Many massage therapists complain of exhaustion and burnout. In fact, burnout is the #1 reason for ending a massage therapy career!
When you learn Lomi Lomi, you discover why some of my teachers were able to continue bodywork well into their 70’s. You don’t have to work this hard.
In this video I want to share the surprising reasons why you are feeling depleted and burnt out (hint: it’s not the number of clients you see in a day!), and also a simple way to feel more energy and power throughout your work day.
The Hawaiian healing philosophy of care has been practiced through generations of time. It is designed to bring more Aloha to your life, so that you can share it with your community.
Eliminate Burnout in your massage therapy practice using these 3 key principles.
1. Recognize the Unseen
When you have a client on your table, you have to recognize that there is always seen and unseen. What does that even mean?
Most of us are working with the body physically. That’s what we’re taught in school.
I was in physical therapy school. I loved it. And yet I quickly realized we haven’t been taught that much about how big a factor spiritual or emotional distress can manifest in illness.
Now, one of the things I did learn in physical therapy school was that people who have injury could feel depressed. Or people who have injury may have a big life change that they’re going through and to take those emotions into account.
But I still had a question:
Which came first…the injury leading to emotional upset – OR – the emotional upset led to injury?
From a Hawaiian healing perspective, we believe that everything is connected. Therefore, if you have something going on physically, then most likely you also have something going on spiritually and emotionally.
It’s possible you’ve already had messages from spirit, from the universe that something was out of alignment. You’ve ignored that message. Now, you are dealing with a physical symptom and you HAVE to deal with it.
Here’s an example.
The Wisdom of the Bones
When someone comes to lie on our table, we have a way of looking at injury or illness called the wisdom of the bones.
It’s a system the ancient Hawaiians developed to describe the spiritual-emotional aspects of illness that contributes to what we experience in our physical bodies.
For instance, one of my employees was recently experiencing horrible, extreme stomach issues. She had all kinds of tests done but the results did not reveal anything definitive.
She couldn’t keep anything down, nothing. 24 hours later, she was still sick.
We all thought, “Oh, maybe she got a bad flu or maybe food poisoning?”
Actually, what was going on was that she was going through something personally.
Her home life was about to be turned upside down because she had actually already decided within herself that she was complete with the current relationship that she was in.
Her plan was to leave but she hadn’t told her partner. She was existing day by day, swallowing her truth of what she knew she was planning.
She had her reasons, but they were mostly based in fear. How was he going to respond? What if he was upset? And so, she took it and stuffed it all inside.
And what was happening was this horrible purging where all of those emotions and whatever they are, guilt and shame and not being able to be free to tell you to speak your truth.
Feeling trapped.
The body is trying to just free itself in any way that it can and this emotional distress is coming on as a physical symptoms.
All the doctors are scratching their head wondering…what’s going on?
When she came in, I said, “wow. It, I bet that as soon as you are able to share your truth and come clean with what your plans are, the everything’s going to open up. And you’re going to find that when you do that, all these symptoms are going to fall away.
Not only that, but the path that you have laid out before you is going to start looking brighter and brighter and brighter because you have taken care of what’s happening for you in your alignment with your own spirit.”
And sure enough, that is exactly what happened.
Time for Freedom
Everybody should be free to live the life that they need to live.
The next shift is gonna happen when she finally lands in the place that she’s meant to land in and realizes that all of those things that she felt guilty for were not necessary to feel guilty about that.
Everybody should be free to live the life that they need to live and that even if it’s painful.
Even if you are complete and someone else isn’t, eventually they’re going to experience same thing. One day, they will realize, “I can breathe deeper. Wow, I’m so grateful that we are at completion because actually, my soul was already complete for awhile and I was just going through the motions.”
Finally, everybody is actually living their authentic truth.
The Wisdom of the Bones tells us the abdomen is the seat of emotion. So we ask, what is it that’s being sick, that’s sitting there undigested?
This system will help you to be able to connect with your clients on a much deeper level than what’s happening physically. Once you’re able to get to that source, you’ll see that all of those healing avenues and pathways will begin to open.
Essentially, what I did was I was able to share with her a possibility of what could be going on.
