Life is a game; you discover the rules by playing it.

It's been a long time since I've written anything here. I've been absorbed by other projects. On the massage therapy side, I now have a regular client base, and clients come in organically. So I didn't need to make as much noise. I won't say everything went smoothly, because an injury slowed me down. I'll come back to that later.

Let me tell you where I stand.

A good job, but not a gold mine.

Let's be honest, massage therapy is hard to make profitable. When you pay for a massage, you think it's expensive. On the other side of the table, however, the ceiling is quickly reached. Each massage therapist discovers for themselves how many clients they can see per week. Beyond that number, they risk injury. The work is demanding: constant movement, strong pressure, and the joints suffer. An osteopath or physiotherapist can sometimes see more clients, depending on their level of manipulation. Not us.

Add the cost of venue rental, equipment to be purchased, and fixed expenses.

Ask any massage therapist, and they'll tell you it's a wonderful profession. They'll also give you their magic number, the one that keeps them loving it. If you go over it, the passion disappears. Just like in any profession, you might say.

Here's what makes it tough: you can't do much, but you have to remain available to people. Being available while being limited in time is a strange balance. It's difficult to reconcile with another job.

January 2026, rock and roll version

My first articles revolved around sports and massage. I recounted how I had hit a wall in my former job as a cameraman-editor, and how sports had helped me get back on my feet. That's where my desire to care for others came from.

At the same time, my brother was diagnosed with cancer. He finished his battle in 2026, almost at the same time as my mother. January 2026 was a wild ride.

In the preceding months, my mother's physical and cognitive health had been declining. She required a great deal of attention. I had to put work aside to care for her, and our finances suffered. Just when I was ready to return to work and needed the money, I developed adhesive capsulitis in my shoulder.

An interesting little fact: capsulitis often affects women in perimenopause, as well as people experiencing emotional trauma. That was exactly my case. My shoulder couldn't keep up anymore, I couldn't work, I was struggling financially and at my wit's end. It's resolved now, thanks to my physiotherapist, whom I thank and commend.

It really angered me. My livelihood, the one that brings in the money, was no longer functioning. I felt fragile, vulnerable, a position I don't like. I usually avoid putting all my eggs in one basket. But there, I only had that one body.

The painful question

I looked into video editing. But between the time I stopped and the time I wanted to come back, the world changed. Everything revolves around TikTok and Instagram. I have nothing against them, it just wasn't my path anymore.

With the death of my brother and my shoulder injury, a real question arose: do I still want this? Was becoming a trainer and massage therapist simply a reaction to the fear of dying, the fear of cancer? A way to prove to myself that I could change my habits and transform my life? I did. But if it was fueled solely by fear, what's left now that my brother is gone? And do I want to remain financially vulnerable, with an income that depends on what my body can do?

I don't have the complete answer. However, I do know what this profession has given me.

What massage taught me

First, the model is simple. You pay, you get a massage, you feel better. It's perhaps the most appealing service and, in a manner of speaking, the easiest to sell. Around it, there are subtleties, like the website and marketing, and I find that interesting. But what I deliver remains simple.

And there's something beautiful about that: being fully present for someone. When they leave, I don't bring work home. My mind is free. In video editing, it was something else entirely: projects lasting two or three months that ended up as version 15, version 16, version 20. I certainly had things to learn back then, and I would approach things differently today. Still, it did me good to step away from long-term contracts. To be there for people day in and day out, and then to remain available in the evening, mentally and emotionally, for my family.

Today, I see massage as a way to ground myself. There's an act of service in it, and making myself available to someone for a while feels good to me as a human being. But I can't just be that. My mind is too full of things.

The mad dash

I looked for another job that would also allow me to be a massage therapist. It was a crazy search. I considered editing, but I didn't want to contact my former colleagues again. Maybe out of shame. Mostly because I felt like I was just postponing the problem.

Deep down, I'm a geek. I've followed the AI, vibe coding, and LLM craze, and I'm interested in content, marketing, and newsletters. So I've taken it a step further, towards automation. I already use a lot of it for myself, and now I'm challenging myself to create it for others.

My ideal day

I admit it: for the moment, I'm doing two things (actually more...hehe).

My ideal day starts at the computer and ends on the massage table. In front of the screen, I'm very focused, I work quickly, and by late morning I've exhausted all my computer energy. Then I go and take care of people, and that brings me back down to earth.

This is the balance I have found in recent months, and that I am still building: automation mandates with AI, and massage therapy.

That's the joke of my humanity. In the morning, I work with the tools some say will bring about the end of humanity. In the afternoon, I find myself with humans, in the most concrete and least AI-like way possible: caring for a person with all their emotional complexity, their pain, their fears, their sadness, their joys. Laughing. Being silent when they need silence. Chatting when they need to chat.

It's all a dance, and so is life. I think I've found a balance between dancing with my head and dancing with my body.

That's what it's going to be for now: a little screen time, maybe a little more money, and my need to be of service to others. Massage therapy is very human.

The older I get, the more I realize there are no rules about what we should be. We aren't defined by just one profession; we can be good at many things. We can also be scattered, but that's a whole other discussion!

If automation intrigues you, you can find me on sourcier.ai .

Namaste,

G

Artificial intelligence helped structure this text.