Meditation and The Dentist

Dear Readers;

I've been meditating and chanting the Maha Mantra ...Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare....  for the past forty years but would I be able to mentally chant when I was sitting on the dentists chair..... feeling terrified?

Photo from Pintrest.

I broke my back upper molar to bits a little while back. I knew that I had to visit the dentist but I stalled...... forever!   I knew that the tooth would probably have to come out.....I just knew it.

My regular dentist wasn't available so a newer man/boy dentist took her place. I said that I thought  the tooth was a goner.... RIP... molar . He said that it was better to try and repair ... then if that didn't work out  he would pull it.

Long story short....it didn't work and he couldn't pull it out.

He immediately sent me to the surgeon. While I was waiting I saw the  x rays of my teeth. The roots of the molar were a little bit bent around my wisdom tooth.

I heard the surgeon talking with his assistant and they said that they would have to remove two teeth! I quickly chimed in," No..no just one is good." He said ..."Your dentist said another would have to be removed to extract the broken one." Me..."No that would be a misprint....he said that he would repair the other one so you just need to pull the seriously broken one."

He did not make the call to confirm what I said...thankfully. Hairdressers can get scissor happy and dental surgeons may get a little ...."Pull them little suckers out happy."

I received another three shots of Novacaine....putting me up to seven in the past few hours.( My husband told me..."It's cocaine...call it what they like...it's still cocaine."

They left me alone until the freezing could take effect.

My thought pattern was...OH MY GOD!!!.....I'M GOING TO END UP LIKE THAT GUY......HALF MY FACE PARALYZED.....THIS IS MY MONEY MAKER! I MAY NOT BE BEAUTIFUL OR EVEN PHOTOGENIC BUT IT'S ALL I'VE GOT.....AHHHHHHH!!!! I CAN'T JUST RUN AWAY BECAUSE I CAN'T EAT. .......I KNOW I HAVE TO DO THIS.....IT'S GOING TO HURT.....I'VE NEVER HAD A TOOTH PULLED....IT'S GOING TO HURT...WHY GOD WHY? WHY ME???? WAHHHHHH!

Photo from Pintrest.

On the outside.....I just appeared like a very relaxed, mature, pleasant women.

....now...I'm thinking..."Pull yourself together! Have you not been chanting and meditating and trying to control your senses...like ...FOREVER?....errrr...yes?.....ok then....what did you do when the airplane went nuts?......I went into a deep meditation.......right....do that now!"

I took one deep belly breath...held it...let it out slowly. I did this three times....then I chanted and meditated on  Krsna and told him how scared I was feeling. Then I "saw" in my mind the roots of my tooth straightening out.

The surgeon and his assistant returned to find a peaceful,  slightly lopsided smiling women. He took his pliers and crack...crack...yank....ha!...it's out!

I realized that ...why yes, you can meditate anywhere...at the dentists or the surgeons and it can take just minutes...even seconds to dive deeply into a very happy place.

Until next time.
Hare Krsna,
Lal