If you've known me for a while, you know that I'm a pretty quiet person. I used to be so shy that I refused to order pizza on the phone...yeah, I still laugh at myself for that one. My shyness has dissipated over the years but my quiet spirit remains. When I'm in a large group of people, I'm the observer, not the communicator. I sit back, watch, and listen. If I have something to say, I'll try to ease it into the conversation, but I'm hesitant to interrupt anyone. Often times when I finally do contribute to the conversation I'm interrupted and tend to fall quiet again. This is me and I've accepted it. However, lately I've been compelled to talk more and I'm finally realizing why.
Another fun fact about me is that I get strep throat at least 4 times a year, if not more. Sometimes it gets so bad that I cannot even swallow. My body has pretty much become immune to antibiotics at this point and I was pretty close to getting my tonsils taken out. Before I did that I went to the my doctor and discussed everything with her. She suggested trying a few things before jumping to surgery and thank God she did! The first thing was cutting out dairy. Basically, there was so much scar tissue on my tonsils that they weren't healing properly. All the dairy I was eating was "getting stuck" around my tonsils creating lots of phlegm which was not allowing my tonsils to heal. So, I stopped eating dairy for a week or so and boom the phlegm was gone! Gradually I've introduced a little more dairy into my diet and can now tell when I'm eating too much because the phlegm comes back. I'm happy to say that I've been strep throat free for about 4 months now! Woooohooo!
Another thing I contribute to being strep throat free is my newfound need to communicate. Stella explained to me about the 5th chakra, which is located at the throat. The issues associated with this chakra are communication, inspiration, expression, and faith. Communication not only involves what we say, but also what we FAIL to say. Saying nothing at all for whatever reason means that those thoughts fester and the throat chakra suffers. If one’s 5th chakra is closed down, then there is fear of expressing oneself, fear of speaking one’s truth, or excessive shyness. The voice itself is timid and the words are few. If the chakra is too open, we are so busy expressing that we forget to listen, or our voice is dissonant, and we are unable to enter into resonance with those around us.
Since learning about the 5th chakra I've been more communicative and more open to speaking my truth. The other night when I was upset during the mantra meditation my throat became tight and started to burn. The more I ignored it and tried to push my words down, the more it hurt. But, once I started openly speaking to Stella and Tobi about my issues with the mantra meditation, my throat began to open again and by the end there was no more burning or pain. Looking back I realize that a lot of times when I try to stifle any noises I might make when crying (like in a movie theater) my throat burns. Could this be because I need to let those noises out in order to express my current emotion? Possibly.
I'm still a little skeptical of chakras and definitely have a lot of research to do to see how it might integrate into my own faith, but it's all pretty interesting. Needless to say, being aware of how my body reacts to my lack of communication has really allowed me to speak my truth more fearlessly. It's actually pretty exciting!!
One last cool fact for the day... I bought a new yoga mat on Saturday morning... it's light blue... Tobi pointed out to me at our asana intensive that light blue is the color of the 5th chakra (something I was not aware of when buying it). Now that's pretty freakin awesome!
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