From Massage to Teaching

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Two years ago I had a psychic tell me “I see you teaching.”

My first thought, immediately, was “this woman is off her rocker crazy…”

I was a massage therapist, and have been since 2003. Aside from the apprenticeship I did for a year at my massage school after I graduated, well that was the extent of my teaching career and I knew that I wanted nothing to do with molding the minds of tomorrow on how to give a proper massage. Plus the whole fear of public speaking and being up in front of a group of people (I already have plans to elope just so I can skip that whole mess….I hope whoever I marry is cool with that).

Anyway, fast forward a year or so. If you read my previous post about how I discovered Yoga Tune Up® you know how much it helped me, and I had started to tell people that one day I was going to have a wellness center, but what kind of wellness would we offer? Well, who knew!

So I started taking classes, learning all the things, and as I started to think more about it, I started to think “well, why not teach?” After doing nothing but massage for over a decade, my body was getting tired. I had no plan B, and given my family longevity, I am probably going to live to be 120, but running your own business does NOT set you up for independent wealth and financial freedom. (Mr. Plan B that I was going to elope with is still lost in the woods trying to find me, so here we are.)

I’m not going to lie-it was a tricky shift! Putting my hands on people and finding the problems myself to educating people on how to find their own problems, and then fix them?! Say what!? And it was hard, trying not to trip all over my words, trying to get my point across and most importantly, trying to get them to do what I wanted them to do.

I recently taught a hip workshop and I had 15 people. My largest attendance to date (and I also realized that I don’t want to teach more than 15 people). And it was amazing. Seeing a room full of people taking responsibility and taking charge of their own self care made my heart swell. Seeing the testimonials come in after; “dude, I can squat now” and “I can’t believe how good I feel, it’s a miracle.” Hearing people react like that is why I do what I do.

I also taught a class recently that I only had one student for. It can be disappointing when you only have one person in class, but I learned that there is a reason why there was only that one person. Being able to help her after she had been searching for years for someone to teach her to move better in her body, and hearing from her after how much better she was already feeling, and giving her the tools to take care of herself and her pain-well, you can’t do that during a massage.

What I’m learning on my still very new journey of teaching is that it’s a journey. A journey that has allowed me to reach more people than me just being a massage therapist. A journey that is allowing me to venture out into another new business, my on-site wellness business, where I will be taking the mobility on the road and helping to free people from the clutches of their desks. The average lifespan of a massage therapist is 7 years and I’m well in over 13 years now, and I do know that at some point I’m going to need to take a big step back and I am so grateful for discovering Yoga Tune Up®, Jill Miller and the entire Tune Up Fitness family for what they have to offer, and what it allows me to offer everyone out there in the world that needs to learn how to move better in their body, especially when their budget doesn’t allow for regular massage therapy. However, I urge everyone to find a way to make it all work, you only get one body, so treat it right.

And to all of the massage therapists out there looking for something else…you need to treat your body right as well. Think about exploring your other options such as teaching. You never know when a psychic might be right about something!

Liked this article? Read Yoga Tune Up — Massage Therapy’s New Best Friend

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