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Can asymmetry be fixed?

17 Posts
9 Users
10 Likes
6,149 Views
Angelina
(@angelina)
Posts: 13
Topic starter
 

Hi! i've been mewing for quite a long time and ive noticed some upswing but still have asymmetry: my left side is weaker and my upper arch midline is shifted to the left which is very noticable when looking at the photos, my left nostril is a little bit bigger and my lips seems to be pulled a little bit to the right(maybe its because the muscles on the right side of my face is stronger so they pull everything towards the right side?). im trying to concentrate more on this weak side and the left half of my upper dental arch gets wider but i still cant really see results in the whole face, the midline is still shifted to the left. can it be fixed? what should i do to fix it at least a little bit?

 
Posted : 20/12/2017 1:46 pm
(@progress)
Posts: 882
 

In general, yes. The problem is that asymmetry is a significantly more complex issue than mere lack of width or forward growth, and is therefore harder to fix. There are many ways in which asymmetry can manifest. Your midface is vertically shifted to one side. My maxilla is horizontally tilted and vertically asymmetrical. Someone else may have his whole skull twisted like a 3D corksrew. 

Ultimately skeletal asymmetry of the skull is nearly always a consequence of asymmetrical muscle use. Since there are so many ways musculature can be misused, no one can really help you with your unique functional asymmetry without seeing you face to face. If you want to DIY this, you have to start forcefully twisting your head, neck and shoulders to various directions in order to find asymmetries in the activation of muscle pairs and their range of motion, and to wake up inactive parts of your musculature. 

 
Posted : 20/12/2017 5:14 pm
Angelina
(@angelina)
Posts: 13
Topic starter
 

Thank you! I live in a very small town so i have to do it myself, now i have no other option. im glad you say it is possible, its a hope,i'll try harder to understand my musculture.

 
Posted : 21/12/2017 8:54 am
Angelina
(@angelina)
Posts: 13
Topic starter
 

Oh btw i've heard that myobrace can help retrain facial muscles, im not sure maybe its just good for correcting the tongue posture which ive already done, even when i wake up its there on the palate, maybe and has nothing to do with my problem.. do u think it can help?

 
Posted : 21/12/2017 9:24 am
(@allixa)
Posts: 314
 

Have you tried any type of facepulling yet?

 
Posted : 23/12/2017 1:26 am
Angelina
(@angelina)
Posts: 13
Topic starter
 

No i havent, i just do a classic mewing/gum chewing, i think i need to really concentrate on my weak side, from now on i chew only on my left side, lets see if anything changes

 
Posted : 23/12/2017 8:52 am
(@morphy)
Posts: 6
 

Asymmetry of the skull is more than just an occlusion issue. Usually the entire musculature of the body is involved. Typically with an asymmetrical skull you will also be able to see asymmetry in the shoulders and the hips. As Progress said, if the skull grows over time while the musculature surrounding it (upper back, neck, scalp, face, etc.) are not being activated in proper balance, such that an unnatural posture is held, then the skull will grow asymmetrically. Fixing asymmetry is about fixing the postural imbalance in the entire body, mostly by restoring proper muscular function, but the tendons and ligaments play a role as well.

Do not only focus on the facial muscles. They are important, but they are not the entire picture. Some people overlook the importance of the neck muscles here and the upper back (in the area of the traps and shoulders particularly). The face, tongue, and neck muscles all work together as a team in order to guide the growth of the skull in a healthy and symmetrical way. If you are an adult, it's possible to fix the skull's asymmetry, but it takes considerably more time and effort to do so than it would for a young child due to lesser flexibility of soft tissue and greater ridigity of the bones.

I also agree with Progress that one way to make progress is to do some stretching or some kind of activity that forces you to use a full range of motion of various muscles (like yoga). By doing this you will better be able to identify which muscles/tendons are overly tight. And whenever there is a muscle which is too tight, there is a corresponding paired muscle which is too loose.

