And Done...

I'm donating my massage chair today. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, I mean I haven't practiced in years. It's just been sitting downstairs, first in the Room of Requirement and now in the garage. I've tried a few times to sell it. But those have been half hearted attempts. Letting go of this last piece has been harder than I thought it would be.

I know why.

Or at least I do now.

I sold my massage table a long time ago. When it became clear that I would never practice again my table was just taking up space. Not that I needed the space for anything, but it was there. Just there. Everytime I walked through the room. Now it was folded away in its travelling case, but still. There. Reminding me of yet one more thing I tried that I didn't keep doing.

I can't really say failed at.

I am fucking annoying about this so you can skip the next section if you want.

I can't say one more thing that I tried and failed at because I haven't really failed at much I've tried. Massage therapy was the same way. I was a damn good therapist. My shoulder injury forced the giving it up, but I had already decided to move on before the injury. Doing it for a living wasn't for me. But that doesn't mean I wasn't good at it.

But I do that a lot. I try things out. Sometimes for years. And even if I'm really good at them I get bored and move on. I'm a really good salesperson. I'm a really good store manager. I'm a really good bookkeeper. I'm a really good account executive. I'm a really good massage therapist. Or at least I was really good at all of those things. I'm a lousy stay at one jobber.

But anyway, the table I got rid of a long time ago.

I didn't like the way I got rid of it. It didn't sit right with me. I won't go into all of the story because it was a weird one, but the people that were going to buy it (even though someone else ended up buying it) weren't therapists. They wanted it for themselves. It wasn't going to be used the way I had intended it to be used. And it made me feel a little squicky.

Because as a therapist your table is an extension of you. Especially that first table. That is the table you buy when you are in school. It is the one you learn on. The one you haul around for exchanges. The one you first make a living with. It's so infused with your energy that different people's tables feel differently. I know that's very woo woo sounding for someone that practiced the Western styles pretty exclusively but it's true.

Prepping for a client. 

So every time I thought about how I sold my table it made me feel a little off. Wrong. And because of that I think I held on to my chair for much longer.

My chair was the cool toy I got when I went in to practice. Not every therapist uses a chair. Not every therapist even wants to do chair massage. But I had in my head that it would be a big part of my practice. Chair massage parties were a thing I did. Groups would get together for like a potluck lunch and I would set up my chair in the living room and work on everyone who wanted a quick massage.

Working out that midday stress.

I also did corporate events and worked on clients here at the house. If you only want upper body work chair massage is a great way to do it.

So anyway...My chair was a cool toy, but I had loved my table. But I had transferred all of that almost guilt over selling my table on to the chair without realizing it.

Until I did.

When I decided to donate my chair to the school I attended, just sort of out of the blue, I felt like a weight was lifted around selling it that I didn't even realize I had been carrying. Of course. Donate it. Give it to someone else who can use it to follow a dream. They can use it at the school to teach or they can pass it along to a student who can't afford one. This is exactly what should happen with it.

So then I got a little KonMari about it all.

She suggests that you thank everything that you get rid of. Yeah, I know, I pretty much rolled my eyes as well. But....

I am so grateful for my table.

I am grateful not just for the money I made using it, but for the time it saw me through school. I'm grateful for the people that I know I helped both physically and mentally while they were on my table. I'm grateful that if I got nothing else out of massage therapy (which I did get a lot) I got Stacy and Mari. I'm grateful for the exit from advertising that massage therapy provided and for the peaceful feeling I got whenever I would see my table set up for a client. Such a difference from the tension I would feel before a client meeting in advertising.

Thank you, table and chair for what you've given to me and to others.

And now you are no longer mine and I hope that you serve a purpose to the ones that will own you going forward.


I know, it's hokey...but I do feel a lot better about it.