TMJ Archives

TMJ update: Testimonial

Dr. Stoll,
Thanks for letting me understand all of the terrible pain in my face. Thanks for the link to Dr. Shanklands website and access to his wonderful book. It is a very understandable explanation of TMJ disorders. I know I am on my way now, but the daytime clenching habit is VERY hard to break. My masseter muscle is still quite tender, but the constant throbbing and sharp pains have subsided. This has taken several weeks, but the progress has been steady. Just to help the readers, I have been doing extra meditations throughout the day, (short ones, sometimes only 10 minutes) to help me when I feel a strong urge to bite down hard. I step away from my desk, take a deep breath and do a short meditation. It helps me release whatever it is that is making me want to hold on. I think about my mouth all the time, and I hope this will subside because it is becoming a preocupation for me. I am patient, but a little concerned that I wont be able to let go of all this. Any insite?
Thanks again for all your help and to Bill for reconnecting the Dr. Shankland webstite to your link page.
Warmest regards,
Rona

Follow Ups:

• Re: Replacing a behavior instead of "fighting" an undesired habit (long) RocketHealer Jim++ 12:14:38 1/18/00 (1)
  • Re: Replacing a behavior instead of "fighting" an undesired habit (long) (ARCHIVE in TMJ and bracing.) Walt Stoll 16:06:14 1/19/00 (0)
• Re: TMJ update (Testimonial) Walt Stoll 11:53:48 1/18/00 (0)

In Reply to: TMJ update posted by Rona on January 16, 2000 at 23:05:39:

Thanks, Rona.

When this is over, you will have no trouble getting rid of your "preoccupation" with your jaw.

Have you noticed that, when a part of your body is working right, you don't even know that it is there?

Congratulations on your progress. Remember that the "meditation" is most important for the long term accumulation of reduction of stress-effect. The short term benefits are nice and kind of fun but it is the long term accumulation that will eventually make the most difference.

Share what you are learning with your friends, family and neighbors. The quicker people know about this the quicker public health will be served.

Namaste`

Walt

In Reply to: TMJ update posted by Rona on January 16, 2000 at 23:05:39:

Rona:

Just curious, is there someone at work who you would like to "bite their head off!" ??? Or something that you would like to express, but which you must "stuff" rather than say? Perhaps you must "bite" your words/true feelings about someone or something.

Remember, any strong negative emotion that you "stuff" gets buried alive. It will crawl around in you and make an appearance in some other way at some time and circumstance in the future when you are likely least prepared for it.

You mentioned this frequent strong urge to bite down hard.

I'll bet that if you pay a little attention to your goings on/feelings when this happens that you will be able to see some repeated pattern. Some stimulus to which your habitual response is to bite down hard. At one time that response served you in getting you safely thru some stressful or even truely dangerous situation. Now it's a deeply-ingrained habit that actually harms you.

Like a particular person calling you on the phone, a particular recurring problem or a late/erroneous report, whatever. Once you have identified this, then you can think of something different to choose (and to practice!) to do in reaction to this repeated stimulous.

Perhaps smile broadly instead of clinching.

Perhaps deliberately relax your shoulders when your tendency might be to raise them even further (bracing).

You don't really want to "fight" the tendence to clench - because anything taht you consciously "fight" automatically wins since it has your full attention. Like "Don't think about Elephants for the next 20 minutes" - what happens as a result? The elephant thoughts win out every time.

Where your attention is, good or bad, there is your "energy", and what you think about most is what the most likely results will be, good or bad.

So my suggestion is to not "fight" it, but to observe yourself a little (sometimes it helps to pretend you are a little fly up on the ceiling looking down watching yourself work and interact with people) and understand what's really going on (the stimulous and how you feel about it) and then do something different instead when that stimulus occurs. Break the habit by replacing it with something that helps you.

Hope this helps!
RHJ++

Follow Ups:

• Re: Replacing a behavior instead of "fighting" an undesired habit (long) (ARCHIVE in TMJ and bracing.) Walt Stoll 16:06:14 1/19/00 (0)

In Reply to: Re: Replacing a behavior instead of "fighting" an undesired habit (long) posted by RocketHealer Jim++ on January 18, 2000 at 12:14:38:

Thanks, RHJ!

Wonderful stuff!

Walt