Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/812910
52 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k m a y / j u n e 2 0 1 7 By Heath and Nicole Reed For most of our lives, giving ourselves loving attention was not part of our personal practice and certainly not a routine habit. Sure, we knew self-care was a good idea, but for multiple reasons, we weren't practicing it regularly enough to prevent being in pain, which seems to be a fairly common dichotomy for massage therapists. Nicole was in the massage profession for about five years when she began experiencing a recurring knee injury that put her out of work for days and sometimes weeks. At one point, Heath started experiencing chronic neck pain accompanied by intermittent ankle sprains that forced him to take a break from his practice as well. And, like most clients, we waited until we were in pain before we gave ourselves permission to receive bodywork. Does any of this sound familiar and applicable to your own experience? What are the rules you create that prevent you from giving yourself self-care? Do you have to wait for the perfect time? Do you have to make sure everyone else is cared for before you give to yourself? Do you have to make sure everything else is paid for before you give to yourself? Do you wait until you "deserve" pampering before you give it to yourself? Do you wait for others to give you the We learned the hard way about self-care. & Simple Self-Care Practices & Why They Matter