Money, Marketing and Soul for Massagepreneurs
Self Care
Tips and strategies to take care of yourself.
Five Simple Ways to Live a Stress Free Life
Mar 26th
Stress is a major problem for many people. We see countless clients each day who are suffering from various ailments cause by stress and as Massage Therapists we are no exception. Often times we have a hectic schedule, a chaotic home life, and bills to worry about how to pay – especially in this economy. Some of us even have bad habits such as unhealthy eating, drinking and smoking. These habits can lead to stress.
If your life is full of stress, like mine once was, there are some simple things you can do to get your life to a more manageable level. Your life will probably never be stress-free which is a good thing because stress – at a reasonable level – is something that challenges us and helps us grow. But when stress gets too high, it causes us to be unhappy and unhealthy.
It wasn’t that long ago when I was working very long hours and often seven days a week while trying to get my massage practice up and running. I didn’t have time to find a relationship or see my family. I was eating fatty foods and not exercising which helped me to blossom to 163 pounds – not good on a 5’2” frame. I was unhappy and stressed out all the time – and I changed my career from a stressed-out business executive for this?
So I made some drastic changes. I simplified my life. I stopped worrying about where the clients would come from, how I would pay all the bills, and where to hire qualified massage therapists which allowed me to cut back on the number of days and hours I was working. I started eating better and exercising. I learned some habits that, when applied on a daily basis, can really transform the way you live, in a positive way.
How did I do all of this? One thing at a time. I didn’t do a major revamp of my life. I started slowly and changed one habit a month, and gradually over the course of a year or two changed a lot of things in my life.
Although, these tips worked for me, I can’t guarantee that all of them will work for you. Everybody is different. But I encourage you to pick the ones that resonate with you, and give them a try. One at a time.
1. Give it your all – one thing at a time. This is the simplest and best way to start reducing your stress. Focus as much as possible on doing one thing at a time. Pick something to work on. Need to find independent contractors, catch up on paperwork or work on your marketing efforts? These were always big ones for me. Do only the one at a time! Clear all distractions – that includes phones, email, Facebook and other social networking tools while you are working on that one project. You’ll get urges to do other things – believe me and this is normal. Just keep focused – or bring your focus back to the project at hand if you do get side-tracked – and you’ll get better at it.
2. Simplify your schedule. A hectic schedule – jammed packed with 6-8 massage clients per day as well as other social and family commitments – can cause major stress. You can simplify you schedule, and your life, by reducing the number of commitments to just the essential ones. This means you have to determine what is essential. What do you love to do? Do only those things and learn to say no to the rest. Once you have those essentials only schedule only a few important things each day, and put space between them. This allows time for some fun and relaxation.
3. Simplify your finances. Finances can be a drain on your energy and a major stressor. If you find this to be true for you, figure out ways to simplify things. Automate bill payments as well as setting aside money in savings. If you find that you are not making enough money to pay all of the bills and think you have to make more money, I say that you don’t. Start with spending less and cutting unnecessary expenses. Maybe you are buying one too many Lattes at the local Starbucks. Or maybe you don’t watch television and you can eliminate cable or downsize the package that you are paying for. What can you cut out today?
4. Declutter. Perhaps because of my Feng Shui background, this is a favorite of mine. I am constantly decluttering my house. Feng Shui (pronounced “fung shway”) is an ancient Chinese art of arranging your environment so that it is most favorable to your well-being both physically and financially. We should only have in our possession things that we use and love, anything else is clutter and causes us stress. Let’s face we are dynamic creatures constantly changing. After a time, we may no longer like doing something — perhaps a hobby – or some particular object, regardless who gave it to us. I like to take some time each day and go through a room, getting rid of stuff we don’t use or need anymore. I either toss it, give it away, donate it or put it on eBay or craigslist so that someone else can enjoy it. When I’m done, I have a nice, peaceful environment that is more conducive to work and play.
5. Get moving. Do something each day to be active! Get out in nature by going for a walk or a hike. Exercise by going for a run or playing a sport. Do yoga or go dancing. Just do something to get your body moving. It doesn’t have to be grueling to reduce stress. Try to have fun doing it or your just might create another form of stress.
8 Steps to Make Work Feel Effortless
Mar 19th
We are massage therapists. We are supposed to be very nurturing, but sometimes work can be a drag especially if you own the business. You get caught up in trying to be more productive and suddenly your life turns into a series of to-do lists. You measure of success by how much you accomplish. You even determine how happy you allow yourself to be by how much you’ve gotten done that day.
