I have a confession. I’m addicted to TED talks, especially on Mondays when I could use an extra boost of inspiration. Just caught this TED talk by statistician and happiness researcher Nic Marks.

The Happiness Index, Marks’ set of metrics used to measure just how successful we are as a happy, healthy, loving society – is as good of a concept as any for what Mochi Massage represents.

As we wrap up our third full year in business (whoa!), the Happiness Index serves as a succinct reminder of what we’re here to do – advocate for a greater investment in well-being, both for ourselves as well as that of our planet – so that we can embrace our happiness. That, and to figure out how we can land a Mochi Massage outpost in Costa Rica.

(Part 1 of 2 in our series about how to keep your wrists happy while at the computadora.)

That cute little plastic 2 or 3 button piece of equipment (most likely) sitting on the right side of your keyboard, is often the most misused piece of technology at the workplace and at home. All too often we hang onto it for too long, move it back and forth too quickly, and pound on it with our index fingers to click.

I’m here to tell you to stop clawing and start loving your mouse.

My patients often wander into the clinic suffering from tendonitis, carpal tunnel, and ulnar nerve compression – all due to overuse or misuse of their mice.

Whether you operate a rollerball, rollerbar, joystick, hand cradled, touch pad or that basic no-frills mouse that comes with your system – these three rules should always be followed:

1) Let go. Once you have clicked and found what you’re looking for, let go of the mouse while you’re reading. Better to place your hand in your lap and turn your palm up to rest, than rest on top of the mouse.

2) Go big. Begin your mousing movements from your shoulder. Think of your hand and mouse as “Flintstone”. Your hand/palm should be flat, fingers together (this is especially true with rollerball mice) and you should use the palm of your hand to move the mouse or ball, NOT the fingertips. This is important for the scroll bar feature on your mouse too. Try to use your whole hand to move the mouse and whole middle finger and palm to move the scroll bar. All too often, people will drop behind the mouse and rest their palms/wrist, while slinging the mouse right and left with their fingers. This position can increase the pressure in your carpal tunnel by up to (and in some cases more than) 65%. Increased pressure = increased median nerve pressure which can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome.

3) Stay close. If you’re reaching on top of your desk while using a keyboard tray for your keyboard, or if you are reaching way to the left or right to do your mousing, you can put your elbow and shoulder at risk for repetitive strain injuries. Consider a rollerbar or touch pad if you have a large keyboard or limited space.

Part 2: Stretch Your Way to Happy Wrists

About our guest blogger: Liz Sakaldasis is an Occupational Therapist (MA, OTR/L), Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) and Certified Ergonomist (CAE). She has been practicing for the last 14 years. She currently works in VibrantCare Rehabilitation in Oakland, CA. She welcomes your questions and looks forward to working with you! Please feel free to email her at lizsisle@gmail.com.

Valentine’s Day is lame for a lot of people, it seems. This ‘holiday’ that we either love, hate and love to hate brings on a barrage of anti-Valentine’s e-cards, events, and even iPhone apps. Those in relationships feel obligated to spend money on gauche candy hearts, those ubiquitous long-stemmed roses, overpriced couples’ massages and contrived pre-fixe dinners in romantic restaurants that would, on any other day, be romantic.

Yet, at its core, this is still an opportunity to celebrate love. And let’s face it. We’re all suckers for love.

So, for the cynics out there (*raises hand*) – put down those hater tots and throw out the hatorade. I’m saying – redefine and personalize what this day means to you and the peeps you love – then celebrate like this all the days of the year. There’s not a thing wrong with chocolate and flowers if that’s your thing. But you could also cook supper at home with your sweetie, play the day away with your kids, hang out with your best mates, or do something kind for someone you barely know. (Awwww.)

Oh, and as Kierkegaard says, “Don’t forget to love yourself.” Schedule in time in the coming months to give yourself a little more of that love you deserve. Perhaps once a day, take a break from your work, even if it’s just for a half hour. Once a week, indulge in a special treat. Once a month, restore yourself with massage. Repeat. At some point, treating yourself well will come oh-so-naturally. Keep looking for new ways to make yourself happy. Meanwhile, making others happy will be that much more effortless.

