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Suze Ormans 8 qualities of a wealthy woman that she talks about in her book “Women and Money” could well be called 8 qualities of a wealthy massage therapist.

Most massage therapists are women and are caretakers – By caretakers I am referring to taking care of others before taking care of oneself. It is the caretaking that we do to get our own needs for love and nurturing fulfilled through our clients.

“When we caretake we assume responsibility for our clients’ healing. When we caregive we support clients in assuming responsibility for their own healing.” Jack Blackburn

Harmony and Balance – When you say one thing and do another – like telling people what to do to take care of themselves when you don’t do it yourself (like telling people to get regular massages and you don’t do it yourself) – you are not in harmony with yourself and you are not in balance with yourself.

Courage – It takes courage to ask for the money you need to be a wealthy massage therapist and say no to people who ask for discounts or try to get away with not showing up for appointments. It takes courage to be able to stand up for yourself and take care of yourself financially first before taking care of anyone else.

Generosity- When you give clearly without any hidden agenda of giving to get you will find yourself empowered by your giving. Helping, fixing and giving advice are all forms of defensive behavior that actually keep you from connecting at a deeper level. Massage therapists who take a serious ongoing look at the issues related to the need to help can learn the difference between helping and being of service which is true generosity.

Happiness follows being able to give generously.

Cleanliness allows you to have clear boundaries.

Inner Beauty and Wisdom follow.

You will then be a wealthy massage therapist.

I just watched Suze Orman’s Women and Money show on PBS last night and I was so impressed – what it really did was take everything I have been saying here (and learning myself) and making it even clearer.

She even mentioned massage therapists who are always struggling to make ends meet at the expense of themselves – always bartering, volunteering and putting themselves on sale rather than doing the hard thing of asking to get paid what they are worth.

We think that if you raise your prices, your clients won’t come in. We volunteer and give away our time when we don’t really have any time to give or it cuts into the time we need to make money for ourselves. We bargain our own lives away for others. We take care of everyone else and try to be nice instead of being nice to ourselves. The number one thing we can do for self care or to be nice to ourselves is to be financially stable- have enough in the bank to and be making enough money to take care of our needs and the needs of our families.

While she also said she wasn’t saying don’t volunteer or barter – there is a time for everything. But if you can’t take care of your own needs first you should not be giving up what you need for others. She related it to the story of the airplane rules about putting your own oxygen mask on first. She takes it to the next level saying that undervaluing yourself shows in everything you do. I think that as a profession the world see’s that when we are always giving discounts and working for less than we deserve and it is really teaching people how to treat us as a profession. The ramifications of working and not charging and not valuing ourselves is far reaching.

We need to start talking about money and how we are challenged by always putting ‘ourselves on sale’ as Suze Orman says so no one can take advantage of us again.

Her 8 Qualities of a Wealthy Woman really put together everything I have been saying all along.
Your thoughts, words, actions and feelings all need to be in harmony to create balance in your life. Courage is what is needed to take the steps to be in harmony and balance in your life. You can silence the fear of creating balance and harmony by taking action. When you are in in balance and harmony you are powerful and able to be generous. Generosity that comes from a place that you feel empowered through your giving rather than drained or feeling owed something, you will find happiness. Cleanliness adds to inviting money into your life. When you have cleanliness, happiness, and are generous due to your courage and the balance and harmony you have in your life – you are beautiful from the inside out and have the wisdom to make the right choices with your self and make the right choices about money based on self confidence in yourself.