Well, ladies
I was sitting at my desk around ten Tuesday morning, hands on the keyboard, and I realized something I have apparently been doing for weeks without noticing. My jaw was clamped shut.
Not grinding, not anything dramatic, just closed. My teeth were pressed together like I was quietly bracing for something that was never coming.
When I pressed my fingers into the sides of my face, just below the ears, both sides were sore. The kind of sore that has been building for a while and you just stopped registering.
Dani sent me a voice note last week about a client who came in with neck pain that turned out to be jaw tension.
The woman had been clenching at her desk for months without knowing it, and the tightness was running straight up into her shoulders.
Dani's exact words were "her face was doing overtime."
Your Last Checkup Came Back Normal. What Did That Actually Tell You?
The third one is the honest answer, and it is a much smaller statement than it sounds.
A normal panel says nothing about the things that were not measured. And there is one test that checks what most panels completely miss — the one that is no longer part of a standard physical.
If you walked out of your last appointment reassured, this is worth ten minutes before the next one.
That voice note played while I was making tea, and my first thought was, well, that is clearly not me.
It was absolutely me. ☕
I did what I always do when something interesting crosses my path, which is abandon the thing I was supposed to be working on and disappear into the new thing instead.
The draft I owe has been due since Thursday. I told myself the jaw research felt more urgent. This is the kind of justification I am genuinely gifted at building.
Your teeth are not supposed to be touching when your mouth is at rest. I did not know this.
The neutral position is lips together, teeth slightly apart, tongue resting gently on the roof of your mouth just behind the top front teeth. If your teeth are touching right now, your jaw may be working when it should be resting, even if it feels like nothing at all.
This fix is almost embarrassingly simple. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and let your jaw drop just enough that your teeth separate. You do not stretch, you do not hold anything.
Your tongue does the work on its own, because that position helps keep your teeth apart.
Three or four times a day since Tuesday, I have caught myself doing it. Every single time, teeth together. Whatever I have been carrying, it has been living in my face, and I had no idea.
The soreness below my ears is already fading. My neck, which I have been blaming on my pillow for two weeks, is quieter than it has been in a month.
Clare would tell me to set a phone reminder. She thinks everything worth doing needs a system around it. I think some things just need attention, and attention does not arrive on a schedule. 🌿
If she has opinions about this she can text me and I will read them carefully and continue doing it my way.
The draft is still not done. My jaw is finally open.
Check yours right now: teeth apart, tongue up. 🤍
They were almost certainly touching.
