A GRATITUDE NOTE TO OUR CLIENTS:
Hello friends (and… I truly feel that we are friends)!
This is Rebecca Farraway , founder of Zion Massage College.
I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for you and to thank you for your support of the work that we do at Zion Massage College!
I, like many of you, have a daily, active practice of gratitude. I love the opportunity and symbol that this season provides for us to come together with our families, communities and those that we love in the spirit and practice of gratitude.
Coming from a place of gratitude is such an empowering choice. It allows our minds to tune into more of the good stuff in life and to experience acceptance, hope and resilience during life’s hardships.
I remember a time, years ago, when I felt really stuck. During this time, I had difficulty in cultivating any thoughts of gratitude. I can only describe the feeling as an almost trance like state. In this state of mind I filtered out positivity and primarily allowed in feelings of disconnection and fear.
There were many things that I viewed as difficult going on in my life at that time. Outwardly, I tried to maintain a good attitude; but inside, I was really struggling.
During that time, I was somehow fortunate enough to stumble across Ekhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now. In the book, he introduces the term “pain body, “ Tolle’s symbol for negativity.
One day, in the middle of a divorce. I dropped my children off with my soon to be ex-husband. As I left our meeting place and entered the freeway, my eyes filled with tears. This was a problem because I briefly couldn’t see the road.
I, being a Massage Therapist, Qi-Gong and Yoga Instructor, fluffed my energy and brushed it off. (perhaps, just go with it. fluffing energy make sense to us massage, yoga, qi-gong, meditation types.)
After my brief energy fluffing, eye drying moment, I watched as a man in a car in front of mine veered his car into the lane next to me and slowed down.
The man started gesturing to me and shouting expletives. I rolled down my window to find out what he needed. I thought that maybe I had swerved slightly when my eyes filled with tears.
Instead of criticizing my driving, the man yelled questions at me:
“Why are you complaining about me! I didn’t do anything wrong, you stupid _________.” He said with passion.
I really believe that true to Tolle’s observations, the other driver’s pain felt my pain and had allowed our combined negative energy to meet and grow inside him.
In the moment, this surprise made me start giggling.
“I’m so sorry, I told him, I wasn’t complaining about you. I was doing a bit of small space Qi-Gong.”
The man didn’t seem to understand; but gave up on our communication and drove away looking very confused.
Interestingly, this seemingly insignificant moment snapped me out of my funk, interrupted my pattern, and shifted my state of being so that I could never believe my negative thoughts and emotions.
That day, I had an experiential realization that emotions are mailable and that energy can quickly energy shift.
There are multiple ways to shift one’s energy and emotions; and, this understanding has had a profound influence on the way that I view my work as a Massage Therapist and a Massage Therapy Educator.
I’ve witnessed Massage Therapy serve as a powerful catalyst in shifting physical and emotional states.
As Massage Therapists, we know that for every emotional response a person experiences, they also have a corresponding physical response. For this reason, physical tension and pain often carries a feeling of emotional pain.
We know that when our clients experience pain, both their body and brain are involved in this experience.
Because of this, we feel passionate about our role in helping to connect the body and mind in just the right way to finally soften tension and pain and to help those that we serve feel better.
Our goal is to help you replace tension with relaxation, fear with hope and cold isolation with warmth and connectedness.
Among the many things that I am grateful for, today, I want to express my gratitude for you our customers for trusting us to help you and for supporting us with the ultimate goal of our work, to assist in relieving and resolving suffering, both emotionally and physically.
Sincerely,
Rebecca