Meet Safa: Artist and Owner of Naga Pearls

 

We had the glorious pleasure of having Safa of Naga Pearls to grace us with her wisdom on how she stays same in the business industry.

Check out the Self Care Sounds Playlist and IG Live Interview Below!

Spotify | Apple Music | IG Live

What made you choose this selection of music? 

• This is a loaded question for sure. I love how it challenged me to actually put words to something that feels beyond words entirely. I think this could be why we listen to music, because it's beyond the words and the lyrics, it's about the emotions it evokes within us, how it helps us to tap into different realms we wish to immerse ourselves in, or even imagine versions of ourselves we hope to become or want to heal. 

  
  

  So I guess all that to say; Music is a love language many of us seem to share. Consider this playlist a love note from me to whomever is listening. Music has held me in ways that few lovers were able to. It has kept me going in times where I felt I wasn’t being seen for who I truly was. My taste in music spoke for me, who I was and how I love. It fuels almost all of my inspiration for any of my creative projects to this day. 

  I want to take you on an immersive musical journey you've never experienced before, one that will transport you. I want you to feel emotions you've never felt before. I want to make that body get up and move in ways you never knew it could.

  
  

  As a person that almost only listens to music from the past 65 years, I feel a lot of modern music (definitely not all) lacks a certain level of soul nourishment. Not saying it doesn't or can’t still resonate to a wholesome extent, I’m more saying it can lack a certain timelessness, a certain richness of sound and real emotional depth.

  
  

  I'm hoping to re-introduce and restore that richness and soul nourishment. Groove, Funk, Soul and Jazz are elements of music that hold a vibratory frequency which can help us to tap into our more sensual nature. These genres are what you will experience in fullness if you choose to listen. I invite you to carve out an hour of your time while you're cleaning, cooking or when you have a free moment and listen to this playlist in chronological order, really blast it at a volume you can withstand. Listen to how the drums and base complement one another, how the horns and guitar really fill up the space, take it all into your heart. Let that be one of the ways you care for yourself that day.

  
  
  

What would you do to self care if you had no money?

• I would sing and dance my life away as the happiest woman alive. Give praise and gratitude to music's existence, the ability to move my body with rhythm and use this voice I was given. I consider challenging my body through physical movement whether that's yoga, some sort of martial art or dance as a form of self care. This helps build a strong constitution that can continue to serve me even if I have nothing else.

If you could talk to your younger self what would you tell them? 

• I'd tell her to not allow the world and its jaded people to tell you who you are, what you deserve or are capable of becoming, their ideas and opinions about you should be cast to the wind.

  You can be as imaginative, odd, weird and obtuse as you wish, celebrate the fact that you just do things differently and that's okay. Please don't quit just because something’s hard and you didn't get it perfect the first time, always keep trying and stay true to your intuition because it's always right. Also it's okay if people don't like you or don't want to be your friend anymore, people come and go. Fun additional fact, you will have the sibling you always wanted, just not how you imagined.

  
  
  

What is your favorite item that you are selling at the moment?

• I honestly don’t think I'm able to answer this one. I love everything in the Naga Pearls Shop for different reasons, it's definitely a tie between my art prints and my seashell jewelry as of right now. However I am really excited to start working on newer projects that feel like they will definitely become personal favorites.

 What made you choose your profession? Do you enjoy it? If not, what would you rather be doing?

• I'd say life just sort of steered me in this direction little by little, my mothers example definitely helped me to realize my path. But there was really no one specific thing that made me want to do what I do. There are so many ways to go about doing something and I'm often trying every angle. I've always really loved making art, singing and dancing since I was a mini me, just expressing myself in any way I could find. Incorporating all of that into my work as an artist feels like a personal mission as an earth dweller more than a profession even if  I reach the level of mastery I desire to achieve in the arts. 

  
  

  I do very much enjoy being an artist, experimenting is one of my favorite things to do and that's essentially my “full time job”, I can fulfill any project I want and switch gears whenever I choose and that feels like the level of freedom, independence and autonomy my inner child craves. It definitely comes with its stresses and challenges, especially in the world of capitalism, but that's a whole other conversation.

How do you stay sane in the business industry?

I just take it one day at a time, another day another dollar. It's easy to get stuck in these loops of “worth”, how much our work is worth, what is worthy of our time and energy…while these are important questions I find they can cloud our focus from what really matters. I try not to compare what I do to what anyone else is doing, I don't follow algorithms and social media trends for sales and I constantly remind myself to work with what I have already before anything else.

What do you do to self care?

• I do a myriad of things to care for myself. Cleaning and organizing my space is something I find great solace in, it can feel burdensome at times, but once you're in the groove it can feel so refreshing and totally restores the energy in your  space. The way we take care of our space and ourselves is a direct reflection of our mental and emotional health. 

  Needless to say the thoroughness I take to cleansing and clearing my space matches how I care for my body both externally and internally. I carve out a fair amount of time to clean and cleanse my body via tons of candle lit baths with homemade clay face masks, a nice salt or sugar scrub then follow up by lathering myself with whipped shea butter and lounging around naked for a moment or two if possible. 

  
  

  Cooking up nourishing foods that will make my stomach feel at ease in addition to taking supplements and vitamins consistently, making sure I stretch and massage my body often and engaging in embodiment practices such as yoga and dancing. Creating that dialogue with what my body needs and really listening to its intelligence, sometimes I don't need to clean, take a bath or do yoga, sometimes I just need to sleep, sit in silence or sing my heart out plain and simple.

  
  

  All of the previous practices that were mentioned are somewhat 3D/skin deep ways to care for oneself. It's probably what you would expect someone to say, anytime you hear the words ``self care” you think of spa day, pedicure, brunch, shopping etc. 

  I think what's important to take away is how we allow ourselves to rest, release and recuperate on a deeper cellular level. 

  Are we allowing ourselves to take naps or sleep in? Are we spending enough time alone or in  silence without extra stimulation from our phone, our friends or the internet? Are we setting clear boundaries and saying no enough both to ourselves and others? Are we hindering ourselves from being open to receiving and not saying yes enough? Are we getting enough time out in the sun? Self Care I think is more about the level of intimacy and vulnerability we share with ourselves, a pact for self understanding, exploration and staying present moment to moment in our body.

 

Thank you all so much for reading our Self-Care Sounds blog post. Make sure to follow us on instagram @herbaura.co for more updates!