Hey, mindful Partners, it's been what Quite a bit, but I'm back. I'm sure you listened to the last episode where Ola, myself and Mofet talked about the fight for life and then I took a break. And I took a break and went to hang out with some cool people in Abuja. I belong to a podcast community, the Young God. Oh, we call ourselves God Gang, god Gang, yeah, so there was no way I'd be in Abuja and not speak with the young God himself.
Speaker 1:Hi, rodney, hey, alright, so you know, what I was thinking about is like this is going to be a conversation, but, of course, you know, mindful Intimacy is basically how we talk about, how to demystify the narratives around mental health and all that, and I personally think that we mystify the essence of being mentally whole and there's a lot of elements to that. And yes, there's mental health and I do talk about that. But on the show, I like to speak with people who have been able to connect with themselves, despite their stories. All right, you know, before, before we started this conversation, I was listening to gifts and skills and we were talking about. I think one of the things that made me laugh was, um, how you tried to say on the morrow and you could not say Ulumoro. Yeah, there are so many questions I want to ask you so many, but I'll start with this one, that you call yourself a god. Where is your mental space?
Speaker 2:My mental space is, is ideal. How do you mean it is? There's, no, there's no extreme of emotion, there's no extreme state. It's, um, I handle all the different feelings that come with mental very, very well. Um, and I guess my belief system as well, sort of has made for a situation where, um, like it's, sort of has made for a situation where, um, like, yeah, it's, it never gets beyond my control or it never gets to a point where I can't function or I feel like, you know, things are out of whack or overwhelming. I deal, I deal very well. That's the long and short of my mental health.
Speaker 2:And so being a God is I lose that sort of achievement of that state of Zen, of self-love, self-care, self-confidence, self-possession. You know, the way I put it is there's no tension, there's no conflict. Like the inner state of me solved is the world that now I'm trying to like the inner state of you is solved. But is what Is the outer world? So now I'm free to just go and figure out the world. Ah, I'm not dealing with any. You know um interesting emotional problems. I always say I don't have any.
Speaker 1:I can't ask those conversations so how do you deal when I'm having those kind of conversations with you?
Speaker 2:I learn I'm listening, um, I always. It's one of the things I always say is I, if this is how it feels, is this what I'm enjoying? I can only imagine what it's like for someone who's suffering. That's what empathy is for me. I understand when people are complaining about these things, talking about these things. I can imagine, damn, if this is what it feels on this extreme, then the other extreme must be, you know, something wild and um. So hearing you speak about it or hearing others talk about it just sort of lets me not take it for granted. And it also, um affects my creative process, because I know that I'm creating for people who are not necessarily in the same mental state that I'm in and there's a bit more care when I create?
Speaker 1:Oh, when you create. So before we get even to the whys of you creating, how do I ask this question? So when? Where is, oh yeah, this question? This is where I can ask it. Do you subscribe to the temperament drama? I'm introverted, extroverted, extroverted and all that. Do you subscribe to that?
Speaker 2:um, not necessarily, no, okay, why okay?
Speaker 1:I'll tell you why because sometimes I think, um, that you, when we have conversations, I think that you are introverted in an extroverted way. So I'm one, and I think, I know you love your solitude. Yet you, you know you have a community that's strong. So where does your balance lie between your solitude, your love for solitude, and creating a strong community which fits which? Or?
Speaker 2:what fits what, what fits me like, which is my, my state of being.
Speaker 1:Does the solitude fit the community or the community fits the solitude?
Speaker 2:I think it feeds off each other. Oh yeah, yeah, every time that I get to be solitary, it's like it's like charging up the battery, and when I go out and whether on community or in public and I interact with people, it's sort of like expending that energy. And I quite like both, like I quite enjoy being around people and talking to people and getting to know them and connecting with them. At the same time, I quite like being on my own. So again is that there's an episode of my podcast that talks about the perfect personality, and I can only speak about it because I sort of understood.
