Fear of building a successful massage practice
Fear is a tricky emotion. It is often disguised under other emotions - anger, frustration, sadness and others. There are really only two emotions - love and fear. If it isn’t love - it is fear.
Your fears of building a successful massage practice of finding a dream massage therapy job are really a great opportunity to learn more about your beliefs.
Whenever our beliefs are threatened we move into fear.
What is underlying our fears is usually the Fear of abandonment, rejection, conflict and engulfment. These fears come from early childhood and the way we were brought up. Fearing rejection or fearing that we are not good enough will leave a massage therapist frozen and unable to step out and do the marketing that is necessary to build a massage practice. People will give up easily saying ‘that didn’t work’ and go on to the next career mainly because they believe their fears are true.
If you remember from massage school and the theories on stress syndromes and the fight or flight reactions, living in a constant state of fear leaves us living in a constant state of ‘fight or flight’ which causes certain physical changes in our bodies:
- Our immune systems, digestive system shut down to allow all energy to go to other systems.
-Our thinking becomes unclear so our brains can just focus on getting out of danger. We don’t have time for deep reflective thought.
- Excess cortisol is produced to combat the inflammation, but overproduction of cortisol leads to a breakdown in tissues often leading to career ending injuries.
Deane Juhan states in his book “Job’s Body” :
Sustained levels of adrenaline and cortisol have other disturbing effects. These include high blood pressure, gastric ulceration, atherosclerosis, suppression of the immune system (which would lower one’s resistance to diseases and infections of all kinds), sterility and significant personality changes”
The way to overcome fear is to take action - take small steps that are achievable and don’t cause much stress. As you build up your self confidence you will be able to take bigger steps.
The other thing to start doing is to look at your thoughts that are creating these fears. Where are they coming from? What beliefs do you have that create these thoughts and feelings of fear? Just recognizing that they are just thoughts and are not real can take away some of the fear so you can start taking the steps.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:47 am
HI,
Yes, I think i am stuck in the “Fear” thing. I have been a Licensed Massage Therapist for over a year now. I am just starting to do my CEU hours. I do love massage, my clientele is slowly building. I give out business cards to someone new almost every day. So I am trying. It is just a slow build. I have not registered myself as a business yet because I really don’t know much about that and I don’t feel like I have the clientele to even call myself a business and make any money at it. I do have a location that i do my massages also. I really don’t think i want to work in a spa and do 6 massages in a day, i don’t think my body could handle it. I sort of wish i had a career advisor/life advisor. I am a single mom of two teenagers and i work another part time job too. That i am afraid to just let go because that is also a good way to get clients, its worked out great actually for that. See, I am just a little bit confused. I am about to take a class in LaStone Therapy and get certified, so i will be able to add that to my business too. Thanks for listening.
October 19th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
You become a business the moment you commit to being one.
Don’t wait to be acknowledged, claim your stakes and get to it.
Understand that fear and confusion follow all of us, yet even a bad decision can teach you a lot about your business. In fact bad decisions often lead to better ones, but NO decision leads nowhere.
Get involved in online discussion groups, and spend time with peers. Ask, ask, ask all the questions you can, and move toward the vision you have for your life and work.
Send me an email at rebelmassage@yahoo.com and I’ll share some resources that can keep you motivated.
Best of success to you,
~ B ~
rebelmassage@yahoo.com
http://www.massagemsoi.com