What are some mental and physical exercises that unblock the throat chakra?

[Bring4th_Austin]

To me, one of the most significant things about the throat chakra that Ra talked about was the need for honesty. In fact, it is a "paucity of honesty" in our culture that is one of the reasons for difficulty in penetrating this energy center. So when I think about unblocking the blue ray, I don't think just in terms of communication, but of honest communication.

I have a bit of a unique interpretation of what exactly honest communication is. As example, say that you get get incredibly angry at a person and call them all manner of insults then punch them in the face. This would be an honest expression of how you feel, right? But I do not think that it is indicative of a person who has opened the heart chakra and penetrated the throat chakra.

Honesty, to me, in this context, is understanding yourself to such an extent that you know where you are communicating from, so that what you are communicating is sort of naturally imbued with your honesty. You understand the depth behind whatever it is you are saying, you realize the path you have walked which causes you to form whatever opinion it is you are expressing, you have an awareness that you still have distortions or biases and try to account for those, you have grasped the nature of your personal evolution to an extent that it informs how you view others and how you communicate with others. The required honesty seems to come from the need to be honest with one's self, before honesty with an other-self.

Part of this, I think, is then communicating in a way that you determine to be effective. You are able to better see where another person is coming from and attempt to meet them there. Instead of just shooting off what you believe to be true without consideration for how it is received, you do your best to communicate so that your communication will be understood with minimal distortion. It means your truth may be shared in different ways with different people.

With that in mind, I think one of the most effective exercises is simply discussing with someone you disagree with, and be mindful of a desire to understand and to be understood. Instead of trying to "win" an argument and be right, turn the argument into a discussion. Ask people why they feel a certain way, share as honestly as possible (with consideration for the other person's feelings) why you feel the way you do, and try to find common ground. And be comfortable with walking away with disagreement still in place.

A less intimidating exercise is to practice having discussions from two different points of view. I have found this especially helpful when attempting to work through issues with personal relationships.

I think a lot of people have arguments in their head with people, but we often skew those arguments so that we are victorious. I have found that this energy which feeds this internal arguments can be harnessed and ultimately released by becoming more mindful of them. Instead of allowing them to stay in your head, write them down. Take both sides. First, explain your point of view, your emotions, your part in the issue. Then do your best to put yourself in the other person's shoes and genuinely try to explain things from their perspective. Have a conversation back and forth with both sides attempting to come to an understanding of the other side.

This exercise not only helps practice mindful communication, but is very helpful in coming to a better understanding of ourselves and cultivating an empathy for those we seem to be in opposition to. You can take the exercise to another level by actively speaking for both sides. And make it even more powerful by recording yourself, audio or video, explaining one side of a discussion, then putting yourself in the mentality of the "other," and watching yourself, then recording a response to that.

You will feel and look like a crazy person, but I have found these sorts of methods incredibly powerful. It is always interesting to see the depths of the conversations I can have from different perspectives, and when recording myself, it can be very eerie to watch myself enact roles that I normally wouldn't express.