Blog Post July 15, 2013
Brad Hurst is one of our students at Renaissance Massage College. Last week I posted his wife’s story-Linda Hurst. Brad and Linda are on this journey together. It is a privilege to have them at Renaissance. The following is Brad’s Story.
I am a 56-year-old man that has never considered getting a massage because I believed they were for the wealthy at health spas and clubs, and on cruise ships. I never in a million years would have guessed that I would be a student at a massage therapy school. So how did I end up where I am…? When our daughter was very young, she was diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease and the doctors did everything they knew how to kill this disease, which included very strong antibiotics that destroyed her immune system. After putting her through all sorts of physical, mental, and emotional trauma, they determined the bone disease never really was the problem as the bone healed itself.
Due to everything she had been put through, she became very ill; she was in pain all of the time and at the age of nine was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. We watched this beautiful little girl struggle to have any semblance of a normal life for the next ten years, being homeschooled and harassed by those who did not understand, and learn to live with never ending pain. One day while driving she was rear ended by another driver, which gave her whiplash on top of everything else. To keep a long story short, she ended up going to an Osteopath that would have her lay on a table and use his hands up and down her body. He told her as he worked with her she would feel shadows of things from her past, what he was doing appeared to be making a difference so she kept going back. After four months of this unusual therapy she went off to college, she is now happily married with her fourth child on the way and to the best of my knowledge; she has never had any issues with fibromyalgia or from the accident since that time.
Here we are, ten years into the future and my wife runs across a woman that does energy work, which intrigues her, and she starts taking a few classes with her. The more she learns the more interested she becomes and I of course am hearing about all of the things she is learning. One day she comes home and announces she is going to a massage school that teaches many different forms of energy work so that she will be able to help other people the way our daughter was helped. We did not know at the time which form of energy work was used on her, but we did know there was really something to this work. I was getting more and more interested as my wife would come home and tell me what she was learning from the classes with her new friend, so I decided to jump into this great adventure with her.
The first night of school was a little intimidating as we watched the instructor perform Swedish massage. We have been in school now for two months, have learned Swedish massage, which by the way is very therapeutic and relaxing, and we have actually started learning the same type of energy work that saved our daughter’s life.
The art of therapeutic massage has been given a bad rap for way to many years and it is time the public found out just how important it is to maintaining good health and helping people enjoy a healthier fuller life. This practice is for everyone, not just the wealthy, so do not wait until it is to late to learn how to take care of your body and obtain a higher level of wellness, your body can provide you with many wonderful years when properly maintained. We are having a wonderful time learning how to truly help others, maybe you should take a look at what we are learning as you may find a whole new world will open up before you.
Brad Hurst