- Joined
- Nov 15, 2000
- Messages
- 3,708
This profession (keep in mind I'm only a student at this point) forces you to confront yourself on a daily basis. It's just you and the client/patient in that room. Can you overcome your prejudices and hangups and really listen and empathsize with their pain and life situation?
Can you look at a person and not make any assumptions or judgements. And if you can't are you really doing your job?
How you view yourself is projected outward and the energy you give off is very often picked up. The client's energy is darn sure felt by me. Yep, I'm talking energy here. I've given a few massages to people who do NOT want to be there and I can tell you it can really drain you without them ever saying a word.
Then there are the people who exude positive energy and you feel like you've been hooked up to 220v of good stuff when you're done.
I think this happens in other areas of our lives too. It is just intensified in this context. But I really believe that our attitude and energy moves outward and effects others, who inturn effect others.
Think about it--if you scream at a bank teller just before he drives home from work his driving may be affected: a pedestrian may pay the price. His patience may be taxed before he has an important conversation with his boss, his wife, his kid who is on the edge of.....running off with her boyfriend..taking drugs... The point?? You just don't know what effect you are having in those lives that intersect with yours. How many of us have been pushed that one little tiny bit in one direction at a turning point in our lives by an action or inaction of another person? I know I have. You are sick of living in a town and are on the fence about moving back and some teenagers harass you with racial slurs while you're at a gas station with your elderly parents and your pregnant wife. Does it affect your judgement even though you don't want it to? Yep. It sure did mine.
All to often we opt out of personal responsibility in our lives, preferring to site our "problems" and challenges as a justifiable reason for acting poorly. Yes we need to accept that we are human and will make mistakes, but that does NOT excuse us from doing our work.
I think so many of our problems in this country and on this planet could be solved if each of us realized that it's not George Bush or Al Queda or Bill Clinton's responsibility or fault that things are as they are. And they're not the ones who need to fix this mess---we are.
How? one person at a time. We fix our own backyard, love our own family, take time to heal our own psychological wounds so that we can act like humans again. If everyone or even some of us did this the entire human race would move forward. When we heal ourselves on the inside we want to help others, they are healed, and then want to give back. It works. I'm proof of it. Do I have my issues to work out? Oh yes indeed! Is my own backyard and family "fixed"? No, not yet. I and it are a work in progress.
Ok, that's enough speech making for one Saturday evening
Can you look at a person and not make any assumptions or judgements. And if you can't are you really doing your job?
How you view yourself is projected outward and the energy you give off is very often picked up. The client's energy is darn sure felt by me. Yep, I'm talking energy here. I've given a few massages to people who do NOT want to be there and I can tell you it can really drain you without them ever saying a word.
Then there are the people who exude positive energy and you feel like you've been hooked up to 220v of good stuff when you're done.
I think this happens in other areas of our lives too. It is just intensified in this context. But I really believe that our attitude and energy moves outward and effects others, who inturn effect others.
Think about it--if you scream at a bank teller just before he drives home from work his driving may be affected: a pedestrian may pay the price. His patience may be taxed before he has an important conversation with his boss, his wife, his kid who is on the edge of.....running off with her boyfriend..taking drugs... The point?? You just don't know what effect you are having in those lives that intersect with yours. How many of us have been pushed that one little tiny bit in one direction at a turning point in our lives by an action or inaction of another person? I know I have. You are sick of living in a town and are on the fence about moving back and some teenagers harass you with racial slurs while you're at a gas station with your elderly parents and your pregnant wife. Does it affect your judgement even though you don't want it to? Yep. It sure did mine.
All to often we opt out of personal responsibility in our lives, preferring to site our "problems" and challenges as a justifiable reason for acting poorly. Yes we need to accept that we are human and will make mistakes, but that does NOT excuse us from doing our work.
I think so many of our problems in this country and on this planet could be solved if each of us realized that it's not George Bush or Al Queda or Bill Clinton's responsibility or fault that things are as they are. And they're not the ones who need to fix this mess---we are.
How? one person at a time. We fix our own backyard, love our own family, take time to heal our own psychological wounds so that we can act like humans again. If everyone or even some of us did this the entire human race would move forward. When we heal ourselves on the inside we want to help others, they are healed, and then want to give back. It works. I'm proof of it. Do I have my issues to work out? Oh yes indeed! Is my own backyard and family "fixed"? No, not yet. I and it are a work in progress.
Ok, that's enough speech making for one Saturday evening