Speaker 2:When I came across that concept, I was like, oh, this explains what I'm experiencing, where it's all the same. To me it's life. So it's a love of life more than anything. A love of life, a love of fate, a love of figuring out where the boundaries are, where does my strength stop and my weaknesses begin, and you know sort of using that to inform again what I create, to help carry others along of the experience. Oh so this is what I learned today about myself. Maybe I can share this and then someone else can pick something that they can take and apply in their own experience they can take and apply in their own experience.
Speaker 1:This question. I don't even know if it matters anymore, but I'm going to ask it. Is there a moment, was there a moment, where you think your mental health awareness played a crucial role in your self-awakening? Can you point to any moment? I'm sorry, but that's me. Welcome, I'm here for it.
Speaker 2:To be honest, I cannot remember a time when I wasn't.
Speaker 1:You're so blessed, I know. So when did self-awakening start for you?
Speaker 2:When I knew I was a god was maybe in uni.
Speaker 1:Again in uni I got exposed, so I grew up very Because you wanted to start journalism and international relations, because of the girls. He said it, I didn't.
Speaker 2:We'll get there. We'll get to how I feel about women in a moment, in a moment. Go ahead, yeah. But in uni, when I started getting, when I got out into uni and left my parents' house, out of the care and protection of my mother and I started to see what real life was like for people and how maybe I realized when I was in high school I was bullied a lot, I got in trouble a lot, I was like the class clown, the black sheep, whatever you name it, that kid, that just, and it did not affect how I felt about myself one bit. So when I look back I'm like, oh, snap, like that's.
Speaker 2:Many other kids have that same story, but it changes how they Interact with the world, yes, and themselves actually, yeah, the world, yes, and themselves actually, yeah. But I looked at myself. I was like I'm dope and I don't like how the outside world is treating me. How do I grow to meet, to be a better, you know, more valuable person to the world? At 17, I was thinking like this. I remember when I was moving from the trip, the trip from nigeria to south africa, from the airport I was in to our house and I was thinking to myself. This new environment is a new place to start over. I don't like how the last six years of my life I was thinking like about this at 17 wow, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So is that a function of parenting or?
Speaker 2:no, it was a function of me. My parents wished they could take credit for all of this. They wish you know I mean, they they. What my parents did was they made a stable environment. Uh, yeah, for these things for those things there.
Speaker 1:A lot of people don't have that yeah, truly, they don't have that.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't have that. But if you mean, oh, did my father tell me something? No, no, my mother they raised me in a very flawed way, to be fair but, that stable environment was worth its weight in gold you know.
Speaker 2:And so, um, by the time I got into uni and got into, um, you know the world, and I said, seeing how people were dealing with their own stuff, I was like, oh, I'm different too, you know. And then I it became a source of pride to me. It's also I'm like okay, how can I build on this? How can I get better at this?
Speaker 1:so it's safe to say, that, though the way we reached you might have been flawed, but there was an enabling environment no, it wasn't an enabling environment, it was just a stable environment.
Speaker 2:It was like it was. It was an environment where I could go and, like, teach myself how to use Photoshop, for example. Okay, you know, I could go and teach myself how to make music videos Right, but with my parents.
Speaker 2:You're just gradually aging yourself, but it's okay and it's not like my pressure, like, oh, go and learn photoshop, go and do these things. They weren't really. They wanted me to like face my studies yeah right, but there was an enabling environment where these things were available for me to go on like oh, you know, I gotcha, I gotcha where the storytelling coming, where does?
Speaker 2:storytelling come in. Oh man, storytelling is the end-all, be-all, as. Now that I've come to understand it, I mean I think of. So I look back and I find a thread that connects everything. So it's the story, I tell myself, that informs my godhood, right, that part? Yeah, yeah, everything through the story, I tell myself that informs my Godhood, right, that part. Yeah, yeah, it's the story, I tell myself, that informs my Godhood and then it becomes a self-fulfilling dynamic.
Speaker 2:If I think I'm this, then there is some sort of self responsibility to be that, to act as such.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for the listeners of my Home to Michelle, you know I've always talked about the stories of religion and the stories that we tell ourselves and he just like I don't know. He just brought light to it Because I know that why we suffer with our stories is because there's some cognitive dissonance and, yes, the stories might be bad but we do not put ourselves outside the stories to see we don't, we don't.
