If you keep up with Mouthing Off, then you’ve read several posts about stress relief and mental health. And if you are like me, you read them, but you don’t change any habits because of the notion that “there’s not enough time” to do so. Despite their stress-relieving benefits, I was continually telling myself that I didn’t have the time to do yoga or meditate. Over the past couple months, though, I noticed that with graduation looming, I was not sleeping well. I believed my lack of sleep was due to increased stress, so, while awake in the middle of the night, I searched for ways to relieve stress.
During my first year in dental school, Dr. Greer, an oral pathologist and novelist, told our class that we each needed to have a hobby other than dentistry. At the time, I didn’t know how I would find time for that. But Dr. Greer’s remarks left an impression on me. And the next year I did something about it.