Two weeks ago my wife took me and our two boys to participate in a drumming class with about 30 people. We went to the Pocono Environmental Center located in Pennsylvania. The class was given by Kofi Donkor, who grew up in Kenya learning to play and make his own drums as a young boy. We started at 7pm with about a 1/4 mile hike, carrying our drums through this great wilderness trail. We ended up at this clearing next to this huge pond. We all sat around a camp fire under a full moon until 10pm learning how to play the drums. It was great fun!

During the lesson he discussed how drumming had a lot of repetition while playing. He said this was done on purpose because repetition is healing. It reminded me of the importance of repetition. For example, as we bring up our children during their early years, repetition is good in developing a natural rhythm. For example, reading them a story and having them brush their teeth before going to sleep. This completes the cycle of the day.

My feeling is that repetition is important as long as we are repeating good habits and not poor habits. An important part of forming a habit is what we do with the information we have come across in our lifetime. As many of you may or may not know, before I became a Holistic/Wellness Dentist I was very sick and near death with Crohn’s disease. I was seeing the best doctors at Mt. Sinai and Lenox Hill Hospital. After 4 surgeries and told I would need a 5th surgery, I met a Holistic doctor at a TMJ seminar who basically pushed on my arm, tapped on my back and told me I was allergic to gluten. This whole experience was a revelation. I only bring this up to show that the choice I made was not to squash the information but to take action and do what the new crazy doctor said to do. I took action, I created new habits and they became repetitive. You see, it’s not the information or the repetition that is most important, I feel it is the actions we take that move us to the next level that really matter.

I hope you all have a great 4th of July!!

Be well,

Reid Winick, D.D.S.