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Hi and welcome to Talk RX with Doctor Neha. What are you wondering about in your communication with family, with friends, with bosses, with colleagues? This week I have a question from someone in Chicago. He asks, “Doctor Neha, I’ve been suffering from chronic sore throats and laryngitis off and on for the past four years. My friends said it’s because I’m not communicating something important. How does she know that? I mean, really, does that even happen?”
It sounds like you’ve been struggling with something ongoing because when you keep having the same experience relapsing over and over, you want to pay attention. Your body’s immune system, your primary defense against disease, is trying to tell you something. When that gets run down, you can tend to have certain ailments over and over. Some people tend to get the flu more often. Some people, as in your case, may get a sore throat and chronic laryngitis. It is important where you’re getting sick in your body.
So there are a few questions I ask my patients that help them get clear about what else is leading to this ailment. For the throat, think about what happens in your throat? Certainly the energy of you speaking or saying what’s true for you or being able to express yourself or speak up could be the energetic reason underneath a physical ailment showing up in your throat.
I certainly wouldn’t rule out your friend, but let me first give you the five questions I speak about in my book, Talk Rx. In the introduction, I give the five questions that will help you link your physical ailments to the rest of your life so you can make some sense of it.
The first one is why this? So for you it would be why my throat? Why laryngitis? Why does it stop me from being able to speak?
The second question is why now? What’s the pattern as you start to experience this? What’s happening in your life at the time when you start coming down with a sore throat? Are you getting in fights with somebody in your life? Are you in a work relationship that’s not really working out for you? Do you ever feel stifled before all of this happens? Do you feel really stressed and then you come down with this illness? Are you somebody who does a lot for others but doesn’t take as good of care of himself? Each time this flares up, what is it trying to get your attention for in your life?
The third question is, what are the signals you missed along the way? It’s the first time you realized what’s happening when you have laryngitis or sore throat? Do you notice the first time you feel worn down or a little bit of low energy? What happens in your body before you get a sore throat or laryngitis? Rewind to help you figure out the earlier signals.
The fourth question is what else in your life needs to be healed? When your immune system is getting suppressed, it’s usually due to chronic stress. This is the question that’s going to allow you to expand your thoughts from your throat to the rest of your life. What else in your life needs to be healed?
Then last and probably most important, if you spoke from the heart, what would you say? This is one question that you might want to sit down and put pen to paper. Do it the old-fashioned way and allow yourself to let out whatever it is that you need to let out. I’m pretty sure your answer will come to you.
The short answer is that your friend is onto something because you’re physical health is actually connected to your mental, emotional, and social health. The second piece of this to consider is how are you showing up in your life? How are you not saying or being yourself or taking care of yourself? How are you not speaking up in a way that you need to?
I’ve seen patients in the hospital for more than 15 years, as well as in my private practice, and there is a pattern or correlation between where you get sick and how it relates to the rest of your life. Pay attention.
If there’s a certain ailment for you—maybe your left hip bothers you, maybe it’s your right shoulder, maybe it’s your heart—whatever it is, you too can use these five questions to gets some clarity around how it’s all connected. Thanks for listening and keep sending those questions in. You can drop me a tweet at #askdoctorneha or go to the comments below and let me know what you’re thinking about.
Your Awareness Prescription
- Why this?
- Why now?
- What other signals did I miss along the way?
- What else needs to be healed?
- If you could speak from the heart, what would you say?
It’s all connected,
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2 Responses
Thank you for these wonderful talks. I love the videos. They provide an intima connection even though we haven’t actually met.
I wonder if you can help me understand my persistent migraines. I have spent the time to identify my food and behavioral triggers but the frequent migraines persist. Now I suspect that I am suffering from what I call “stinkin’ thinkin'” and I’m suffering from the stress of my unexpressed thoughts.
I’m sure that I’m not unique with this problem. Can you share your experience with patients who suffer with migraine headaches?
Diane~ You are so right! You are not alone. One thing we know for sure is that a headache isn’t an Advil-deficiency! Ha. There may be physical causes for headaches. You want to make sure you rule those out and it sounds like you’re even looking at food sensitivities, etc. Great job! Ironically, in Chapter 14 of my book, TalkRx, I write about how my mother’s migraines were caused by my father’s temper. So yes, there are various thoughts and unexpressed emotions that can reveal themselves in physical symptoms. I would refer you to Ch 3 – Numbing out and Ch 14 Taming the Volcano Within. I think you will get some great ideas!! Let me know if you have more questions once you read them. I appreciate your inquiry.