Hi there, thanks for stopping by! My name is Khadijah and this is my personal blog. I am a massage therapist currently practicing in San Diego, CA. I love all things related to experiencing our senses. Music, movement, beautiful scenery, amazing food, and feeling good. I am a self care enthusiast and generally a little nugget. As the culmination of 26 years of deep curiosity, my favorite question has always been “Why?”. The human body offers infinite why-based questions and so it has captivated my interest for as long as I can remember. Our inner world fascinates me just as much as what we are capable of here in the physical.
When I was a senior in high school, I took an AP Physiology course that absolutely blew my mind. I became wildly curious about toxicology, pathology, and any subject that touched on the topic of “When things go wrong”. I flirted with the idea of becoming an anesthesiologist, but quickly decided against it when I learned how much schooling it required! After high school I began having experiences that led me to rediscover passions that preceded even, my love for science. The major one was dance.
At my first music festival, immersed in colorful lights, I connected once again to my great love of dance. As a child I was in jazz and ballet with my sisters, I loved every part of it. I was the youngest of six children, so funding hobbies was, unfortunately, not at the top of my parents’ priorities. However, since the revival of my dancing obsession, that part of me has never gone dormant again. My task became finding a career that would support my dance education and development. Due to a traumatic and tumultuous close of my high school years, I had not gone on to a 4 year university as planned. Instead, I leapt from job to job, searching to find a solution for about four years.
In year three I began experiencing discomfort and symptoms that frightened me, so I started seeing a chiropractor who then referred me to a massage therapist. I recall being in awe of the musculoskeletal charts in his treatment room. The questions I had for him were endless and I felt such comfort from the insights he provided to my experiences.
I believe this was one of the first seedlings that sprouted in my Garden of Bodywork! Around the same time, one of my brothers had completed his training as a massage therapist in Texas. I felt a tremendous amount of respect for what he had accomplished and envious of the things he learned about. I was half-heartedly pursuing a career in sales at the time, and slightly blinded to my admiration for the bodywork industry. Perhaps I simply needed time to marinate, because one day during the pandemic, it all clicked.
I have been a tactile and touchy little bugger since birth. I have always loved to listen intently to others, to hear what they are communicating in even the words unsaid. From my deep curiosity for our bodies and how they work, to helping others and feeling good; massage checked all of the boxes. I began looking for schools in my area, finding Pacific College of Health and Science. The best of the best! I graduated with honors, earning my Certificate of Massage Therapy and Asian bodywork in August of 2021. The following year I completed a follow up program to earn a degree in Holistic Health Sciences. The journey has been a whirlwind with a vastness of information, and endless options for what to do with it.
As I was finishing my certification, I discovered something about myself as a massage therapist. Sharing what I had come to know with others was important to me. I wanted to empower my clients with simple tools and behavioral tweaks to positively impact their own lives. Bodywork is an amazing resource to support healing. However, I believe that intentional living, body-mind awareness, and self care rituals are where lasting healing takes place.
This Is A Space For Cultivating Self Care
Being the beautiful, multilayered creatures that we are means that there are countless ways to improve your quality of life all on your own. So many routes for self love and nurturing yourself. That is what this blog is dedicated to. We will simplify complex concepts and emphasize how you can best apply them in your everyday life. I encourage you to approach this content with openness and a willingness to be self accountable. Also, look into these things for yourself and ask questions! I am open to discuss any that you may have. And of course, I would love to hear about your experiences, so feel free to share any time. Thank you for reading, and welcome
to Discovering the Innerworkings.