Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1208028
Ta k e 5 a n d t r y A B M P F i v e - M i n u t e M u s c l e s a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / f i v e - m i n u t e - m u s c l e s . 65 feeling attending illness is being tired, and tiredness can be distracting. In tiredness, it can be harder to connect with another person. And feeling worried about my health can affect my ability to be fully present for others. Worry is a more powerful hindrance than tiredness, I think." Yet, he says if he can let go of worry and really allow that what he feels is "just" uncomfortable and tired, he can keep working with clients. "And oddly enough, after what I thought were some of my worst sessions—feeling so deeply fatigued—clients have raved especially loudly about how effective they were. It's almost as if because I was so tired that I was too tired to get in my own way. With defenses down, some kind of surrender enters in. Perhaps in this state I might be more intuitive, or more fully present with a client?" I believe Tim may be right about this. I also think Tim's experience with illness has served him well. He told me that for his whole career he has been approached by people, especially other massage therapists, who are all too happy to offer unsolicited advice, diagnoses, and analysis. Having spent a lifetime bombarded by other people's opinions of what's wrong with him and what he should do about it, Tim is particularly sensitive and open to the possibility that his clients don't need him to have all the answers. They need him to be present and kind. When I asked the people I interviewed for this article, "What is embodiment?", they all had different shades of ideas, but Tim highlights something that may be key: awareness. He is not able to bring wisdom and presence to his clients simply because he has his own health challenges. It is his awareness of how those challenges have affected his relationship with his body and with the way others relate to his body that has allowed him to be a more embodied practitioner. It's like anything. Being a runner doesn't make you a good massage therapist to runners unless you have really gone inside yourself to understand what being a runner feels like in your body and in how you think about your body.