A self-care reminder

I was taught to put my tongue* on the roof of my mouth and even had braces specifically to make me do that? Am I going mad? Is my life a lie? Is this just fantasy, caught in a landslide
- Having your tongue against the roof of your mouth at rest is 100% the "correct" way to store your tongue. This actually influences how your teeth, jaw, and facial bones grow
  
  This
  Source: SLT apprenticeship
- That's exactly what I was thinking. My tongue rests on the roof of my mouth, to pull it back takes more effort. In fact, as I open my mouth my tongue sticks to the roof a little, then pops away - there's like a vacuum seal holding it there, effortlessly.
- No escape from reality, tongue belongs up top. I went thru a similar thing.
- I heard it has to do with what your primary language is. Different languages have different default mouth positions and so speakers of different languages end up with different muscles developed over time.
  
  Yes. I took Mandarin for a while and would practice at my favorite Chinese restaurants in town with the staff. They all remarked on how they keep their tongue on the bottom of their mouth. One older woman actually said it went back to Confucianism, and how that was better for the electrical circuit of the body, or something.
- Maybe they mean excess force?
- I believe your tongue is typically supposed to be in the middle of your mouth when at rest.
  
  Well gee now I don’t know what to do with my tongue perhaps I should unzip it and store it in a pouch until I need it next x

YOU'LL NEVER CONTROL ME, INTERNET FACE
- I'm going shove all my resentment over this incident into the ever-growing Ball of Repression in my chest instead.
  My doctor called it "a symptom of hypertension" but that's because she's a dork.

My self-care was deleting that stupid abusive birdsite.
- Not sure why you're getting down votes, I agree totally. I mostly only follow space, sports, and video game news on there. It's a great site for communication

I read that as “unhinge your jaw” at first, although on second thoughts being a snake maybe seems less stressful.
- Joke's on them I'm always unhinged
- I read it as "release your ears" and was like "wait, what?"

Beat you to it, through the power of alcohol!
- Wisdom

I AM RELAXED

stressed too tight?
try unclemching your [redacted]
you will certainly not regret unclemching your [redacted]
Edit: wholesome

Done.. Now I press my tongue to the inside of my lower teeth, what now?

I am especially bad about the “clenched jaw” part, so thanks much for the reminder

I'm not sure what release I'm reading, but maybe some of our stress is related to primary-school failures drunkenly vomiting letters onto Twitter and holding them up like a watercolor needing a fridge.
- Yes! I was like:
  If you are reading this release, your shoulders —my shoulders what?! There should be a verb here! What does she know about my shoulders? What kind of press release is this? Oh, I give up.
- (In my experience) Most people type the way they speak and people who carefully articulate themselves are outliers. Grammatically correct written English is also very different from the spoken word.
  I get what you're trying to say. Unfortunately when the majority of what you've read is online is in spats of 150 characters or less (or whatever low character limit you're working with) and an even more substantial amount of what you've written is within those constraints... On top of most of your interaction with the English language being incorrectly spoken English otherwise? It's not hard to guess the end result.
  This is something you can blame Twitter for. Blaming the user is odd, considering what they have to work with. Can't blame people for communicating the way they know how.

This doesn’t magically make you unstressed.
- I'm sure there's more detailed advice in her book.
  
  Please, I hope to god it's been edited my someone who passed high-school.
- Scientifically it does though
  
  I could find none of it via google except maybe the clenched jaw. The vast majority of which are from sketchy health clinics pushing dumb shit to fleece rich people from their money.
  https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/jaw-tension-anxiety
  So no, scientifically, it doesn't.
  Put your tongue wherever you want, keep your posture moving and in a comfortable position, and if you clench your jaw so hard you grind your teeth, then you have Bruxism, which is something entirely different you slack jawed sheep.
  Want better stress relief? Quit doing coke. Quit drinking alcohol. Exercise. Eat better. And most of all, get sleep. If you can't do any of those on your own, go to a doctor and get help for it.
  Why am I Anxious?
  
  Ok. Forgive me for being cynical, I just think if the reason for being stressed remain, they’re still going to effect you.

Moving the shoulders down is always a great reminder for me.

I saw a social media post that sounds true so it must be... I did something good for myself! Now lets keep ego/doomscrolling social media.
I could find none of it via google except maybe the clenched jaw. The vast majority of which are from sketchy health clinics pushing dumb shit to fleece rich people from their money.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/jaw-tension-anxiety
So no, scientifically, it doesn't.
Put your tongue wherever you want, keep your posture moving and in a comfortable position, and if you clench your jaw so hard you grind your teeth, then you have Bruxism, which is something entirely different you slack (relaxed!) jawed sheep lol.
Want better stress relief? Quit doing coke. Quit drinking alcohol. Exercise. Eat better. And most of all, get sleep. If you can't do any of those on your own, go to a doctor and get help for it.
Why am I Anxious?
- At the risk of overanalyzing a tweet, this is actually generally good advice. Scanning your body to release tension is a common stress-reduction coping skill taught in therapy, and in clinical settings is often referred to as "progressive muscle relaxation", which has been shown in many studies to reduce stress in the short-term. If you google this term, you'll have better results.
  Here's an NIH article that covers a few things, including progressive muscle relaxation:
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8272667/
  It's not intended as a permanent solution for underlying causes (e.g. doing coke or alcohol, like you said), but more of something to mildly reduce stress/anxiety in the moment.

My eyes started hurting

Damn, my ears are holding my shoulders captive again

I also bite my cheeks and tongue.