I do, I sincerely love my job. Don’t get me wrong I still have plenty of days when dragging myself out of bed to go to work, or getting on the 101 only to get stuck in traffic, is the last thing I want to do. Of course there are days when giving five hours of massage feels like a day ruining sentence of boredom. However, after five years of practicing massage therapy I have learned to trust whole heartedly that by the time I finish my first hour of work for the day, no matter what kind of funk I was in at the start of the day . . .well it’s gone and I feel peaceful!
There is something about being a massage therapist (if you are truly made for it) that is healing and grounding like no other job I have had. Sure there are days and times that I feel as though I am bringing home some of my clients “baggage” and stress and pain. I will always meet a client that tugs at my heartstrings, so to speak, and I will find myself telling my fiancé at night about how tough so and so has it and how I just wish they could catch a break. For the most part though I have gotten better and better at keeping perspective on the emotional baggage my clients bring to the massage table each week. I can keep myself just far enough removed that I can help and allow them the space to take that weight of the world off their shoulders maybe just for the 60 minutes they are with me, or maybe they can just leave it there, and I don’t have to pick up that weight or stress for them.
This feeling of peace and groundedness isn’t just a distraction from whatever stress, sadness or anger I had at the beginning of my day. I have had jobs like that, when you show up for work and you just get so busy and distracted that you don’t have time to think about anything or feel any of the yuckiness (yes, that’s a word even though my spell check doesn’t believe me) that you had. Somehow my job as a massage therapist is such a blessing that when I’m at work even thought I spend all of my time with client after client, I have the time and space to come to terms with what I can’t change and the perspective to understand that I need to let go of what isn’t serving me in a positive way.
What I have to admit I have not gotten any good at is using my commute time (my sitting in what feels like endless traffic time) wisely. This is something that I desperately need to get better at, but I guess there is time for that.
