How to Speak Your Truth

Leah Guy is author of the new book The Fearless Path: A Radical Awakening to Emotional Healing and Inner Peace. She is also a transpersonal healer, survivor and media personality. And today we are SO psyched to have her sharing an excerpt from her book about how to speak your truth.

Learn How to Speak Your Truth by Leah Guy

Your voice is an important barometer of your health. Like a finely tuned instrument, it reveals emotions such as fear, joy, strength and shame. An emotional imbalance will manifest in the throat or physical movement as weakness, restriction or unevenness. Hoarseness or a “frog” in the throat are signs of an internal emotional struggle.

The voice should be used as a tool for expressing thought and emotion, not as a means of control. Poor communication skills can be damaging to self and others. Constriction or restriction of the voice may appear due to yelling, lying, diminishing others, or negative talk to self or others. The fear to speak up or express your needs can also have a detrimental effect.

The fifth or Throat Chakra is the Communications Center. It’s also called The Seat of Emotion. Healthy energy in this area coincides with speaking one’s truth and giving expression to desires, wants, needs, opinions and thoughts. As the first of the higher vibration spiritual chakras, this energy center demands the highest integrity and authentic truth that is often challenged by self-doubt and negative thinking. The Throat Chakra is more than simple vocal expression. It also includes body language, written expression and how we understand the expression of others. When the Throat Chakra is out of balance, there is often another emotional energy system that needs attention. The primary blockages to a healthy Throat Chakra are the untruths we tell ourselves and others. Deceit, lies and manipulation are the blocks that keep us trapped.

Physical symptoms that may arise from an unhealthy Throat Chakra may include gum or teeth issues, neck pain, clearing of throat, chronic fatigue, headaches, thyroid and endocrine issues, hoarseness, dental issues, polyps on glands and TMJ to name a few.

Ignoring our fears or shortcomings traps energy in our bodies and can also develop into a variety of other emotional symptoms and patterns such as gossiping, fear of ridicule or judgment, shyness, stubbornness, verbal abuse, manipulation, inability to express thoughts, social anxiety and fear of public speaking.

Concealing one’s feelings and denying who you are is only damaging to one person: You. It is your responsibility to have healthy and honest expressions. Learn to say what you mean and mean what you say.

One of the main reasons we lie is to hide our pain and suffering. Addiction is another indicator that emotional healing is needed. You can’t be harmonious with yourself and be in addiction. To deny that truth is to lie to yourself. When I smoked, I lied to myself about my emotional and physical health. When I smoked, I convinced myself I was meditating or having some sort of spiritual experience alone in the great outdoors. The truth was the buzz from the smoke was covering the volcano of emotions that were deep in my body. It was my smoke screen.

Carrying such shame and fearing to admit the truth of our suffering is difficult. You may be lying about your true feelings about your spouse or a friendship. These personal lies become internalized as self-criticism, self-loathing or denial of self-love. We are afraid to judge ourselves so we create excuses, blame others and manipulate situations to avoid the hurt. We lie to avoid infliction of self-pain to our spirit.

To heal our emotional wounds, we must practice speaking our truth in word and deed. Saying what we need, what we desire. Using your voice is not just for words alone, or to communicate with others. Practice being honest with yourself. Completely honest. Self-love, compassion and truth-telling are powerful routes to healing old wounds that have developed from shame, guilt, grief and fear. Speak out about who you are today and what you feel. Your energy will shift from internal awareness and expression.

What truth can you speak today? —Leah Guy

Reprinted, with permission of the publisher, from The Fearless Path, © 2017 Leah Guy. Published by New Page Books a division of Career Press, Wayne, NJ. 800-227-3371. All rights reserved.