I was lying in final twist, pulling my hip away from my ribs like a good little yogi, when the teacher, who didn’t know my practice that well, came over and gave me an adjustment.

My back cracked. His eyes lit up; I could tell he was very pleased with himself. My back cracked ten more times. His eyes shifted to panic. Being a people pleaser, I tried to quietly reassure him. But I was, in fact, on the verge of panicking about it myself.

I’d been trying, unsuccessfully, to remember when my right hip joint had started cracking so prolifically. But I could only conjure memories of lying on my mat, twisting deeper and deeper, feeling like it needed to crack but couldn’t.

That night, standing in the shower, I swayed—shifting my ribs ever so slightly in the particular way that causes my back to crack over and over again. I counted up to 100 cracks. (I know. Counting is another bad habit that we control enthusiasts fall into when chaos is looming.) But I couldn’t stop. I was trying, as I had been every night for some time, to crack it until it was all cracked out. One more crack. Just one more.

When I was a kid and my brother and I were accusing each other of starting it, my mom would tell us to stick out our tongues. After careful inspection she would say, ok, I know who is telling the tuth and that would be that. The fight would end because how can you fight when you are completely absorbed by the question of how mom can know the truth by looking at our tongues?!

I've been thinking about this because I've been looking at my own tongue lately. The same way that the tail can wag the dog, the tongue can wag the person.

In ancient cultures one very basic health practice that is only now being inroduced to modern civilization is tongue scraping. One visit every six months to the dentist can't compare to the benefits of a little scraping every day. Best to use metal not plastic.

And lay off the ADA approved alchohol based mouthwashes which completely throw off the PH balance of your mouth. Better to use water and a little bit of pepermint oil. And/or clove. And/or cinammon oil.