Since massage is cancelled...how to stay healthy

 So clearly, any upcoming massages are postponed for now. So a little advice for yourself to stay healthy:

1) If you feel sick at all, do NOT exercise or self massage at all. That just spreads the illness around your system more. That's the time to just rest in bed, drink lots of fluids (chicken soup of course). 

2) Please take this time to meditate, even if it's 2 minutes a day to just sit quietly and breathe deeply. 

3) Do not watch the news 24/7. It's never healthy, especially now. But do keep informed. 

4) If you are healthy, do spend more time exercising than eating! There are tons of online workouts for the home, everything from yoga to boot camp. You don't want to spend a month gaining 10 lbs and 10 years trying to get rid of it. 

5) Work on new recipes that are healthy. Don't binge on comfort food. The sugar, fat and calories will make you more sluggish, emotional and possibly depressed. You want fighting food! So make big stews with lots of green veg and beans, quinoa, lean meats, etc. Instead of letting your house smell like disinfectant, let it smell like stew! There are some great online cooking classes (http://www.carlacontreras.com/) and my cookbook (Fighting For Allergy Free Food). And if you're home with kids, now's an excellent time to teach them about cooking, cleaning, and taking care of themselves. 

6) Self massage. Again, do NOT do this if you feel at all sick. But do use rubber balls or tennis balls for your own trigger point work. Lay on the floor so your body can relax and put the ball under you wherever you have knots and just sink in up to 100 seconds. Use your favorite lotion to massage your feet and hands and anywhere you can reach. Take baths. Steam your face and massage it, along with your scalp. Throw a dance party for yourself. 

Sending good health and love to you all. 

If you have any medical questions, or exercise, or food, or anything. Please don't hesitate to reach out. 

Sincerely, Tamar

Why to react NOW

Here’s what this reminds me of: As a massage therapist I’m constantly telling clients, friends and family that if they have some small injury, to take care of it IMMEDIATELY. Say you hurt your wrist, or shoulder, or ankle. And you think, “eh, I can live with the pain for a while, it’ll get better.” But you don’t get it x-rayed. You don’t rest, ice, take Advil, or get PT. Instead, it gets worse and spreads up your leg/arm. So now, 20 years later, you can’t raise your arm fully. You can’t lift heavy things. You also have knee pain and hip pain. Now you need a hip replacement, because you didn’t rest your ankle 20 years ago when the original injury happened.

People don’t look at the long game. They think things will go away. They don’t. You have to take smart, immediate action to prevent what is a worse situation.

2 days ago a very close friend had a heart attack. He’s 48. He’s been super stressed, unhappy and not in good shape. And he knew it. But he put it off. He’s just lucky that he was next to a doctor when it happened and now he’s home and hopefully going to be OK.

Do not take risks now. Not with your health. Not with other people’s health. Take care of yourself, your loved ones, our city, our state, and our planet NOW. Before it’s all gone.

Be safe. Peace.

corona is making me more relaxed

I’m not a panic person. Not when other people are panicking. I understand people think I’m a control person, or a perfectionist. I’m not. I LOVE it when other, capable people are in charge. And I think most things are, “good enough” and there is no such thing as perfect. 

That’s why I love to fly. I’m not flying the plane. I can sit back and relax and do other stuff. And if something goes wrong…not my fault, and probably nothing I can do about it. It’s also why I loved doing stand-up comedy. Because if I screwed up a punch line, I could actually say, out loud, “I screwed that up!” and get a bigger laugh (not that that every happened). And you know what, there’s nothing I can do to stop corona virus either. I can continue to live exactly the way I’ve ALWAYS lived in NYC: don’t touch anything without gloves or a sleeve, wash my gloves a lot, don’t ever touch my face, and the second I walk into my house (which I keep very clean), I wash my hands. 

That’s how I was brought up, and that’s still how I am. Air on planes has better circulation and filters than any building in NY.

And I’ll tell you something else. From a spiritual perspective, this is AMAZING. This is a global crisis, which is also a global opportunity. We know, up to the minute, who is sick everywhere in the world. We have to work together, one planet, one soul, one support system. It’s not the USA that’s having issues. It’s tiny towns everywhere in the world. One friend in Holland suggested this is the perfect time (if we’re all sitting at home) to video chat and catch up with every friend around the world. We are living through (and yes, we will LIVE through it) a major event in global history. That’s really something. I lived through Presidential assassination attempts, 9/11, recessions. Nothing has ever come close to this kind of worldwide historical significance.

And while this is happening, life still goes on. I have friends and family dying and fighting to stay alive through cancers and other illnesses. I have daily chronic pain and illnesses that I still have to focus on every day. Yes, I won’t see a show or concert for a month, or celebrate my birthday with 100 friends. Or take a trip to Italy. And I’m VERY lucky that I have enough money (and toilet paper) to sustain me a month or more. So I don’t have that concern.

But panicking will not help. Just like the day after 9/11 panicking didn’t help or change the situation in any way.

So try to keep the big picture in mind. This too shall pass. And we have to support every person across the world. So be nice. Be well. You may need to borrow some toilet paper.