Awaken the Power of Your Throat Chakra

Try this simple meditation to awaken the power of your throat chakra.

The practice of keeping silence, which in Sanskrit is known as mouna, is a powerful exercise that can help you to conserve, purify, and strengthen the energy of your vishuddha chakra, or throat center—the bridge between your heart and mind. By practicing the Mouna Meditation below, you will begin, through a process of self-analysis, to make sure that your words coincide with your actions—and to ensure that your words and your actions remain in tune with your thoughts. Practicing silence will also help you focus inward and meditate.

Mouna Meditation

• To observe silence you need to choose a time or a day when you do not need to work or mix with other people. While you are keeping silent, you can practice yoga asanas or pranayama breathing exercises, or do some simple manual work. But do not listen to music, watch television, perform any type of fast exercise, or do anything that requires intellectual focus, such as reading.

• As you decrease the external noise around you, note the busyness of your internal mental environment. In the early days of practicing Mouna Meditation, notice the great number of thoughts that arise to try to get you to break your silence: you might suddenly remember a phone call you have to make, or old worries, problems, and emotions might surface. Do not allow yourself to become involved with these concerns. Just watch the thoughts as though they are bubbles, which will soon pop or float away. Your anxieties will no longer exist, and it will become easier to remain silent both internally and externally.

• Try to introduce the increased mental awareness that this practice brings into your everyday life. Before speaking, edit your words. Say only what is required and what is truthful. As your silent practice stills your bubbling thoughts and surging emotions, notice how words begin to have greater power when you do utter them.

• Over time, build up your Mouna Meditation practice until you can observe external silence for at least one hour daily. Or, if possible, spend one day a week in total silence. Try eating a meal in silence at least once a week.

Reprinted with permission of DBP, Dist., by Sterling, from Chakra Meditation: Discover Energy, Creativity, Focus, Love, Communication, Wisdom, and Spirit by Swami Saradananda. © 2008 Swami Saradananda.