Speaker 2:so it's a gift that you yeah so it's, yeah, it's a situation where sort of people are they? They immerse themselves in their stories in a victim type of way, like you're saying, very close to the elephant, yeah, they. They to the point where they even would like to distance themselves from the story. So now it's even a more extreme where it's like there's no elephant at all. That's not even me, you know. They just disassociate themselves with things. I have friends from not friends, but classmates who, when we speak in our group, chat about our high school experience. There are millions who not millions, what am I saying? Hundreds a group of them who have sort of they can't remember what happened in high school. They've removed their parts from their brain. Yeah, From existence.
Speaker 2:They were so traumatized by it. You get. And then there are those who still look at the school with thorny lens, you know. And then there's me. I'm like, this place made me who I am. Yeah, you know this that that place formed it like I. I'll never forget being able to go into that school and change my name. My parents called me somta at home. I got there, I said call me roy. I took advantage of the opportunity to be with my parents. When I got to south africa, I took again that opportunity to be able to be in a new space and reinvent myself. So I was. I was always conscious of a story, but until I got, until I became a storyteller, then I understood oh, this has always been a thing. And then I just okay so this is a.
Speaker 1:This is like an inside conversation, but I didn't have a problem. I don't have a problem sharing, sure? Well, it's not an inside conversation. So what would you pick? How would you define relationships as connections, or it's just, how would you relationships over connections or connections over relationships?
Speaker 2:so there's this, a connection on this, or there's an attachment. And I'm definitely about the connection. I'm definitely about you know, when you meet somebody, you speak to the God in them and see what responds. And when you speak to the God in somebody, you make sure that there's God in you first. And when you speak to them and then they respond, and then if they respond favorably, authentically, with good, in good faith, then the connection builds. But if there is some fakery, some forming some, you know they're maybe dealing with their own things that makes them show up in a way that is warped or how do you?
Speaker 2:tell, though experience, trial and error, yeah, over time I mean. So there's experience, trial and error. There's reading books like the laws of human nature by robert green, yeah, all kinds of books that sort of give you something to look at. And then you're now going to the world and then you look and then you add. You know, you add your own wisdom to what you've already learned and you start to see people and then you know when it's a connection. You know, you add your own wisdom to what you've already learned and you start to see people and then you know when it's a connection, you know when, even in a relationship, you know when a girl is connected to you, you know when she's attached. You know, you know when you're connected to somebody. You know when you're you're, when you're trying to fill a hole, you're codependent. So, knowing those differences, you know the ones that are gonna enrich you like a like a never-ending ocean, and those that will just be fountain, that just become still and so connection is very important to me.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know that, yeah, connection is very important to me. And, um, I'm listening to you and I'm wondering if I've gotten to that sport where I can say, oh, I know someone is obsessive and all their negatives, but when I can say that, oh, this, I spoke to the God in this person, but this person does not see their God would yet. Should I stay? Should I go? I think, yeah, and I don't have. I don't think I've warned that yet. Have you? Yeah, teach me did you stay?
Speaker 2:should you go? I mean, first thing is self-respect. If you, if you respect yourself, then you know, first of all, you don't want to be where you're not wanted, where you're not going to be valued, where your words will not be considered or where grace will not be given. Once you notice it, once you see that, you sort of redefine the relationship in your head, so you sort of know okay, this is the line I don't want to cross with this person. Maybe we need to know this about this person. I'll give you the bare minimum respect as a human being, but when it comes to the extra parts of me that you have to earn to see you, you won't get that you're gonna hear about from others.
Speaker 2:You know which is why authenticity is important, because when you show, yourself very. When you show yourself, you give people the opportunity to decide if they can deal, and more often than not, people don't deal. I know for a fact that people don't deal yeah and the key is now what are you going to do about that? Are you going to take them based on what they give you? Are you going to keep telling yourself, oh, there is, they can change, or I'm going to see what I'm seeing, as opposed to take what they're giving.
