The Importance of Being Earnest… About Flossing Your Teeth! Why a little string can be such a great thing

Let’s be honest for a moment, shall we?  We’ve all been there, sitting in the chair of terror, looking at the bright lights – oh sure, they have TV’s and music and all kinds of things to distract you, but that drill still goes whirrrrrrrrr,whirrrrrrrr and sends chills down the backs of the people.  Especially the unflossed.

Waiting for the question, “How many times a day do you floss?” can be uncomfortable for some of us (the ones who don’t floss, or at least not regularly!)

Did you ever wonder if maybe you actually did floss, you wouldn’t find a trip to the dentist so hard to face?

Did you ever wonder if you flossed regularly, maybe a trip to the doctor would give you a better bill of health, too?

Flossing has many benefits, some that are obvious to most of us, but some that are probably going to be big news to some of you.

Top Reasons To Floss Your Teeth… Every Day!

• Beat Bad Breath. I started with this one because it is a benefit most of us want (as do the people around us) and is an easy motivator.  Flossing your teeth gets rid of the gunk (OK, it is technically called plaque, but you flossing slackers need a bit of a gross out to motivate) between your teeth that harbor a lot of stinky badness.

How To Beat The Back-to-School Blues (Tips For Parents of New College Students)

Back-to-school time can be full of emotions for all parents.  When your kids are very young, there is the excitement and anxiety of sending them off to Kindergarten for that very first time.  Then there is the excitement and anxiety of discovering they are old enough to be embarrassed by you and claim they don’t need you anymore as they start middle and high school.

And then one day, when you watch your precious child (who only yesterday was waving goodbye at the door of first grade) walking across the stage to receive a high school diploma, there is excitement about the future and what it holds – but sure enough, the anxiety is there, maybe stronger than it has ever been before.

Back-to-school is always a time that reminds parents of change, of time going by, of children growing up.  And that can bring out emotions and feelings you might not have been counting on.

How you channel your feelings and emotions is important for your mental, spiritual, and physical health.

Here are some ideas to help you deal with the back-to-school blues when you send your surely-not-old-enough-to-be-going child off to college.

Tips for Coping:

• Focus on right now.  Stop looking too far into the future.  Enjoy the things happening right now so you don’t miss won

Are You Making Time for Yourself?

The Steve Miller Band had it right when they sang about time slipping into the future all those years ago. In this present day, time for us is a present whose presence is hardly seen or heard. There never seems to be enough time to accomplish your never ending list of tasks within the span of a single week.

Often our to-do lists unravel and lengthen as we complete certain tasks throughout the day. Time has become a never-ending viscous cycle of doing for others at the expense of missing out on the freedom to do what we want. You can’t please everyone all of the time, but shouldn’t you do something that makes you happy? Helping others can give you some sort of a short-lived elation, but true happiness only happens when you are pleased as well.

The best advice I received on the topic was that I am in charge of making my own schedule, so why wasn’t I scheduling in some free time? No one else was going to do it for me, and I could use a short breather to catch up. While it seemed futile at first, delegating a few tasks to others and rearranging some others left an hour a day open for me to escape the rest of the world for some much needed “me” time. If this sounds like something you need, try asking yourself the following questions.

• How often are you going to the store, and at what time? If you are making too many unnecessary trips to the store, cut back or try to combine them. I know one young mom who does her weekend shopping on Friday nights after the kids go to bed. Because nobody has to be up early on Saturday morning and her husband is home to help out, the late night out kills two birds with one stone.
• Find exercise to be a relief and a source of me time? Try to make you next errand more fitness oriented and park further away to wherever you have to walk. Even though it’s not the fresh air you’d enjoy at the park, walking through the parking lot lets you get some sunshine, a great source of Vitamin D.
• Are you a yes person? I used to be one, unable to say no to any request. Even though I truly loved helping others and sincerely wanted to help them, all the extra running around to benefit other people had me tired and feeling run down. I had to set realistic boundaries and once I did, even though a few were surprised to hear me say no, my friends and family respected me for it.

If you feel guilty about taking time for yourself, try signing up for a class to try something you’ve always wanted to learn, like photography, cake decorating, or even a foreign language. You’ll meet people with a like-minded interest, learn something new, but best of all, you’ll be doing it to benefit yourself.