Healthy Habits: Tongue Scraping

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I don’t know exactly when I learned about tongue scraping, I’m guessing when I first started learning about Ayurveda, around 2013 when I was training as a health coach. But I do know when I ordered my tongue scrapers off of Amazon–November 8, 2018! And the funniest part of that is that I lost them, never used them, and then just found them when we moved in January! Since then a lot has changed in my life, but one of the few things that have truly been consistent in my life is perpetual problems at the dentist. Ever since childhood, it has been a struggle. Then the dentist said it was too much sugar, now they blame it on the natural PH of my mouth, and being a coffee drinker. I’ve always been good about brushing well twice a day, and I am pretty good with flossing. I am not perfect, but I’m probably better than a large chunk of the population. I do know that there is still room for improvement, so I have taken it upon myself to uplevel the best I can because I’m fed up with it. It’s not only expensive, but I also wonder about the potential harm being done to my own healthy ecosystem by adding in fillings (thank goodness, all of the mercury ones are gone!) and also by needing root canals. The things I chose to address first are:

1. Start using an electric toothbrush (one with a “soft” setting that won’t upset my enamel further. I had been using the basic ones with just an on and off switch). The one I’m using here.

2. Start water flossing! Here is my flosser (so pretty!).

3. Switch toothpaste (my dentist had recommended Sensodyne—barf. But I learned about remineralization toothpaste, which is also sensitive and also will help restore my enamel, so I went with this one.

4. Try tongue scraping (this is mine!)

This is not a post on oral hygiene, but it was a key driver to inspire me to take up this habit!

Tongue Scraping From a western perspective

I recently was introduced to the Instagram account @askthedentist. I’ve personally done a deep dive into oral hygiene, but this is not the post for that- but it helped reaffirm the benefits of tongue scraping (vs just brushing your tongue, which just pushes bacteria around). It not only prevents cavities and bad breath but also prevents your body from reabsorbing the toxins it has already naturally expelled through the tongue. To read more of the benefits, Dr. Burhenne (@askthedentist) has a great article on it.

Tongue scraping From an Ayurvedic Perspective

I’m not 100% into all things Ayurveda, but I’m into a lot of the wellness habits derived from it. (My dosha is Pitta. I haven’t over-resonated with this aspect of myself, but from a coaching perspective, it’s really helped me understand my clients’ needs better. If you are wondering what your dosha is you can take a quiz here!) But it is a holistic system, where health and wellness depend on a delicate balance of mind, body, and spirit.

From an Ayurvedic perspective, the tongue is a key to understanding your bodily health. If you go to an Ayurvedic practitioner, they will ask you to NOT tongue scrape before coming so they can “read” your tongue for imbalances, etc.

The following are excerpts from a Chopra.com article on tongue scraping (I just couldn’t say it better myself!):

Also, many of the beneficial phytonutrients and “body signaling molecules” that your food contains are first interpreted by the mind-body upon contact with receptors on the tongue. Ayurveda acknowledges this intercommunication that is necessary for a properly functioning system. With this in mind, you would want to improve this communication between your food and your body by removing any coating that is interfering with that connection. Also, many herbs possess beneficial effects felt from the initial contact with receptors on the tongue. Hence, you need a clear tongue to receive this healthy information and relay signals to the rest of the body.

In the Charaka Samhita, an early Ayurvedic medical text, it says that by cleaning the tongue, “(this) removes foul smell, tastelessness … and by taking out dirt coated on the tongue, teeth and mouth brings relish immediately.”

Basically, it helps strengthen the connection between the body and food, with bad breath, tasting more fully, and removes toxins and bacteria build-up!

From a mind/spirit perspective, the Ayurvedic belief is that people who use tongue scrapers are more expressive and thoughtful, better public speakers, and more sincere and authoritative conversationalists. These are definitely things I want to work on, so I’m open to see any changes there.

