From Stressed To Successful Massage Therapist
From Stressed to Successful Massage Therapist
You may not know this, but I personally interview every potential student who is considering a massage education with Bodymechanics School of Myotherapy & Massage. Recently, I interviewed a couple of potential massage students and both of their stories of stress at work struck a chord with me.
The first student I interviewed was a young man who describes his typical day as “frustration at work, happy at home.” Like me, he works in Information Technology and describes it as a stressful, fast paced environment.
Seriously, this was my life 10 years ago. I was covering 150+ computers in 10 offices in 2 states by myself. Stressed is an understatement. I faced angry coworkers everyday who weren’t computer savvy, yet forced to work with computers every day to do their job. I loved what I did – I hated the stress that went with it.
This guy joined our night class that started last night. It will be fun to see his life change through the massage program – and I know it will change because I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times.
His #1 goal with attaining a massage education:
“To find a profession that will make me happy and other people also. To show my son you can be happy with your career and that possibilities are endless. To improve myself and my quality of life.”
I love what he wrote, and I find it very admirable that he is ready to make a change at such a young age. Seriously, I worked at my job for 16 years before I was ready to make such a drastic change and by then I was almost 40 years old. Here was my day back then:
- Stressed at a level 9 on a 1-10 scale every day
- Go home and de-stress to do it again tomorrow
It wasn’t until I received my first massage in 2004 as part of my preparation for running the Seattle Marathon that I knew about massage therapy. My bigger story is that my brother had died at 36 years old in 1997, my mom had passed away at 59 years old in 2000. During my training for the marathon and after I had received my first massage, my older sister died at 39 years old from a head on collision on I-5 (she crossed over and hit another car.) I truly thought I would die before I reached 40 years old as well.
When I say that massage therapy saved my life, I’m not exaggerating. The stress I was under was so high, I was having headaches every day and I’m sure my blood pressure was through the roof. I took 10-12 Ibuprofen every day for the headaches.
Choosing massage therapy was amazing! I loved helping people feel better. I loved connecting with people who were truly happy to see me – rather than the anger I faced every day in the IT world.
I also interviewed a student who just today applied to join our next weekend class who is also stressed. Facing another lay off possibility at work (the 5th since 2010), she is deciding to take control of her life also. She is interested in massage therapy because it makes people feel happy, which would make her happy = double gratification.
Her #1 goal with attaining a massage education:
“Going to something I would love. When I finally leave my job, I want it to be going to something spectacular not running away from something I don’t like.”
I admire her thoughts as well – going to something spectacular!
For me, massage is and has been spectacular. I have cultivated many new skills – and my favorite is that I can proudly say I am an entrepreneur. I work longer hours as the school owner and visionary (hey, I’m growing the school bigger every day) but I love every minute of my day. I get to do all the things I love to do: massage, teach, write, plan, create, train, innovate, motivate, mentor plus a hundred things I’m not thinking of right now.
If you resonate with these stories of stress, take note. Your life doesn’t have to be this way. Find what makes you happy and take a chance on YOU. If it’s massage therapy, I’d love to talk to you. If it isn’t that’s cool too – find what makes you happy and go for it.
If you want more information, click here –> http://bit.ly/1GYFbus (I give lots of free stuff on that link, you don’t want to miss it.) If you want to talk, lets talk. I am here for you – to help you lose the stress and find your happy.
We just started an evening class but it’s not too late to join them if you want… Give us a call and let us get you going. Otherwise, morning and weekend classes start this fall.
Committed to your success
~ Shari Aldrich, LMP
