UpClose & Personal - Steve Capellini

Who supports you? Not in the monetary sense. The dream sense. Who supported the dream you had of becoming a therapist? Who still offers support today? As you face the struggles and uncertainties of a profession that is still growing and defining itself, who continues to see a bright future for you, perhaps even brighter than the one you see for yourself?

This evening I received a fax from a young man in Jamaica who is trying to get to the states to pursue his dream of advanced massage training. He wanted to know how much it would cost to live in America for the duration of his schooling. How can I tell him how expensive America is? How can I support him? Over the years I’ve tried to support many therapists from many places as they rolled their dreams out in front of themselves like dusty red carpets. Sometimes I’ve succeeded more than others. What I’ve learned from a long series of attempts is that, perhaps, it isn’t the success or failure that matters the most. What matters the most is the support itself.

Think back. Were there people in your life who you counted on and then who didn’t come through for you in one way or another? Were there people who said that they would support your dream, but then someplace along the way they got sidetracked, leaving you to fend for yourself? Is there anyone you’ve left behind in the massage adventure of life? It’s time to take that person back into your heart and look at the ways he or she supported you, in precisely the way you needed to be supported, at precisely the right time.

Because our profession is so intimate, so compelling, so fulfilling and challenging, we want to share it with others. We want people to just plain understand, without an exhausting exegesis on our part every time, how bodywork can be life changing and profound. We ESPECIALLY want those people who’ve supported us to continue with us on the journey, to go deeper into the adventure that is opening our lives and our hearts. We forget, sometimes, that these people are on journeys of their own, journeys that quite often do not include a more intense delving into bodywork, not even on the receiving end.

Let them go. Let them go. Let them go. You have been adequately supported. That is why you are where you are now. Also, let go of the fact that you have not perfectly supported every person from your past either. You’ve tangentially touched people, and some of them have been hurt as you’ve jettisoned off onto your own path. We all touch against each other briefly, then we’re gone. With some people, we return to touch again. And with others it’s again and again and again. That’s what a family is, a small group of people we keep coming into contact with and interacting with, over and over. Who is your family now, as compared to ten years ago? Twenty? Thirty?

Things change. The support you get and the people you get it from changes. Your family morphs. I’ve found that the further I delve into the world of massage and bodywork, the more the people I come into contact with become my family. This cannot be just a job. It is not meant to be just a job. It is, literally, the touching of people. The supporting of people. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’ve left other things behind. And even other people.

So, forgive yourself now for the path with heart that you’re on and the way it’s caused you to diverge from other people who’ve taken other paths. Forgive other people who’ve gone their own way. You HAVE been supported. The proof is in your eyes as they sweep across these words. You’re here, listening, growing, a part of this transmogrifying family.

Maybe you’re like me, and you’ve inserted a “support clause” somewhere in your relationships, usually subconsciously and non-verbally, insisting that people support each other the way you see fit. If this is the case, you’ve done yourself a disservice, as have I. It’s time to stop doing that.

Let it go. Let it go. Let it go.

This is a new moment. I can turn, now, to that plea from Jamaica, and try to determine how expensive it will be for that young man to live in America and go to massage school and improve his life. I may succeed and get him here and help him fulfill his dreams. And there’s every chance that I may fail to help him at all. But one thing is for sure… I will support him in his dream, and he will feel it. We’ll both feel it.

www.royaltreatment.com

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