Dental Meditation

This week’s topic over in my Zen Pen writing group is Breath. And there’s nothing more conducive to practicing deep belly breathing than sitting in the dentists’s chair. Yes, there I was, folks, with 37 tools jammed in my mouth, the dentist cracking jokes and the hygeinist chatting about celebrity gossip while my teeth were drilled into oblivion. And how I managed to not freak out, was to focus on my breath. In through the nose, out through the nose, feeling the belly rising and falling.

Historically I never minded the dentist, but with spotty dental coverage and laziness on my part, I have come to sort of…dread the event. Not because once I’m there I’ll freak out, but just because I hate the fact that my teeth have gotten cavities so bad that I have had to get a root canal (during pregnancy) and that what I used to take pride in has gone by the wayside. I get to go back next week to have the other side’s cavities all filled up, so yay, I’ll get to do some more belly breathing meditation.

Have you ever found yourself meditating in a strange place? On the bus or in the dentist’s chair or in traffic?

More Teeth

Yes, I can see them now…Potamus definitely has two white teeth buds trying to pop through his bottom gums. Come on babies, let’s do this!

And if having those creeptastic teeth dreams weren’t enough, here’s what a skull looks like with the baby teeth/adult teeth in it:

Now if THAT’s not enough to give you nightmares, I don’t know what is.

Teething dreams

For as long as I can remember, I have had nightmares about teeth. Most often these nightmares have had some storyline about me being in some public place and having the teeth fall out of my head, leaving bloody holes where they would have been. Pleasant picture, eh?

So, the other night, after battling for sleep with a very fussy-crying (clearly from pain) Potamus, I had another frightening tooth dream. Though, this time, it wasn’t my own teeth I dreamed about, which is what made this whole mon-tied-to-baby thing weird. I dreamed of Potamus having teeth. 9 of them to be exact. All on stumpy sort of red bumps, and when he smiled he seemed happy, but in a vampirey way.

Creepy.

But I think he might ACTUALLY be teething this time. Runny nose, unconsolable crying at night, putting everything in his mouth, and me having dreams of teeth.

I hope those puppies break through soon.