Being Present in the Dentist Chair

The other morning, I had a dental appointment. I got there early, hoping to get done early. The receptionist said that they had a busy morning and my appointment was delayed half an hour. So I would have to wait an hour. If I had my laptop with me, I could have done some work. I thought about writing on paper, which I had done another time when I had an appointment at an auto repair shop and forgot my laptop. But I wasn’t in the mood. Instead, I spent the time clearing, mostly on the first pillar of Acceptance. When I finally sat down in the dentist chair, I looked up to see what looked like a video of a beach scene. It was actually live feed from a remote camera pointing at the pier of Long Beach, California. Apparently, it was there to take a patient’s mind away from the present unpleasant moment.

This got me thinking about how most people have a video playing in their minds of some future time and place, perhaps even a beach scene of their retirement, and aren’t really present in the here and now, especially when that here and now is boring or unpleasant, like being in the dentist chair. Also, the image in their mind is not real; it’s an imaged scene of a future that may not come to pass. By living mentally in the future or past, we miss living fully in the present.

So, I decided to be fully present in the moment and not impatiently wish it was over with so I could get back to work or ruefully regret not bringing my laptop. I was taking in everything that was happening, the prick of the anaesthetic, the numbing of my jaw, the taste of the chemical used for the crown impression, the noise of the drill as it removed the decay, and even the beach scene, which actually was part of the here and now. I was fully present.

At one point, the live camera feed stopped, and people were frozen on the beach as they strolled or biked along. The scene no longer caught my interest. I then thought that our lives are like live camera feed scenes and if, out of fear, we freeze and don’t move forward, life can get boring. A few months ago, I injured my heel, which in the symbolism of the dream of life, meant fear of moving forward (see Living the Dream). That morning I had been reluctant to move forward into retirement. So, for me, being present and moving forward might just involve a beach scene.