How long to meditate? A ten to fifteen minute meditation session will give you results. If you choose to meditate longer, it is because you enjoy activity (or should I say non-activity). Greater results are not necessarily achieved by time spent in practice as much as your consistency and concentration during practice. Decide how long your meditation will be. Choose whatever works best for you to time session. Set a timer to ring when your session ends or tell your mind to alert you when set time has passed. Eventually your mind will know precisely when your set time is up. Do not use this method until you have perfected it if you are on a tight schedule.

During meditation and visualization you will be aware of any outer physical situation that requires your immediate attention.

Meditation is a state of heightened awareness not of unconsciousness.

Passive Visualization / Meditation Part One

Focus your attention on a natural inanimate object that is very familiar to you. Such as a piece of fruit, a flower, a stone or crystal. Chose a natural object. It has an energy that can be sensed that is stronger than man made objects. Select only one object to focus on as opposed to say an arrangement of flowers. I do not recommend a candle for this exercise because flame has movement and it is man made. Stay with same object everyday for remainder of Lesson One to build focus, concentration and consistency. You may wish to visually observe your chosen object for several minutes before beginning your set meditation time. Notice your object’s shape, variance in color, it’s weight, texture, if it has a scent.

Sit in a comfortable position and allow your eyes to close. Picture your object wherever feels best for you. This might be in area of your closed eyes, or image it further back more in center of your head, or projected straight out into space in front of your closed eyes. Some people access information visually and have more visual sensations than people who access through sound or kinesthetically. Everyone can easily recall an object that they are familiar with. Ease of visual abilities will strengthen with practice. People who process kinesthetically might also be aware of physical sensations of their object.

For ten or fifteen minutes keep your thoughts wrapped on your object. Sense its shape, weight, density, color, patterns, texture, and scent.

If during your meditation session you notice you’re thinking thoughts other than of your object, just return to your object. Comparing mind to a dog that likes to stray, bringing mind gently back to focus you will teach it to stay!

Continue with this lesson for seven days.

This practice carries into your life ability to observe what you are thinking about during your day. When working are you focused on your task or daydreaming, when you are with your family are you focused on them or still thinking abut work? Becoming aware of our thoughts helps catch negative thoughts when they start and you can change or eliminate them before they become a pattern.

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” Pablo Picasso

Passive Meditation / Visualization Part Two

Review Details – Time, Setting, Clothing & Posture from Lesson One

Focus review – If during your meditation session you notice you’re thinking thoughts other than of your object, just return to your object. Stay calm about these mental wanderings. Don’t yell at yourself.

Sit in a comfortable position. Allow your eyes to close. Picture and imagine natural inanimate object that you worked with in Lesson One.

After a few minutes when you have a clear image or feeling of your object’s size, shape, weight, density, color, patterns, texture, scent expand object so your image is pictured and sensed in your mind and also through your whole body.

Your object maintains it’s natural proportions but is enlarged. The way objects on a movie screen look normal to us but are actually greatly magnified.

Stay with image and feeling of your object being as large as your body for a few minutes until you have that sense. When you have sense of your object being as large as your body (it’s OK if it takes several of your 15 minute sessions to achieve this) enlarge your image again to be as large as your house, then your town, earth, universe.

Start this lesson with your object its normal size and end your session with it as large as you can image or sense it.

Continue this lesson for seven days.

The object of this practice is to view or think from different perspective.

“We cannot solve problems we have created with same thinking that created them.” Albert Einstein

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Concerns

Confidence and trust are key factors when visiting your dental team, a dental expert said, "Dentists are trained to understand their patients worries and cam empathize with them. Your dentist should be an expert, not just in technical dentistry but in communication, empathy, understanding and be able to deliver care in a professional manner". He also stated "that cost was actually quite low on their list of concerns, a hygienic, friendly environment is more important for most people"

Many people have a level of anxiety when visiting their dentist, probably based on a bad experience from their childhood when dental techniques were not as good as they are today. Things are somewhat different today as modern dental care and new techniques and advances mean that discomfort you may remember from your childhood is considerably less today.

Advice

Don't wait for your dentist to sort out your problems, our expert stated "Avoid problems by sticking to a good mouth care routine in first place, healthy teeth are within everyone's reach".

Remember you and your dentist are a team and good oral health is your goal