A few years ago, I shared that going Paleo had almost completely cured my alopecia areata, and ever since then, hearing other people's stories about that has really meant a lot to me. Every now and again I'll see in my analytics that someone came across my blog by searching "Paleo and Alopecia" and it makes me feel like maybe I've managed to help someone on that journey.

So now I have a new experience I want to share--I posted on Instagram the other day and asked if anyone else was dealing with TMJ pain and I was really floored by the response. My dad and my brother deal with it, but I didn't expect to hear that so many of you guys are also living with jaw pain.

I started having jaw pain in the spring of 2014--I vividly remember that the week of our wedding, my jaw was starting to click and would actually pop when I opened my mouth all the way. The popping sensation hurt, but it felt good at the same time, like I was releasing tension or something. After a couple months, it stopped popping and I wasn't able to fully open my mouth again for weeks at a time. I had to stop eating crunchy things like sweet potato chips, and just looking at a whole apple made my jaw hurt--I always had to cut them into small pieces.

When we moved to Charlotte, I made a long-overdue appointment with a dentist, who referred me to an oral surgeon. This was terrifying to me for a number of reasons: I have a pretty serious needle phobia, I was anxious about the possibility of having to have surgery on my jaw, and the larger, even more irrational side of me was convinced that they were going to tell me that my pain was the result of a tumor or something equally frightening. But I went, and after a series of (noninvasive and no-big-deal) tests, they determined that there was nothing wrong with my jaw joint and that I should start seeing a physical therapist to work on my muscles, which were causing the pain.

I was really surprised by that--for some reason I never even thought about going to physical therapy for my jaw. In my mind, PT was for people who had been injured in some way, and it never occurred to me that it could be helpful for chronic pain caused by TMJ issues. I started going in October or November, twice a week for a while. My therapist offered to try dry needling, but I was pretty against the idea of it, so every visit she would check my jaw and see how far I could open my mouth, and then she'd spend 20-30 minutes working on the muscles in my face, neck, and sometimes even shoulder. She taught me some strengthening and stretching exercises that would help, and slowly but surely I only needed to see her once a week, and then once a month, and then once every month and a half.

Now we're on an as-needed basis--my jaw doesn't hurt regularly anymore and only bothers me if I'm doing a lot of traveling, not getting good sleep, or am more stressed/anxious than normal. My next step in this journey to no TMJ pain is to start seeing a massage therapist every month or so for my tight neck and shoulders, which really cause the majority of my jaw pain. And, as always, I'm working on letting things go, learning how to relax, and making a priority out of taking care of myself.

I know that everyone is different and TMJ pain manifests itself in a lot of different ways for the people who have it, but I wanted to share my story because it wasn't as dramatic or scary as I thought it would be. So if you're dealing with jaw pain, talk to your dentist about it and see what they say. I didn't mention it for so long because I was afraid of what they would tell me, but that's not a great way to deal with anything, especially chronic pain. I also thought TMJ pain was just something you had to live with and manage as best you can, but it's not. Like most things in life, you can get through it, then look back on it and be grateful that you did. It feels good to get better.

Do any of you have TMJ pain? What have (or haven't) you done to fix it?

Reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and trying to implement its teachings into my home and life. It's so crazy to think about how much stuff we accumulate over the years, and how we don't let go of it because we think we need it, but it ends up just creating clutter and making us unhappy. I have a lot more thoughts on all of this, but that's another blog post!

Watching the last season of Parenthood. I have three episodes left and I can't believe how attached I've gotten to so many of the characters. Kristina used to irritate me back in the first few seasons and now I wish she were real so I could have coffee with her.

Thinking about upcoming episodes of Hello, Butter and all the things I want to do "next," like the YouTube channel I've been dreaming about for months and months and months. If I had one, what would you like to see? I'm thinking it would be a bit of an extension of this blog, just through videos; so there'd be some food, some general life stuff, maybe cocktail recipes? I'd love to share some makeup stuff and maybe even do a Q+A column on a semi-regular basis. If you have ideas or requests, let me know! Maybe hearing from you guys is what I need to finally get started.

Missing Minneapolis a lot--it is so amazing to me that I can feel so happy and at home in Charlotte and simultaneously wish we never left Minnesota. I've learned over the past few years of moving that you can (and will) feel all sorts of weird and conflicting things at once, so I just try to embrace it and stop trying to make sense of every little thing. You can love where you are and still think somewhere else is better.

Looking forward to a full weekend at home. I drove to Roanoke last Sunday night and spent a few days in Charlottesville after that, so today feels like Monday and even though I was only gone for three days, it felt more like a week (Charlotte to Roanoke to Charlottesville and back the same way is kind of a hike), so it'll be nice to have nowhere to be except home with Rob and Ender.

What have you been reading, watching, thinking about, missing, and looking forward to?

This morning I'm headed to Charlottesville, Virginia for a couple days to visit my friend Patrick before he moves to Connecticut for a new job and to be reunited with his husband after a year of long-distance.

Charlottesville is such a special place to so many people I love--it was Patrick's home for ten years, where he met Chad and started a life together with him; it was where Shawna took a post-bac program before med school; it was where Rob and I first really lived together, on our own; and it was where I went through what I look back on now as one of the hardest times of my life--getting over the death of a childhood friend, dealing with depression and anxiety, modifying my diet in a life-changing way, finishing graduate school, wondering what could possibly be next.

But it was also one of the best times of my life--morning trail runs with my best friend, followed by farmer's markets or big pitchers of mimosas, afternoons spent paging through the University of Virginia's gorgeous libraries, living across the street from Patrick and Chad, working at a sweet little coffee shop, coming to the beautiful realization that Rob was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

And then, suddenly, it was time to go. We packed up our stuff and I dropped Rob off at the airport for a month-long school trip to China before a six-month stint training for his new job in DC. I headed back to my parents' house on the lake with no real plans for anything; missing Rob, missing Charlottesville, with no clear vision of the fun and amazing and love-filled life that was in store for us.

Lately I've been thinking about all the other "ends" in my life--some sad, some happy, some both--that were really just wonderful beginnings: The end of long-distance when I finally joined Rob in Minneapolis. My last day at a job I really thought I needed. The end of our time in Minnesota. And so many others. Almost nothing lasts forever--but your heart can break and mend and grow more than you ever thought possible.

"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind." --C.S. Lewis