If you’ve never heard of mewing, then you’re increasingly in the minority, as it’s a craze that’s sweeping the globe as a way to create real definition in the jawline. First discovered back in the 1970s by John Mew - a British Orthodontist - and his son, Michael, a new type of orthodontics named ‘orthotropics’ was created that focuses on retraining the tongue’s position and jaw posture.
Now, at Chisell, we’re one of the leading names in jawline exercising technology and we felt compelled to write this article as we became aware of a particular phenomenon we encountered in the industry that greatly surprised us and we think it will surprise you too. So, come with us now as we share our thoughts with you.
Uncovering the Mewer Struggle
We’re often in contact with various mewing communities around the world, particularly as mewing is closely related to hard chewing and CHISELL is essentially a hard chewing company. So, we’ve been talking with mewing community leaders about potential industry developments, organizing a lot of promotional collaborations and working on awareness projects.
During these conversations, we realised that mewing community leaders have been struggling with the actual act of mewing. Wait, what? Don't they understand how it’s done? Aren't they experts and thought-leaders in mewing? Well, it turns out that just knowing the theory behind mewing doesn’t guarantee that a person will be a successful mewer in practice.
So, What Does it Really Mean to be a Mewer?
For many, being a mewer means holding a proper tongue posture and effective mewing calls for correct neck and spine posture, but that’s far from all that’s needed.To get the absolute most out of the practice, you need to be focusing on your chewing, swallowing and overall facial muscle usage habits.
So, let’s dig down into those habits...
Then Fundamentals of Habit Making & Breaking
It’s no secret to anyone that a habit is a hard thing to kick and even harder one to develop. We, as humans, struggle with implementing even the simplest of habits like going to the gym or being more organized and when it comes to things like stopping addictive habits like smoking, they’re legendarily hard to stop.
When broken down into its most fundamental parts, a habit is a brain program that runs automatically, just like those on your computer. Your brain has automatic programs which also kick in when the right trigger is activated with the only difference being that the installation process for brain code is much more complex than with your average PC.
When Emotion Meets Information
Habits are formed when information meets emotion. Your brain is basically a bunch of neurons connected with synapses and dendrites. When you do something and feel an emotion while doing it, your brain is firing a specific network of neurons - representing the code.
If the feeling is strong enough, the connection between the neurons involved gets thicker, allowing the activation of this code to be made quicker and easier. In order to install a new habit, you first need to run this code many times while experiencing an emotion.
Your Brain Doesn’t Want You To Build New Habits
Organism survival is based on a set of principles, with the main one being to hang on to behavioral patterns which guarantee safety. If you live your life while constantly having food on the table and a bed to sleep on, your brain naturally concludes that whatever behaviors you’re engaging in are good for survival.
However, when you try to change something, your brain rebels against you and tells you it’s dangerous. This is your survival mechanism in action and your brain is damn good at convincing you that you should stick to our old, tried and trusted, proven ways.
Mewing Is Comprised of a Bunch of Habits
Now, returning to the subject of mewing, we previously mentioned that it requires 3-4 different posture development habits to be formed - which is a lot. When you consider that mewing involves having to focus on your facial movements, your chewing, swallowing and your posture all at the same time, it’s no wonder that people find it so difficult to achieve.
If one habit is difficult to form, having to do several simultaneously multiplies this difficulty many times.
Mewing Community Leaders Are Carrying the Torch!
Mewing communities are carrying the torch of when it comes to spreading the word about the importance of proper habits and we’re incredibly grateful that they exist. Behind each community is a person or a team of people putting in the time to help others get their desired health or beauty result.
Understandably, community leaders are struggling, as they’re just people like everyone else, with the same old survival brain trying to stop them achieving their desired goals.
Our Final Thoughts
There truly is no shortcut or easy path to take when forming habits. We’re not going to sugarcoat it - it takes time and it’s hard! However, persistence pays off and once a habit is formed, it’s something that will stay with you for the long haul.
Mewing community leaders simply need to walk the walk and lead by example and then others will see the reality of the situation and put in the hard work that’s necessary, rather than thinking it will come easy. Forewarned is forearmed and when you know what to expect, you’re braced for the struggle ahead.
All that’s left to say is good luck and happy mewing!
You can find our top mewing community picks of 2020 in this article from our blog.
