Meet Khaki Martin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Khaki Martin.

Hi Khaki, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Waking up to my path and stepping into my embodiment as a harmonic healer took time, as all of our unique paths do. Singing on my front porch as a small child with a karaoke machine is one of my earliest memories. Through music, I found peace. Through singing, I found a rush of total joy and freedom – my first experience with the flow state.

Nothing made me feel the way I do when I sing, and I threw myself into music growing up – piano, guitar, flute, voice lessons, a cappella, musicals… I couldn’t get enough. Until one day, in college, I just stopped.

I told myself that how creating music made me feel wasn’t as important as all the other ‘life’ necessities I was becoming aware of as a young adult in our society. I prioritized partying, socializing, getting the bare minimum done needed in school so I could get a ‘proper’ job when I graduated. I want to have fun the way everyone else is having fun, I would say to myself.

It was a time in my life where I made incredible friendships and amazing memories, yet I wish I could remember all of them. The drinking, drugs, and alcohol took me out of my body, and people-pleasing became my identity. Slowly, over time, I was losing myself. I didn’t remember what I liked, didn’t participate in any hobbies that sparked joy. I didn’t have anything to say that felt true and real. I had lost my voice.

While getting my master’s degree in broadcast journalism, I experienced a devastating heartbreak at the height of my stress and anxiety. Exhausting morning shifts at the TV stations, drug dependency to oscillate my emotions between hyperactive and numbness, and the absence of a supportive community caused me to just break. I got into my car, and drove away into mid-Missouri, just needing to get away, anything to escape the pain I was in. I drove, and I drove.

I found myself at a little bed and breakfast, and I wept and poured my heart out to the owner of the inn over breakfast. She felt my pain and offered me a reiki session. I had no idea what Reiki was, but at that moment I made a life-changing decision – I said yes.

That was the beginning of my spiritual awakening, the catalyst that put in motion the unfolding of me coming home to my gifts as a harmonic healer. With newfound awe and awareness of myself as an energetic being, I started finding my voice again – in little ways. I moved to Los Angeles and shifted from journalism to entertainment, and for a few years, I developed television shows and films at a studio.

Yet I still wasn’t fully at peace with myself, and I didn’t understand why. This work that I thought would be my career became a soul-sucking chore, I continued to find ways to numb myself regularly. My body physically was getting sick, my energy was toxic, and it was palpable.

One day, I came home from work and I sobbed in my bed for hours. Out of sheer desperation, knowing I couldn’t go on like this, I point-blank asked myself – what would make me truly happy? And the answer came through as clear as a lightning bolt. Singing and making people happy. It was time for me to sing again.

So I did. I opened my damn mouth and sang, with intention, with tenderness, with all the emotion I had. After nearly a decade of suppression, I finally allowed myself to sing.

I had no idea where it would lead me, but I knew the Universe had answered with clarity and firmness that I could not ignore. I started taking voice lessons again. I left my job. I started training my voice to become an event singer for hire – I didn’t care how much money I made or how hard the road ahead would be, I just knew if I could sing every day for the rest of my life, I would be happy.

While in the early stages of exploring my voice again, and recognizing the profound mental and physical effects it had on me, I immersed myself into the spiritual communities around me and began to learn about ancient traditions of energy work and sound therapy. When I discovered the healing power of chanting mantras and toning, everything changed yet again.

Through the healing power of my own voice and the ancient wisdom of sound currents, I finally understood soulful embodiment. I finally understood what authentic self-expression meant.

I surrendered to the sounds, and as a result, infinite creativity awoke within me. I began to compose my own sound meditations, and share them with friends. I studied diligently, apprenticed under sound healing mentors, and meditated, breathed, and sang for days on end. I got certified in breathwork, became a reiki master, and started acquiring more instruments. I began to compose, channel more, and share more. And at last, I knew with every cell in my body, sharing these practices that changed my life is how I am meant to be of service in the world.

I made the decision to dedicate my life to teaching, guiding, and healing through music, voice activation, and energetic practices. Los Angeles is where I honed my craft, and it is my absolute privilege and joy to now share harmonic healing here in the Research Triangle.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In hindsight, the hardest part of my journey was all the time I spent seeking permission. Seeking permission to use my voice, to speak up for myself, to go after what I wanted – even if I didn’t know what I wanted yet!

Seeking permission to look at the world and how we interact with one another through a lens that I wasn’t taught in school. Seeking permission to allow the space for me to listen to my inner voice inside. I spent a whole lot of time ignoring how I felt, sacrificing my intuitive wisdom to do what others would tell me I ‘should’ do. Thinking I had to live a life that everyone else lived, get the kind of job that everyone else had.

If you are reading this, remember that you have all the answers inside of you. This is your permission, right here, right now, to remember that your soul has a voice, and you deserve to be heard.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a harmonic healer, I guide ceremonial practices that create space for you to align with your intuition and embody a state of peace, purpose, and potential.

For groups, I lead reiki-infused sound ceremonies to help you release stress/anxiety and relax into bliss and breathwork workshops that alter your state of consciousness to access your innate wisdom.

One-on-one, I teach my students the art of vocal activation and energetics to embody courage, confidence, radiance in their everyday lives.

I blend science and the mystical to create experiences that spark a euphoric remembrance of our mind, body, soul connection that is grounded in the measurable effect of sound and intention on the nervous system in the physical body.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Using your voice for embodied self-expression is not always easy, even for me!

I still have days where I struggle with my needs and connecting with my intuition. I still have moments when I feel low and I want to numb myself to escape discomfort. There are still times where I find myself suppressing my voice to make others more comfortable. Yet through my years of practice and teaching, I know what energetic tools and sonic practices I can lean on and rely on to help me remember, and bring myself home to my soul and the joy of living and expressing myself.

Healing is ever ongoing, and that is the blessing of being human.

Feeling our emotions is a gift, and with the right practices, you have the power to transmute whatever you’re feeling into harmony, into alignment. You are never alone.

Pricing:

• Community Ceremonies (virtual, offered monthly): $30-$35

Contact Info:

• Website: www.khakimartin.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/khakimartin

Image Credits
Kate Go