Other Thoughts

I’ve also read that tongue scraping can help eliminate food cravings. If you have a particularly salty savory meal, you naturally will crave something sweet to balance it. If you scrape after the meal, theoretically, it clears your taste buds, so you won’t crave the sweet to balance it. I haven’t been scraping after meals, so I can’t speak to this in my own experience, but it is noted as a benefit from some sources.

How to Tongue Scrape

So I only started tongue scraping a few months ago. And since then, I’ve read lots of different takes on how often/when to tongue scrape. This is how I do it:

1. I do it first thing in the morning, before drinking water so I don’t reabsorb the toxins expelled by the tongue during the night. I don’t do it every day, probably about 5x/week.

2. I gently scrape around 7 times. (I’ve read the right amount is 5-7 or 7-14 times. I feel like 7 is the magic number!) I rinse off the scraper in between.

3. The key is not scraping too hard, or going too far back that you gag.

4. That’s it! Drink some water!

I’ve read that some people scrape after meals, but I’m a little apprehensive about overdoing it. Someone told me tongue scraping can lead to loss of taste buds, and from what I can find online I can’t find data to back that up– but I just haven’t wanted to risk it. Perhaps scraping too hard can do that? From the Ayurvedic perspective, you only do it in the morning, so that’s what I’m sticking to.

My Experience

In the past few months, I have noticed the days that I don’t tongue scrape my breath is less than pleasant (thank you mask-wearing for drawing this to my attention!). I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference in my taste buds or cravings (but hey, I’m pregnant. Lol). But I wasn’t doing it for those reasons anyway. Maybe I have been more expressive? Not sure! 😂 But I’m going to keep doing it because, in general, I think it is making a difference in my oral hygiene. It is a fast, easy new part of my routine. Why wouldn’t I continue with it?

What do you think about tongue scraping? Ready to give it a shot? Is it already apart of your routine? Let me know in the comments or on IG! -AHS

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Resources/Further reading

https://kripalu.org/resources/health-benefits-tongue-scraping-and-how-do-it

https://chopra.com/articles/the-benefits-of-tongue-scraping

https://askthedentist.com/tongue-scraping-6-reasons

Institute for Integrative Nutrition Education Handout

The #1 tool to keep you Zen for the Wed: Meditation

You don't even need to be on the edge of a cliff looking at mountains to meditate! You can do it from home!

I had this realization lately that I keep bringing up meditation as a solution to every problem I encounter. Talking to friends and clients alike, my recos are always including adding mediation to their routine. I was becoming an obsessed, broken record. But why?

I typically wouldn't refer to myself as a particularly grounded person. I'm one of those people who is always spinning in circles doing THE most. And like most people these days, when I do have down time, I get lost in the mindlessness of the never-ending scroll on social media. 

When I was forced to take my 10-15 minute occasional meditation practice to 30 minutes daily during my yoga teacher training, it really had an impact on my life. It changed the way I process small and large interactions in my life (not to mention time management skills!). When you are planning a wedding, life can be absolutely chaotic. It is a time you should cherish, and sometimes you just want it to be over. Meditation is an amazing tool to have in your stress management toolkit to keep you #zenforthewed! In this post I'll share the benefits I've seen in myself as well as some instructions on how to get started for yourself!

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Benefits I've seen

1. I have control freak tendencies (and I'm also surrounded control freaks- love you all!), and we live in a world where we actually have very little control. That is not to say that we are not in charge of our own fates, but we cannot live our lives in fear of what could happen. Meditation has honestly helped me to accept things that are out of my control. I know to focus on the things in my power to change and don't sweat the rest. This is maybe the number one benefit whilst wedding planning, IMO!!

2. It helps me to process my emotions. One of the hardest things during my meditation is to let really painful emotions come up and to not suppress them. But by just sitting with the emotions, most times I just sit there, feel them fully, and quite often they pass. If for instance I am really nervous about something I have to do, the emotion will come back, but in a more manageable way. (Side note: getting married can bring up so many emotions, its okay to not feel absolutely ecstatic every day you are engaged. Feel the emotions, sit with them, and it will help you feel great in the long run!)

