The Big Year 2023!

 My friends!

My life keeps evolving, changing and finding it's best ways. I love the change, movement and everything I have achieved. I am constantly in search of a balanced way of living and past 7 years I have put most of my energy to my work. I love that I have been able to help so many of you, I am in awe about how many wonderful clients I have met and how this part of my life came about: I made it work. I was good, I achieved my goals. I am super proud of me!

All this is about my work in healing business, as a massage therapist. In more recent years (yes, after the covid hit) many of you have learned that I am not only a bodyworker, I am also a Finnish teacher and I dream about getting my book published. Yes, I have 3 passions and I have been trying to find a balance between all three. Balanced is Painless - that is my slogan, so I should be really good at this. Am I? Am I balanced and even more respectfully: am I painless? 

I have made some pretty big decisions in my life, like to shift my professional life towards healing people and losing a steady income in educational field, or to move to US and start my life completely all over again. The first one I made out of love to myself, since being a teacher in ever more demanding world was getting harder and harder.  The second change happened out of love to my family, who wanted to experience the life in US. I made it, I created my own way and found my purpose for living here. 

Then, after covid, I found the teaching again. That I can keep teaching the subject that was first love of my life, Finnish Language, in my own terms, create my own curriculums and help my students to feel empowered, skillful and innovative in my own language. That I can be creative with my language in my second home. That I don't have to lose Finnish and my detour to bodywork and healing was the best detour ever, since it gave me a meaning and purpose in my second home country. 

That's life! You get what you give up. So, it is time to let something go, to make room for more balanced and painless life.  I am resilient, I am goal-oriented and I am moving forward in Kata's Way. It means that I will give up bodywork. I will not renew my massage license in 2024. 

This is my number 3 big decision in life. I need to be painless and balanced. I need to give up the work that is taking too big of a toll to my body and give time to be creative. From this point on, Kata's Way is more about Teaching Finnish than bodywork. I am flexible and able to make hard decisions. This is my decision. I still have a massage license for 2023, so if you are an old client, you may contact me, but I am not taking new clients for massage.

But I do take new students, so if you are interested in learning Finnish, I am your girl. Read more on top of the page or contact me via gmail (kataopettaja). 

Thank you and enjoy the Holiday Season! 

FALL 2022

 Hello friends!

How have I enjoyed being in Finland and how will I enjoy coming back home in the near future. 

I have done some soul searching... ha ha, not really... actually I have had a few AWESOME treatments for myself and I feel like a newborn baby with only a minor shoulder issues. Sitting on a stol in front of the best healer made me realize a couple of things:

👊 I can not go without the REAL treatment for 3 years

👊 There is no better treatment, I have learned the best

👊 I simply can not stop doing this

👊 I need to go to Finland more often

        👊 I am so good at my work

👊but I will work only 2 days a week.

And not to mention how humble I am! 

I will be back at work  the most Mondays  and Thursdays 10 - 3. That's it!

My first day of work will be Thursday 9/8. 

There you go and Kata's Way it the Best, because I am Balanced!

P.S. I do have Finnish classes on Tue, Thu and weekends! But there are some flexibilities in my schedule if you want to learn Finnish. 

Not taking new clients any more!

 

I will be home until the end of August. I am not taking new clients 2022!

Hard decisions

 My dear friends and clients:

I have been privileged to able to treat you for 8 years. That is not in many ways a very long time period, but looking back, it feels like a half of my life. Maybe I feel that way because the other half of my life started when I moved to US. And that happened 2012. That is whole 10 years. I had no idea where my life would take me in the new country, but overall I think I did good. I feel very much at home in States at the moment although there will always be a longing back home - Finland. I am still more Finnish that American and we just have to accept that.

I have learned end experienced so much! I have evolved and being frustrated. I have powerfully pushed forward and achieved. I have been disappointed and what is the most important, I have learned to slow down and listen to, not only my clients bodies, but also my own. So, what it my body telling me (other than feeling so inadequate in written English)?

I have pains and aches like most probably all of us in this age. My back is doing pretty well, but my shoulders tho... they give me constant numbness, achiness and feeling of heaviness. Like, I really have no energy to lift my arms most of the mornings. Yes, I know my routines to help me get going, I know what to do and what to eat for a healthy lifestyle and definitely am not giving up on me. But then I am thinking that if any of my clients would describe the symptoms I am having, I would strongly suggest lessening the workload. At least finding a less strenuous job if nothing else. The question is: do I listen to my own advice?

