12-23-2014: TEETH (take two)

BLOG POST 12-23-2014 I have written 2 posts about some of the dental issues I’ve been having lately. Long posts. Each time, I get to the end of the post, and am all of a sudden like “What am I even writing?! I’m writing about my teeth?! This is the most boring blog post ever!” And then shake my head and never open the file again, or look at the pages from my writing notebook again.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: I used to get SUPER ANNOYED when I was younger and people would refer to my journal as a diary. That really got my goat. Later in high school, I heard the term writing notebook, and have used it ever since. I feel like I don’t really have a journal right now, I have a writing notebook. And maybe that says something about how my relationship with writing has become. Something that is not necessarily a good thing. That now I write more for a finished product than just for the love of it. I think my blog posts are a little more informal for the most part, but I do include what I would consider finished –

But oh god, stop, let’s get back to the teeth thing, because I could babble on just about writing and stuff like that for pages.

So the teeth. My dental issues have been primarily with my canine teeth. There is a big long back story about my baby canine teeth never falling out, and the orthodontist encouraged my mother to have the baby teeth pulled when I was 16, then do this big long dental surgery where they inserted pegs into the impacted (adult) canines and then attached wires to the pegs and had them slowly over a period of many months pulled down and into place.   It kind of sucked.   Anyways, so, in my 20’s, both the canines abscessed. It was during 2005 (I think). A period of my life where I was on methadone, using IV cocaine, and working in the adult industry. That also sucked, but not just kind of. (The abscessed teeth AND the state of my life). I never went to the dentist. The teeth would bother me periodically. I did have one root canaled right after my daughter was born, and then never got the other one done, or the first one finished – they had been unable to get all of the infection out.

So, periodically, the teeth would bother me, and then clear up. Anyways, once I began practicing yoga and really improving my health – not just physical, but my health as a whole person, spiritually, physically, emotionally – my health as a complete being, the teeth stopped bothering me. I went through yoga teacher training while I was pregnant with my son, I teach freewill donation yoga classes locally, and I have a daily home practice.

Well, recently, I made some decisions to work on my meditation practice (which I am not as good about sticking to as my asana practice, but hey, it’s a practice). I’ve had some really amazing results and found a new joy and gratitude for my life and my family and my world, but, my teeth started acting up again.   Really bad this time. In fact, I get both of them (plus 1 “innocent bystander” tooth that got infected by one of the canines) pulled on the 29th. So excited. It will be great. Because they have been pretty darn bad for a while. I don’t eat much solid food – mostly apple juice, beet, ginger, and turmeric smoothies and dhal. I know the beet smoothies sound kind of weird, but it was this combination my body just demanded and I feel really great. I drink them every morning.

I read in one of the WAPF books 9and somewhere else, too), that the teeth reflect the life of the soul. This was a childcare book, so they were talking about the baby teeth and the adult teeth coming in, and the “hardening of the soul”, moving into a new plane of being in the world, etc.

So I think it’s really beautiful and fitting that my teeth would finally need to be removed from my body.

I made the decision a while ago to finally let go of a lot of the burdens I still carried from that time in my life, when I used drugs and worked in the adult industry. When I really dedicated myself to my yoga practice, I made the decision to let that go and be healed of it. When I started to focus on my meditation practice, I came to the point where I could actually begin to act on that intention. The teeth were damaged during that period of my life. I feel like I have been releasing a lot of negative thought patterns and ways of being lately. Now the teeth go, too.

And actually, having the teeth issues has been a huge blessing. The reduction in my food intake has taught me to really listen to my body and gives it exactly what it wants. Right now, it wants those crazy beet smoothies. And kundalini yoga. During our Swastha Yoga open house, I took a class from a local kundalini teacher, and got hooked. I’d done 1 dvd before and was a little iffy on it, but after this class, wow. I happened to buy 2 Ravi Singh and Ana Brett dvds before I found out I was pregnant, but never even opened them. So, I’ve been doing the “energy and super radiance” one for the last 3 days and am so into it. I feel amazing.   Despite my tooth pain, I feel so much cleaner. And I am so excited to get them out. It’s great something positive has come out of this, but ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ready for the ouch to be done.