When it’s the truth that you’re speaking, it will resonate. You might not know the outcome right now, but you will definitely find that that person begins to think in a different way.
If they are ready, it comes to the place in themselves where they want to be in alignment.
We All Want Balance
Everything in nature wants to be in balance, including us. Everything in nature is looking to be in homeostasis, looking to come back to center, looking back to come into alignment physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
When you’re operating from the place that you know there is seen and unseen happening all the time, then you are going to be in a place of empowerment.
You have a greater amount of perspective abut the possible source of the problem. You don’t have to identify what the source is. That’s their job.
You don’t have to fix it. That’s also their job.
Your job is to hold a greater amount of space as a practitioner for what they might have going on beyond the physical and explore possibility for emotional and spiritual healing also.
2. Access your Angels, Ancestors and Guides with Lomi Lomi
One reason you’re feeling burned out at the end of the day is because you think you are alone.
Does this sound familiar…?
“How am I going to help all of these people and you know, still make it home to take care of my family and still take care of myself?”
You have Guides, Angels and Ancestors to help you.
When you learn Lomi Lomi Hawaiian massage, you stand before that person with all of their life histories, all of their past histories and whatever they have going on in the present.
We stand with them, with all of their angels and all of their guides and all of their ancestors who want the very best for them.
It’s a collaboration.
We call upon all that support of your guidance, your angels, all of the knowledge from all of the teachers that have ever stood behind you.
Whether they’re here still in the flesh or whether they’ve passed on like many of my teachers have, they are standing behind you to support you.
Your life’s purpose is to help people. And if your life’s purpose purpose is to serve people, to also be living their very best life, then you have to trust and believe that you are not alone in that desire.
All of your ancestors and angels and guides have been looking after you from forever and they’ve been watching you.
They’ve been whispering in your ear, they’ve been guiding you. And when you’re standing in front of someone in their sacred energy, it’s not going to be any different.
They will be there to support you.
Your job is to believe that and trust the Guidance with all of your hearts.
It is not your job to fix your clients. You are called to be a space holder. To breathe the love of spirit through and keep your awareness grounded and centered.
Do not give energy to thoughts like, “I’m so exhausted. How am I going to see one more patient?”
Do this instead:
“Come on everybody. We have one more person to see. And this could change their entire life. their family, and the entire community. I’m standing here in this limitless potential to support transformation. I’m ready.”
Learn Lomi Lomi with Prayer
Lomi Lomi is praying work. We pray because of the teachings of auntie Margaret Machado, one of our amazing kupuna (ancestors).
She was one of the first to share these teaching teachings outside of her family lineage, where it had been under protective secrecy for generations and only shared within the families.
Auntie Margaret always said, “Lomi Lomi is praying work and loving touch.”
Prayer invites all of those energies around us to support us in the work we do. When we pray, it offers a level of integrity and protection as we stand in someone’s sacred energy.
This practice ensures that we aren’t going to take on any energies from them and they’re not taking any energies from us.
Many massage therapists have burnout because they are taking on other people’s energy.
There is a mis-guided belief that it’s their job and duty to fix people.
I tell you right now, it’s too much pressure and something’s got to give. If you’re continuing on that path, what’s going to give out is you.
You’re going to feel tired. Burnt out.You may even leave this practice that is your life’s purpose looking for something else.
All because you have decided, maybe not even consciously, you carry the burden for others.
You have a team of support that can help you carry those burdens. As practitioners, we are only there to be witness to the transformation.
We are there to hold up the torch light of love, of self-love, and illuminate that self-love within each and every person that comes to line in our table.
You would be amazed at how far that goes in supporting someone to come back from wherever they’ve gone physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
3. Use Your Thoughts for Good
Your beliefs are your spiritual clarity and it is important to be aware of the direct effect on the outcome of whoever’s lying on your table.
If someone comes to you and they start filling in the intake form with all the things that are going on with them.
- I injured my neck in this time
- The accident happened at this time
- I am having this ailment in my body and numbness here and tingling here.
As therapists, we may read this over and think, “Oh my God, I only have 60 minutes to work on this person. How am I going to get through this?”
See that? Right there?
That is the first limiting thought.
