Are you trying to breathe through your mouth? When you have your tongue in the right position it makes oral breathing impossible. Should be using your nose to breathe at all times except for heavy exercise.

No, I am brathing through my nose.

Hopefully this descibes it easier: When I put my tongue on the roof of my mouth, it feels like the back of the tongue is blocking my airway, I can't breathe. If I adjust so my airway isn't blocked, it feels like the back of my tongue isn't touching my palette. 

chin tucks combined with mewing should help you increase your airway size over time

Posted by: Apollo

Posted by: Jeffrey

@apollo you said that the soft palate presses into the airway, and the video you linked of Mr Mew said that it was normal to have some discomfort and that people with horizontal growth only have a small amount of the palate pressing against the airway. Does this mean that with constant practise of correct oral posture, you will train your palate to only have a small amount of it pressing against the airway? Or will the constant practise of correct oral posture push the maxilla up and forward, and thus allow you to breathe easier?

I'm so confused about how correct oral posture! When you have correct oral posture, can you not breathe through your nose because 1. tongue tie? 2. you need to push your maxilla up? 3. it's normal?

so many contradicting statements!

 Hi Jeffery, here's my post you mentioned from another thread:

Posted by: Apollo
Yes, the very reason people don't tend to practice proper oral posture is because it impinges their airway, and this perpetuates the downward spiral of the maxilla dropping further down and back, further restricting the airway. Anyone without adequate tongue space will find that the posterior third, when correctly seated on the roof of the mouth, will press the soft palate into the pharynx, restricting breathing through the nose. This can even be a sign that you have achieved correct oral posture. Then you have to practice the control to back off just enough to breath, while still keeping the posterior tongue engaged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2vqxBkRoXI

It sounds like you understood what I was trying to explain. I suspect what you describe as difficulty breathing when practicing correct oral posture is what all of us experience with any level of craniofacial dystrophy. With a recessed maxialla and/or narrow palate restricting tongue space, lifting the posterior tongue against the soft palate completely or partially obstructs the pharynx. If you really had a tongue tie, surgically removing part of the lingual frenulum would make it easier for you to lift your tongue to the roof of your mouth, but it wouldn't prevent the posterior tongue from blocking your airway. The only way to fix this, as you suggest, is to create more tongue space, but unfortunately, this requires keeping your posterior tongue in the position that is blocking your airway. We can't stop breathing, so what to do? I find that lifting my tongue up to the point that it closes off my pharynx is a good indicator helping me to know that I am correctly engaging the posterior part of my tongue which seems to be crucial to achieving change. Then, I can practice reducing the pressure of my tongue just enough to inhale and exhale while hearing and feeling the resistance of the air passing through the narrowed space. Finally I try to back off the tongue enough to breathe relatively freely, while still trying to feel that posterior tongue contacting the soft palate. It's a delicate balance, that I probably am not maintaining correctly most of the time, but the idea is that it gets easier as you become more accustomed to the posture and hopefully as your maxilla slowly moves up and forward, creating more tongue space in the processes, and in a virtuous cycle making it easier to be more consistent with correct oral posture. If you have a narrow maxillary arch, palate expanders can create lateral space to fit your tongue on your palate with less restriction on your airway. Does that all make sense?

Posted by: AloeVera

Struggling to breathe?!

When I read posts about people struggling to breath when mewing I start doubting whether or not I'm actually practicing proper tongue posture. I have never, at any point, struggled to breath through my nose when my tongue is (I think) properly on the roof of my mouth. That said, I haven't encountered any problems whereby my tongue doesn't fit on my palate. Maybe I have a larger palate, not sure, I still need to measure it

I have wondered the same thing. I've always had a wide face and nearly straight teeth. I can really feel my back tongue engaged (I think), but never had breathing trouble. 

I also wonder if difficulty has to do with the width between 2nd molars (and 3rd molars if you have them).

My palate is much wider behind my 1st molars. I don't often have breathing problems now, but I did when I first adopted better posture. It got better over time, but it was never as bad as discontinuing proper posture.

Just to give some data on my own intermolar width:

• 1st molars - 31mm (moved forward as bicupsids were extracted)
• 2nd molars - 36mm (again moved forward)
• 3rd molars - 41mm (had room to erupt, but are only half erupted)

So despite a narrow palate towards the front, you may be okay breathing if you're more expanded in the back.