I debated not writing this for fear of my personal hygiene coming into question, but I can’t help myself. If I need to out my nasty habits in an effort to make the world a better place, so be it. Please still love my when we are done here…
As I’ve already shared, at the last teacher training, we learned about Ayurveda. One of the traditional morning practices is to use a metal tongue scrapper to well…clean out your ears… (Sorry…had to test to see who is really reading.) I, of course, came home and proclaimed I would now need a stainless steel tool to clean off my tongue every morning in the name of improved digestion, clearer skin, and all over well being. (Why yes, Ayurveda does sometimes sound too good to be true. Why do you ask?) Randy just shook his head as I bounded over to Outpost only to find, they didn’t have any! Are you kidding me? After hearing all of the benefits, I couldn’t believe they weren’t flying off of the shelves.
I returned home dejected and sad and Randy, in his typical brilliance, said “why don’t you just use your toothbrush?” After I finished scowling, a light bulb went off. Maybe brushing my tongue when I brush my teeth would do the same thing!
Needless to say, it is three weeks later and I can’t believe how much cleaner my tongue looks. And how nasty my mouth must have been before. I never thought I had bad breath, but I would get canker sores and even cuts on the side of my tongue all the time. I wonder if it was because I missed this step in my morning regimen. After 33 years of not doing it, it takes a conscious effort to remember to give my tongue more than a cursory swipe, but I will definitely add this to my routine from now on.
I decided to share this embarrassing story after discussing this with a few people. They only started cleaning off their tongue recently, too. Why didn’t our parents teach us these things? Choking concerns?
And yes, you have just read five paragraphs that boil down to clean your mouth. Isn’t the Internet great?!
