Massage Therapy Journal Spring 2025

Spring 2025 • 19

and recall the excitement of learning so many new skills, techniques and modalities. Remember how excited you were to begin your career and start working with clients? When I graduated from massage school, I felt like a whole new world opened up for me—and I was ready to explore. After some years in practice, however, that world began to feel smaller, and I found that the energy I once focused on developing and pursuing my passion for massage was now reserved for just getting through my workday. Soon, I went back to school, thinking that pursuing a graduate degree was the key to reigniting my passion. I started applying to schools, believing the academic route would open up more fields for exploration. What I found, however, was that all I really wanted to learn is how to better help my massage clients. I didn’t want to stop doing massage; I wanted to deepen my knowledge and understanding of the work I love. The real lesson? I realized I learned more about the body attending weeklong workshops in massage than I did in any biology course in college. What was even better was that I could apply just about everything I learned through the experiential nature of massage continuing education immediately to my work. Part of self-care is finding ways to stay inspired and connected to your work to help you keep your passion for massage alive. If you feel like you’re getting stuck, you might try some of the following ideas: 1. Connect with experienced massage practitioners. What I consistently noticed was experienced practitioners are willing to attend more training and are open to learning, not just from their peers with as many years in the profession as they have, but also from their students. 2. Stay curious, stay in that same frame of mind that you had when you first started school, and be open to the possibilities of utilizing different principles and methods. Read an article on a technique you’ve been wondering about, or

register for that class you’ve been considering. Even just chatting with a colleague about how they approach a particular issue can open up possibilities you hadn’t thought of before and rekindle the excitement. The lesson learned from this is timeless yet simple: Stay in the beginner’s mindset and you’ll protect yourself against getting bogged down in a rut. “Don’t just do something, stand there.” —THE WHITE RABBIT, ALICE IN WONDERLAND Slowing Down Is Self-Care There have been numerous times I’ve felt overwhelmed trying to meet the needs of a client. There are days when nothing I do seems to work and the muscle doesn’t get any less tense. The harder I work, the worse things feel in my own body. In my first years as a massage therapist, I could power through those periods of stagnation and still feel satisfied in knowing

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