Enjoy your long weekend, friends. Hope to see you in the studio soon.

xoxo,
Mochi Massage

*Artwork above by that harbinger of love herself, choijoy

Helping the world around us has always been our mission. To do our part in aiding the folks in Haiti as they recover from their catastrophe, we are donating 10% of your January massage dollars to Doctors Without Borders. When you book your massage this month,  you will be doing good for others as you do good for yourself.

If you’re scrambling for gift ideas, we’re here to help. Mochi Massage is fortunate enough to be surrounded by wildly talented and incredibly nice folks who offer amazing products and services here in the Bay Area. Here are our recommendations for gifts that are trendsetting, sustainable, useful, creative, memorable and win you even more love and gratitude from your friends and family.

Gift: Home sweet home
Cost: Depends on your budget
Where: labexperiment
Leslie’s superpower is the unique ability to  turn one’s humble home into a pad so creative and fabulous that you’ll find reasons to stay home. Even better: when she’s done, your pad won’t look like an IKEA showroom. She favors working with ultra-creative designers like Godar Furniture.

Gift: Reduce your forkprint
Cost: $11.95 + shipping
Where: To-Go Ware
If your carbon footprint looks like King Kong’s, reuseable cutlery is great place to start showing your love for the earth. To-Go Ware offers a line of sustainable, ecologically-sound products that are perfect for all the power lunchers in your life – workmates, family and friends.

Gift: Homemade deliciousness
Cost: $16.49 on Amazon
Where: jamitpickleitcureit.com
San Francisco author and food writer Karen Solomon takes you step by step through the making of cheese, marshmallows, bacon, and even kimchee at home. This recession seems a perfect time to unleash one’s inner foodie. Look out, Martha.

Gift: Limited edition street cred
Cost: Varies by product
Where: fabric8 galleries
If you get a chance, stop by Olivia and Anthony’s urban-flavoured shop and gallery on 22nd and Valencia in the Mission. Chances are they’ve got the lumpia or creme brulee cart at their front door and a groovy artist’s reception going on out back. It’s the perfect place to stock up on hoodies, screened tees, accessories, music and affordable art by favorite local artists. Little ones have not been forgotten: cleverly designed onesies and fun stuff for kids line their shelves. Viva la local art.

Gift: A pet tree
Cost: $4.50
Where: Treenex

OK so these folks aren’t local, but they are playing a big part in our global community. For every holiday card (recycled stock, soy inks) you purchase from Treenex, a tree is planted somewhere on this lovely earth. The fun part happens when you receive a tracking code, which you can enter in on their site, and track the location and development of the tree as it grows. After all, who wouldn’t want a tree of his or her very own?

Gift: Better living through good food
Cost: Varies by service
Where: JustBe Wellness
Help someone you care about get a jumpstart on their new years’ resolution to drop pounds,  eat better, or live a healthier life. Ali is dedicated to helping folks change their lives through what they eat. She will come to their homes, clean out their pantry, take them to the store, show them how to shop, share tasty recipes, offer encouragement and help them figure out the difference between quinoa and kombucha.

What: Mochi Massage Gift Certificates (Electronic OR Printed/Mailed)
Cost: $30 – $125
Where: mochimassage.com
Quick. Write down the names of five of the biggest stress cases in your life, and imagine how they would be if given the opportunity to reeeelax. Proceed to hop online and purchase gift certificates for these people. Oh look, and now you’re not stressed out either because you just knocked five folks off your holiday shopping list. Problem solved. And for the people who like to wait until the last-minute: If you have your recipient’s email, we can send them a pretty Mochi-riffic email within 8 hours of your purchase informing them of their gift. Done, and done. How cool is that?

Some crafty (and potentially stressed-out) MIT students banded together to create a crowdsourcing, social-interaction project called  SOS: Stress Outsourced. Here’s how it works in a nutshell. Our futuristic aqua jacket-wearing stressball sends out a signal indicating that he or she is about to explode from stress. Other jacket wearers from all around the world receive this signal, each push a button on their own jackets, which is beamed back via the web to aforementioned stressball in the form of a massage stroke. More responses = better, longer massage. Ah, the magic of the interweb. Hmm. Personally, I’d love to see this work on a Snuggie. Can they also make a button that gets folks to send you fresh mac-n-cheese when you’re all stressed out? 

Don’t let seasonal allergies take the bounce out of your spring. Beat the sniffles naturally by test-driving a neti pot or some new breathing techniques, changing your diet, and throwing pollen to the curb.

