Meet Fatimah Hanif

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Fatimah Hanif. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Fatimah, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I keep my creativity alive by understanding that there is only one me. I am the only person that can do what I do the way I do it with my own special sauce. By knowing this it keeps me motivated to go out into the world and be confidently creative.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is Fatimah Hanif, and I’m just a girl from Oakland, California, walking in her purpose. I’ve been an empath and nurturer since I was a child, always caring for someone. Being the oldest girl out of seven children probably had a lot to do with that. It’s also part of why I went into hospitality. My background is in Culinary Arts—I got my degree from Contra Costa College and even earned some Culinary Arts certifications in Italy. But being a chef is a stressful job, and my body didn’t agree with that kind of pressure. That’s when I decided to leave the kitchen behind and step into more peaceful, calming holistic practices.

Now, I’m a Vibrational Wellness Specialist and the owner of I Maintain, LLC, a sanctuary for Vibrational Wellness and holistic healing based in Vallejo, California. At I Maintain, we focus on making feeling good a way of life. Our mission is to equip individuals, especially children, with the tools they need to live resilient, balanced lives, even in the face of adversity. In a world where trauma and stress are often lurking in the shadows, people—kids and adults alike—struggle with their inner peace, carrying the weight of unresolved childhood experiences into adulthood.

At I Maintain, we specialize in a variety of holistic practices like Reiki, mindfulness, meditation, vibrational journaling, astral surgery, and sound healing. These practices help build a foundation for self-healing and emotional resilience. It’s all about recognizing those yucky feelings, shaking them off, and bringing in the good ones.

I help with people understand what Vibrational Wellness is. Vibrational wellness is the practice of using energy frequencies to achieve balance, healing, and harmony in the body, mind, and spirit. It’s based on the idea that everything in the universe, including our bodies, is made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies. When our energy is aligned and vibrating at healthy frequencies, we feel balanced, centered, and well. But when our energy becomes blocked or out of sync—often due to stress, trauma, negative thoughts, or unresolved emotions—it can lead to physical, emotional, or mental imbalances.

Vibrational wellness uses a variety of holistic practices to realign and raise your vibrational frequency, promoting healing and emotional resilience. These practices can include:

Sound Healing: Using vibrations from instruments like singing bowls, tuning forks, or gongs to harmonize the body’s energy.
Reiki: A form of energy healing that involves channeling universal energy to clear blockages and restore balance.
Mindfulness & Meditation: Techniques that quiet the mind, focus the breath, and raise awareness, helping to calm the nervous system and center your energy.
Vibrational Journaling: Writing practices that help you release emotions, set intentions, and raise your energy through the power of words.
Color Therapy & Visualization: Using colors or guided imagery to shift energy and improve mood and wellness.
Breathwork: Exercises that focus on the breath to clear stagnant energy and restore flow throughout the body.
Astral Surgery: A form of energy healing that works on the non-physical, or astral body, to remove energetic blockages and negative attachments. Using visualization and spiritual tools, practitioners clear away stagnant energy, repair the aura, and restore energetic balance. This practice helps address deep emotional, mental, or spiritual imbalances, allowing for profound healing and greater harmony within the energetic body.

The goal of vibrational wellness is to help you become more in tune with your body’s natural rhythms, raise your overall vibration, and release any blockages that may be holding you back from feeling your best. It’s about nurturing a state of balance and well-being from within, allowing you to feel more aligned, peaceful, and empowered.

Vibrational wellness for me, started at home. I’m a mom of three amazing children, and they inspire me every single day. They are the reason I do what I do. Being their mom and giving them the tools to move through life with ease shows me how important it is for other kids to have that same benefit. Even if children can’t get it directly from their families, they can get it from me—and I love that for them.

On top of that, I’m a speaker & an author. I just completed my book I’m Tired of Being Toxic: Self-Journey & Transformation. It’s a self-help book meant to inspire people to take a hard look at how they may be contributing to the problems in their lives. So often, we blame others for what happens to us, but I believe we create our own realities—even when it’s hard to accept.

In June 2021, I quit my job and took a crazy chance on myself. It’s been a tough road, filled with challenges like learning how to budget, facing eviction, giving up my car, and making decisions I wasn’t always sure about for me and my family. But the confidence I’ve gained from that leap has been life-changing. I’m not at the finish line yet, but I trust the process, and I know my life is transforming into what it’s meant to be—calming, refreshing, and enlightening.

I don’t stress or follow the social norms of daily life. I just live, and somehow, everything works out. Even when people try to bring chaos and drama, I stay grounded because I know things will unfold as they’re supposed to—calm and stress-free.