Suddenly work feels like a chore. You don’t enjoy giving massages anymore. You just go through your day like a zombie, doing one massage after another, then doing all of the other projects that need to be done just so it can be over with. Then you can feel good, right? But wait, there’s that thing you forgot about. You still need to do that. And oh yeah, there’s that other thing you haven’t done yet.
Congratulations, you are a walking to-do list.
But work doesn’t have to be like that. The point of work – even giving massages – shouldn’t be just to finish. The point of work should be the work itself. That’s the way it’s supposed to be anyway.
We spend a lot of time trying to find ways to be more productive. To do things faster, better, cheaper and spend our time more effectively. But instead of just doing more in less time, maybe we should focus on actually enjoying the work we’re doing instead. I mean, why did we become massage therapists in the first place?
Here are 8 ways to make work seem like less of a chore and more like a gift:
1. Follow your natural rhythms. A lot of the time I resent working is because I’m trying to force myself to do something I don’t feel like doing. Naturally there will always be some things you’re not crazy about doing (like doing taxes). But how often do you force yourself to work more, when you really want to relax? When you force yourself to work when you’ve promised yourself a break, you’ll likely just end up distracting yourself with other things and put off working or you will work taking on that one last massage of the day but your heart won’t be in it. Then you get stressed and end up resenting work. Instead, follow your natural rhythms. When you feel like working, work. When you don’t, don’t. Don’t over complicate things.
2. Do, don’t think. I’m going to stay true to this point and not think about writing something elaborate. Just do, stop thinking about it. Fail, make corrections later.
3. Don’t put sugar in your tank. You wouldn’t put sugar in your gas tank right? It doesn’t make much sense to fill your body up with unhealthy fuel either. If you don’t have the energy to get the work you need to done, work will feel forced.
4. Remove hidden roadblocks. What’s making you avoid working? What’s making your work seem like drudgery rather than joyful? It might have something to do with your beliefs about yourself. Maybe you believe you’re not good enough, not smart enough or don’t have enough experience. Question your beliefs about what you can and can’t do.
5. Only do your best. Work can easily become a chore when you’re trying to constantly be perfect. The truth is some of your work might not be so great. You may not relate to a particular client. You may be second-guessing what your client’s fidgeting on the table means. If you can accept that and just do your best, you stop judging yourself. Guess what it feels like when you’re no longer picking over everything you do with a fine toothed comb? It feels extremely liberating. It feels like you can actually enjoy your experience, rather than worrying about how everything is going to turn out. That is working effortlessly.
6. Follow your intuition. When you think you have a great idea, believe it. Follow it. Chase it until you’re out of breath and can barely hold yourself up. If you don’t trust yourself, you’ll regret it later.
7. Focus on what matters. Our minds are constantly pulling us in different directions. We have a tendency to follow what’s urgent instead of what’s important. In order to get the important things done, we have to be ruthless at removing distractions. If it takes bringing a laptop (or notepad) to a cafe to write your book, then do that. Remove all distractions so you can focus on the important things.
8 Refuse to do what you don’t want to do. I often avoid working because I’m trying to do things I think I “should do.” Forget what you think you should do Do what you want to do. Other people will understand. In fact, they’ll probably envy you.
Have Some Fun
Mar 5th
Sometimes we can become so focused on our business with all of the hats that we wear as Practitioner, Accountant, Marketer, Webmaster that we forget to have a little fun. You know the old adage, “All work and no play, makes you very dull.”
In order to avoid burnout, I suggest you do take time for yourself and have some fun. “FUN” is like “SUCCESS”. Everyone has their own definition for it. But allow me to give you some suggestions that will hopefully foster your own ideas of fun:
· Have a picnic with your significant other
· Go to the movies with your significant other
· Take your kids to the movies
· Play with your animals
· Take a nap
· Listen to music
· Go shopping (If you don’t have the money, don’t go on a shopping spree but the purchase of a special item would be a nice thing to do for yourself.)
· Do your hobby (Don’t have a hobby? Take up one. Here are some of mine to get you thinking about what you might like to do. Cooking Photography, Card Making, Creative Memories Scrap booking, dancing)
· Play your favorite sport
· Take up a new sport
· Take a long walk
· Go dancing
Another thought as I close this Success Strategy is that you must allow yourself a vacation. I talk to so many Massage Therapists who haven’t been on vacation in years. This is not good. We must allow ourselves downtime to relax, rejuvenate and re-group (I get some of my best business/marketing ideas while on vacation or right after coming back).
You might be saying to yourself, “Yeah, that would be nice, but I can’t afford a vacation.” Whether it is a monetary issue or a feeling that you can’t be away from your clients, my answer to both, is that you can’t afford not to take a vacation.
