Hidden fight responses in the jaw ⚔︎
What if your jaw tension or TMJ wasn’t just “stress”, but unexpressed words and actions waiting for a place to be felt and seen?
FREE 15min audio journey at the end ↓↓
In last week’s blog/newsletter, I shared about the stories our faces hold. The ways our expressions become shaped by what we’ve had to silence or suppress. How every time we’ve held back what we truly wanted to express, the muscles and fascia of the face register that incongruency, and store it as tension.
This week, we’re moving a little deeper.
Let’s talk about specifically about the jaw.
Jaw tension is often chalked up to “general stress”, bad posture, or talking too much. But underneath that is a deeper story. One rooted in our biological imprint.
In the wild, when an animal is under threat, it bares its teeth. It bites. This is the instinctive fight response in action, protective 🐅🔥
We often don’t think of ourselves as such, but we are animals too! Just domesticated ones 😅
Every time you…
held back words that wanted to be said
said yes when your body was saying no
weren’t able to defend yourself (physically or emotionally)
were silenced
were under attack and your system fawned/appeased or froze
Your nervous system registers all of these experiences as an
incomplete fight response.
And that energy that never got the completion/expression it needed?
It didn’t disappear. Often, it lands in the jaw.
This is especially true for women.
As a generalization, women have historically been less allowed to be angry and more allowed to be sad. And for men, the opposite.
Many of the women I sit with, in group or 1x1, share how foreign anger and aggression feels, even (or especially) when it’s really needed.
How hard it is to access that part of themselves.
It feels unfamiliar. Taboo. Even dangerous.
But what if accessing healthy aggression is exactly what your nervous system has been needing in order to feel complete, seen, heard?
Giving that incomplete fight response a voice, a space to be expressed.
What if that could heal your jaw tension that just won’t let up? I’m not saying it will be all healed in one sitting, especially if appeasement is a well-worn survival strategy for you. And that’s more than ok.
We don’t have to complete a full nervous system loop every time.
We can take small steps towards repair and healing with each siting.
Each time we sit with the body, we offer it a small sip of what it’s been thirsting for: Completion. Expression. Choice.
For every time it wasn’t safe to speak, to scream, to say no, to bare our teeth… I see you sister. I feel this wounding so deeply in my soul.
You are heard here.
You belong here 💞
Embodiment Practice:
The Holy Snarl 🐅
Follow the instructions below, or join me for a free 15min audio practice here 🧡
Step 1: Orient
Take a few moments to settle.
Then simply notice where your body is in space.
What’s tethering you to the ground?
- Perhaps it’s the soles of your feet if you’re standing
- Or the way your sits bones and back meet the chair supporting you
Notice the feeling of being held and supported
Step 2: Horse Lips Breath
- Inhale softly through your nose
- Exhale through your mouth and flutter your lips together (like a horse) until the breath is fully out. Let the vibration carry all the way through.
- Repeat five times, then find stilless and sit with the echos. What’s alive in your face right now? What can be felt?
*NOTE: If your lips won’t flutter, you can shape a small “O” with your mouth and exhale through that!
Step 3: The Snarl
- Start with just one side of your upper lip, gently lifting it, scrunching your nose perhaps at the same time. Then try both sides together, bearing your teeth and snarling.
- Let this be slow and intentional, there’s no rush to get to the full snarl, and it can always stay as a half snarl as well. We don’t have to reach the fullest expression to feel benefits.
- Stay in the snarl for a few moments, and notice what arises - perhaps heat, tingling, aliveness, emotion movement, or nothing at all.
- When you’re ready, slowly release and return to a neutral face.
- Pause. What sensations are present now? What feels different?
Remember, this isn’t about force. It’s about reclaiming contact with your healthy aggression. Power, instinct, aliveness.