3. There is no outright goal for meditating, and a "bad session" is just as important to sit through as a "good session". This aspect of meditation has helped me to detach from the outcomes of all my endeavors. I am not my successes or my failures, and it helps me to remind myself of that. And related to that...

4. I used to feel like I needed to have a reason to do something. Sometimes it is okay to do something for no particular reason. It is okay to do things just for the sake of doing. Not everything has to be an achievement. I have been working on a very difficult puzzle for 4 months. I don't have any reason why I am doing the puzzle, and that is okay. It is worthy of my time too.

5. When you meditate (at least in the style I was taught in), you are training your mind to come back to focus on the breath. While often that doesn't happen, if you are reliving your 4th grade trauma for the tenth time and then you remember to come back to the breath–it's still a success. That focus has extended beyond my practice and often helps me with my work! It's amazing when I can focus for any period longer than 5 minutes (YEP - my A.D.D. diagnosis is realllll).

6. Meditation has helped me to become less reactionary. I'm always working to curb my natural lean towards defensiveness, and I've noticed that meditation has helped me to pause before I react. My husband will say something that will trigger me (love you, honey!) and I will actually pause and think before I respond. I will try to see things from his perspective before answering. So I guess I'm saying meditation has made me a better wife?! Just to be clear, I am not a master of this, but I have made a lot of progress in this area.

7. It's crazy to think about how rarely I truly experience the moment I am in. Through my meditation practice, I have become more in tune with myself, and I am able to pull myself out of my technology and day dreams and actually be present in the moment. Life is so precious, I need to try to be there for it!

8. Lastly, I am much more comfortable just being. I can just sit by myself and I don't feel the need to distract myself. It's wild that I didn't feel that way before, but I was always using things to distract me: social media, talking on the phone, Candy Crush, etc. It's like I'm comfortable being truly alone with myself. I notice that if I take a few days off meditating, I come back to the distractions more easily too!

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How to Meditate

Did I sell you on it? Are you ready to try meditating for yourself? My instructions to get started follow: 

1. Get comfortable in a seated upright position. You can be cross legged on a mat or pillow, sitting in a chair, or just sitting on the bed propped up with your legs out.

2. Set a timer on your phone (you can use one of the apps below or just the normal timer). I recommend 10 minutes to start. If that seems like too much, 5 minutes is still beneficial.

3. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. I sometimes like to focus on sounds, but that is challenging if there are none! You can keep your eyes open if you visualize too much with your eyes. I find that too distracting most of the time though.

4. When your mind begins to wander off, bring your concentration back to your breath. You can call yourself out and say "thinking" to help bring your thoughts back to the breath.

5. Don't check your phone to make sure the timer is set. It is. :)

Before you start read this: 

I want to debunk the myth that meditation is peaceful or enjoyable. It can be, but it can also be downright torturous. Sometimes I would come out of my meditation sessions more frustrated than when I started. And that is okay. When you sit with yourself, all of your anxiety and embarrassing moments will come to haunt you. That will help you to return to the breath, but it will bring up lots of feelings. The key thing is to truly feel the emotions and to not push them down. This is also why I don't advocate using guided meditations. While I love Headspace (a guided meditation app), and that's how I got started meditating, I didn't really feel like I was diving deep until I was sitting in silence. 

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Resources: 

An amazing book, "How to Meditate" by Pema Chodron, is a great resource to help you get started. 

Apps: 

Headspace - this man's voice is truly the most soothing sound in the world. Guided meditation is a great place to ease you into meditating. 

Stop, Breathe, and Think - Has a great timer function as well guided functionality. I like the stickers it gives as achievements. 

Insight Timer - A huge variety of meditations available on this app. In addition to it's timer, it's great if you want to explore the vast realm of guided meditation.

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Are you ready to try meditating? Or is it already in your routine? Let me know what you think of this self care tool! -AHS