This week, tongue posture.

If you're not mewing, then what are you doing?

Pause for a moment and ponder where your tongue is placed in your mouth.

Have you ever been taught where the ideal tongue position is located in the mouth?

Or that changing from one way of placing the tongue to another can have profound results over time?

Though he didn’t invent the concept, Dr. Mike Mew has made it his mission to spread the word about proper tongue posture.

He’s also into strengthening the muscles around the tongue by doing such radical things such as eating foods that require more chewing, like raw vegetables.

He’s popularized the concept as “mewing.”

Dr. Mew is English. So as an American, I seem to have missed out having gone to dentists all over the US and in Amsterdam. Not a one ever taught me these simple steps:

Make the sound of the letter “n”.

Now seal your tongue to the roof of your mouth, with the mouth closed, breathing through the nose.

This is the proper resting position.

Proper tongue posture can lead to improved teeth position as well as reduced sleep apnea.

To exercise the muscles around the airway, while the tongue is pressing the roof of the mouth, tuck the chin giving yourself a double chin and swallow. Ten times. That’s a set.

Starting to see why not everyone does this?? Low awareness, counter social norms.

You need to figure out how many you need to do and what pace of change you are interested in.

Here’s a guy who did the exercises for a month for a Men’s Health article.

I’m sharing some images of me below.

Remember, I’ve done other things such as lots of CranioSacral Therapy that includes mouthwork. Meaning the therapist puts on a medical glove and works on the inside of the mouth, helping to release any restrictions in the soft tissue of the jaw, neck, throat and even below the tongue. They also stretch intracranial membranes using the bones of the palate, cheeks, and jaw.

I’m also into movement training that includes the muscles of the neck, especially one we’ll be talking about next week.

But around the time I started doing all this stuff in 2019, I also learned about placing my tongue on the roof of my mouth, exercising my throat and tongue muscles, and breathing through my nose as much as possible, especially while sleeping.

And last year, mid-September, I went to Mexico for two months and ate mostly raw vegetables. The after pics were taken then.

There certainly is a difference:

I was 42 in the “before” pictures and just turning 45 in the “afters”.

We all likely know this: The body is capable of change, at any age.

But perhaps one of the changes that is right for you, as a root cause of health, could be a simple adjustment of tongue posture and some movements you might even do in the shower.

Or maybe you’re more motivated by vanity. I know I am! I prefer the appearance of my jawline in the after pictures.

Or lots of folks want to stop snoring - this is another tool on that path.

(I am also motivated to stay out of chronic pain, which all of the changes I’m writing about here in this Substack have helped me to experience again and it is the most profound difference between those before and after shots.)

So figure out what will motivate you into taking your tongue posture into account and adding some weird looking swallowing exercises into your routines for the rest of your very long lives.