Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1037165
a false start, do a check-in before moving on. Were you being your genuine self, or were you bringing old self-defense habits into the experience? Like online dating, you won't make a meaningful match if you're not being honest about who you are today—not presenting who you want to be in the future or who you were in the past. Third, it's not usually a one-tribe- fits-all scenario. It often makes sense to cultivate relationships with several different tribes: work, personal, hobby- based, etc. For example, a massage therapist who has young children and who enjoys running might have separate local communities that include family, close friends, bodyworkers, other elementary school parents, or fellow runners. Fourth, not all tribes are lifelong fits. You know the phrase about friendship being for a reason, season, or lifetime? Same goes for tribes. Evaluate the communities you currently interact with: are they still a good fit for you? As we change over time, our needs and wants evolve and the interactions and people that fueled us before might now leave our tank on empty. If you find a current tribe is still a good fit, ask yourself if you're as engaged as you'd like to be, or if it's time to reinvest some time and attention into those relationships. Fifth, the visual that tends to pop into people's minds when they hear the term tribe is 10–15 people, but a tribe can also be—and often is—two to three people. I tend to gravitate to these smaller tribes. When I really want to share and brainstorm and be totally honest about what I'm thinking and feeling, I want to do that with one or two other people. I want to make eye contact with my tribemate. And be shoulder to shoulder with them on one of our solve-all-our-problems walk 'n' talks. I don't want to try to do that during the commotion of a larger group. This Only Applies to Introverts, Right? There's so much discussion about the differences between introverts and extroverts and what comes easier to which group. The first reality is that most of us are a complex mix of the two. The second reality—and this is the important one for this conversation—is that even if you are mostly an extrovert and you find it easy to make connections with others, it doesn't make the massage profession any less lonely. Extroverts still spend most of their time working alone in a treatment room with minimal interaction with anyone other than clients. Extroverts still need to put time and effort into creating and cultivating community, just like an introvert. The two types may just go about it differently. Extroverts may seek out a larger group of people and spend a lot of time with them. Introverts may connect with one or two people at a time and balance time with others with time alone. As the Thai phrase goes: same, same but different. Same lonely profession and society, same goal of finding community, just different ways of going about it. Yo u r M & B i s w o r t h 2 C E s ! G o t o w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e t o l e a r n m o r e . 71