Is a tense jaw a give away that you’re stressed? Grind your teeth at night? Tension headaches?
About 50% of the people I work with report having some significant teeth grinding or jaw pain issues or tension headaches.
I’d say about 100% notice that their jaw is an indicator of their general stress levels.
It’s not a quick fix, but its something I’ve found that reliably gets better with check-ins. Check-ins are just noticing what your jaw is up to regularly during the day, and then gently encouraging it to undo excess tension. This certainly stopped my nighttime teeth grinding!
I show you how in this video: give it a go for yourself.
As you can see, this isn’t hard.
It’s remembering to do it frequently enough to change your ‘set point’ that matters. What I call your set point is the level of tension your brain thinks is normal, because it’s your habit. Brains seem to stick with what’s familiar and aren’t too fussed if that’s uncomfortable for you!
So you have to keep giving your brain/muscles a gentle nudge to do what you want – let go of tension. THEN with repetition you create a new normal, that is way less tense.
See my last post for tips on remembering to repeat a ‘check-in’ enough times in a day to start to make a change in your set point.
Next up in this check-in series is the lower back- want this in your inbox? Sign up for backtoactive bites here.