You have probably brushed your teeth today, doing so for two reasons: fresh breath and maintaining healthy teeth and gums. Many tubes of toothpaste provide messages like: “regular brushing can help fight cavities and leave your breath feeling fresh.”  If practicing mindfulness were described in a similar way it might read something like, “regular practicing can help you see things more clearly and leave you feeling refreshed.” In this month’s column, we look to brushing teeth as a useful metaphor for practicing mindfulness. If you have found it challenging to practice mindfulness, this column may help illuminate what’s getting in the way.

Regular Brushing and Regular Practice

The fresh breath connection to mindfulness is feeling refreshed — calm and at ease, while the dental hygiene connection is seeing things more clearly, less encumbered by preconceptions, assumptions, bias, judgments, and erroneous projections.  As to seeing things more clearly, which goes to the heart of mindfulness, mindfulness teacher Sharon Salzberg expresses it well: