Self-care tips from David Lauterstein, author, teacher, and co-owner of The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School. With so many disharmonies in the world around us, a focus on self-care can seem a bit narcissistic. But obviously, if we don’t pay attention to ourselves, we will not have the energy or health to fully help others. At the same time, we are in fact all connected.
I like to say health is not so much an “immune” issue as a “commune” issue. Wellness is not the property of an individual; it is an attribute of our community.
There is just a septum between history and individual destiny. It is up to each one of us to find the resources to help ourselves and ultimately everyone around us.
Please find resources that are nourishing and encouraging for the soul.
1. Meditate
Obviously, there are a variety of meditations that can be so helpful these days. The most common meditation I do is called Pyramid Meditation.
The Center for Mindful Self-Compassion has daily sessions and every hour on election day.
Transcendental Meditation produces evidence-based results and the benefits start right away, and keep growing. Hundreds of independent research studies have found major increases in calmness, creativity, energy, clarity of mind, and happiness.
2. Book a massage appointment
3. Build a collection of other people’s writing and music
“I have grown to love that place between stimulus and response where, if you remember to breathe, you can change.”
Julie Reynolds
Hiding for her life in an attic, the irrepressible Anne Frank said, “How
wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to
to improve the world.”
Anne Frank
“Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a
sense of humor to console him for what he is.”
Francis Bacon
“In my room, the world is beyond my understanding; But when I walk I see that it consists of three or four hills and a cloud.”
Wallace Stevens
“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”
Victor Hugo
Other helpful tips:
- A one-hour recording/improvisation I did for massage and meditation –called “Roots and Branches.”
- Here is a beautiful video re-framing the quarantines as a global act of solidarity and love.
- Make my newsletter a resource and subscribe to my monthly newsletter in which I put everything that I either write or have found inspiring each month.
A prayer I was given many years ago. May it be helpful in the days and nights to come:
In the world in general and in this nation.
H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche
May not even the names disease, famine, war, and suffering be heard.
May virtuous qualities, merit, and prosperity greatly increase.
And may continuous good fortune and sublime well-being perfectly arise