorded. Unpublished. Yet the results linger in your being.
Get used to expressing your truth, and notice how it feels while you’re doing it and afterward. Notice the residual effect because once you start to feel a little closer to your true self, you’re going to want more of that. You’ll understand the difference it makes in self-care, and you’ll be a little more unwilling to go without it. Just don’t show it to anyone yet if you’ve really struggled in this area and you’re afraid. In that case, you need time to be you and to just be in truth with you – without anyone else’s input. It’s your right, and it’s good self-care.
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What are your relevant forms of self-expression? Tell us!
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