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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Grinding

Stress comes out in the strangest ways. Last year I had a long season of acid reflux. I was holding onto some very stressful things at work instead of giving them over to God. I’d give them over, and then quickly take them back. I’d give over again, but not fully. Thus a several long months of upsetting stomach issues ensued.

Someone asked me a question about food and I said that I do not like refrigerated bottled water. Those around the table found that very odd, so I explained that the super cold water hurts my teeth. Room temperature water is just fine for me. They then asked if I grinded my teeth. I do, and I even have a night guard I wear at night to help protect my teeth. The thing is, I realized I don’t just grind my teeth at night. During the day if I am stressed I clinch them tightly. So as I am getting used to jumping 3 freeways to get to work you bet I was grinding. In fact I was having slight moments of high adrenaline just because the traffic can be so intense here. So, now that I realized this, I’ve been working on relaxing and breathing while driving on the highly populated freeways and holding my jaw slightly open in an effort to not clench my teeth.

1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Another thing we have in common! Mine got so bad that they did CT scans & the whole bit to find out why I had these awful headaches! This began for me at the end of high school. When anyone has headaches that they can't explain, I always mention TMJ (the jaw syndrome that goes with clenching .) Good for you for recognizing it!!! If you go on-line and look up temporal mandibular jaw syndrome, it'll open up a whole world that you probably didn't even know existed!:) It's really great that you're learning to be in tune with yourself. This will be a very valuable thing to have for life...especially with pregnancies!

Kyle said...

What? Where did the plug about pregnancies come from?

Unknown said...

I just meant IF you two should choose to have children and IF the Lord allows it.:) Being "in tune" with your body is VERY important! I will NEVER encourage anyone to have kids. Wait, that didn't sound nice. What I mean is...that's a VERY personal decision & your mentor should not be suggesting anything!

Tasha said...

I love how my husband picks out the random things from comments and gets stuck on them. Then often I have to explain myself, and in this case you did. Blessed to call you my working on not grinding my teeth friend.

Kyle said...

Come on. Any guys out there that would agree that picking out "pregnancy" is not random? Seemingly I am out numbered. :)