Open for Business

With building anticipation I scheduled and awaited the arrival of the previous weekend to have my first authentic trial of how running a business out of my home would logistically work. I had held a few opportunities in the past for clients on rare occasions and have played with the constraints of space in my home and the boundaries of others I share the space with, but this would be the first full fledge weekend of healing in my home and not at The Colorado School of Healing Arts.

Friday evening came and similar to the excitement and nervousness a child gets before the first day of school I shimmied and sanitized my way around my home ensuring that all sheets were thoroughly cleaned, all floors vacuumed and shining, and all crevices well cleansed of negative energy.

Saturday morning arrived and my first of eight massages for the weekend as well. I believe that every opportunity is an opportunity for learning and just what did I learn from the weekend?

1. How to just say no.
• I often fall into the sense of an obligation to another and tend to say yes too much. I know that I am certainly not alone and have many "yes people" in my life. A challenge of the past quarter has been to become a "no person" (or at least a balanced person), not out of spite or b/c you disliked someone, but b/c you can only do so much before you are doing too much and have burned yourself out. I knew going into the weekend there would be many time constraints as it is, but I still really had a desire to say yes to people. I did catch myself prior to letting those three little letters tumble out of my mouth pulling back and admitting to myself that I have to say no.
2. Back to back massages just don't work for me.
• I have a new found respect for therapists in massage offices that do massages every hour! Generally what I have found is it takes (on average):
• 4 min.-Intake
• 2 min.-Undress and get under sheets
• 1 min- Entrain to the client (rocking and assessing the body)
• 15 min- clients parasympathetic nervous system to engage (state of relaxation)
• 5 min- Draping/repositioning/bolstering (10 if you are doing front, back, left & right)
• 5 min-reengaging the body (every time the body releases, the client relaxes or repositions, every time a muscle tenses up, there is a period of reconnecting to the stroke and the body- a point of reassessing what is happening under the skin)
• Following this model 32 minutes of the massage become the logistics and in an hour massage (which in massage world is 50 minutes) you are left with 28 minutes of the meat in the massage. This doesn't compensate for clients running late, unable to relax (tense bodies won't let you in to the tissues as easily and actually lock up if you try to force yourself in) or time in between for me to stuff my face real quick, wash my hands, and relax myself so the massage flows better.
3. Self Care!
• I have always left a gap in between to eat which I neglected this weekend and by the time my 2nd massage was over, the earlier massages had burned through my breakfast (each hour= about 300 calories) and my stomach growled through the second two. I got smart on day two and hade sips of a protein shake in between, still second to a good meal in between!
• Both days I forgot to wear good gripping shoes and noticed times I'd slip on the carpet in the massage room. This obviously creates awkward positioning and poor posture.
• Stretching is so important! I normally try to maintain stretching in between massages and there simply was not enough time this weekend. After the massage I was so tight I was dreaming about a massage for me!

Overall it was a great  & exciting educational opportunity and I am thoroughly excited to get feedback on how the weekend went for my clients and make some adjustments based on different experiences!

Free Will

Perhaps one of the most perplexing and often times down right frustrating things about people is our innate sense of freedom. On the one hand it can be beautiful: different minds, attitudes, beliefs all co-creating the reality we live in. However, there is a good chance that somewhere inside you there is a sliver- no matter how teeny tiny, that would think that life would be better if everyone just believed the same thing. Our sense of urgency to control situations and others erupts and clashes with our sense of independence and free will.

Therapists undoubtedly have experienced this at some point in their practice. I often experience this urge to nag a client about how they didn't do the home work (stretches, nutrition diary, journaling) that I had given and "no wonder you're still in pain, you won't do this for you."

...Then I recall how many times I have done exactly this, how many times I had promised I would study for a test and instead wound up on FB for four hours one day and painting for two the next and completely forgetting the rest of the days in the week. Then the light bulb flickers on 15 minutes before the test, just enough time to let nerves set in and become completely nauseous over the test. Or how many times I was so exhausted after a day of giving massage that instead of doing some stretches and taking a bath I completely passed out- only to have the next morning be a painful reminder of my neglected duties.

More importantly I think, who am I? Who am I to judge? What authority have I been granted that lets me tell people that they are failing at ...being people? I have found that my massage table is often times like a Catholic confessional. You have someone standing over you, you're in a vulnerable position and you just feel obligated to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. "I have been doing bad with my diet," or "I haven't worked out since I last saw you," these little things about the body that creep up and feel the need to expel themselves. I always love hearing confessions that have nothing to do with the experience.

It's not that I don't care that my clients have their own struggles, but I am constantly reminded that I am just like them with my own personal struggles and where one client may be having a hard time  sticking to their diet, I am struggling with my personal battles like my love hate relationship with Mountain Dew (love the taste, hate how I feel afterwards).

I think as therapists, as anyone really, we don't have the authority to judge. To place someone at a lower or higher standard or criticism than us, we are equal. We don't have the right to take away their freedom, but we can draw upon our own personal strength that has come with trials and tribulations and help them see in a different light.

A Call to Healing

When we utter or hear the words heal, healer or healing we think of doctors, psychologists, chiropractors, and massage therapists even. Often times we neglect the value of the role we play in life because of the value we place on contributions we make to society in our work lives.

I have worn many hats in my life, some that felt pointless, some that were more worthwhile. It wasn't until I began the journey of massage therapy that I began to take on a healing mentality in everything I did. I began seeing previous work roles I had in life as more meaningful than what I had initially considered. Think of your job, are you a carpenter? Or a healer of furniture and creator of homes? Are you a plumber or a water system healer and crisis manager? Are you simply an administrative assistant or a healer to stressed minds? Are you a janitor or a healer of maintenance disasters?

Each of us have callings in life, our jobs created for a reason. we can allow our jobs as chefs, tech support, secretaries, teachers, be roles that cause us strife, or we can seek to be beacons of health and prosperity in the lives of those we interact with. Our roles as healers would help create and sustain a more harmonious world.

How? You may be asking, how can my job of solving someone's miscellaneous technology issue be a call to healing? The concept is so simple we often forget: healing occurs when the body is able to maintain homeostasis. When people are stressed because their hard drive containing important files crashes, stress sores and the body loses touch of its ability to heal. Their call to someone who can heal their computer in turn relieves their worries and calms their nerves allowing the body to return to a homeostatic balance, preventing or boosting ability to fight dis-ease.

So here it is ladies and gentlemen, your call to be a healer. Your call to answer the worldwide plea for help. Everyday you have the ability (in and out of work) to be a healer. The person you smile at on the street may be reminded that today they CAN have a good day, your boss who is always nagging you for a report may find comfort in you doing the best you can. And remember, as long as you do the best you can each day then you have answered this call.

With love and light,

Lizzie Johnson