My Journey Back to Self
The journey that birthed the healer and the practice.
My journey has never been about becoming someone else. It has been about remembering who I am beneath everything that life, family, culture, expectations and experience have taught me to be.
My journey has taken me through different spaces of knowledge, service, identity and healing. Along the way, I have come to understand that healing is not always about finding something new.
I am Nomatjhini Elizabeth Mkhehlane, known as Gogo_Noma and spiritually acknowledged by my ancestors and guides as Nonkanyezi. I am an Integrative Healing Practitioner and Educator, a nurse, a public health practitioner and a lifelong student of life - a Badimo Child forever.
Sometimes, it is about unlearning what no longer serves us, remembering the wisdom we carry, realigning with our authentic selves and embodying the lessons we have gathered along the way.
This is the foundation of my Journey Back to Self - a journey I live, not merely teach.
From Nurture to My Nature
For much of my life, I have been shaped by what I was taught, what was expected of me and the roles I learnt to fulfil. Like many of us, I had to navigate the difference between who I was expected to be and who I was becoming.
My healing journey invited me to question old beliefs, inherited patterns and learned
certain things did not mean rejecting my past; it meant honouring my present and the future I am choosing to create.
behaviours. I began to recognise that not everything I had learnt was mine to carry. Releasing
UNLEARN
FROM NURTURE TO NATURE
Unlearning has taught me to make peace with the parts of myself I once misunderstood, challenge the patterns that no longer serve me and give myself permission to grow beyond old definitions.
I am learning to honour where I come from without allowing every lesson from my past to determine where I am going.
REMEMBER
RETURN TO YOUR INNER WISDOM
Returning to the Wisdom Within
During the COVID-19 lockdown, I had a moment of realisation. I had spent so much of my life learning about the world that I had almost forgotten to listen to myself.
Remembering became an invitation to reconnect with my inner wisdom, my roots, my spirituality and the knowledge carried through my ancestral lineage. It also taught
me to honour the different forms of knowledge that have shaped me, from nursing and public
health to Indigenous African knowledge systems and lived experience.
I continue to explore the relationship between the knowledge we acquire, the wisdom we inherit and the truths we discover through living.
For me, remembering is not about having all the answers. It is about becoming still enough to listen, humble enough to learn and courageous enough to trust the unfolding of my own journey.
I am not beginning from nothing; I am because they are. I am returning to the parts of myself that deserve remembrance, understanding and honour.
REALIGN
RECONNECT WITH YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF
Reconnecting with My Authentic Self
Healing has taught me that growth sometimes requires a change in direction. There are moments when we must pause, reassess what matters and acknowledge that the life we are living may no longer reflect the person we are becoming.
Realignment is where I bring my values, choices, relationships, purpose and daily practices into closer alignment with my authentic self.
As a mother, a professional, a spiritual practitioner and a woman building a vision beyond herself,
I continue to learn that I cannot pour into every space while neglecting the person at the centre of
it all.
I am learning to choose alignment over expectation, authenticity over perfection and intentional growth over simply remaining familiar.
I give myself permission to evolve, choose differently and build a life that feels true to who I am becoming.
EMBODY
REFLECT YOUR HEALING
From Awareness to Conscious Living
For me, healing is not complete simply because I understand something. The deeper work
begins when that understanding becomes visible in the way I live, respond, relate, teach and care for myself and others.
Embodying is about putting the lessons into practice, that is, allowing my knowledge to
inform my choices, my healing to influence my relationships and my values to shape the work
I bring to the world
Through Learning with Noma, I create spaces where learning and healing can meet, where Indigenous knowledge can be explored with respect, and where people can develop a deeper understanding of themselves.
I do not position myself as someone who has arrived at the end of her journey. I am still learning, still unlearning, still remembering and still realigning. My work grows alongside me, informed by study, practice, reflection and lived experience.
I aspire to live what I teach, honour what I learn and allow my own journey to remain an honest expression of the healing I share.
This Is My Journey - May It Inspire Yours.
Journey Back to Self is more than the philosophy behind my work; it is an invitation to embrace becoming as a lifelong journey.
We can release what no longer serves us, remember the wisdom within and around us, realign with our truest selves and embody the lives we feel called to create.
This is the journey I continue to walk as Gogo_Noma, and it is the spirit of Learning with Noma:
Your Sanctuary of Integrative Learning and Healing. May my journey inspire you to honour your own and trust that your path is worthy of being walked.