Happy Weekend Everyone! I wanted to share with you all a few happy moments I had this week, because I think it's important to recognize the good when it happens, rather than focusing on the bad. First, I want to say that I love being a Massage Therapist! I love giving people relief from physical pain, as well as emotional pain. I also want to say that I love learning about other people's lives and writing about their experiences. It's a great way to experience something that I haven't personally lived through, but can empathize with, and in a way live through their experiences. This week, the morning class at Bodymechanics presented their business plans to each other and I was so inspired and touched, learning what people have gone through before they decided to pursue a career in Massage Therapy. I think we all go through a lot of shit in our lives. A lot of tragedy and trauma, a lot of loss of all kinds: loss of family and friends, loss of love, loss of dreams we once hoped for, loss of our true authentic selves. That's why, I believe, a lot of people decide to become Massage Therapists later in life, because the value of human touch and human connection is something that draws us back to one another, and is something we realize, after a lot of trauma and loss, that we can't live without. I also think a lot of people go into massage because they're trying to heal something inside themselves; while helping others, we are actually helping ourselves heal.
A couple of the Presentations really spoke to me, and I wanted to share them with you.
I had heard bits and pieces about the students lives, but I got to experience more of where they came from and what their lives were about before beginning their journey through massage school. I think, as humans, we tend to be pretty self-centered individuals, to the point where we might not consider the life that a person had or what they went through before they met us. I’m always surprised at how many people going through school, have a spouse and kids and have already had several careers… but that comes with society painting a picture of a young, raggedy college student just starting out in life; as though that brief time in our life is the only acceptable time to go to school and learn new things, decide a career that we will then spend the remainder of our life perfecting. One of the students, a man who had gone through the military, expressed his true feelings about what he went through while serving his country. I had wondered why he would show up to classes and was hurting a lot. He would skip Clinic sometimes because of the pain and would have to spend extra time catching up so he could graduate in time. I learned, through his presentation, that he had suffered several injuries and physical abuses while in the military, as well as PTSD that he is still facing on a daily basis, even years after leaving the military. He expressed his sadness of having to miss his daughters first steps and the first time she said ‘daddy,’ because he was deployed. He expressed how sad he was at having missed these moments that he would never get back, and that’s ultimately why he decided to get out, and pursue a career in Massage so that he could spend more time with his family and not miss out on any more precious moments. He said one thing that really stuck with me, and that was the phrase ‘processing goals;’ it’s the idea that we can have goals, but that those goals are fluid and continually in transition as we move through life. There was another student, a woman who had been in several car accidents and suffered tremendous pain, to the point of being unable to move with even the simplest tasks, like picking an item off a shelf and placing it in her shopping cart. She was nearly paralyzed and had undergone so many experimental procedures so doctors could figure out what was at the root of the problem, but without much help or hope. She spoke about what it was like to be unable to move from the neck down and have doctors unable to give any form of encouragement that she would get better. It was only after she was introduced to massage that she began to feel like her self again and incorporate movement back into her life.
She shared her mission through the name of her business: New Life. Those words tell the story of her struggles through the darkness and into the light. She describes her situation as though she was trapped in a cocoon, and only after she began to heal fully, was she able to transform her life and emerge from that cocoon that held her hostage. It made me think of how many of us live in our own cocoons, unaware of how much better our lives can be when we let pure determination and perseverance rule our day. It was a tremendous story of Hope: hope for healing, hope for growth and hope for a new and beautiful life that is full of health, happiness and healing. It also served as a reminder that its ok to ask for help.
"When we’re at the end of our Hope rope, let someone hold it for you for a while.”
There was also a moment during the presentations where a student expressed ‘full body chills,’ the moment he set foot in the building that he would spend the next 10 months studying to become a Massage Therapist. With this moment of ‘full body chills,’ he said it’s important to follow the ‘Goosebump’ moments, because it’s your body telling you that it's something new and exciting and worth pursuing. In other words, your body and soul are expressing a connection before the brain is able to logically recognize it.
Have you ever been in a situation where you've experienced Full Body Chills?
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