(Moved from main forum)
Hello everyone!
I'm new to this forum and I only found out about mewing last week with a video I came across on YouTube. I haven't seen a specialist yet (because I didn't know I could solve my recessed chin, which I've hated my entire life) and I'm just starting to read about correct tongue and chin position. My question is, do you honestly think mewing would help me, or should I just not even waste my time? I'm 34, going on 35 in May this year. I'm posting pictures of my profile both in my regular stance and with the chin tuck and mewing (or what I understand as mewing, I still have a lot to read about I guess) and also my front picture so you can see how my lips don't have a proper seal, especially with my current posture. When I put my tongue on the roof of my mouth and keep it there, it seems the seal in my lips is better.
I started mewing today, and after maybe an hour, I noticed a lot of discomfort in my neck and head. Even my voice seems strained (and I'm a teacher and singer, so I noticed the change in my tone of voice straight away). I also noticed a lot of discomfort in my jaw (I suffer from TMD and I use a retainer at night, which I haven't used since last week because it keeps my teeth apart at night).
Any thoughts would be more than welcome. I doubt there's someone who specializes on this in my country, which is pretty small, but I was thinking I could pay a visit to a maxillofacial surgeon to hear their opinion. I would be open to some corrective devices but not to surgery.
The two pictures on the left are my regular position with the tongue at the bottom of the mouth (notice the unsealed lips) and the two pictures on the right are with a chin tuck and what I hope is a mewing position.
Thanks!!!!
You look like me!! Nice wide cheekbones and a small chin. (My chin is much more recessed than yours is though. "Short mandible" is what my kids' orthodontist says.) I'm also female, and I'm already forty, and I'm going for it--so let's go for it. Surely there's no loss from just putting your body in a healthy posture, is there?
Interestingly, just putting yourself in the mewing position of the lower right photo gives your face so much more definition. Can you see the difference, especially in the lower cheeks?
There are oro-myofunctional therapists who do Skype sessions, so depending on your budget and the internet connection in your country, it's possible that you could get proper therapy where you are. But people also make huge gains just by following Mike Mew on youtube and trying what they find there, and on forums like this (although you should be very careful not to try everything you read here, or anywhere. If it sounds dangerous, it might be!)
After trying mewing for a while and not getting it right, I found that getting the head back over the shoulder is the real keystone to be able to do it properly. People refer to the chin tuck a lot around here, but I think of head posture more clearly as pulling the head *back* so that the skull is over the shoulders and *lifting* the occiput to straighten the neck. Mike Mew's video on the MacKenzie chin tuck demonstrates it well. You can also look at any ballerina--they do the same thing constantly.
Once you know what that feels like, the abs walk was the next step for me--and was key to a whole bunch of other positive changes in my body. One of my favorite resources on all this is Ronny Ead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXICDj4p_fQ
Basically, the point is not just mewing, but doing a whole bunch of body changes which are really about your total health, which positively affect your whole body including the appearance of your face.
As a woman, one of my favorite things about getting the head posture and walk in place, is that you instantly look younger and sexier. Forward head posture and the rolled-under buttocks that go with it make a woman look old from fifty yards away. (Once you start to work on this in yourself, you will start noticing women who look much older/less attractive than they are because of their head posture.) The other thing I notice is that once my head is in place and my tongue is able to go up, my face is much more relaxed--I don't make the habitual unconscious grimaces that make wrinkles happen!!
Skull and Jaw Correction
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