Flossing your mind…
What is the connection between flossing and meditation…..?
Flossing and Meditation
So, firstly, we do not floss our teeth to become “good flossers”
Similarly, we don’t actually meditate to become “good meditators”
Stick with me!
I resisted flossing for years. No judgment here by the way on your oral health routine, because we have enough judgment coming from every which way, about this, that, and the other. These are my perceptions.
So as I was saying, I resisted flossing for years. Boring, too hard, seemed unnecessary, gums seemed fine, I will just stick to brushing, thanks.
Fast forward a few years, and I started to experience some gum issues. Infections, tooth decay, removal of one of my back teeth, underlying ache of the gums, fillings.
After a while I was getting fed up and I was saying to myself “but I am pretty healthy! Why are my gums and teeth doing this”?
Then I started flossing. It’s a habit now that I don’t consider taxing or annoying, I accept it as part of caring for my teeth, gums and over all health. It has helped a lot.
Essentially flossing as I understand it, helps to reduce the build up of plaque. Thus reduces damage to teeth and the associated issues of gum deterioration. Plus, the need for (ahem!), expensive dentist visits!
(But thank you to my dentist, love you! 😃)
Flossing is not a complete ‘cure’ but it’s a helpful and risk reducing/health-enhancing habit for sure!
So how does this relate to meditation??
Well it’s quite similar actually.
When we meditate, over time, we declutter and detox the mind of unhelpful thoughts and their more entrenched relatives, beliefs.
These beliefs are kind of like thought grooves in our mind which come from thinking the same thoughts over and over.
(PS interesting finding , apparently we have around 75-90,000 thoughts a day, most of them are the same thoughts circling around and around and around).
Beliefs sit below the level of our conscious mind but continue to be the ‘drivers’ of our behaviours. If these beliefs are (like plaque), damaging, for example: “I am not a good person”. “I do not belong”. “Nobody loves me”. “I am worthless”. They can end up sabotaging us. Like plaque, they build up almost intangibly in the back ground, but then things start to happen.
we can experience a kind of decay in our overall health, the health of our personal life, in relationships, our work life, our creative life.
We experience very real mental and emotional suffering and ‘dis - ease’.
This is not because we are ‘bad people’ (I say this because this has been my experience in the past, ie, judging myself as a ‘bad person’)
We are all doing the best we can with the knowledge and skills we have.
Why I love meditation is because like flossing, it creates a more vibrant and healthy potential for my mind. To be able to focus on the creative endeavours I enjoy, from a sense of mental clarity and vitality.
It helps me engage with myself and others in a more compassionate way, so my relationships become healthier.
It boosts my energy as the mental aches and pains reduce and the emotional disturbance dissolve. So that, I can live my life as I choose.
Ah, now this is not an exact science folks. It is not a ‘fix all cure’ because to be sure, life unfolds as it does. Uncertainty and change are inevitable. Shit happens, as they say.
But like flossing, meditation has become a consistent habit I understand that for me, over time, has many positive ripples. Not always ‘obvious’ yet looking back I see how supportive , nurturing and health enhancing meditating has become in my life.
Author - Rebecca Foster, Nurture Soul
