What Your Tongue's Posture May Be Telling You

If the eyes are the window to the soul, the mouth is the gateway between you, the world and the reality that you can call into being with the power of the word. The mouth has its own ecology. When in balance, microbes and bacteria, many of which are important for health, are an important part of the mouth’s ecosystem. But what of the tongue?

The tongue is needed to taste, swallow masticate food, form words, sleep well and even to breath efficiently. Life is much more enjoyable we know with good oral care, but also proper positioning of the tongue plays a key role in your emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing.

Illness and disease in various parts of the body can register on the tongue, not to mention that the tongue itself can become inflamed and progress to a diseased state. Along with your toothbrush, dental floss and other implements, warm salt water gargling, tongue scrapers, which come in a variety of shapes, these are important instruments and methods for proper oral care routine. We are familiar with these tips for maintaining a healthy mouth ecology, and hence, overall health of the body, for, as the saying goes, ‘disease begins in the mouth’. So, it is important to consult healing practitioners if there is evidence of mouth problems. Prevention and early diagnosis are ounces of prevention better than many pounds of cure.

We clearly know much more about oral care than tongue posture. I, myself, did not know how important tongue posture was until a physiotherapist figured out that my neck pains and headaches were associated with misplacing my tongue which was misaligning my posture and gait.

While the tongue plays a variety of roles as noted above, its positioning in the mouth is often neglected, if not taken for granted. As you are reading these words check where your tongue positioned? Is the tip of your tongue touching your bottom or top front teeth, or, is it firmly planted against the roof of your mouth? The latter is the natural posture of the tongue from infancy onward, which is evidenced by infants latching onto their mothers breasts or being soothed by a pacifier or thumb. Even children who suck their thumbs, mimicking the feeding mechanism, keep their tongues to the roof of their mouth. This article and this youtube link offer excellent information on how the body is affected by both inefficient and optimal tongue posture.

Tongue posture, it turns out, is as important as spinal posture. Indeed, by not having your tongue planted to the roof of your mouth except when eating or exercising, spinal posture, especially from the base of the neck to the shoulders can be thrown off. As was my case, improper tongue posture can lead to misalignment of the vertebrae, but it can also lead to misaligned teeth.

So, aside from the reasons noted above, why should African descent men care about tongue posture? Well do you find yourself clinching your teeth throughout the day, and especially at night? Cracking your teeth, sensitivity, headaches and neck strain can result from teeth clenching. But why should you be concerned about this? Surely a mouth guard at night can fix that problem. Now what if your tongue's misalignment may result from stress? Go with here.

We face incredible stress from anti-Black misandry; and, how we cope, or not, affects our wellbeing and those we love. Take for example the concept of ‘John Henryism’. It is a term given by epidemiologist James A. Sherman the burden we carry in our bodies. The syndrome is named after the mythic, or not so mythic figure, John Henry, who drove more railway spikes than a steam-driven machine – but at the price of wearing himself out to death.

John Henry is only part way a myth. African descent men men played a crucial role in building the railway infrastructure in Canada and the United States. And, as exquisitely detailed by Cecil Foster in 'They Call Me George', they played, quite possibly, an even greater cultural, social and political role as porters labouring on passenger trains from the late 1800s into the early 1960s.

What James A. Sherman discovered is that anti-Black misandry is marked by increased morbidity and mortality resulting from hypertension that corrodes the bodies, and minds, of African descent men. Without effective coping mechanisms that bring social interaction, individual psycho-somatic therapeutic modalities and spiritual renewal into play, anti-Black misandry sickens and kills. Similarly, the hypothesis of ‘weathering’ and the effect of what William A. Smith calls ‘racial battle fatigue’ speaks to the ways that anti-Black misandry places men of African descent in the survival mode of fight, flight, freeze or fawn. The constancy of having to prove we are not 'criminals', incompetent, lazy and/or threats to others because of the fantasy projections of Western culture wears us down by encoding trauma into our neurological system, thereby making mental and physical distress a constant feature of life.

So, what to do? Healing is in our hands: both physical, psychological and spiritual. Start with little things that are entirely within your power: namely your body, mind and capacity to change your internal dialogue. One place to start is to be mindful of the position of your tongue. Try these simple exercises:

do light bouncing on the spot for 30 secs to 1 minute or even longer (this will enhance lymphatic drainage)
then gently do the tongue pull (this releases the fascia which runs from your tongue to your feet. Fascia is composed of the structured water that stores trauma)
take a 15-30 minute walk (listen to your inner voice: be gentle and kind to yourself. If, or, when negative thoughts intrude, that’s ok. Thank the voice, have a dialogue with it, forgive it and then release it from the holding tension it was using to protect you - it is probably the child in you that needs your love)

And, through it all, be mindful of your tongue!