Massage Therapy Journal Summer 2026

Summer 2026 • 75

But that’s not how he would have interpreted that sign some years earlier, when he was sitting in a courtroom filing for bankruptcy and navigating a divorce. “That bankruptcy? Led to our best year ever. That marriage ending? Created space for real growth,” he remembers. “The things I finally let go of? Turned out to be exactly what was holding me back.” Massage Therapy Journal had the chance to sit down with Shawn Ellis to talk about how to get more comfortable with discomfort, how to be brave and ways to protect against burnout. Q You talk about being able to exist in some level of discomfort or uncomfortableness in order to realize long-term change/success. That’s really hard for most people. What would you say to someone who feels unsure they can do that work? A First, I’d say: you already have. Think about the hardest thing you’ve ever navigated. The moment you thought you couldn’t get through. You got through it. You’re here. That’s not nothing — that’s evidence. The problem is we don’t collect that evidence. We don’t keep track of the hard things we’ve already done. So when the next hard thing shows up, we face it without any proof that we’re capable. And fear fills that gap. One of the tools I teach is something I call a Faith File—a running record of the moments you’ve already survived, already grown through, already chosen the harder right thing over the easier wrong one. When doubt shows up, you go to the file. You don’t need motivation. You need evidence. The second thing I’d say is this: you don’t have to leap. You have to choose. One brave choice at a time. Not one dramatic moment of transformation—five quiet ones. That’s actually how change works. Small, intentional choices made consistently over time. Discomfort doesn’t have to be dramatic to count. Sometimes it just looks like saying the thing you’ve been avoiding. Or ending something that’s no longer working. Or asking for help when you’d rather disappear. You can do that. Most of us already have.

Q Massage therapists are often people who enjoy taking care of other people, meaning they can deplete their own resilience and health and well-being. Can you name one small practice they can implement that will help protect against burnout? A Box breathing. It’s simple, no one has to know you’re doing it, and the science behind it is real. If you haven’t done it before, here’s how it works: inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. That’s one cycle. Do four cycles. It takes about 90 seconds. What’s actually happening when you do that is your nervous system is shifting out of fight-or-flight and into a regulated state. Your prefrontal cortex—the part of your brain responsible for clear thinking, perspective, good judgment—comes back online. You go from reactive to responsive. For someone in a helping profession, whose whole day is about attunement to other people’s needs, that 90-second reset is not a luxury. It’s maintenance. The problem with anything that’s so easy to do is that it’s just as easy to not do. I’d suggest using it as a transition ritual. Before your first client. Between clients. Before a hard conversation. The goal isn’t to eliminate stress—stress is part of a life

that matters. The goal is to make sure you’re not carrying the last moment into the next one.

Think about the hardest thing you’ve ever navigated. The moment you thought you couldn’t get through. You got through it. You’re here.

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