I Went to the Dentist Today and It Was Amazing…

I’d escaped during my lunch hour, promising myself that I would not cancel another appointment. It was easy to justify not going to the dentist– an important conference call came up. I got called away on a last minute work trip. My babe had the sniffles was deathly sick and needed me at home. I had already exhausted four or five decent excuses off my list over the past two months, so I had to do it. It was time to face the plaque.

When the hygienist entered the room, I greeted her, threw my phone in my purse and settled into the chair.  Fortunately, she’s not one of those hygienists who try to encourage conversation while my mouth is jacked open like some festival prop used for a bean bag toss, and I felt my body suddenly start to relax as the chair pulled me into a horizontal position. Sure, I was right beneath her scalpel, squinting from that ridiculous light that could likely illuminate a small city, but I stopped. I had to stop.

I couldn’t obsessively check my email. I didn’t have two toddlers at my feet asking to be picked “up, up.” I wasn’t cleaning or reading Pam’s hourly Facebook status update or Googling facts for my upcoming presentation. I couldn’t add items to my list or check items off of it. I wasn’t texting my best friend or yelling at my kids or my sweet husband or my reflection…

I just STOPPED. And I relaxed. And it felt amazing.

There, laying in the chair, with the hygienist happily scraping away over the roar of the suction machine, I started thinking about how great it felt just to relax and do nothing. When you’re a mom, a wife, an employee, a daughter, a sister, a friend – too often, I suddenly realized, we don’t stop enough. Whether it’s a walk at lunch or grabbing a big lemonade to drink on your back porch or not calling someone on the way home so you can turn up the music and jam out, many of us don’t take the time to just stop and take a few minutes to enjoy a few much needed moments with ourselves.

So I resolved today to try not to wait until my next dentist appointment to do this again. You should too.

Pass the floss.