We were lucky to catch up with Melodie Polansky recently and have shared our conversation below.

Melodie, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

What I feel like happened, was that the first time I just gave up, I didn’t have the tools and I didn’t have the desire to learn more. The second time was still hard, but I had learned more and even though I was still struggling, I persisted and broke the uncomfortable barrier of fear. My business became stable for the first time, and I was able to breathe a little financially. Working for all of the different types of businesses has given me a well rounded perspective about how I want to treat people, and the experiences that they deserve. I now own my own studio, and I offer sound baths, energy work, body work, and hypnotherapy. I collaborate with artists, breathwork facilitators, yoga instructors, shamanic practitioners, psychics, and mental health therapists. I am living my dream now, and I look forward to many more years of prosperity and growth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

When I was about 21 I got fired from my bartending job at TGI Fridays, I loved that job but unfortunately my friend lied to me and I served him drinks when he was underage. Dang, only job I was ever fired from, and I’m so grateful for it because it pushed me into making some choices about my life. I was always massaging people, at raves, at home, friends homes-just naturally good at it. Then my friend told me she was going to school for massage therapy and my first thought was, “wait? I can get paid for this?” So I signed up, and after my first class I went to the administrative office and told them to sign me up for everything. I was in it. I had never even had a professional massage other than my friend who was practicing for school. The first class I took blew my mind. I had so much trauma stored in my body and this was the first time I had ever had any release from the internalized pain that had accumulated over the years. This got me interested in the psychosomatic relationship and I began to study techniques to help open up the mind and connect the body to it. We hold so much of our fear, shame, anger, grief and rage in our bodies, and we rarely give it a space to exists safely so we push it down and suck it up and then it compacts and the energy and cells start to become dense causing tension and dis-ease.
I began learning other techniques outside of massage like Reiki, Sound Healing, and QHHT Hypnosis. Now I focus more on the energetic side of the body, helping to clear the auric field to allow for better flow within the body, and to connect people to their own innate abilities to heal themselves. I offer training in Reiki, and I do workshops with breathwork facilitators, creatives, psychics, shamans, and therapists to continue opening the mind and body to healing and working on loving their shadows.
I also offer meditation and creative expression workshops where we dive into sound and meditation to open the creative mind and then we allow the inner child to come forward to express through art.
Photography is another love of mine and through that I hope to help people find love for their bodies, and themselves by seeing their light painted through the lenses of a camera. It helps me to have a creative outlet with all of the heavy lifting I do for people on a daily basis, and having this outlet gives me a connection into my creative self as well.
The work I do not only helps the people I work with, but it also helps me. I get to sit and tune into my guides, I also get to receive when I work, and the fulfillment of watching the energy shift from dense, and fatigued, to light and happy-brings me so much joy.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being open and authentic. I don’t hide behind a mask, I am open and raw about my life. I listen and hold space for people without trying to interject my opinions, unless asked. I show up on time, I work hard, and I rest hard. I practice what I preach as well, so when I tell someone to stretch, to journal, to do yoga or breathwork, I refer them to that practice because I have experienced the benefits myself, as well as researched the techniques for their ability to help people on their journey. I also work with some amazing people and the power of referrals is unmatched.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn: The harder you work the more value you have.

I grew up watching my single mother struggle, she worked hard and taught us that working hard was the only way to make it. I grew up working two jobs in high school, busting my tail and hustling to make ends meet. I was working to a point of burn out. Severe fatigue, depression, anxiety, and I was ready to give up.
After I experienced a severe case of burnout after the pandemic hit, I knew things had to change or I was going to get sick, or die. I was dealing with a lot of heavy emotions from my clients, every day was tragic, and I was taking on their pain because I was so tired I couldn’t guard myself anymore.
I started to find that my worth was not tied into how hard I worked, that was a story that my mom had taught me, and I decided that I was going to break that cycle and change the way I viewed my workload and what I wanted my life to look like. Then my husband lost his job and the idea that I could relax a little more felt like a pipe dream because how can I relax the work load when now the entire weight of the financial load was on my back? I started to go back to hustling, to working so hard that I would collapse when I got home and I would be of no use to anyone.
We are still in that boat, but I am shifting my perspective again. Money and how hard I work, does not define me. I am resilient, I am abundant, and I am loving, honest, and kind. That is where I place my value now. Letting go of the fear around money is difficult when you grow up poor, I don’t know how to manage my money because I was never taught. So I am learning it now, and learning how to release hustle culture. I set my prices where I want, I set my own hours, and I get to select my clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.gratefulWellnessDSM.com
• Instagram: @gratefullifewellness
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/massagemama1?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
@keelyrenephotography