The basic right for this chakra is The Right to Speak and
Hear the Truth. I would argue that
the act and skill of listening needs to come first. How can we speak our truth and share what we believe
if we don’t know what it is first?
How do we know if the truth we are speaking is our truth or the thoughts
and ideas that have been put there by other people or by society?
The demon of this chakra that prevents us from discovering
this truth is lies. Unfortunately,
we are surrounded by lies every day – from well meaning parents who believe
they are protecting us, from the culture or society we grow up in that wants us
to follow its beliefs, from the media and corporations that tells us what we
“need” to have to be happy, and from our government that wants to have power
and control over us. However, the
worst lies we receive (and listen to) are the lies that we tell ourselves often
on a daily basis – I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy of being loved, I should
be doing _______, I shouldn’t have done that, I can’t do that, etc. With all of these lies swirling around
us as well as within us, how can we ever discover what our truth really is?
The demon of this chakra that prevents us from discovering
this truth is lies. Unfortunately,
we are surrounded by lies every day – from well meaning parents who believe
they are protecting us, from the culture or society we grow up in that wants us
to follow its beliefs, from the media and corporations that tells us what we
“need” to have to be happy, and from our government that wants to have power
and control over us. However, the
worst lies we receive (and listen to) are the lies that we tell ourselves often
on a daily basis – I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy of being loved, I should
be doing _______, I shouldn’t have done that, I can’t do that, etc. With all of these lies swirling around
us as well as within us, how can we ever discover what our truth really is?
Working with the fifth chakra is definitely a large
undertaking, and I acknowledge that I have a lot of work to do in this
area. One of the biggest obstacles
for me (as I’m sure it is for many people) is sitting in that silence and
getting past my inner critic to figure out what my truth really is. My inner critic is very good at making
me doubt myself, and keeping me in my head instead of listening to my heart. At one point in my journey, it was
suggested that I ask myself the following questions:
- What am I doing that I don’t want to do?
- What am I not saying that needs to be said?
- What do I love to do?
- What is important to me?
Fifth chakra work can involve some pretty heady stuff!! I won’t say I have an answer to all of
these questions, but I do feel like I'm making progress. I’ve started to
identify and let go of some things that I didn’t want to be doing, and I’ve
started to really know what I love, what is important to me, and what inspires
me. There was (and still is) a lot
of resistance from myself (the inner critic is not willing to give up control
that easily!!) to go through this process and make changes, but I feel like I
am starting to develop a small glimmer of an idea of what it is I am here to
do.
To work with sound and the idea of getting past our mental
chatter to discover our true selves, let's end with some mantra work. “Mantras calm the mind. The repetition of a mantra begins to
absorb the wandering thoughts of the busy mind, silencing the chatter of the
subconscious mind, which in turn begins to create one-pointedness, focus and concentration” David Goulet. Mantras exist in all languages and religions and involve the
repetition of words or phrases.
Mantras can be chanted out loud or internally, and as we learned in
class whether the sound is out loud or silent, it still produces a
vibration. Two mantras I like to
work with are Om and the Gayatri Mantra.
- Om – according to Patanjali and the Yoga Sutra’s, the chanting of this mantra results in the disappearance of obstacles and helps you to turn inwards.
- Gayatri Mantra - this was the first mantra I was taught and is said to be the oldest and most powerful of Sanskrit mantras. I love the version that Deva Premal has done and am including the video to that below.
Ideally, mantras are repeated 108 times and are best done at
sunrise, sunset or before bed.
However, feel free to do as many rounds as time allows for you, and play
around with different times to get a feel for what works in your life. You could even just try reciting them
while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, doing dishes, going for a
walk, etc. Have fun with it and
see if you can notice any effects.
Change your thoughts, raise your vibration and know that you
have a right to discover and speak your truth,
Roxanne
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