The Tongue as Tell

The state of your tongue is a great tell of your overall tension. Why? Partly because most people can feel their tongue even if many other parts of their bodies are obscure to them. But more importantly: the tongue is free at one end. Isn't that weird? Almost all our other muscles connect at two spots, and their job is to contract and pull those spots together, or let them go — hung up like a clothesline between two bones. But the tongue can morph. It always has the same volume, but you can choose where you want that volume to go. When a muscle is bone-free like that, there is absolutely nothing interfering with your tongue 'tensometer.' How your tongue curls, pushes, smooshes, points or sloshes around is one of the most perfectly knowable interoceptive sensations you can have. Use your tongue, not to fix but to know yourself.