Your clients go on vacation and expect that you will do the same. They will be there when you return. Now, I will admit that my first year in business, I didn’t take a vacation and I worked 7 days a week and very long hours. My second year in business, I was only able to take a few mini vacations (3-5 days). By the third year, I was back to taking a couple of weeks a year. However, my last few years in my practice, I took between 4-7 weeks vacation per year and didn’t lose one client because of it. Planning is all you need.
As far as the monetary issue goes, there are lots of ways to take inexpensive vacations. How do you think that I can afford to go on 4-7 weeks vacation per year? You may want to look into the following:
· Renting a week timeshare on Web sites like e-Bay. A lot of times you can get very inexpensive weeks that way because people who own timeshares aren’t able to use one of their weeks so they usually just sell it for their yearly maintenance fee.
· House swap. There are lots of Web sites out there catering to people who want to swap there house for yours (some are free to join but some involve a fee to become a member.)
· Receive emails from last minute travel deal Web sites like www.TravelZoo.com. I get these emails weekly and you wouldn’t believe the incredible deals.
Are you practicing what you preach?
Feb 19th
Most of us became massage therapists because we have a need to help others and because we believe in the healing power of touch.
In our desire to be the very best, our time is spent trying to improve our techniques, our businesses, and our facilities. We often overlook the need to maintain the homeostasis of our bodies.
During your training period, your body becomes accustomed to having the benefits of regular massages or bodywork. Once you finish school and get involved with the business of growing your business, it is very easy to neglect getting massages or bodywork for yourself. In fact, how long has it been since you last received a totally relaxing massage? Or do you spend your hour trying to understand the wonderful technique the therapist is using that your mind never rests and your body really doesn’t relax? Believe me, it happens far too often.
Think about the technique you learned and practiced when you first started out. Just as your bodywork techniques have evolved, your body has adapted itself to your method of massage and the repetitive movements you do every day. In fact, your body probably could perform an adequate massage with out any conscious interaction with your mind. This type of “unthinking” massage is what we want to avoid. Getting regular bodywork is the best way to prevent “unthinking” methods sneaking into our work.
Each client deserves our focus and full ability each and every time we do a massage. In order to ensure that, you have to guarantee that your body is able to provide what you will require of it.
As therapists, we can become like our worst client . . . so busy “doing” that we have forgotten how to relax. This imbalance will eventually lead to burnout and total fatigue.
This is a very scary place for a therapist who wants to continue doing massages or bodywork until they retire or die as I have heard some therapists attest to. So, how to prevent this? Just getting a regular massage sounds too easy. There must be something else, some enlightenment, some dragon to slay, something difficult. No. Regular weekly or monthly bodywork is all it takes. (Didn’t you just finish telling your last client that?)
Remember that keeping yourself healthy is keeping your business healthy. And it is a wonderful experience!
Rest
Feb 12th
I can hear you yelling at me already. “When do I have time to rest?” That can become a theme song of therapists. It seems like there is seldom enough time to get half the important things done, let alone spend any of our precious time resting.
I have discovered that resting doesn’t actually have to be sleeping. With resting, you have a number of options.
Stretching can be restful, especially if you have been doing a number of massages back to back. Stretching between your appointments is an easy way to relax those tight muscles and the exercises you find helpful can be passed on to clients who experience tight, painful muscles.
Massage sore pressure points with an essential oil blend that is designed to help relax or calm the body. Your use of Aromatherapy will also enable you to speak confidently to your clients of what you have experienced. (Try 20 drops of Lavender (relaxing and uplifting) and 20 drops of Sandalwood (relaxing and calming) in 2 ounces of carrier oil. I like Hazelnut Oil.)
Lay down on your massage table. It feels just as good as your clients have told you. Just lay there for 5 minutes, taking deep breaths. You will be surprised how much better you feel.
Meditation is one of the nicest ways of resting for a short period. Allow your awareness to rest in quiet. Allow your busy mind to gradually desist from bothering you and rest, even for a few minutes. This can be done with open eyes, looking at a picture that pleases you or with closed eyes. I find I drop into meditation quicker by looking at my favorite ocean picture and letting the beauty of the picture capture my mind and still it.
Breathe deeply. Slowing down an automatic movement is an easy and excellent way to center and relax your body. As you slow your breathing, you can alter the way you are feeling or thinking and discover a new sense of stability and calm. To breathe freely, your belly should be relaxed; your back straight and your shoulders down with a relaxed diaphragm. With conscious effort, take a deep breath, hold it for the count of three then slowly release. Do this at least six times.
