Jul 09
22
Understanding Beliefs for Massage Therapists
Understanding beliefs for massage therapists is one of the keys to being able to make as much money as you want in this profession. Currently there seems to be quite a stigma held around money and making money as a massage therapist. It is driven by beliefs about money, success and massage therapists thinking that because they are helping people that they should not charge much money for their services. I have been studying beliefs for about the last 7-8 years and this is really my attempt to put it all together for readers. This is how it has worked for me. I also continue to see more everyday about how my beliefs have created my reality and work to become more aware all of the time. It is an ongoing process that requires patience and compassion and it won’t happen overnight. It will go on until the day that you die most likely.
Beliefs are things that are handed down to you from family interactions and from going to school and every thing basically that has happened in your life. Your beliefs are the foundation for your thoughts and actions. They are created when different things happen during your formative years that become patterns. Beliefs become ingrained in your mind and body. Most of our beliefs are unconscious. They become that way by being unchallenged and being repeated over and over. We begin to act in ways just to try to prove that the beliefs are true and we keep doing so. This usually leads to some pain or struggles that are actually calling you to wake up to your unconscious beliefs. Beliefs are filters that are created through which we view the world. Two people can look at the same dog and one may react in fear and the other in love. Some people see the glass half empty or some see it half full. While this is a very simple example, there is really a lot more to how these perspectives get formed.
All beliefs are learned. Beliefs about yourself are mostly subjective – meaning that they are not really true. Brian Tracy in his book “Goals” says that your values determine your beliefs. Your beliefs in turn determine your expectations. Your expectations determine your attitude and your actions will be a reflection of all three- your values, beliefs and expectations that you hold on the inside. When your values, beliefs and expectations align with your goals you will be happy. Struggles occur when you are out of alignment somewhere.
Some of the common beliefs about money in the massage profession have never been challenged or brought into the light. Some common beliefs are:
- It isn’t about the money. I do massage because it is so loving and caring and that is enough reward in itself.
- I can’t charge for something that is so wonderful.
- Making and having money is the root of all evil. If I don’t charge much and don’t make much, it will make me a better person.
- In order to make a lot of money you have to take advantage of people.
- People are more important – not money.
- It is better to live in “Noble Poverty” than to charge people for giving a massage.
- Only evil corporations and people can make big money.
- Wanting things is so materialistic and unspiritual.
While these may all seem real and legitimate reasons not to make money -the truth is that you can make and have money as a massage therapist. It can be a very lucrative and rewarding career. It requires taking the time to explore and challenge your beliefs about money. ( You can also look at beliefs about relationships, family dynamics and most everything that causes you to feel anger, frustration and fear.)
To begin with just start looking at what results you are getting. If you are having trouble finding or creating a good job or getting the massage clients that you need to make a great living, the way to change this is to begin changing your beliefs. The outcomes that you are experiencing are a result of your beliefs. The first time I heard that it was like a slap on the side of the head – both painful and enlightening. Taking responsibility for the outcomes that you are getting isn’t about blaming you for poor results. It is just simply looking at the outcomes and learning to do something different to get different outcomes. If you think this is about blaming you and that you are doing something wrong it isn’t. There is a big difference in blaming and taking personal responsibility. Blaming is avoiding taking responsibility and wanting to defend yourself rather than feel the pain of taking responsibility. It can be very painful to begin taking responsibility. The painful part is really when you start to see how you have not been taking responsibility and how much you have lost in your life because of it. It also takes courage to start doing things differently especially in the beginning when the neural network in your body is still forming in response to your new belief. It is like learning to walk or ride a bike.
Another way to start taking a look at your beliefs is to start looking at your feelings and judgments about people and things. Your feelings are what will tell you what your unconscious thoughts are. Feelings are different than emotions. Your emotions are the expression of feelings. Feelings are felt in the body. Many think that others cause their feelings. Emotions are caused by our filter systems (beliefs). In truth, we create our emotions by what we tell ourselves about what is happening or not happening. We create emotions when we take things personally. How we feel is really a choice – although often a very difficult choice. Emotions are based on the judgments we have about how things or people should be. Learning to separate your feelings from your emotions is an important part of just growing up that psychologists call individuation. It really isn’t learned until later in life well beyond what we often consider adulthood. With practice you will be able to have feelings without emotional reactions. Being able to feel the feelings without acting on them creates a state of peace and acceptance from which you can then ACT rather than RE-act which results in much better outcomes.
You can start getting ideas of what your beliefs are about money by looking at some of the judgments you have about people who make and have money. Do you feel jealous? Angry? Sad? Frustrated? What is the little voice in your head telling you about people who have or make money? What do you think when I say you can make $100 an hour and more doing massage? What do you think about the idea of making $100,000 a year as a massage therapist? What do you think when you hear the words “Wealthy massage therapist”?
I will be writing more about the ideas here and trying to explain more about this topic. It is difficult to write about because it is so comprehensive and basically I am trying to put years of studying, learning, therapy and supervision into a handful of blog posts on the topic. Your thoughts on this will help the topic evlove and develop and create the much needed paradigm shift for massage therapists and helping professionals in general. You can be a wealthy massage therapist.
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