We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Abigail Litthachack. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Abigail below.
Hi Abigail, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I want to answer three questions in one: where did you get your resilience, work ethic, and generosity? And my short answer is my mommy and baba (I do not care how old I get… it’s mommy). My parents are both refugees that escaped the Vietnam War and created an entire empire and kingdom for my siblings and I to explore. And my resilience comes from knowing my parents worked extra hard as minorities to have what we have today. My work ethic also comes from knowing my parents both have tirelessly pushed from one company to the next to provide a dream life for my siblings and I… All I want to do is return the favor ten fold when I can. And for my generosity? My mommy always taught me, “If you have more than what you need, then why hold onto it for dear life when other people need what you have. You can’t take anything when you die, so share it while you’re alive.”
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Well… I want to start off by saying I am a jack of all trades, but master of none. I do, almost, everything decently, but I get distracted quite a bit with all the ideas I have… My story is not average or linear by any means. I started my career in nursing and psychology and somehow I am now an artist, business owner, massage therapist and model with another trade at practice… And my story starts young. I have considered myself an artist on and off since I was twelve. I gave up on art twice and each time I did, my mental health suffered and my overall mood was down. When I finally realized this after a nearly dying in 2021, I made the final decision to never live without art. I got so obsessed with my craft again that I was mass producing art like a mad man. And then I realized I was actually creating an inventory. So the business woman instilled in me by mother came out and I was like “I’m just going to sell my art.” And I did. And the support I received humbled me. The next thing for me was: “how do I make this permanent?“ So then I came up with the acronym S.A.T.I.A (Selling Anything That Is Art), figured out how to solidify an LLC (shout out to my big brother!), and now I own a legal and legitimate start up company for art. And, for me, t’s an exciting concept where I have “masters” who are apart of the Board and they have a skill like illustrating or animation or singing or even modeling and they are in charge of their own department and how they run it, but ultimately we collaborate and make cool projects together whether it be visual, digital or even performing art. We currently are pushing nine projects that I have the privilege to oversee/be apart of and a beautiful, caring team to work with.
Now the massage therapy thing kind of seems random, but it really is not. My mommy and I started the business when I was fifteen, but opened when I was sixteen while I was interning at the hospital. I started off as a receptionist at the massage shop. And after some years of preparing, I quit nursing school and the internship. My mom offered to send me to massage therapy school and because I didn’t know where my life was going to go I said yes. I finished the program in six months and was granted certification by the California Massage Therapy Council. Through massage therapy I was able to learn meridians, pressure points, a lot of human anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and the body’s innate reaction to certain stimuli. I didn’t know what I was doing when I did it, but I was stepping into my first career and I have to thank my mommy for providing the opportunity.
Everything I do is for my sanity. I massage and meditate at the same time to truly feel the connection between the person I am exchanging energy with and this gives me sanity when I am able to relax and calm some of the most tense people you’ll ever palpate or hug. I love being able to express myself freely and unapologetically through all my forms art. I enjoy being in the position of power, not to lead selfishly, but to guide and be guided. To me all the things I do are exciting because they give me purpose and purpose is a reason to live… And I will take every reason to live that I can.
But as I mentioned before, we’re an art company and we do sell tangible art. So check us out @satiawithlove on Instagram
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Although I didn’t finish nursing school, all the training is still engraved into me and the knowledge never left me since massage therapy school had a lot of the same subjects as nursing school. I always say that because I was studying nursing before I became massage therapist, I have an edge over other therapists because I know contraindications like the back of my hand, I follow HIPAA even though the people visiting me are clients and not patients, and I use my eastern medicine knowledge passed down to me from my grandmothers and mommy mixed with what I studied in western medicine. But if you’re in nursing school reading this? Don’t quit like me (unless you are brutally unhappy)… We actually really need you guys out there.
Another skill that is a continuous work in progress, but super beneficial, would be redirecting negative thoughts. I have gone through multiple intensive outpatient programs where we are taught alternative coping skills to manage negative and positive emotion as well as suicidal thoughts. I believe that being able to think, “I want to die today,” but not acting on it and redirecting that thought to, “I want to live for my own self and those who love me” is a sign of strength.
My final skill and my secret to my success was found in nearly dying. No, do not go and try to experience a life threatening situation in order to figure out what I am about to tell you. Please. Really. Do not. But my skill is to not care……… but care. I say this because I care enough to not hurt myself. Believe me, my care is enough to overwhelm you, but also believe me when I say it’s in my nature to give, to love, and to care so it doesn’t hurt when I give pieces of me away in favors or promises. But if I start to care so much it hurts? It’s a sign I need to step away and re-evaluate what I’m doing and my approach to the problem, project, situation or person. That’s when I call upon self reflection (wink wink** another useful skill).
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
Maybe to kind of continue with the previous question… Another useful skill to have is to know who to surround yourself with. And most people have the misconception that you only need to surround yourself with likeminded people… No, don’t do that. Make friends with your enemy, but keep them at a distance because you guys will probably have more in common then not. (We all know the enemy to best friends troupe!!!) I’m saying this because if we trap ourselves in an echo chamber where people are always gassing you up and telling you you’re doing great, you’ll never grow through mistakes or feedback. It could very well give you an ego problem where you can’t take constructive criticism. Either way, expanding and hearing opinions you don’t agree with opens your mind and perspective. You don’t have to walk away in agreement with them, but have the courtesy of respect.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @satiawithlove @champathaimassage @abigail.litth
Image Credits
@abigail.litth @moviesandflicks – Matthew Robinson
