Written by: Payton Gabaldon
In my last post, I discussed some of my reasons for loving massage therapy, specifically because it allows me to express my creative and athletic nature, as well as my inner dancer. Now, it’s time to finish my thoughts and discuss the second half of my reasons. I also love massage therapy because it’s the perfect career for my introverted personality, and it allows me to help others physically, mentally and spiritually by using the power of physical touch. Let me explain…
Ever taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)? It’s that self-report questionnaire that asks you a bunch of questions about yourself and then gives you four letters that describe your personality type, such as your preferences, behaviors and how you relate to the world. It claims that there are only 16 personality types that exist. According to the MBTI, I’m an INFP, defined as “a personality type with the Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Prospecting traits. These rare personality types tend to be quiet, open-minded, and imaginative, and they apply a caring and creative approach to everything they do” (Source). In terms of career paths, “people with the INFP personality type are naturally drawn to professions that foster human connection and emotional depth. Their immense capacity for empathy and understanding makes them adept at facilitating healing and growth and allows them to fulfill their inherent desire to aid others in their personal transformations” (Source). I first took this test when I was 20 years old, and it was really eye-opening in both helping me understand myself and making me feel understood, as its description of my personality is spot-on.
I’m a textbook introvert. According to Psychology Today, introversion is defined as “a basic personality style characterized by a preference for the inner life of the mind over the outer world of other people” (Source). I get drained by being in crowds and engaging in social interactions very quickly and need alone time to recharge, otherwise I feel irritated, frustrated, angry, annoyed, exhausted and burnt out. I haven’t taken a nap in a very long time, but I remember when I was in high school, I would take naps often after getting home from school, not because I had to wake up early and learn all day, but because being around that many human beings for 6-8 hours was energetically draining for me. You can definitely say that I am very sensitive to others people’s energies, and I would rather not be around those energies if I have the choice. In classes that didn’t have assigned seating (and this extended into college), I would always choose the seat nearest to the exit door so I could be one of the first ones to bounce out of class and get away from people before the next class.
Once I entered the workforce, I learned a lot about what I do and don’t like in jobs based on tons of experience working in many different positions at many different places, and what aspects of those positions supported my INFP personality and which did not.
Without giving you my life story, I ultimately learned that at work, I must be physically active for most of the time that I’m there, I must feel fulfilled by the work I’m doing, I must be helping others without hurting myself, I must be doing something that aligns with my values, I must have more alone time than time working with a team, I can’t be micro-managed, I must work one-on-one with whoever I’m serving rather than serving/being around tons of people at once, and I need my environment to be calm and quiet.
Enter the world of massage therapy! Being a massage therapist has aligned with all of those introverted needs that I just listed and more. I get to work one-on-one with people. I get to help them with their pain, whether it be mental, physical, and/or spiritual (and when I say spiritual, I mean helping them feel more connected to their bodies, their own spirit and perhaps something greater). I get to daydream and use my imagination while I work. I never deal with crowds. I only have to interact with a few people per work day. I get alone time between sessions to reset and recharge. I get my own room/work space. Coworker interaction is minimal. Manager interaction is minimal (of course, depending on where you work…I choose wisely). I feel fulfilled while I’m giving massages, as well as afterwards, when clients express gratitude for my work and let me know how much I helped them. The environment is always calm and quiet (dim lighting, candles, aromatherapy, soft relaxing music, etc). Plus, I get a great work-life balance and flexibility in my schedule, which fosters my introverted need for independence, as well.
So, you get the picture. Massage therapy allows my introverted personality to shine, rather than going against the things that I need and care about to feel good at work. I had no idea whether I was going to truly enjoy this career when I signed up for massage school. It’s not something that I ever dreamed of doing, or even knew was a legit career path that one could take in life. But after experiencing lots of twists and turns that forced me to choose a new path, I bit the bullet and signed up for massage school and surprisingly, totally fell in love with it once it began. I felt like I finally found the missing puzzle piece in the puzzle of my life. Aside from starting my own pet sitting business after college, which was equally as fulfilling for me and supported my personality type, every other thing I’d done for work aside from that was not a good fit for me. Retail, banking, food service, teaching/tutoring, delivery apps, copywriting, grant writing, office work…none of them filled my cup and fit with my personality the way that I needed them to. That song “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” by The Smiths was my life story when it came to my experiences in the workforce. There were times when I really felt like I was doomed to either settle for misery or be broke and jobless for life because nothing seemed to be a perfect fit for me. Having an idealistic nature, as part of the INFP personality type, I’d rather die than spend most of my life being miserable. Taking the chance on massage school was therefore one of the greatest blessings in disguise that I’ve experienced so far in life. It’s an amazing feeling to not hate your job, and I’m grateful to now know that it’s possible. There’s still things that I dislike about the industry and certain aspects of the job (like occasionally dealing with a rude client or clients who clearly don’t shower), but massage therapy itself in phenomenal. When finding your path in life, I’ve learned that you just have to know yourself well, gain wisdom through experience, take chances and risks, and keep an optimistic mindset to finally find that puzzle piece that you’ve been missing. And, sometimes that path changes as you change, so it’s important to stay open and be willing to go on a new journey to find the next puzzle piece that will fit your new puzzle.
