Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/329694
86 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k j u l y / a u g u s t 2 0 1 4 greatly into how we handle life's ups and downs. Yet, regardless of how we were raised, at some point we all grow up and must begin to take full responsibility for our lives, including our emotions. Part of this growth process is learning to use our emotions as signals that let us know if we are steering toward our best life or veering off course. It takes self-awareness and being in touch with our emotions to use them as our guides. The more emotionally fi t we become, the better we can "hear" the guidance our emotions are giving us. We can respond to the whispers before they turn into shouts. Ultimately, emotional fi tness means being capable of feeling without letting your feelings overwhelm you. It means being in touch with yourself, which gives you a solid foundation from which to approach others. BODYWORK AND EMOTION Emotional fi tness is especially important for massage therapists and bodyworkers because of our intimate physical connection with other human beings. We may be trained to work with muscles and fascia, but every person we touch brings all of their emotions to the therapy room, too, and dealing with emotions is something we are not taught much about in massage school. How we handle ourselves in this ebb and fl ow of life, both in and out of the therapy room, is affected in large part by our emotional fi tness. Just as with physical fi tness, emotional fi tness plays a large role in our quality of life, but it's even more important when it comes to the success of our practice. Stop a moment and consider—how healthy are you when it comes to emotional fi tness? WHAT IS EMOTIONAL FITNESS? Emotional fi tness means being able to maintain a sense of balance, inner peace, and strength throughout the fl uctuations of daily life, and being present and aware of our circumstances without letting our emotional reactions to those circumstances overwhelm us. Being emotionally fi t does not mean we do not experience emotions like anger, envy, fear, sadness, or even rage and despair. It means we have a healthy way of dealing with these emotions when they come up, and we take care of ourselves so that most of our time is spent in a peaceful, centered, and confi dent state of being. Not unlike other good (and bad) habits, emotional fi tness is something we learn from the people who surround us. What we learned in childhood factors L Life has its ups and downs. Some days it feels like we are drifting gently down the stream. Other days it feels like we are navigating Class 5 rapids without a helmet or life preserver. Western culture and medicine teach us that emotions are separate from muscles, but most in this fi eld know that's not the case. When you spend any amount of time with your hands on a person's body, you begin to pick up on the emotions he or she is feeling. You might also notice a client's disconnect from her emotions. Just as you can sense a client's emotions, oftentimes she can sense yours, too, if you haven't done the proper self-care and grounding ahead of time. So how do you handle, or process, all these client emotions? You just be with them— whatever they are. For most people, their time on your table is one of the few moments in their week when everything slows down enough for them to truly feel what is going on inside themselves. Your ability to be with a client's emotions without trying to change or alter them allows the emotions their validity—and that can be truly healing. Confi dent, kind touch will help a person emotionally, regardless of how thoroughly you massage or what techniques you use. The release of emotions may be gentle or it may be more eruptive. All you have to do is allow the emotions to fl ow, stay in your center, and be an anchor for your client. My fi rst instinct is to say that the ideal therapeutic environment is free of the therapist's own emotions. It makes sense that creating a neutral environment for your clients will facilitate their