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Mouth hanging open while meditating!

juniorcat

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 14, 2011
Messages
147
Why does my mouth keep falling open while I meditate? Or at least it wants to.
And when I allow it, the whole breathing process is really uncomfortable and it drys out my mouth and throat really quickly.

When I don't allow it, the attention on that I usually focus on my breath is half-baked and partly on my mouth.
 
Seems silly to think that one of the supposed most natural practices would require anything other than the human form to do.
 
It does, doesn't it.

I used to think it seemed silly to just sit and do nothing for 20 minutes...

From a practical standpoint, your options are pretty much A: use something to hold your jaw shut (eg a bandage), or B: train yourself to keep your mouth closed (the easiest way to do this is to gently hold your tongue to the roof of your mouth, just behind the front teeth)

Or you could meditate upside-down... :)
 
I can't understand how you don't possess the strength to keep your mouth closed when meditating?
 
^ he has the strength, he just gets a weird feeling, from what i can tell.

this just means OP is progressing in his meditation... he's at that awkward stage where the somatic senses become unusually salient.

just keep sitting. excellent work ;)
 
Touching tongue to the roof completes the circuit and might keep your mouth shut.
 
Touching tongue to the roof completes the circuit and might keep your mouth shut.

Yes, this usually works for me. Place the tongue to the roof of the mouth and breath naturally through the nostrils. See the breaths flow in and out of your two nostrils. Do you notice any blocks as the air circulates in through your nostrils and throughout your bodily system? Perhaps these channels are blocked and wont allow the breath to circulate, so in order for the body to breath, the mouth opens up in a gasp for breath? Try finding and locating any blocks you may have and understand why they are there. dont try to get rid of them, that will create more problems. SImply observe why they are there and the realization of why they are there in the first place should be enough to drop them all by itself.
 
reading this thread, now i feel everything in my body. plus, i just vaporized a little cannabis... my body is so "salient" ;)

it's telling me i should exercise. i'm telling it i should make software. something is telling me to be lazy.
 
I use to experience involuntary movements with my eyelids and head when i first began practicing meditation, the energy was to intense for me to handle and often forced my eyelids to flutter rapidly. I've never had the issue of my mouth hanging open though..
 
.. never had the issue of my mouth hanging open though..

The mouth 'hanging open' is likely due to full body muscle relaxation. People define what it is to "meditate" differently. One is emptying your facilities to the greatest degree possible, another is extreme tense concentration and focus upon an abstract concept, et cetra.
 
Never had that before. I have meditated for hours fully relaxed. Maybe I was not relaxed enough I guess.
 
Never had that before. I have meditated for hours fully relaxed. Maybe I was not relaxed enough I guess.

If you're meditating for hours at a time, relaxation probably isn't your goal-- it sounds like you're doing just fine.
 
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