Tongue Up + Airway Open

To know your body is to know yourself. It starts first always with awareness. Then with the help of feedback (visual, tactile, audible, verbal) we can make shifts in our behavior.

I personally needed to completely fail at oral rest posture and nasal breathing before understanding it. I also needed major airway surgery to fix my deviated septum, reduce nasal turbinates and remove my enlarged tonsils before I ever took my deepest breath. It was the moment they removed my stints post airway surgery and I fully inhaled through my nose – felt the joy of a deep breath – before I started reconsidering what else I might not fully know about myself.  This was in March 2019 at age 35.

It was through rehabilitating my nose that I was able to understand my tongue and oral structures needed support too. Due to a restricted lingual frenulum, also known as Ankyloglossia or tongue tie, I could not fully elevate my entire tongue to the roof of my mouth – front, middle and back.  And while I could lift the anterior or front section sometimes, it truly is the posterior sections of our tongue that I care the most about. That is the section closest to our airway, our throat, our life force!

Then in April of 2019, I finally had my tongue, upper lip and buccal ties released. And I took another step towards better airway health, physical health, mental health, spiritual health.

So pictured above is what you’ll find me now doing all the time at rest – complete tongue up (not just the front blade), airway open, jaw unclenched, lips sealed  and nasal breathing. This has taken years to habitualize. I had 3.5 decades of unlearning oral rest patterns. I can say confidently however, this is now my normalized rest posture. My tongue stays up. My lips stay closed. I breathe through my nose.

However, this is what you need to know. It’s one thing to be able to maintain this posture during the day. But if this is hard, what do you think happens at night when you fall asleep, lay down on your back, move from vertical to horizontal? Airway obstruction, that’s what.

Keep your tongue UP to retrain your neural pathways for tongue rest posture so when you are asleep, in cruise control and unconscious, you tongue KNOWS where to rest! Hint: it’s out of your airway!

You can change your life by changing your breath. And it all starts with awareness. So ask yourself honestly, where is my tongue? What does it touch? Can I actually lift it – front, middle and back? How am I breathing? Sleeping? Living?

Yes you can. Change is possible. A fuller life is yours for the taking!  I’m rooting for you!