Open your mouth wide and let the jaw relax. Keep your head still then move your lower jaw around into as many shapes and positions as you can without strain. This will reduce the tension in this area. It is amazing how this helps the neck and shoulders.
Get adequate sleep. This may be the hardest one to actually do. At least three nights a week try to get adequate sleep. Since “adequate” is different for each of us, if you are really rested after four hours, then four hours is what you need. Most of us, however, require closer to eight or more (I know I require about ten, yes, ten hours). Whatever you need, get it. It really makes a giant difference in your massages and your health.
Just one thing to keep in mind, the less sleep you have shorter than eight hours a night – the more it affects your output. You have to look at the overall impact to see that falling asleep in front of the TV every night is not good for you!
You may be one of those people that can ‘naturally’ cope with very little sleep – but the rest of us need to make sure that we have a nightly ‘oil change’ to keep our minds in gear and working efficiently.
As you noticed, most of these don’t take but a few minutes to do. It is the remembering to do them that is hard. Rest well.
How can you ensure that you have a decent amount of sleep every night?
Here are some ideas:
· Take a bath
· Use lavender essential oil on your pillow
· Dim the lights and close the curtains/blinds in your bedroom an hour before you want to go to sleep.
· Have “blackout” curtains or blinds installed in your bedroom so you can sleep without having light come into your bedroom waking you up too early (especially as we move from Winter into Spring).
· Soundproof your room as much as possible – turn the telephone ringer off.
· Get one of those “white noise” machines.
· Use ear plugs.
· Read a book before falling asleep. Just make sure it is not a book that is going to get you all revved up so that you have to stay up half of the night finishing it.
· Go to bed earlier…rather than getting up later. That way you can make the most of the beginning of the day…and begin achieving things before most people even get going!
· Listen to peaceful music.
Getting enough sleep is as essential to your success as the amount of work that you do.
Do you have any other tips you would like to share about getting the proper amount of rest?
Nutrition
Jan 22nd
Nutrition is the intake of nutrients and their subsequent absorption and assimilation. The first thought response to the word nutrition is FOOD and indeed food is important; however, nutrition comes to us through all of our senses. The body is fed food. The mind is fed information. The spirit is fed tranquility. All work together in harmony to maintain the balance of a healthy three-part body. When the PSE (physical, sensory or emotional) environment is fed, it either absorbs needed nutrients or eliminates what is not required. Each part is of equal importance.
The PSE environment is continuously responding to stimulation provided second-by-second through breathing in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide through exhalation; processing food into nourishment and eliminating the unusable; or through the skin which both absorbs and eliminates everything from air to physical contact. This continuous bombardment by stimulation (sounds, sights, smells, tastes, sensations) is filtered through our experiences as well as the body systems to determine what is necessary or interesting enough to be retained and incorporated while the remainder is released and eliminated.
When the PSE environment is overwhelmed by unnatural or unwholesome substances, it severely overtaxes the complete system, creating opportunity for discomfort, disease or total breakdowns.
Everything we assimilate into ourselves affects our day-to-day energy. This includes the hurried meal, the quick soda or coffee instead of water, the angry motorist, or the late client.
Only you can ensure that the nutrition you eat, read, dream restores rather than depletes your balance. Remember you often have to CHANGE habits and thought patterns to establish balance. While change can be an unwanted guest, remember that your own healing ability must first be directed to yourself before it can be utilized to help others. Change is worth the reward.
In order to maintain our inner healing force, the right input is needed for the body to function at its fullest potential.
Some guidelines:
· Stay within 10 pounds of your best weight at any given age.
· Eat a high percentage of fresh foods. I recommend keeping your diet at about 75-85% organic.
· Consume adequate roughage.
· Drink water (not soda, beer, coffee or tea) in sufficient quantities for you.
· Take a day off every week and sleep without the alarm.
· Read articles or books that stimulated your mind.
· Help the lymphatic system through exercise and deep breathing.
· Get regular massages.
· Remember you are a 3-part person and need to nourish all 3 parts.
How can you let go of old patterns and find a kinder way to treat yourself? Three books I have found particularly helpful in changing my eating habits are “The Seven Pillars of Health” by Don Colbert, M.D.; “YOU: The Owner’s Manual” and “YOU on a Diet” both by Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehment Oz, M.D. These books gave me a better understanding of my inner body needs and have made a direct impact on my energy levels. I was also surprised to find it easier to change thoughts and attitudes when my body was receiving what it needed. It is well worth the effort.
Do you have a book you would like to recommend? Do you have any other information on nutrition you would like to pass along to others?
