I Can’t Believe it Either: I am Writing a Book!
Many of you who follow me on social media have picked up on the allusion to a book writing process. The rumors are true: I am writing a book about Movement Remedies and the work I do with chronic pain clients. I am currently at about 24,000 words and near the end of my initial rough draft, which will be followed by a grueling few weeks of self-editing before handing the manuscript off to a professional for editing advice. My goal is to have the book available by the time of the December Massachusetts Conference for Women. Oh man, just putting that in writing was like a punch in the stomach. It's happening now!!
It might seem strange to be taking the time to write a book at this stage when I could be promoting my studio and doing other things to grow my business. It's a trade off, it's true. But, as I have to remind myself every day when I work on this book, I have really good reasons to make this investment:
I have always wanted to be a writer.
You may not know this, but I was actually a journalism major at a pretty serious journalism school: the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Not only that–and I am aging myself now–but I was a magazine journalism major. Before you ask–yes, that was a thing. Back then I dreamt about writing snarky social critiques for the New Yorker or unearthing foreign policy trends and their impacts at The Atlantic. My weekly newsletter has been an enjoyable substitute, but I still do have “get published” on my bucket list.
I have struggled to explain what is special about what I do and why it works.
This is a vulnerable moment, but it is true. I have been so focused on individual client sessions that I have not invested time in formulating my way of working and the framework I use to make programming decisions. As someone who is not a clinician but works closely with clinicians, my legitimacy is constantly challenged. So I have been compiling everything I have learned and tried so far, and I want to put it out there in the public domain so that it can be tested, repeated, and–maybe even–used by other movement providers. While I am a voracious reader and spend at least 5 percent of my earnings in continuing education every year, the passion and the experience of my own pain journey is the fire that keeps me striving. I think that’s a big part of what makes my work unique. And that is difficult to teach others without combining the research and the anecdotes to bring it all together. That process has been both humbling and empowering for me.
But the most important reason of all:
About one-fourth of the global population experiences chronic pain, and I could never possibly see them all.
The steps I have taken myself and my chronic pain clients through….maybe they are not even steps, I think I would actually call them development points…these experiences are accessible to everyone. This journey doesn’t require special equipment (though it might provide more options along the way) and it doesn’t necessitate a movement teacher (though it might speed up the process). All you really need is a compass and a few key milestones, much like the path defined in Paulo Coelho’s The Pilgrimage. My hope is that through a book I can expand my impact by explaining my method in a way that can be repeated by others. I rely heavily on client stories to do this because theirs are the experiences that matter; it is through their eyes that my teaching philosophy has been molded. And if I didn’t at least try to help beyond the four walls of my studio–what was the point of this entrepreneurship experiment anyway?
So I hope you will join me on this exciting adventure and stay tuned for more as I attempt to bring this labor of love into existence!