Speaker 1:I know I used to be there. I used to be there, bro. Um, I think the last four or five years I got some places. Okay, this is how you want me to treat, it's okay. And then a friend was when we talked. A friend was on the podcast last year. We were talking about belonging and fitting and uchi said again a new friend, I don't know what you guys have done to me, but she's female and Uche said you know what to me, let's just treat people. They want the way they want us to trust them makes it easier. You know it makes it easier, and so that would. That episode is going to make me ask you this question. It was not part of the question. I was going to ask Belonging and fitting in. How would you define that?
Speaker 2:For the longest time. I always thought it was cool to not fit in and it is cool. There's a lot of advantages to not fit in, and it is cool there's a lot of advantages to not fitting in. And again, this is one of the things where, as most people feel sad not fitting in, I took it as a point of pride to not fit in For being different from others right, you and I.
Speaker 1:But you and I. I'm okay to not fit in in, but belonging means a lot to me, so I'm very careful where I set that, where I set my, where I pitch my tent. When it comes to belonging, yeah, extremely careful. There's a lot of people that I can feed in, but I still feed out of. But belonging is a special gift, I believe, that I give to myself and to people. Do you feel same?
Speaker 2:yeah, so that's where it came in for me, like belonging. I realized the value later on. Yeah, like there's some things that, for example, I realized I want to be known, not famous, not popular, but I want to be known and the only way to be known is to belong. Define that belong. Belong is to have a shared common interest, shared connection.
Speaker 1:People who are on the same page, that belong sounded very conformist. Yes, it sounded very conformist and colloquial, like we use it in secondary school. Okay, you say high school, I say secondary school. So it's like how different is that?
Speaker 2:it's like I want to be able to belong in a place where my differentness is not different. It's not. It's not a curse or a minus because truth is, rodney chooses.
Speaker 1:There are people who you want to validate your differentness and you're safe with that, you don't have to wear masks with, and I think there are not a lot of those connections, you know, and, and and that matters a lot to me like, okay, like I can sit here, I'm 100% shitting me and I'm still like and then just I'm saying, you know I have to.
Speaker 1:You know, like, let me give you an example. Sure, my friends know I've said this a whole lot of times, I'm a stickler for time Like, if you tell me three, I'm ready at one, all right. So you know what I started doing. I'll give you two examples. The first thing you're doing is say if the event is going to start at three, don't tell me four. Yeah, so I get there three. It's like I started um. The other thing they also did, um, um, was I didn't like to go out, like yes, I'm introverted, I don't like to go, I talk a lot but I do not like to go, I don't like I can't stay out. And then, so if they wanted to take me out, um, they have two options tell me two weeks ahead, or just appear at my door and drag you and drag me, you know, and and it's, it's.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine you being dragged sometimes it works not all the time and just be dragging to michelle all right, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about the young god, please. Why the young god? I've listened to Gifts and Skills and I know that that was not the first name of this podcast, so why does the theme change?
Speaker 2:in 2018 when I first started podcasting. I started podcasting to promote my company Able Creative and it was brilliant podcasting.
Speaker 1:I started podcasting to promote my company, okay able, creative, creative and was brilliant.
Speaker 2:I do this to myself, like the idea to use podcast.
Speaker 1:It's you you will say so yourself, just because it busts my brain. Yeah right, move on. Yeah, 2018, you have to understand to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at that time nobody thought to use podcasts for anything in nigeria especially when it comes to brand, really brand really.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, okay, right, and so I wanted to reach international clients, so I created a podcast called the creative habit as a way to show my creative ability and in that sector now, after a season of doing that, I figured you know what, I'm quite good at this and I have more to say about things. And I noticed that there was like again on social media with people I, I, you know, being in abuja, I just saw a lot of of things that people had weird takes about, things that weren't helping them. And now me being in my God element and enjoying the things I'm enjoying in my life, I felt I could add a voice. You know put words to certain things, and I thought to myself what would be the best way to go about this? I could go in very, very you know tame and you know self soft spoken and you're not really ruffle feathers or or I could enter with a.
