Cheat Code 0.1: Ear Pulls
ATTN: tension headaches, TMJ, stiff neck
Over New Year’s weekend, Sophia and I went and chilled with some friends in Philadelphia. After a long year of wedding-planning and business-starting, it felt so nice to just sit on the couch and play video games.
Except that I rarely play video games, so I got my butt KICKED at Mario Kart 8.
My friend Josh kept saying things like, “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you: if you hit L2 while you jam the joystick to the right, you’ll drift and gain speed bonuses.” Calmly mentoring me while his kitted-out character lapped mine.
It reminded me that there are people out there who know stuff I don’t know. I did not know a single thing about gaining speed bonuses in Mario Kart 8.
That made me wonder, Are there things I know that other people don’t know?
I do know a bunch of cheat codes for body stuff.
Here’s are three controls you can use to relieve pain and stiffness around your jaw and the base of your skull:
Tugging on your ears. Clasp your earlobes between your thumb and first finger, and gently pull downwards. Feel the fascia around your jaw-ear junction (formally known as the temporomandibular joint, or TMJ) stretch, melt, and relax. Hold this position for 2-3 minutes.
Moving your jaw. We’re so busy chewing gum, popping Zyns, and clenching our teeth against the American work load that we forget to do our jaw yoga. We can protract our jaws (move it forward), retract our jaws (move it backwards), and move our jaws side-to-side. Play around with moving your jaw through its range of motion (ROM) while you tug on your ears.
Bobbling your head. Another Philly friend, Lukas, had a bobblehead of Snoop Dogg sitting on his coffee table. Technically, we are all (supposed to be) bobbleheads too. The very first vertebrae of your spine—also known as C1, or the atlas— is unique in that it sits on the next vertebra (C2) in a way that allows it to pivot in all directions. Without C1, you wouldn’t be able to look around, nod your head, or cock your head to one side. Conversely, when C1’s ROM is constricted by musculoskeletal tension (a.k.a. the reason you go see a massage therapist or a chiropractor), the result is poor ROM of the head, and therefore pain and stiffness. C1 sits behind the TMJ joint. Jaw pain, tension headaches, stiffness of the neck, and even some shoulder pain can often be attributed to a stiff, misaligned C1.
So while you’re tugging on your ears and wagging your jaw, go ahead and incorporate some bobbling of your head! Picture your entire skull pivoting on that very first vertebra at the tippity-top of your spine. Play around with the movement, and gently see if you can dissolve any tense spots.
There you go. That’s three separate tricks you can use to loosen up some tension in your neck, head, and jaw. Play around with different combinations of the three, and who knows? You may feel some pain disappear.
Almost as good as a speed bonus in Mario Kart. ;)