One of my passions is giving back to the community. I host a free monthly community event in partnership with Watch Me Grow Inc., a nonprofit doing incredible work in Vallejo. The event is called “Healing Through Sound: A FREE COMMUNITY SOUND BATH MEDITATION”, and it’s all about creating safe spaces for trauma healing. I started this event after joining the Children’s Network’s Parent Leadership Training Institute, which my sister Jameelah Hanif (the founder of Watch Me Grow Inc.) introduced me to. I wanted to give the community a moment to pause before starting their day because that pause can make a huge difference to our nervous system, which is often overstimulated by everything we deal with on a daily basis. Being able to reach a place of inner calm is essential, and that’s why I love what I do. Plus, I love being a Black woman who does sound healing—yes, we exist! People are often surprised by that, but I’m here to show them and show these children.

I also bring my sound healing work into schools, facilitating sound baths for children aged 4 to 18. These sessions offer a calming space amidst the challenges students face daily. I focus on environments where kids may encounter stress or trauma because I want to show them that rest, calm, and peace are real options they can access. One of the schools I work with is Elite Public Schools, where students of all ethnicities are given the opportunity to experience these moments of peace.

I’m grateful to work alongside some amazing people, including my fellow sound healer, Dr. Terence Elliott. Though we’re total opposites, the energy we create together is incredible—he’s truly like a brother to me in sound and a dear friend. It might sound strange, but I genuinely feel like I prayed him into my life. Together, we’ve crafted powerful experiences, like when we played at The Ever Wonder’s Suite Treatments. Even though that event has wrapped, we’re excited for what’s ahead, including our floating sound baths, workshops, and other sound healing events.

Recently, I facilitated a sound bath at The Healing Circle’s 2nd Annual Mental Health Awareness & Suicide Prevention Conference at The B.O.S.S. Wellness Center in Oakland. It was so powerful to see so many people coming out to educate themselves about suicide prevention. I also had the pleasure of facilitating a sound bath at JL Soul Camp, which is a camp for Women of Color to rest. It’s a partnership with Joyce Lee and the Occidental Art & Ecology Center in Occidental, California, and it’s such an incredible space to pause, connect with nature, and share time with amazing women.

I feel so aligned with the people and organizations I work with. We’re all out here trying to help others be better for themselves, and that’s something I’m so grateful for. Like Dr. Terence Elliott, always says, “When I heal myself, I heal my family. When I heal my family, I heal the community. When I heal the community, I heal the world.” It all starts with healing ourselves first.

To stay connected with the I Maintain community, visit my website at www.imaintainwithfatimah.com and subscribe to our email list for updates. You can also follow me on social media @imaintainwithfatimah. I offer personal sessions, group sessions, school programs, corporate events, and more—so feel free to reach out. I’m here to support you on your journey to vibrational wellness.

I’m also available for speaking engagements to discuss my work, my book, I’m Tired of Being Toxic, or to simply empower others. I’m open to traveling and offering training on vibrational wellness and sound healing as well. Let’s connect and explore how I can bring these healing practices to your community or event!

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?

The three qualities that helped me was awareness, acknowledgment, & accountability. Being able to be aware of when I am not happy about something & when I know I am not that I am able to change it. I do have to sit in unhappiness for whatever reason. Being able to acknowledge that something isn’t working out and that either my vibrational frequency is really low or not where I would like it to be because I am attracting whatever I am dealing with and I need to raise my frequency. Accountability in how do I play apart in whatever situation that is occurring in the moment & how do I plan on making a change. Those three things have helped in miraculous ways during this journey of mine. My advice for folks trying to develop or improve in these areas is stop running away from your problems & fears, face them. Stop blaming others for something not going right, instead learn the lesson because there is a lesson there and just grow from it. Mistakes happen, nothing is perfect, you are allowed grace. Just learn how to detach from whatever it maybe. Do some shadow self work to help you gain clarity & most importantly be honest to not only the situation, but to yourself.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

My biggest area of growth in this last 12 months has been getting out of my own way. I have been shedding so much stuff that is not only generational trauma but also childhood & social trauma. Just building my confidence in ways to understand that I am me. I do not fit into just one circle, square, or space & that’s okay. I always say I am the Kung Fu Panda of my profession & everything always works out. How can it not, it’s my life. I am the director, producer, creator & star of my show. Lights & camera is on me. How do I want to show up? I am showing up as me. Loving, nurturing, kind, no nonsense, in control of my peace, Me!! You have to know that you are capable of it all. Society will try to make you feel differently & box you in when you’re meant to stand out. Get control of your self talk. What you tell yourself holds more volume than what anyone else says. You just have to know how amazing you are being you. Someone needs a you. I love being me. Self- love will help you with your confidence. Three things I do faithfully every day is journal, tell myself that, “I am so grateful that everything works out for me” & I practice ho’oponono. Saying to myself in the mirror, “I’m sorry, Please Forgive Me, love you Thank you” Self- love & Self-forgiveness is so powerful and will transform so much around you.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Credit to: Ricki Flores, Jameelah Hanif,
Imani Mills, Fatimah Hanif

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