Tongues of a Jackass

Playing with both tongues as I sit and read the internet. Again not too long ago I could not imagine that the tongue musculature would have any impact on my posture and/or  use of myself. It is soft tissue therefore it's impact on the skeletal system should not go past it's immediate insertions into the skeletal system.

However that is not what I am feeling. I am unable to even 'jackass' a good reason how much the tongues's impact feels to have.

Bite my tongue

I wonder with the right tongue dominance do I define the the left tongues position in a negative sense? Do I  actually feel where the left tongue is or do I know if I put the right tongue in this position the left tongue will not get bit?  On the occasions I have bit my tongue it is usually on the left side.

In the 'left tongue mode' I still have a very poor sense of tongue as a whole. Maybe, I have a greater chance to bite my tongue on the right side.

Being wrong or left as the case may be

Being Wrong

Good book so far but tough to read especially in the context of what I am saying about having a left tongue. 'Modern Jackassing' is the term she has for coming up with a theory that we have no real knowledge of. Once we propose an explanation we will continue to find reasons to support the theory no matter how wrong it is. Especially if we are arguing for it against someone else.

I had a discussion yesterday where I was trying to justify my 'belief'. There are numerous logical reasons why I cannot be right and am reaching way above my level of understanding. In many ways it would be better to just let the whole thing go. The whole 'body awareness" movement is about subjective feel and trying to notice the difference between efficient and inefficient movement. The thing I learned is that often I cannot differentiate between parts of my body. I recruit more than I need to accomplish a task because I did not have an accurate movement picture of what was being used. I now feel musculature of the" left tongue' which I did not before. It would be an accurate description to say I am 'jackassing the rest of my theory to justify that feeling.


to be cont'd

Writing and talking with the left hand and left tongue

I have not been writing much with the left hand in either direction lately. However if I try to write with my left hand left to right I can do it but it is ugly. (To be honest some people may not be able to tell the distinguish it from my right hand.) Using my left tongue to pronounce words seems to be similar. Having differentiated the left tongue from the right tongue I seem to know how to try to get it to shape the sound of the word but it does it badly.  Understanding that it exists seems to be the major stumbling block in getting it to move. I still have difficulty in getting my left tongue to cross midline or protrude from my mouth as my normal right tongue mode seems to take over. I am not sure where the difficulty lies.

Pain in the necks

I could always feel the postural pain and stress in the back of my neck but the front of my neck was always just there unless I cut it shaving. It now feels to me the back of the neck is a reflection of the anterior neck musculature along with spinal postural issues. The use of my left anterior neck and under chin is not symmetrical with the right. My left side feels more contracted giving the right side a little more play in communication.  The contracting is the easy part the relaxing in a functional way is the more difficult. Feeling some of the smaller musculature relax and lengthen as I attempt to use the left tongue is immediately reflected in the back of my neck.

I have a left tongue

I have a left tongue it is not my right tongue. My right tongue is what I grew up with and it is what I perceived to be my tongue. It has a left side, it could move normally and functioned without problem. I 'discovered' my left tongue after years of trying to differentiate the use of my left and right sides of my body. It ties in how I perceive others and communicate with them. I relate to others right eye to right eye. I tend not to see the left side of others eye/face unless there is something unusual. I now have a left tongue with a right side along with my right tongue with a left side. I am still unclear if I can use both at the same time. Using the left tongue does not seem different than using the left hand and since I can use both hands at the same time I should be able to use both tongues at the same time. I still can not move the left tongue as well as the right. The movements are spastic and small but it has a powerful effect on how I use my head, neck and spine.

Throwing a ball with my left hand

Grew up righty doing the normal sports. Baseball, basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, and soccer. Could not go to my left in basketball and threw very badly with my left hand.  Did a bunch of work on it after starting on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais. It is not so much what I needed to do with the left hand to coordinate a good throw it is what I needed to contract on the right. The hand is sort of like the end of a whip. What I tend to do when trying to throw with the left is contract to early to generate the force. The left arm needs to extend back and wait till very late until the right pelvis trunk and shoulder contracts in a backward rotation forcefully and then the left hand arm and pec commits the throw. It is amazing to me how well I could coordinate the left throw until my sense of the situation demanded more than I could do easily.  I would actually try to recruit the musculature to throw the ball with my right making the left throw impossible.
However if I would try and make the throw of only a few feet against a wall it felt pretty good from a coordination aspect.

Much of the work with the left seems to be short circuited by the right. "Here let me do it" the right side says.
"You'll just make a mess of it"