Small Successes

When I met my dental hygienist the first time, she was shocked and called my mouth the red sea, because as soon as she started grating and scratching, there was blood everywhere.

Since the first appointment which was a few years ago, I kept going once a year. Today was the day, again. Over the last months, I have been taking my dental hygiene quite seriously. Brushing, flossing, using an interdental brush, too, and last week I even started using a mouthwash twice a day. Funny coincidence, my best friends mum started using a mouthwash in the same week. Where did Listerine place the ad that immerged into our subconsciousness?

Today, while lying on the dentist's chair, I noticed how fast she actually got along. There was not much of the scratching and grating. And way less invitations to rinse the mouth due to bleeding. I kept peeking at the clock on the wall and after 30 minutes it was done, including massaging, brushing between the teeth and everything that tortures the gums. The appointment originally had been scheduled for 1 hour.

The hygienist stated that she can tell I take care. And she charged only half of the scheduled fee (1 hr). Having saved 50 EUR, I can buy lots of interdental brushes (very expensive), mouth wash (costly if brand-products) and use floss in excess.
I finally entered the inner circle of people with clean, well maintained teeth and quite healthy gums. ("quite", because we did not get along without any bleeding at all).

Apropos improving: yesterday I put an advice Peter Walsh gives into action: I de-cluttered my paper- and groverybags I store under the fridge. There were so many tiny paperbags from the perfumery inside the box, I tuck them all out and now it's much easier to pull a bag out of the box. Funny, how we tend to believe we have to keep stuff only because ...

I am looking forward to the next surprising spot I am going to de-clutter. Where will it be? The small tasks pop up, no big planning ahead. I just look into drawer or cabinett and there it is: the sudden insight, what gets to be done, N.O.W.

It feels good when you notice, how things improve over time. Could be your gums, could be the storage box you keep under the fridge.