I love what I do! There is no other way to say it. I feel deeply connected and such a pride of the fact that I am doing something good; that I am helping, and there is no better feeling than that. I want to keep working!

But I can not handle it anymore.

There it is. The sentence that has been lingering above my head for a long awhile. And of course I want to take it back. I don't need to publish this post... 

But hiding won't help me in any way. I already may have ruined my upper back and neck for life and the question is, is it worth it? I truly don't know. 

I don't know what will happen in the fall. 

As of now, my thinking is that I will see how my body adjusts to being work free for 6-8 weeks. I might feel like a new born and (over)book my calendar in September. I may find more Finnish classes to teach, so that I won't have time to treat clients. I may stay in Finland if the climate there suddenly changes to subtropical... I may feel overly energized and finally just use the modalities that are less strenuous to my body. I might truly start my third career and find a living in writing (in Finnish).

I am not able to make the terrifying, long lasting decision of quitting (that is truly how it feels), so I am doing something that is even more scary for me: I am gonna leave it open! 

If you are in my loop, I will text you in September and let you know. Most probably I will still work a day or two every week, but there is a big part of me who wants, finally, to be brave enough to make the bold move: to do something that is just best for me. Just me and nobody else.  

What truly is Kata's Way ponders Kata who has always had it her way. Balanced is Painless.

Out of office July 20th - August 30th

 

Plans for 2022

 My dear friends. 

I can't believe how fast time goes. This year has been good to me and my family, but as you all, I am so looking forward to more 'normal'  world without masks and travel restrictions. Many of you may know that the covid situation is worsening in Northern Europe at the moment while we are just accommodating the idea of things getting better here. Please, keep your fingers crossed for the situation continuing getting better everywhere.

Last couple of years should have taught us all to evaluate our lives, lifegoals and thing we want to achieve. It is so easy on the paper when you are pouring your soul into your personal notebook or stamping down the goals and prospects for your company. It gets definitely harder, when you are supposed to put your foot down and tell everybody what you are giving up, doing less and letting go in your life. I am lucky to have people around me who understand my goals of doing less and feeling better. So here are my goals and promises for 2022:

👉I am rising my pricing 10 % (this happens every 2 years just because I am gaining new skills all the time and also because the life is getting more expensive.)

👉I am taking every 4th week off even if it affects to many of my regular clients' scheduling. This is because:

    👊I have reached limits of my physical well-being in this profession (average massage therapist works for 7 years, I am starting my 16th year in this profession.)

    👊I am also working almost every weekend as a teacher, so off time is desperately needed.

    👊I am an avid writer and unfortunately I am the type of writer who needs space and time to get to the creative zone. 

👉I plan on going to Finland for 6-8 weeks on summer!

I still appreciate each and everyone of my clients, but it has been a rough journey to get to this point. I will be steady and more slowly working on my Ortho-Bionomy skills, but won't probably apply for any certification in it. I am perfectly happy doing things Kata's Way, since it is painless and effective. 

Have a Happy Holiday Season! 

A couple of words

 First of all, thank you to all my wonderful clients! I have been constantly changing and learning on my path to become a better healer and I could not have done it without you all. YOU are my biggest teachers and an everyday joy. I still enjoy doing what I do the best: helping my clients with their pain.

As you know, I have been reducing my hours on 2021, because I have been so fortunate to have been able to teach more Finnish. My work days are, and will stay to be, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The rest of the week is reserved for spacing out and taking care of myself, since on weekends I am busy with teaching. This possibility to use my both professions makes me super-happy!

I am still learning more skills with my Ortho-Bionomy studies, but I probably will not try to achieve any new certificates, since I will always be working my way. I will never say never, but I feel like this is who I am and I can keep adding new skills to my skillset  without taking tests or applying certificates. 

This is the second summer in a row that I am not able to go to Finland. That is not ideal, but I am going to take the life as it comes, and keep working throughout the summer. Please, contact me now, if you want an appointment, my September will be very busy and most probably I will not be able to take any new clients then! So, call/text me now, if you want to get to my books, I always will accommodate my existing clients first. 

And about next summer: I am already planning on spending 6-8 weeks home! Keep your fingers crossed for that to become reality and wish me luck in other sectors of my life too; I have some big dreams to (hopefully) come true in the future. 

Enjoy your summer, I definitely am having a good time! This is Kata's Way and it means Balance since Balanced is Painless.