You are not there to fix your clients. Your only requirement is to hold space for them.
So if the space that you’re holding is, “this person is totally broken, how am I ever going to help them?” that person is going to go away, not feeling better.
They’re going to probably go away feeling broken because that’s how powerful your thoughts are.
Let me tell you a story…
I went to a Hawaiian Lomi Lomi association conference year ago. One of the facilitators, asked for a volunteer from the audience to leave the classroom.
She turned to the rest of the group and said, “we’re gonna do an exercise and we’re all going to participate in it.
I want you to think of one thing about the volunteer that might not be positive. Something not to mean like ‘the color of her shirt doesn’t match her skin tone’ or something similar.”
I know how powerful thoughts are, so I mine was “She’s a super strong yogi, but she’s really thing. She could put some more meat on those bones.”
The facilitator continued, “When I give you a signal, I want you to switch. At that moment I want you to send her so many compliments, so much Aloha. Pure positive energy.”
When the volunteer came back from the garden, the facilitator performed a muscle test on her. This girl’s a yoga person. She’s super strong. So when the facilitator pressed down on her arm the girl barely moved.
Then the facilitator looked at us and said, “okay, you guys know what to do.” We started sending our negative thoughts her way and then she did another muscle test.
The volunteer couldn’t hold her arm up for anything!
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“Now, I want you guys to send her some loving energies,” said the facilitator. And that’s exactly what we did.
We sent her so much Aloha and this time, no matter what the facilitator did, her strength remained. At one point, the facilitator was practically hanging on that arm and she couldn’t even drop it.
You have no idea how powerful your thoughts are.
The Source of Healing
Healing comes from within by means of love.
This of your clients with so much love, as whole and well and amazing and gifted and talented with plenty more to do in their lives.
See them running and skipping and jumping and all of the things that they desire occurring.
This will not guarantee an outcome, but you will know that you are co-creating with the unseen.
This is what it means to call on the support of Ke Akua, the ultimate healer.
The person on the table has to say yes to the healing. You as the witness are the space holder. And when all those things align…MAGIC! Unlimited potential pouring through you.
We can be the ones to stand and witness the transformation of limiting beliefs. There is a whole array of possibilities of what healing can look like and that healing can be – physical, emotional, spiritual.
The Source of Pain – Ribs
I had someone who was lying on my table because her rib kept coming out of alignment.
I could see for sure that the rib was out and that it just needed to be put back in. Now. I could have just put that rib back in and guarantee that person would’ve come back to me the next week and probably the next week to get it put back.
Or they might have gotten it put back in for a period of time, but maybe they would’ve still had pain and discomfort and trouble breathing and all of those things that come along it.
As I began my Lomi Lomi treatment, I felt so much energy there. Sadness. Trauma. Suffering.
There are many different expressions of energy. Sometimes, we just feel heat. And that’s perfect. Other times, it’s just a feeling that energy that needs to move here. I feel like I need to take like a deep cleansing breath because I’m feeling stuck putting my hand on this person.
This is advanced work that we share in our Lomi Lomi Workshops, so you’re prepared when those things show up on your table.
If you’re a practitioner that doesn’t just want to push muscle and work on the physical body and is ready to go deeper, then check out the advanced classes.
Because if you’re willing to go deeper as a therapist, those are the clients that are going to come lie on your table.
It is so rewarding and gratifying, when you begin to see what possibilities there are when you’re willing to stand and go deep with someone.
Back to the client…as I was putting my hand over the rib area, I knew something more was going on.
We started to Kuka Kuka, talk story. She began to share she was in transition with her work, and she had recently split up with her husband.
And the reason that they had split up was because that business partner actually had had an affair with her husband.
Imagine the sadness of this person who has been betrayed by TWO people she loved.
The energy I felt was like she had a knife in her back. Actually that’s the first thing I saw when I looked in. I saw she had a knife in her back and yet she’s the only one that can pull that out.
You can’t change what someone else has done. There is no going backwards. The only way ahead is forward.
We did some Ho’oponopono around her energetically lifting that knife out of her back and beginning to take in the deep breaths of Aloha.
What is Aloha?
Aloha is the divine breath of spirit. Aloha in our language means many things.
