Bite-sized dental wisdom in under 2 minutes.

I hate meditating.

And really, I think what I hate is calming down.

Everywhere I look, someone is telling me to lower my cortisol, decrease my stress, relax, breathe, live in the moment, take a walk, stare at a tree, become a person who says things like “nervous system regulation” without rolling their eyes.

I understand they are probably right.

I also secretly hate that person.

My baseline has always been stressed.

Not in a “please feel bad for me” way. More in a “this is apparently the operating system I came with” way.

I get things done under pressure. I move fast. I like solving problems. I do not naturally sit quietly with my thoughts because my thoughts immediately start assigning me more tasks.

So when I started getting serious about health, longevity, sleep, hormones, cortisol, all the fun things you apparently have to care about once you get old, I kept getting the same advice.

"Lower your stress."

Fuuuuuuuck. Please do not say meditate.

Because my version of relaxing is driving to the grocery store alone while listening to a business podcast, which somehow does feel restorative because no one is asking me for a snack.

But I did decide to take it seriously, so I started looking for things that might actually work for a person like me. And not “go on a month-long vacation.”

Regular life things.

Sleep more consistently.
Laugh more.
Spend time with people who do not make you want to fake a phone call.
Listen to music that actually calms you down.
Reduce decisions where you can.
Stop grabbing your phone the second you wake up even though you most likely fell asleep with it in your hand and you can literally just pick up right where you left off six hours earlier.

Because if you own a dental practice, stress is not some random one-time thing. It is baked into the day.

Patients are late. Staff calls out. Hygiene runs behind. A crown prep takes longer than expected. Insurance is insurance. The schedule falls apart. Someone needs a decision. Then another decision. Then another one.

And somehow you are supposed to go home and become relaxed.

I think not.

So maybe the goal is not to become a relaxed person.

Maybe the goal is to stop making stress the only setting.

Because if your life is demanding, your recovery has to be intentional too.

That is the part I am trying to learn.

I still hate meditating.

But I do need to build some calm into my day.

-Dr. Alex

P.S. I cannot help you meditate. But I did build something that takes one category of daily stress off your plate. Milo is a checklist app for dental teams — your team knows what to do, you know it got done, and nobody has to ask.