Body massage course completed
Tuesday just gone I completed my final assessment for the body massage course and passed both the practical and anatomy & physiology assessments. It really was a special moment of celebration as I realised I had never actually achieved something like this through sheer hard work and because I genuinely wanted to do this. During my school days I never had much drive or ambition and had no interest in studying, so I just scraped through with mediocre grades. Then when I went to study something to prepare me for work, I went with ‘HR’ as a safe option. But I remember that what I actually was interested in at the time was physiotherapy. After I finished studying HR I entered the corporate world and moved from job to job. The only thing that brought me some excitement was moving to England from the Netherlands through my job nearly 20 years ago. But that excitement was only temporary because I was still not connected to myself and didn’t get much joy out of life. I used to live for the summer holidays. As a family we would explore large parts of the UK and would often stay in cottages in the countryside in peaceful surroundings that would allow for hiking and exploring pretty villages. What I never allowed myself to dream about though, was that I could actually live a life similar to where we would go on holiday, instead of living in a city most of the time and having to escape by going on holiday breaks.
Me escaping the city a few years ago in the Peak District
During lockdown I realised what I wanted to do was to become an aromatherapist as aromatherapy and plant therapy is very closely connected to who I am at my core. I planned out how to best go about this and decided to start with a body massage course, before embarking on a clinical aromatherapy course. This would allow me to gain practical experience in the complementary therapy field and body massage.
When I finally started the body massage course in 2024, I wasn’t prepared for how my ADD would make completing this course extra challenging. I didn’t know at the time I had ADD and I’d always accepted that life in general seemed to be more challenging for me than for others (without understanding why). Now this gives me an extra sense of pride in myself for having completed something in my own imperfect way. Like I mentioned before, I had never felt the need to put a lot of effort into learning as I wasn’t interested in many subjects at school.
Looking back on how I completed my portfolio for the course, I can see that I put a huge amount of effort into gathering the material and completed the modules very slowly. I also spent a lot of time finding brand colours and designs that I liked, aesthetic forms to use, putting together a professional looking business plan. I had fun with it! Of course, as it came close to the end of the course, I was nowhere near finished… I had found it hard to motivate myself to work on the course every day, so probably only spent twice a week on the portfolio and ending up with a huge amount of work to be completed at the last minute. I’ve realised now that if I know that I have a long time to complete something, I’ll find it hard to motivate myself to be consistent. It’s almost like I need a tight deadline to push me to complete something. It did work for me this time, although I nearly burned myself out during February, trying to revise anatomy & physiology, whilst still completing case studies and my portfolio (whilst also working 4 days per week at my 9-5 job). Despite all of that, I passed my assessment with flying colours and finished with upper percentile grades rather than mediocre ones.
Some of the forms and business cards I had fun with designing during my course
I thought after all that hard work I’d look forward to relaxing and enjoying my newfound freedom of not having to revise, but in actual fact, I can’t wait to start my aromatherapy course! I’m finding I have to slow myself down rather than steam ahead as it is not quite the right time yet. The bottom line is that I learned that I can achieve anything that I put my mind to, especially if it’s something I care about. The hard work that goes into it is worth it because it will bring me closer to living a more aligned lifestyle by eventually being my own boss and managing my own time.