You describe exactly what I experience. I can't afford to see specialists so in the past 15 years, I have taken time to listen to my body in an attempt to figure it out. It's been a long journey of self-discovery and healing but the progress I have made have been worth it. I recently discovered that I had bruxism as a child and wonder if that caused the TMJ. I also started eating dates and that helps alleviate some of the tightness I feel on the left side of my body.
Sorry for the late response, your message was pushed fairly low in my HN threads.
Agreed, listening to your body is really important. And, as you may already know, a key it to ask: Is this problem a secondary symptom or the source? You're always trying to find the root cause of the problem.
For instance, (am not saying this is it), but often, TMJ is caused by problems lower down, as the head/jaw naturally move in association with the pelvis (just do a google search online). May want to try doing accupressure on the pelvic floor, hips, and hamstrings to see if this helps
