03/31/2020
This was posted in another massage therapy group. I thought it was wonderful and wanted to share.
From Chantelle Emond Williamson
Permission to share with anyone!
Just sharing my morning journaling:
Hey you. Massage therapist that’s out of a job. You spent your days helping people. It was fulfilling, if exhausting. It gave you purpose.
And now it’s gone. Sure, it might come back. Things might go back to exactly how they were before. Or they may shift. You may shift. Your mindset and emotions might shift to a different way of being. That’s scary. You don’t know what that might look like. Or it might be exciting if you have a glimmering idea of how it might be. Exciting but maybe scary too.
But let’s not talk about the future yet. Let’s talk about the present. I got up this morning and my identity has shifted. I’m no longer the Massage Therapist. The Brave Entrepreneur. I’m just one of a million other people stuck at home. A huge part of my life has been put on hold.
I am giving myself time to grieve. I know that I will find many opportunities to heal – for myself and others. But first, I grieve. For what I have lost. I’ve lost my job, my income, my career, my sense of purpose, my joy in helping and healing. It’s hopefully temporary, sure. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel that loss today.
I want to give you permission. To be sad, to be disappointed. To grieve. To be mad. To be frustrated. To be scared. Those have all been my feelings (so far. I assume more will come up…) Don’t try to bypass your feelings. Don’t stuff them into your tissues to deal with later. Let’s just feel them now. Deal with them now. Because, come on, as massage therapists, we know that the feelings will just sit in our tissues and demand to be dealt with later. Unless you can’t face them now. That’s okay too. They’ll be there, right where you left them!
I wrote some other hopeful, healing things that I hope to share later. But for today, just grieve. Because that’s the first step in healing.
