What Your Thyroid Might be Telling You: A Holistic Perspective
Although you’ve likely been given medical options to support your thyroid condition, you may still feel confused about how you got here. While physical illness is addressed immediately with modern medicine, there’s still a lack of support for your entire well-being—the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of you.
In this article we’ll look at the thyroid through a holistic lens. You’ll learn about:
The throat chakra: the energy center associated with the thyroid
How trauma blocks the flow of energy
What your body can teach you about healing
The thyroid as an intelligent living library
Hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism through a holistic lens
How to care for your well-being while healing your thyroid
What is the Throat Chakra and Why Does it Matter?
The thyroid is associated with the throat chakra—one of seven main energy centers within the body that correspond with clustered areas of nerves and organs. The throat chakra is responsible for communication, creativity and speaking your truth.
When the throat chakra is balanced, we communicate clearly. We speak our truth with conviction and it lands with the listener.
It’s also associated with creative expression. How much we unleash ourselves authentically depends on the balance of the other chakras. When the chakras work in harmony and we feel safe, passionate, powerful and loved then showing our creative side becomes a lot of fun.
When the throat chakra is imbalanced, we may have difficulty communicating, feel shut down or held back, feel frustrated or uninspired. Often there’s a fear of speaking up for ourselves because it got us in trouble.
How Trauma Blocks the Flow of Energy
Trauma is anything we experience too quickly to process. Ideally when something happens, we acknowledge it, feel it completely, and let it go. If you were taught this growing up you were the minority! When we think of trauma we usually think of big events but it’s often smaller repeated experiences like not having your feelings acknowledged as a child.
Every feeling and thought holds an electrical charge. When we experience trauma we hold onto the emotion somewhere in our body. This charged energy is like a kink in a garden hose that prevents energy from flowing freely. It also draws more of the same energy towards it so we keep attracting experiences that trigger the same emotion.
Over time we start to see the world through a distorted lens. For example, if you were shamed for speaking up then your world view might be “It’s not safe to speak my truth.” Over time, this buildup of charged energy blocks the life force that nourishes our body.
What Your Body Reveal that You Won’t Hear in a Doctor’s Office
Energy imbalances have been detected scientifically before the physical manifestation of symptoms. If we look close enough the trauma has often been there long before the health condition. It can offer acceptance of the current situation when we understand that it didn’t happen out of nowhere.
While we’re moving through the waves of emotions that come with a diagnosis, we can slowly start to shift out of a victim mindset and take small brave actions starting today. Healing is never linear so allow yourself to feel all the highs and lows. There’s a lesson here that’s leading you down a brave new path of truthful expression.
The Thyroid as an Intelligent Living Library
The body has an intelligent way of storing unresolved trauma. Certain organs and areas of the body tend to be a storehouse for thoughts and emotions vibrating at a similar frequency. There’s no hard fast rule but there seems to be enough of a pattern to give you clues on how you’re being challenged to heal.
According to the book The Secret Language of Your Body: The Essential Guide to Health and Wellness, author Inna Segal shares the following insights:
Issues the thyroid gland may be showing you
Lack of drive, feeling sluggish, numb
Disconnected from your life’s purpose
Holding back, pleasing others by carrying their baggage
Emotionally unstable, confused
Constant game of guilt and punishment with yourself
Wasting time doing things inefficiently which drains your energy
Never enough time to get anything done
Hyperthyroidism
Constant rushing, hustle, trying to pack as much as possible into day
Inability to organize yourself
Under pressure and stress to achieve
Never enough time
Feeling if you don’t get things done the world will collapse
Constant guilt and not doing more
Always there for everyone except yourself
Hypothyroidism
Defeated mindset
Everything feels like too much effort
Muddled thinking
Carrying too many burdens
Feeling worn out, emotionally unstable, exhausted
Difficulty communicating
Taking the backseat and allowing others to make important decisions
Holding back
How to Care for Your Well-being While Healing your Thyroid
When we address our mental, emotional and spiritual needs we create a nourishing environment for physical healing that can work alongside modern medicine.
Be gentle on yourself. Being human means we’re here to feel the full spectrum of emotions. Acknowledge all the feelings that come with a diagnosis. Seek mental health support if you need it.
Be open to viewing your body differently. It’s normal to feel betrayed by our body at first. When we accept that we’ve felt exhausted mentally and emotionally long before symptoms then we start to see the body with compassion. Instead of whispering it’s now speaking loudly and asking you to heal on many levels.
Explore your creative side. Creativity isn’t reserved for kids at an art table. It’s what makes us feel alive and it’s our direct channel to something bigger than us. Just like nature and children, we were never meant to take life too seriously. When we remember this playful part of us and nurture it, creativity can get us through hard times.
Think about your gifts and how they can help those around you. You have something to share. When you do what you love you bring a special awareness to it that nobody else does. How have you been compromising this part of you? It takes courage to shine our light brightly but the world needs it.
Release emotions trapped in your nervous system. We can start healing the layers of emotions that cause us to stay quiet, please others, hustle or feel defeated.
Emotional Freedom Technique is an easy-to-learn tool that uses tapping on acupuncture points to release trapped thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations. It can be done in under two minutes and is very effective.
Develop somatic awareness. By focusing and amplifying the sensations in and around your body, you can deepen your healing and feel less intimidated by discomfort. You can use anything that’s triggering you today—either a situation or bodily tension.
Observe any thoughts, images, movements, emotions or sensations (TIMES for short) without judgement. Like a loving parent sitting next to a crying child, just holding a compassionate space is enough to discharge the nervous system.
A wonderful book that can guide you in this process is Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It For Good by Kimberly Ann Johnson.
Try a holistic approach alongside your treatment plan. Whether that’s yoga, meditation, sound therapy, or energy healing, explore the modalities that interest and calm you. Energy healing with a competent practitioner can help balance the nervous system and give you a spiritual perspective of your life challenges.
Try on a new persona for one minute a day. How would your posture change if you spoke clearly and confidently and spoke your truth? You can step into this energy anywhere for one minute a day and notice what happens. Maybe you get taller and expose a bit more of your throat.
Know what’s essential and lower your standards for the rest. Fast forwarding to our deathbed can put everything into perspective. When you die, what are five things that are most important to you that add up to a fulfilling life? Read them daily or at least weekly and make sure to give those things a priority.
Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less says it best:
"Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.”
Viewing the thyroid from a holistic lens can help us see our bodies with compassion and give us hope on our healing journey. We’re designed to thrive doing what we love while helping others. Our bodies will always show us if we’re on the right path.
This article was originally published for the Thyroid BC Society.
Ready to try something new? Discover how Bio-energy Healing and PSYCH-K can support you on your healing journey.
If you’re interested in feeling lighter, understanding your body and discovering your gifts (how you thrive in love, work and life) Margaret offers healing sessions in-person and online.