It means hello and goodbye and I love you. But the true foundation is the unconditional love of spirit that we breathe in to every interaction.
Each of us get to choose to bring Aloha to every interaction.
In this case, self-love was required. Thoughts like,
“How did I not know this was going on?”
“How could I have let this happen?”
“I feel betrayed, how can ever trust anyone again?
“I’ve lost my two partners and I feel like I’m on an Island and all alone.”
These kind of thoughts were needing to be released.
Of course, we called in all her guidance and support. We did some work around forgiveness and releasing. We worked on inviting in that loving partnership that she’s been waiting for.
The truth is, when we’re standing in a high vibration things that aren’t standing in alignment with your highest and best good are going to fall away.
It’s not always easy. Sometimes it feels chaotic.
It may take time, but your job is to trust. Realize there’s something better for me because this didn’t work out.
Go forward with absolute trust on the path and see what unfolds.
The Effects of Holding Sacred Space
Our space holding can have dramatic effects When we are looking a little bit deeper and seeing that person with all of their empowerment, new worlds open up.
I could see my client going to be on a new path with a completely new partner. She’s going to be spreading her wings right behind the ribs in a way that she may never have experienced before because she was being stifled.
She was hiding her gifts, not wanting to out shine either of those partners.
When she was able to like bust out of that and really spread her wings towards flight and freedom towards what she was meant to do, it’s liberating.
To be a witness to that kind of liberation is so rewarding!
You don’t feel exhausted at the end of your session. Instead, you feel energized.
There is no burn out and you feel uplifted.
That is one of the magnificent things about Lomi Lomi Hawaiian massage.
I don’t feel exhausted because I wasn’t trying to do it by myself. I wasn’t efforting. Instead, I was standing in the flow of abundant wellness together with this person and I get to reap the benefits in my own being as well.
And that’s honestly how it works guys.
Learn Lomi Lomi
All of my teachers are standing behind me wanting to impart this knowledge to you so that you too can feel empowered in your practice, not exhausted in your practice.
Join me for the next Lomi Lomi workshop. I would love to see you there.
Don’t wait any longer to say yes because your clients need it. Your community needs it. And we need more people just like you to say yes to helping us to spread the message of spreading the arms of Aloha across the globe.
Everybody who was here today, I can’t wait to see her next week!
So tell me…do you want to learn Lomi Lomi? Say yes in the comments below!
7 thoughts on “Eliminate Burn Out Learn Lomi Lomi”
Thank you for this lecture about Eliminate Burn Out Learn Lomi Lomi. Evertyhing what you says is true. Warm wishes. Urszula
Aloha beautiful Urszula. Mahalo for the confirmation that you are experiencing the same from our lomi work.
You are amazing, Jeana. As one of Auntie Margaret’s first students 46 years ago, I’m so proud of you for carrying on her wisdom and faith–and adding your our insights. You are providing a phenomenal service. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to that call to serve when you heard it. You are teaching what she taught: “Love this body as if it was your own body.” Mahalo mahalo mahalo my dear Jeana.
Aloha Barbara, lovely to hear from you. I hope you and the dragonfly ranch is well. We loved our time with you last year at the lomi conference and look forward to when we can return. Mahalo for you kind words and for your profound contribution on my lomi journey.
Yes! I would love to learn Lomi Lomi, I began researching it last year within my first year as a Registered Massage Therapist. I have the desire to bring so much more as a therapist that I didn’t believe in what I was doing in school now as entering my second year I know that I want to treat holistically mind body spirit! I’ve been drawn to this since I began reading about it. I’m hoping to sign up for your April course however, I am in the process of just applying for my passport now and am uncertain that it will arrive in time, as I’m coming from Ontario, Canada. What is your deadline on accepting new students?
Mahalo Kari-Ann for answering the call to bring all of your gifts forward through your bodywork. We would be honored and delighted to welcome you in to Ho’omana! We accept registration until we are sold out, so we will join your intention that all of your documents come through in time for the April course! Blessings 🙏🏼
Mahalo nui for this blessed reminder!! Comes at a perfect time as do all messages from the divine, from Ke Akua. Again, mahalo nui a me ka ha’aha’a Iwalani🌺