 
Posted : 23/12/2017 9:13 am
Angelina and Angelina reacted
Angelina
(@angelina)
Posts: 13
Topic starter
 

So true, i have scoliosis (tight thoratic), so its all connect.. I've been trying to fix it for years, i was offered to do some exercises they were all symmetrical and since scoliosis is asymmetric thing i thought this is incorrect so i didnt do any of those. As i said i live in a very small town, the doctors here suck 🙁 Then i started to search through the internet and only about a year ago i found out which muscles are needed to be stretched in order to fix it. This video has helped me the most, maybe someone will find it useful too:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJEwiWTijwk, at least now i dont feel pain in my spine every day as it was before. I also started to do a side plank but then i quit because im still not sure which side i need to do it on, some say it should be done on your convex side, some -on concave :/ so i desided not to do it at all im scared to do more harm than good

 
Posted : 23/12/2017 10:49 am
(@progress)
Posts: 882
 
Posted by: Angelina

So true, i have scoliosis (tight thoratic), so its all connect.. I've been trying to fix it for years, i was offered to do some exercises they were all symmetrical and since scoliosis is asymmetric thing i thought this is incorrect so i didnt do any of those. As i said i live in a very small town, the doctors here suck 🙁 Then i started to search through the internet and only about a year ago i found out which muscles are needed to be stretched in order to fix it. This video has helped me the most, maybe someone will find it useful too:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJEwiWTijwk, at least now i dont feel pain in my spine every day as it was before. I also started to do a side plank but then i quit because im still not sure which side i need to do it on, some say it should be done on your convex side, some -on concave :/ so i desided not to do it at all im scared to do more harm than good

Having fixed my own scoliosis in the past year, it seems to be more productive to focus on muscle activation instead of muscle lengthening. In every imbalanced muscle pair, the stronger muscle is shorter and the weaker one longer. Although resulting in differing muscle lengths, the nature of this imbalance is fundamentally not a problem of asymmetric mobility, but asymmetric muscle tone/strength. Because of this, a stretched muscle tends to shorten overnight as long as its opposing pair remains inactive. An inactive muscle lacks firmness and is therefore unable to provide static counterforce that maintains the length of both muscles in an equilibrium. On the other and, an exercised muscle will keep its tone for days to even weeks, and will automatically prevent excessive shortening of its opposite pair. This is why flexing is far superior to stretching in isolation if you want to fix your posture for good.

It takes some willpower and concentration to form the mind-muscle connection for inactive muscles, but once you get them to spasm they will return to your full conscious control. Try to flex and tense every muscle in your body and simultaneously rotate, twist and stretch your torso, legs and limbs to various directions.  In this way, you can workout the body against itself in a yoga-like wholesome manner.

 
Posted : 23/12/2017 12:29 pm
Angelina and Angelina reacted
Angelina
(@angelina)
Posts: 13
Topic starter
 

it does make sense.. i tried to make some movements to feel my inactive muscles, you are right, its really hard, makes me think they are completely atrophied, i really wanna work on it. blindly doing one exercise from youtube would be too easy. thank you for your advice, its a great help, and knowing that you fixed  your scoliosis is a stimulus for me!

 
Posted : 23/12/2017 2:04 pm
 Fika
(@fika)
Posts: 33
 

Oh my... you pinpointed my life long understanding of this stuff

I've been struggling with scoliosis for the last 6-7 years (I'm 27 now),  I've visited a number of various doctors, all witch gave me answers that were worse than the self healing technique you just explained, and I was doing that instinctively. FEELING is the mother of all healing, you need to focus your mind on feeling yourself, even meditate before practice, and as you said activate every muscle and move in every direction your imagination can produce just to do a self test, and then focus to make the "bad areas" better.... its hard to explain really, also I was able to achieve better results while in the influence of marihuana, helped me feel my body better and relax. Fix your impatience and anxiety for a moment and just feel...

Also what helped me the best in addition to this was breathing, your lungs are like baloons that when used properly tend to naturally erect the body, I would even compare it to mike's "roof of the mouth" tounge tehnique in teeth expansion. Just in case someone is reading this and can help him, the breathing I'm doing is...
1st: fix the depth of your breath - to do this, exhale the most air you can, and try to feel the muscles that hold your sternum from lifting up, remember the feeling in those muscles and maintain them firm, relax all other muscles
2nd: try breathing as deep as you can, into your pelvis even, while holding your sternum in place, this way, the volume of the air will erect your spine as opposed to only moving your sternum forward and up
3rd: if you have a hard time doing this (and it is hard, it takes practice and focus), try doing it while lying on your back and getting your feet up to a 90 degree angle (in hips and knees), resting them on something, that way you will take the weight of your body away from the streinght it takes to inhale.

