Hey my name is Sallyha!

welcome to my journey of self discovery. Growing up in a religious household and background I became aware that I didn’t really know much about who I was and how to really look after myself, even more so, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know until my mid 20’s.

I always knew I was a little different from what was expected of me. From a young age I marvelled and loved the things that I ‘Shouldn’t’.
First, I wanted to be a (travelling exotic) vet… and well that didn’t go down too well with my grandparents, I may as well have told them I wanted to be an exotic dancer when I said this, as you can imagine, it wasn’t received the best. Then, I wanted to be a News anchor, a little more positively received by them, but still entailed me being on TV, which ‘wasn’t respectful’ and to be honest I didn’t believe I looked ‘beautiful enough’ to achieve.

As much as I have fond memories of my upbringing, I have come to accept it perhaps wasn’t the most free or informative. Girls (and guys) from a similar background can probably relate, we don’t get taught much about ourselves, outside of religion and culture. As women we are taught how to cook, clean, and be educated in our religions/cultures and as men taught how to be ‘the head of the household’ and too ‘provide’ for the home. Traditionally accepted however a little dated. This was the outline for my upbringing. I guess what I needed but never knew I needed was the understanding of how to look after ‘me’. The me that was growing into adolescence, the ‘me’ that’s body was changing, was growing up yet had no clue how to manage myself. The ‘me’ that was being brought up into a modern society, with a traditional blueprint.

It’s been a whirlwind of weird and wonderful discoveries, such as learning how to not singe my hair while straightening it, learning new passions and hobbies (such as my skate journey) and even small things like learning the best things for my skin, health and overall well- being.

In my line of work and the choices in my life I’m now blessed to live more freely, but freedom has its own caveat when you come from a religious and strict upbringing. It’s about learning how to overcome limiting-beliefs, judgements and also the ups and downs of following  your own heart.

I’d love for this blog to be a guidance system, trial and error and portal into my journey, something I can look back on over the years, and hopefully ,maybe even be able to guide or be guided by the little community of you that support me.
So here I am on my journey of self discovery. I hope you join me and maybe I can help you as I learn to help myself.