Sing out Strong! Still Cher-ing!
Today I will focus on Vishuddha, our fifth chakra. Bright blue in color, it is located at the throat and governs our speech, hearing, and Thyroid gland. If our throat chakra is healthy, we can speak our truth clearly and freely. We take the right action to use our voices responsibly. An open fifth chakra lets us feel free to chant or sing. We can please ourselves and others with our own voices and sounds.
When the Vishuddha chakra is wide open and healthy, we can sing, chant, read out loud, and speak publicly. It’s such a life-enhancing gift! Understanding how we humans share information and healthy discrimination of speech start in our brains and happen in our throats.
If this chakra is unbalanced, closed, or damaged, we have a repressed life experience. Mistrust, lack of faith, depression, anxiety, anger, denial, and both physical and mental illness can result if our fifth chakras are compromised.
So many of us found satisfaction and freedom in using our voices as children. Babies cry out for all their needs, and as they learn to formulate ideas about what response their cries and gurgles receive, they soon begin to recognize and replicate sounds. The sounds become words, and before you know it, their voices emerge, speaking to their loved ones and the outer world. When adults cannot tolerate a child’s voice and the child is silenced, trouble ensues. Without being heard, a child will suffer.
I had speech therapy in elementary school. I couldn’t pronounce the sound of Rs and Ls correctly, and teachers had trouble understanding me when I spoke. It had to do with the formation of the skin that anchors one’s tongue and assists with speech and eating called the lingual frenulum. The lingual frenulum is a fold of mucus membrane under your tongue’s center portion. If you look in the mirror and lift up your tongue, you’ll be able to see it. https://www.healthline.com/health/lingual-frenulum
Because of this condition, my speech was inhibited. When I was told as a child that I was “tongue-tied,” it was hurtful and disturbing to hear. All I wanted to do was sing out. My mother sang often and considered herself to have an excellent voice. On top of being labeled tongue-tied, I was told early on that I was “tone-deaf.” Which was a lie. When I had my own children, I was sure they knew I loved hearing them speak and sing! I meant it then, and I mean it now. Singing is a gift for us all, not just a chosen few though it can feel exclusive and coveted if one is serious about singing as a hobby or vocation.
After a couple of years of speech therapy in fourth and fifth grade, I stopped calling my friend Randy; Wandy and was able to say Gary instead of Gawwy. I learned to say jewelry and brewery (my two most challenging words) and was working on singing and memorizing my favorite music albums verbatim. The following year I started middle school and had some awful times. In the chorus, I was too shy to sing out and took comfort in our group of blended voices. One girl from a family of five ( I will call her Nancy) was bent on embarrassing and bullying vulnerable, anxious girls for fun. She sent a note around the chorus class for everyone to stop singing at once when she signaled them. She had been poking fun at my expense for a while. Over 20 years later, I would read my daughter a book called Blubber by Judy Blume and find these tactics outlined in the story. I thought for years how diabolical and specific Nancy’s bullying was, only to find out, as a mom, she read it in a book! Judy Blume was teaching bullies ways to torture their classmates. I don’t think Judy meant to do that; I wish to assume she was hoping to evoke empathy. This “Queen bee, Nancy, and her wannabees” were careful to keep the note away from me. The other girls were scared of Nancy and didn’t want to be her next victim, so they complied. I am sure some thought it was funny, and others thought it was mean. No one, including the chorus teacher, reprimanded her or talked to me about it when it happened. I dropped out of the chorus the next day, and no one seemed to notice or care. I stopped caring about school for a long while. I felt it was a place to be tortured and singled out by mean kids looking to belittle and feel the power.
If anyone reading this felt they were silenced or bullied as a child, I wish to share what helped me heal this problem. I was a quirky self-conscious, anxious little girl with a speech issue and little support at home. It showed and made me a vulnerable target to some.
When I matured and went to college, I chose subjects that interested me. Fine Arts, Healing Arts, Psychology, Behavioral Health, and other modalities of healing, exercise, and food are subjects I love to discuss. I love to sing and have joined many singing workshops and yoga groups where we chant and sing. There is nothing wrong with my voice. I’ll never be a Celine or Barbara, that’s for sure, but I love to point out that Cyndi Lauper made it with a limited range and an abundant spirit! I had a voice and could contribute to an academic conversation which helped me become more vocal and integrated with my peers. True Colors just came to mind by Cyndi. Click below to hear!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPn0KFlbqX8
What are your true colors, and what do you love to talk about? What makes you feel alive and expressive?
What you feel and know about yourself counts. In my next life, I can be a respected singer and travel the world on tour! Or maybe I will be a grasshopper. Lol! For now, though, I am happy to join in a song whenever it’s available, and I am in the mood to sing. I sing in the car, in the kitchen, or in a workshop, I get to practice, and nobody can make me feel shamed or timid but myself. That’s one of the best things about growing up. It’s never too late to revisit and heal childhood trauma. Every once in a while, I get an urge to join a singing or sound healing workshop. When I have an opportunity to sing out solo, I usually freeze. It takes a slight warming up and trust-building before I break free from the chains of my youth. I hope that someday I will forget that my voice was an issue. I still love to chant and sing. I mostly do it during yoga. Here is a yoga exercise to tone and strengthen your fifth chakra.
Sit in an easy pose (cross-legged on the floor or in a chair). Massage your neck. The back and front, and make sure you are comfortably warm. Eyes closed or soft. Breathe in, and your head turns right. Breathe out, head center. Breath in, head turns left. Breathe out, head center. Breathe out, head on straight, center. Breath in, chin to chest, breath out, head center. Breathe in, and look up to the sky.
Play Ra-Ma-Da-Sa- Sa-Say-So-Hum for at least three minutes and chant along. Use this link below Snatam Kaur — Ra Ma Da Sa (mantra for healing). Love Life, Jackie.