Aside from what I wrote above, the last of my reasons for loving massage is being able to help others through the power of physical touch. You can do your own internet search and look up how important touch is, like research studies, statistics, etc. and learn about how not being touched negatively impacts humans. I don’t feel like writing a whole freaking research paper on this topic today, but all I know through my own personal reserach is that people aren’t being (safely and consenually) touched enough, and it’s negatively impacting people’s health in more ways than one. In this post, I only care to write about my own experience with this, because my own experience is my main driver to do what I do and care about why I do it.
Due to the nature of my career, it should be no surprise that my number one love language is physical touch, but it’s something that I didn’t even know about myself until I started massage school. I had only ever received a few massages throughout my life beforehand. I knew that it felt good to receive a massage and that I felt good for hours afterwards, but I didn’t know the reason for that feeling (spoiler: feel-good hormones like oxytocin, dopamine and seratonin are released when we are consenually and safely touched and touching others, massage temporarily reduces levels of the stress-hormone called cortisol, etc, etc).
When massage school started, I was very touch-deprived. In fact, I was pretty touch deprived for most of my life. However, I remember in 7th grade, everyone was hugging each other that year. I’m not sure if this was just a thing at my school, but every time a student would would see anyone they knew, they would hug them, like every day. At first, I thought this was weird, but then it started growing on me. Looking back, (most of) 7th grade was one of my best childhood years. I grew up painfully shy and that year I came out of my shell more and made a ton of new friends. Looking back, I think it’s because of all of the positive touch that I was constantly receiving through hugs, which in turn, helped me feel supported, accepted, loved and open! I had never been hugged that much in my life up until that school year, so there has to be a connection there.
Anyways, massage school. I hadn’t been touched in years by a human being besides the occasional, brief hug from a friend or family member. And even before that years-long period of not being touched for a long time, the touch I received before that was extremely minimal and conditional. On the first day of massage school, I was surprised to find out that there were only two people in my class (more came later, but during my first round of classes, it was only us three plus our amazing teacher). At the end of the first class session, we briefly practiced some basic leg massage techniques on each other, and I was the first test dummy, being touched by not one, but two people whom I’d just met hours before. After that first day was over, and I was driving an hour home from Thousand Oaks back to Santa Clarita around 10 PM at night, I felt the best that I had felt in I don’t know how long: mentally, physically and spiritually. I had gone through a lot of personal struggles up until to that point that negatively impacted all three of those areas of my health, and I had isolated myself from people for a long time because of those impacts, so going back to school and being around new people was a huge deal for me at that time. It was on that drive home that it clicked for me: touch is so powerful, and it’s something that was missing in my life that I didn’t know I needed. After that class, I felt like I could open my heart and trust humans again.
Massage school was one of the best experiences of my life. My mental heath was amazing, my body felt amazing, and my connection with myself and God was stronger than ever. I felt so connected to my body as well as the classmates around me, I made a lot of new friends, and I had the best time I’d ever had in school. That’s all due to how much touch I received and was able to give back to people.
In conclusion, I have experienced firsthand how powerful positive touch is for my own mental, physical and spiritual health through the massages that I gave and received in massage school and beyond. For me, touch is necessary. I need to give it and receive it often to feel good in all three of those areas of my life, and if it wasn’t for massage school, I’m not sure if I would have ever figured that out. Therefore, my final reason for loving massage therapy is that it allows me to share my number one love language with other people every day and by doing so, I hope to help them improve their health at every level, even if only temporarily.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this two-part series of blog posts and that you’ve learned more about me, your massage therapist, in the process! I was inspired to write this series because, at this point, dozens (if not hundreds) of clients have asked me what I enjoy about being a massage therapist and why I became one in the first place. Therefore, I wanted to give myself ample space to answer that question in depth, rather than forever limit myself to the few sentences that I usually give back as a verbal answer. Until next time! *hugs*
-The Fascia Heeler ❤
