Healing Heart Stories: Articulating a Why

At the beginning of starting our business (almost a year ago!) Sarah and I had a

mission, a heart centered love for what we do and a drive to be able to deliver our passion on our own terms. But that doesn’t truly represent and deliver our why.

Why do we do what we do? I have drafted so many generic, albeit true statements about our why. We want to heal the world, we want to help our community by providing education about massage therapy as health care, not just a luxury. We’ve penned about more specific things like decreasing pain, unlocking frozen shoulder, treating text neck and backpack bumps in teens…and the list goes on and on. All of these are true and valid reasons and results for why we are here, loving what we do. But none of these are a comprehensive description of our why!

I have toiled over how to put into words the truest most heartfelt reasons for our decision to go to massage school, run someone else’s business and finally hang up our own shingle. And then one day it happened!

A long time client brought me a very beautiful, unfinished quilt that she had started over 10 years ago. She had started quilting when she was undergoing chemo many years ago. This particular quilt was a beacon of hope for her, designed after a beautiful picture that had instilled that sense of hope. Months after starting this project she started to suffer from neuropathy in her legs and arms.

Riddled with pain, tests after tests at the doctors and a life changing condition, the doctors told her the best they could do for her was pain meds. Her life changed immensely after that and she was no longer able to quilt.

About 3 years ago, after a recommendation from her chiropractor, she entered my office to make an appointment to try massage therapy. Within 3 months, she had decreased her daily pain medication regimen to maybe once a week if she really needed it. Winters are still hard for her and moving around will always be slower, but she feels better overall and she still comes in monthly for maintenance to keep her circulation going.

The day she brought me this quilt we cried together as she told me her story. This was the last of her quilting stuff, the last project she had started and her heart in every stitch. She wanted us to have it, to share with others and to bring beauty to our lives!

So, tell me…how do you put that moment and all those feelings into a statement?!?! My why is made up of so many stories of healing, not just the physical, but the emotional too! Women who regained the ability to do up their bras, a decrease in needing pain medication, being able to climb stairs again, but also hope, joy, forgiveness and belonging.

All of my life, I have spent my time helping, healing, educating, and listening to people. I can’t describe my why other than a deep desire to help others to feel better, emotionally and physically, body, mind and soul!