Jaw + Emotions + Coffee
Last year I had some big feelings and questions about why during the day I was catching myself clinching my jaw. This was new for me, and I pondered at times what this was about. I know that often times when “the human” isn’t honest with themself about something or doesn’t express emotion about life circumstances that has affected them so much of that can get trapped in the body. So, I kept this with me while over months I worked on what was going on with me and where the roots of this clinching may be coming from.
Over the course of a lifetime, we definitely all have our fair share of stored emotions due to maybe trauma or maybe not expressing ourselves in ways we need to…or both! So, with my understanding of this and turning back to myself and why my jaw was doing what it was doing I started to question what was going on with me and my life. Was I not saying something out of fear of what another’s reaction might be? Did my jaw get worse for “some reason…” let’s face it there’s always a reason?! (Remembering earlier in the year I bit into some raw collard greens and my jaw really didn’t like it. And thinking right after that happened this certainly doesn’t help all the work I have done on my TMJ to help previous tension from I believe a moment in time I got lock jaw from underwater pressure.) Is there something happening in my life that I am not realizing that I don’t particularly care for?
As I continued to feel and think and work into whatever was going on with my jaw over many months, I then realized I was now waking up in the morning to my jaw being in a clinched position. “Ooh my…what is going on…. I’ve never experienced anything like this before…something needs to change…why is this actually getting worse and not better…. am I really not voicing something that needs to be expressed…what is my body telling me?” And eventually I had a thought that never came to me before. What have I changed that is still happening and when do I think it got worse?
Yup that was a huge part of reversing the feelings. I realized with the timing of when it started, I had started drinking a second cup of coffee when I would get home from work. So, I made the hard decision to stop having the second cup and with that most of what I was experiencing stopped!
MFR has definitely given me more than just openness in the body. It has given me the ability to be patient with myself, to be more self-aware and to take my overall health into account. At times it really challenges me to question why I am doing what I’m doing. So, with that said I’ve been enjoying that second cup of coffee again, UGH and it has solidified that a second cup is not good for my body, so here’s to the last of that… picture above me having the last with my wonderful friend Annie… and here’s to deeper self-awareness connecting mind, body, spirit and emotion!