After your breath improves in quality you will be able to produce a kind of pressure, especially when exhaling, that will literally push your concave parts out, you will feel the pressure even more if you try to... I really cant explain this better... but not let yourself breath out so easy. Now this combined with the focus on the body is a powerful tool. And all this is very hard work and getting to know your body.

I'm sorry, I'm no PHD, I just tried to explain what helped me... ever since I got this problem, my mind just naturally wont think about anything else except on how to heal myself, I developed a kind of social anxiety and depression due to not beeing able to focus on anything else but my body. And this community and the posts on this forum have made the most sense with my findings and understanding than anything else I ever saw, so BIG thumbs up.

 
Posted : 31/12/2017 12:38 pm
 Fika
(@fika)
Posts: 33
 

I dont know why it wouldnt let me edit my post, wanted to add that this was a response to progress's last post, and add 1 more thing...

And that thing is hanging yourself from a bar, I installed a bar in my home, and every now and then I just grab on to it and hang as long as I feel its good, sometimes pushing further sometimes not, you can do a wide grip a narrow grip... normal grip, you can do 10 billion motions, just use your feeling and imagination, but the point is, if your arms are of the same length and the bar is not tilted, mother gravity is fixing you in the most perfect way, if you give yourself into feeling it do its work, it works even better.

 
Posted : 31/12/2017 1:08 pm
MewingWorks
(@mewingworks)
Posts: 15
 

I fixed mine, so definitely. And like others in this thread seem to be saying (sorry I didn't read the whole thing) you've got to fix other muscles in your neck and back so that the skull gets fixed as well. I'm not sure if the muscles releasing fixes the skull or only allows it to be fixed, but they need to be released 

 
Posted : 04/01/2018 12:52 pm
(@progress)
Posts: 882
 

 Good tips @Fika. I also found cannabis to be of surprising help and guidance when I began my postural work. Especially the sativa variety gave me both the sensory awaraness and the physical energy required to detect and fix specific issues along the musculature. As a disclaimer, I consider it as a mere shortcut. I'm not proposing that anyone NEEDS to smoke it in order to fix their posture. But for those who want to go there, it can be useful.

 
Posted : 09/01/2018 5:06 pm
(@vplatt)
Posts: 41
 

I believe my asymmetries have started because of the 25 mm palate that doesn't allow my tongue to be straight in my mouth, like ever. It rests to the left which made that tooth stick out and my left side generally is more toned and beautiful. The right side is sort of slack. So I don't know how I could begin to address the correlating asymmetries and lack of development down the whole right side of my body without first addressing the orthodontic issues. Seems like it would be for naught until I have more space in my mouth.

I'm curious how it is going with you @angelina, have you seen progress?

 
Posted : 10/05/2021 10:41 am
(@snailgoo89)
Posts: 43
 

also check out Postural Restoration. It describes how left side is easier to expand than the right. Making sure to engage your left abdominals by filling exhaling all air out of left ribs (down and back), and then inhale into left back thoracic engages the internal obliques and transverse a dominos. Focus on lengthening the right side / expanding with air, and closing compressing left side. Everything is connected, and maybe focusing on the core will translate into the palate. Also check whether right side pelvic floor is tighter vs. left, as well as the feet. Is the right arch more supinate and the left more pronated? Engage the left arch and relax the right foot arch. See if this influences the palate. 

 
Posted : 26/05/2021 12:11 am
WickedFinger, vplatt, WickedFinger and 1 people reacted
(@bountykiller)
Posts: 8
 
Posted by: @angelina

Hi! i've been mewing for quite a long time and ive noticed some upswing but still have asymmetry: my left side is weaker and my upper arch midline is shifted to the left which is very noticable when looking at the photos, my left nostril is a little bit bigger and my lips seems to be pulled a little bit to the right(maybe its because the muscles on the right side of my face is stronger so they pull everything towards the right side?). im trying to concentrate more on this weak side and the left half of my upper dental arch gets wider but i still cant really see results in the whole face, the midline is still shifted to the left. can it be fixed? what should i do to fix it at least a little bit?

Yes just read about this appliance, https://www.starecta.com/

 
Posted : 25/10/2022 5:23 am
Whole Body Breathing