Use a neti pot. Are you kidding? Sure, it’s a tough pill to swallow for Western sensibilities, but flushing out the nose and throat with warm water and a little salt via neti pot is an ancient Asian hygiene as commonplace as brushing your teeth. The idea is catching flow here, as daily use has been credited with easier breathing and a host of other great results, no pills required. They run about $12, and available at the Mochi Mercantile.

Eat to breathe. Local honey can help boost immunity to local allergens, and it’s a sweet source of vitamins, antioxidants, and more to boot. In the SF Bay Area, try Pollen Princesses or Marshall’s Farm Natural Honey. Also, apples, capers, and onions contain compounds that stabilize cells that secrete histamines in the body, helping to naturally alleviate runny noses and itchy eyes.

Breathe like a yogi. Duck into a hatha yoga class (or check out these videos) and request to learn the Breath of Fire (kapalabhati) and Purifying Breath (nadi shodhana). These intensive, nostril-clearing techniques will max out your airflow and help keep your nose free and clear.

Pollen-proof your life. Follow this advice from the Mayo Clinic to limit your pollen exposure, including getting hip to HEPA filters, timing your time outdoors, tips on tidying up your home, and more.

And don’t forget massage. Regular massage therapy can help keep your chi in check, and it can lead to better use of your nose and throat when nature is under attack. Stress can also trigger allergies and asthma attacks, and gum up the body’s own natural immunity. Stay calm, collected, and UNcongested with the aid of regular massage therapy from an experienced practitioner.

A drop-in class at a local yoga studio typically runs  about $15-$20. In these stressful economic times, activities that help alleviate stress and retain sanity (such as yoga classes) tend to figure their way out of many household budgets. In recent conversations, people say “Well, I was going to yoga and it was really helping…but, well, you know…I can’t really afford it…” Seems silly, no? Well, I certainly thought so. After researching options, I was pleasantly surprised. What follows is a handful of great classes that are free or close to free – scheduled throughout the week to keep you well-stretched and breathing deeply between workouts and Mochi Massages.

Dan Gorelick (Sign on for updates: tyaga_yoga@yahoogroups.com)
When: 6:45pm Most Tuesdays
Where: Orange Photography, 1261 Howard St, 2nd Floor (between 8th and 9th St)
Cost: Free

A newer teacher, Dan is one of the good eggs. He starts his sessions with a reading from various classical yogic texts to set a spiritual tone for his class. Due to small class sizes, he is able to give each of his students the adjustments and modifications they need based on their experience. It’s a great starter class.

Lululemon Union Square
When: 7am Every Wednesday and 9:30am Every Sunday, 60 minutes
Where: Lululemon Union Square, 327 Grant Avenue (between Bush and Sutter)
Cost: Free

The folks at Lululemon have managed to get popular teachers from yoga studios around the city to teach free classes in their store, perhaps figuring that if you get your yoga classes for free, you may be then able to afford their well-crafted but relatively pricey yoga pants.Their site says that their classes are fabulous for beginners, and yoga mats are provided. Sweet.

Christopher Love
When: 6pm Wednesdays, 90 minutes
Where: James Howell Dance Studio, 66 Sanchez St (between 14th and Duboce)
Cost: By Donation

When: 9am Sundays, 90 minutes
Where: Mission Yoga Sunroom
Cost: By Donation

Of the yoga teachers that live conscientiously by their yogic knowledge, Christopher tops the list. After many years of teaching sought-after classes at Yoga Tree, Mr. Love now shares his grounded wisdom and energy in two by-donation classes during the week. He is patient with beginners, challenging for experienced yogis, and customizes his classes based on what his students request.

Sports Basement Potrero
When: 1pm Every Sunday, 90 minutes
Where: Sports Basement Potrero Hill Location, 1590 Bryant
Cost: Free

I’ve never been to one of these classes, but judging from the feedback from folks who have attended, this is a fun and popular event. There are rumours that Sports Basement also offers free yoga classes at their Walnut Creek location – it’s worth checking out if you’re nearby.

Asian Art Museum
When: 2pm First Sunday of every month, 60 minutes
Where: Asian Art Museum, Education Studios, 200 Larkin
Cost: Free

The instructor – Lorna,  is a longtime yoga teacher with an energetic, spirited personality. This yoga flow class focuses on basic poses. Bring your own yoga mat, and if you have children, they’re welcome too. Just so happens that this is also a free admission day for the museum itself. Woot!