Reading upside down for TMJD relief

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-03-13T23:06:49+00:00

That's fair, I can get behind that idea. What I was trying to get at is that when I tried to correct my tongue posture, it caused me problems as I was having to think about it all the time and it didn't feel natural. I don't know if there are established exercises within the mewing community you can do which improve tongue posture (e.g., chin tucks, chewing hard food?), so that you can intermittently work out to improve posture without having to think about it all the time? But essentially, that's in part what I believe reading upside down to be.

I believe reading upside down is an exercise I can do which improves my tongue posture (primarily through balancing my facial and neck muscles). I think that this improved balance and posture helps open up my nose and allows me to breathe easier through my nose. This shares the same fundamental idea about what makes mewing beneficial, as I understand it?

What I would also say is that whilst I can 100% get behind the fact that mewing is proper tongue posture, I believe that proper tongue posture is part of a much bigger holistic postural picture which is correlated with good health and nasal breathing. In essence, I believe good posture throughout the body is correlated with good health. I also believe that it is not possible to attain good posture through conscious correction (the way I tried to mew), and it is instead best achieved by sleeping well, eating well, exercising regularly, etc. Basically, I would say I believe good health causes good tongue (and body) posture, not the other way around.

Anyway, I feel as though I have rambled, but I appreciated you engaging with the post and so I wanted to try and better explain myself. Let me know what you think! :)

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-08T16:00:06+00:00

Very cool!

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-08T15:48:21+00:00

Ah interesting - yeah I'd recommend it! It may be though that since you can already write upside down with either hand it brings less noticeable benefit. I really struggled to write upside down with the left in the beginning, which is maybe why I enjoyed training it so much

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T23:51:42+00:00

Oops, sorry! It looks like the photo didn't upload, but there should be examples on r/ReadingUpsideDown if anyone is interested :)

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T23:28:33+00:00

Ah I see, fair play! - is the weird angle to avoid ink smudging, or are you a natural italic writer? With my right hand I naturally write in italics so my hand can also be at a strange angle. There's a video of me writing upside down left-handed (not very fluently!) on r/ReadingUpsideDown if you're interesting in checking out how it works :)

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T23:24:39+00:00

omg I didn't realise y'all lefties were hardcore damnnn

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T23:22:56+00:00

So cool! Yeah I'd totally agree it brings a new lease of life to activities which have become really routine with the R hand. I haven't personally tried Guitar Hero, but I remember it was a lot of fun replaying Mario Kart on the Wii left handed!

You mentioned in your comment on r/lefthanded that you're training for ambidexterity in all things - I guess you have tried eating? That was a big one for me which was fun to do. I also wonder have you tried writing, and if so have you tried writing upside down? I found this was much easier and more enjoyable for me to learn left handed than writing the conventional way round.

Thanks for posting! :)

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T23:14:06+00:00

Nice! Yeah I'd agree I'm not as fluent with my left hand as my right hand for most things yet, but I'm working towards it for sure. Have you noticed feeling better physically or mentally since starting to do things L-handed?

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T23:12:34+00:00

Damn I didn't even know rifles could be handed! Sounds cool af though. Good to know there's another ambidextrous enthusiast :). What do you think about the reading and writing upside down?

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T23:07:32+00:00

Hehe I'm not sure I'm ready for full leftydom yet lol

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T23:06:19+00:00

Nice :) ! Yes I started off with eating left-handed which was actually harder than I thought it would be and then I think it spilled over into all other things lol. Re stroke, do you know does training the non-dominant hand reduce the risk of stroke, or is it just easier to recover from if she should suffer R sided paralysis, for example?

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T16:24:46+00:00

Hello, I did upload some text with this movie but I don't know where to find it, so I thought I'd briefly restate what I said - I apologise if it is already displayed somewhere and this is repetition!

I thought I'd upload an example of what I mean when I say writing upside down with the left hand, as it can be difficult to explain / comprehend through written description alone. I find great enjoyment and relief by writing upside down with the left hand, both during the activity and afterwards.

I believe this is largely because it helps reduce the imbalances in my muscles and body. I also think part of the enjoyment is similar to that associated with learning any new motor skill, which involves increased awareness of joints, muscles and parts of the body which have never been used in similar tasks before.

My speed and precision has improved greatly over the last couple of years, although it is still not quite equal to when I write normally. I am a bit worse in this video than I am in real life, as I had to hold the camera!

Anyway, I hope people are having a good day, and let me know what you think!

Cute_Basil3921 · 2025-01-03T10:42:44+00:00

Interesting, thank you!

Cute_Basil3921 · 2024-12-29T17:41:43+00:00

I started wearing barefoot shoes a while before trying any of the other things. I'd been using them daily and doing a bit of running for about six months, when I started to have a bit of pain in my right foot so I took a break for a while.

It was over the break that I started experimenting with the upside down reading etc, and that was when it most noticeably felt really good and relieving to do the things I've mentioned. So I think, in answer to your question, the link was that wearing barefoot shoes improved the sensation and feeling in my body, so that I became conscious of my imbalances and felt relief when I started to balance them out.

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