I could use some good advice

[Ima Stoodint]

Well I'm currently a student of Massage, I've been in school for a year now, with one more to go, wa-hoo. But lately I feel so stressed that I'm not sure about it anymore. I really enjoy everything that I'm learning and being able to help people out. I feel like I'm struggling in some of the classes and I'm not putting enough time in. Let me say I have two children under the age of 5 and a husband who works out of town a lot. It seems like every time I set time out of the day or week something keeps coming up, and I'm not able to get to studying. I feel so guilty when I have my family watch the kids so I can have time to study. Plus there are so many fields out there I'm overwhelmed and not sure which direction I want to take this. Does anyone have any good ideas to help me be able to study and not feel guilty as a mother? Any help as far as which direction to take me career? I really love learning about all the different types of massage, they are are interesting to me I need to narrow it down, any advise would help thanks!

 

[pink smiling]

Hi Anna,

I am BRAND new here, this is my first post.

I can relate as I am a married mom of two and still in school myself.

I think it is really great that your family is willing and able to help you out. Maybe it might help you to feel better if you had a heart to heart with them to see how they feel about continuing to help you out over the next year that it will take before you graduate. It helps a lot to know that your support team is, in fact, on the same page.

As far as narrowing down the field of work, that might take a bit of soul searching and research. Is it necessary for you to really know that specifically right now or are you hyper focusing and overwhelmed with the whole thing?

Take a breath, talk to your support team and write down some of your immediate, short term and long term goals. Perhaps getting a few different types of massage yourself might relax you AND help you figure out which style or styles is right for you.

Best of luck to you!

 

[ggs]

Breathe, Girl

You're gonna do great. The key here is that you ENJOY what you're learning and that you ENJOY helping people through touch. That's the important part; without that, there isn't much else. You're right; there ARE so many different avenues you can take, and it DOES seem overwhelming. Reading the magazines and seeing the ads about all the different training courses you can take and hearing different trademarked technique names being dropped casually in conversation all over the place can wind one up into a mental pretzel. Been there, done that.

The cool part is, I know when I graduated I didn't know which direction this would go either. Spa? Doctor's office? I figured no, and started on my own. How to run things? Heck if I knew. I just knew I wanted to detoxify the world through cleansing Manual Lymph Drainage. Turns out that I still do lymph drainage, but that I also found I enjoy combining Hot Stone therapy with Neuromuscular Therapy--sort of like a luxury-meets-corrective, pampering-meets-necessity type of massage (although I know it's ALL a necessity; I'm just going by how a client would think of it). Now? Heck, sometimes I'll do more of a Swedish-Hot Stone relaxation combo, sometimes a Deep Tissue-Neuromuscular combo, and sometimes I'll throw a little Cold Laser on the tissue for some extra reinforcements

You'll find your way too. If you're not sure now, that's OK. Trial and error is perfectly acceptable. It's fine to change techniques or specializations, or entire directions altogether. That's one of the many beauties of this profession. Whatever you do, you'll do what feels right for you. I find I like a variety, so I tailor my massage to each individual.

The family obligations CAN be tough, because you've only got so much time and energy in one day. If massage is something you really want to do, though, don't feel guilty leaning a little on your friends and family to help, especially if they enjoy spending time with your children or are glad to help you out. I don't have children, so sometimes I forget how much ENERGY they take (if I try hard, I can remember back to my babysitting days and how hard I slept that night after taking care of a couple young kids!) It's easy to feel overwhelmed!

I'm with GreenDragonfly; get some massage yourself! I find I learn VOLUMES more while RECEIVING a massage than while giving one! And it's all practical knowledge; I can pick it apart, "I liked that", "that's NOT something I'll do", "I wish she'd do this", "THAT's a nice touch!" etc. Not to mention that massage will calm your nervous system down and take the edge off! You're understandably wound up right now because you've been thinking about this stuff forever and it's been swirling in your head like a big tornado. I've been there; so wrapped up in it that it's easy to forget the forest for the trees and lose sight of the big picture, and all the details start to look the same and you end up so confused you don't even know where to start. I found that getting my thoughts on paper helped. What do I know? I know I want to do "x" and I know I don't want to do "y". (Or whatever.) Sometimes you just gotta take a step back and take a deep breath, and sometimes talk to someone else who is an objective third party who is distanced enough from the situation that they can help you get back on the right track.

OK, I have rambled plenty LOL. I hope that something somewhere in there helped!