“Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.”
? Maya Angelou
Could you find better words to bring forth womb-throat connection?
When she was around seven or eight years old, Maya was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend, a man named Freeman. She confided in her older brother, Bailey, who then told the rest of the family. Freeman was arrested and found guilty, but he was sentenced to only one single day in jail. Just four days after his release, Freeman was found beaten to death—presumably murdered by Maya’s uncles seeking vengeance. Upon hearing that he was dead, young Maya became convinced that speaking his name and telling the truth had killed him. She vowed never to speak again, fearing that her voice held a lethal power that could destroy anyone. Five years of intense withdrawal became formative for her intellect. She developed an extraordinary memory, memorizing vast amounts of literature, poetry, and scripture, and observing the rhythms of the world around her. She has penned down this traumatic experience in her landmark 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
There is a striking similarity between womb and larynx. So is it between vocal chords and pelvic floor.
Have you ever felt silenced?
A lump in your throat that doesn’t go away?
Holding back on your voice does that to many people.
Holding back on your ideas, for fear of being judged, mocked
Holding back to pamper the egos of other individuals, holding back to not invoke envy
Embryologically the throat and the womb develop next to each other and over a period of time grow away from each other as the embryo grows. Due to this formation the throat has a fascial connection to the pelvic floor. The stress in one becomes the stress in other. The tightness in one becomes the congestion in other. Due to the vagus nerve connection, stress in our nervous system and our breathing patterns don’t go unnoticed for this womb-throat connection. The sacral chakra has a vital link to throat chakra. When we find our voice using creative channels such as humming, writing, artwork, etc., both these chakras heal. When we relax our jaw, our pelvic floor muscles also relax. The body functions as an ecosystem and not in isolated chambers.
When women swallow their anger, their truth and hold back on their expression, this suppression finds home as stuck energy in pelvic floor and throat blockages.
Various ways in which you can free the tension are-
- Somatic sounding to express emotions- Sing, hum, vocalize, sigh and maybe groaning
- Take an inventory of your people-pleasing patterns, playing it small patterns and patterns surround self-silencing
- Making use of crystals such as Aquamarine, Blue Lapis Lazuli for throat chakra; Carnelian, Tiger’s eye for sacral chakra
- Express yourselves- Be it in the form of artwork, dance, writing, poetry. Art is alchemy and helps stuck emotions find a gateway
- Release suppressed anger using somatic exercises such as pillow screaming, the towel twist, the wall push, somatic shaking, etc.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you” – Maya Angelou
