Your tongue is much more than just an instrument for speech or eating, prompting some to ask:

Have you ever thought about how your tongue could be affecting your posture even all the way down to your feet?

What if something as simple as where your tongue rests in your mouth could influence your body’s alignment, balance, and even breathing?

The tongue is more than just a muscle for speaking and eating, it’s deeply connected to the body through fascia, an intricate web of connective tissue that links the tongue to the feet.

It's true. An internet query of a growing body of research reveals that the position of your tongue can influence your posture, balance, breathing, and even facial structure. Here's some of the ways tongue posture can affect your overall health:

POSTURE

- Muscle Tension: Your tongue is connected to muscles in your jaw, neck, and even your shoulders. Poor tongue posture (e.g., pressing against your teeth or lying flat at the bottom of your mouth) can create tension in these areas, leading to misalignment like slouched shoulders or forward head posture.

- Spinal Alignment: When your tongue rests properly — on the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth — it helps stabilize the head and neck, which supports better spinal posture.

BALANCE

- Proprioception Boost: Proper tongue posture may enhance proprioception — your body's ability to sense its position in space. This can improve balance and stability, especially in people with vestibular disorders.

- Sensory Substitution: The tongue can deliver balance-related signals to the brain, directly affect equilibrium.

BREATHING

- Airway Support: A tongue resting low in the mouth can block the airway, leading to shallow breathing. Proper tongue posture opens the airway, encouraging nasal breathing and better oxygen intake.

FACIAL STRUCTURE

Palate Development: Especially in children and young adults, resting the tongue against the roof of the mouth helps shape the palate and support facial symmetry. Poor posture can lead to a narrower palate and less prominent cheekbones over time.

So, much research has been done, supporting the theory that the tongue is much more key to the body's overall health than previously realized, again prompting some to ask, 

"Could improving tongue posture be the missing key to better posture, core strength, and overall movement efficiency?"

*Click here to watch a video on proper tongue posture. 

The English language has done some changing in the 400-plus years since the King James Version was made available. Within its pages, you’ll find phrases like “straitened in your own bowels” (2 Corinthians 6:12), “superfluity of naughtiness” (James 1:21), “bloody flux” (Acts 28:8), “filthy lucre” (1Timothy 1:7), and “the thick bosses of his bucklers” (Job 15:26).

There is a beauty and picturesqueness to the Elizabethan English, though. One example of this is in 1 Timothy 1:6, which warns against “vain jangling.” To me, that’s a vivid way of translating a compound Greek word translated elsewhere as “fruitless discussions” (NASB), “idle talk” (NKJV), “vain discussion” (ESV), “meaningless talk” (NIV), and “empty talk” (MEV). Have you ever heard anyone jangling keys or coins in their pockets? It’s usually a nervous tic and mindless habit, but it can be loud and annoying. 

The cause of this "vain jangling" is revealed in verse 7, that “they want to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.” 

A humorous, though likely fabricated, story is told of President Theodore Roosevelt. It recounts how he tired of the endless, banal greetings and conversations at state events. Supposedly, one evening at a state ball, the President stood in a receiving line greeting one guest after another. “All of them said the same thing,” recounts author Chuck Swindloll, “smiled the same tired smile, repeating the right greetings by rote, talking with their mouths, not their heads or their hearts.”

Tired of shaking hands and smiling this big smile and responding with the usual inanities used at such occasions, Roosevelt did something absolutely outrageous. Convinced that no one was listening anyway, he began to greet the rest of his guests by saying with a smile, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” Everyone smiled vacuously and said things like: “Wonderful!” “Lovely!” “Keep up the good work” One diplomat was listening, however. He leaned over and whispered in Roosevelt’s ear, “I’m sure she had it coming to her!”

Swindoll goes on to describe how “empty Christian talk … filled with clichés and bromides … and nonsensical small talk” work to “drive him up a wall.”

[Dr. Charles R. Swindoll has served as pastor of some of our nation’s most prominent churches, chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary, and Bible teacher on the internationally syndicated radio program Insight for Living. He has written more than thirty best-selling books, including STRENGTHENING YOUR GRIP, LAUGH AGAIN, THE GRACE AWAKENING, and the million-selling GREAT LIVES FROM GOD'S WORD series.]