To complement the MASSAGE Magazine article, “Mind-Body Health: 3 Steps to Connecting to Your Body’s Wisdom,” by Suzanne Scurlock-Durana, C.M.T., C.S.T.-D., in the March 2014 issue. Article summary: Massage therapists could be on the road to burnout if they don’t start to utilize the tools their bodies naturally offer them. Yet, it is rare that our basic education teaches us body wisdom tools and skill sets. These fundamentals for success are not difficult to learn, but they do require regular practice in order for them to be available when needed.
As a massage therapist and bodyworker, you should fill your energy reservoirs on a regular basis. Make this a habit, and you will find yourself more fully in the driver’s seat of your life, able to think more clearly, assess situations and make decisions more wisely, as well as feel the joy of being alive more often.
Filling up with nurturing, calming, energizing sensations can be done in many ways. Here are some of my favorite ways to refill when life is demanding, and stay full for better outcomes:
- Practice daily cardiovascular exercise. Walk, hike, swim, run, do aerobics or engage in another heart-pounding type of fitness.
- Create time each day where you slow down and drop back inside yourself for reflection and stillness.
- Eat a healthy diet that maintains consistent blood sugar levels and provides you with energy.
- Get enough sleep every night to wake up refreshed and ready to move into each day anew.
- Cultivate a circle of supportive friends and family. This can include pets and people not in the same location as you.
- Receive good bodywork regularly.
- Learn how to direct energy to the areas listed above: the heart, gut, bones, feet, legs and brain. Each one of these areas can be a reservoir of energy that has its own distinct gifts.
Suzanne Scurlock-Durana, C.M.T., C.S.T.-D. (healingfromthecore.com), creator of the training and audio series Healing From the Core: A Journey Home to Ourselves, has taught CranioSacral Therapy and SomatoEmotional Release for Upledger Institute International since 1986, and for the past 10 years has provided staff-development training at the Esalen Institute. This article is an excerpt from her upcoming book, Remembering Your Body’s Wisdom.