Speaker 1:You'll not survive with a flashbang, but you knew you wouldn't have survived. I don't know if I would have, nah, you wouldn't have survived.
Speaker 2:No, it was my image to go the flashbang way. Okay, and so if I call myself a god and I'm a young man, I'm young at heart and the young god just made sense and it had a nice ring to it, hasn't that? You know? It rose up the song young god, tyg, you know. And then, but then, my one of my confidants at the time was like rodney, this title is gonna, it's not gonna, work. People are gonna.
Speaker 1:People feel some type of way about people call themselves a god or something like that I'm like did it shock you that myself and my daughter had the same question about the young god? I said, when I saw the young god, I said, oh, let's listen to this, whether he understands. And then my daughter says for him to have called himself a god. I wanted to understand if he'd gotten. Did that shock you?
Speaker 2:Your sister, sorry, your daughter, yes, you no, because again, your daughter continues to surprise me in her how wise and you know what. In a way, I feel like she reminds me of me at that age.
Speaker 1:She reminds me, of me at that age.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she reminds me of me at that age Just how she thinks and so. But so she's surprised that she's so. She's sort of thought that way that she wasn't like put off. Oh, I mean, why is he calling himself a God? Wouldn't God be angry? You know she was. She was asking the right questions, and she was thinking so you obviously being an elder, not, you're good yourself, you're good yourself and so An elder really. So it takes a while to learn, okay. But your daughter is still on the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was surprising. When pot fade, not even pot fade, when there's creative drought, because I've heard you say that you do not have, you don't suffer what's it called Blocks. So how do you keep that Alive? Because I suffered a major block when my mom died. So how do you keep that alive? Because I still have a major block on my mom. That is major.
Speaker 2:I was still writing, but I could only write to her you know to me, now that you mention it, I have a very fortunate life, and so the only credit I will ever give myself is taking advantage of. I've been very fortunate in life, and so the only credit I'll ever give myself is taking advantage of the opportunities I was given, and I always know deep down that if I don't know what's going to happen, if I should be using my parents or a sibling, you've experienced that Both. I've experienced both. Both Both your parents and a sibling. Yeah, that both. I've experienced both. Both both your parents and a sibling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, two siblings two god damn two lovers.
Speaker 2:So I'm yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm two what yeah?
Speaker 2:I haven't yet. The closest I've come to grief and death and loss is Sophia yeah. Sophia, sophia. And maybe when I was in high school, when the I was in Loyola, so that plane crash, I had a crush.
Speaker 2:I was gonna ask out to be my oh, my girlfriend and then the next term and then she went on that flight that she dies. So that's the closest you had those two things. I lost a grandma who was like she gave me the best compliment ever that I hold on to this day yeah, it was like nine or ten. She says to me you have a beautiful nose.
Speaker 1:And I've held on to that forever so if a girl comes to you and says your nose is like you say no, my grandma said no, my yeah you're blind.
Speaker 2:Either you're blind or you mean okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So so yeah, how do you keep?
Speaker 2:I do keep creating jesus flow, yeah, so I don't keep it flowing, it's just there, you know, it's just like. And even then I, I just like life is, I'm constantly looking around doing things, like when you do things and you do things out of curiosity and you do things in replace of like I'm just happy to be here, happy to be alive, you know, it just continues to to give and to give, and when I watch movies and stuff, I'm taking notes of things I'm seeing when I'm reading books, I'm taking like I'm, so I'm very engaged in the process of my life.
Speaker 2:These are conversations. You will be surprised what they would like. Yeah, the world doesn't want to drive around here. So now, yeah, if my parents, if I should lose a parent, I don't know how this is gonna affect me. I love my parents to death. I don't know. You know, I don't know what would happen if I should lose a sibling. I don't know. So if I ever have any fear, two fears I have testicular torsion. Google it if you don't know what that is. Testicular, all right. Testicular torsion I'm losing a member of my nuclear family. I don't know what that was, and so I'm just waiting, I reflect on it, I meditate on it, like just bracing for the call to come in one day that so-and-so thing has happened. You never know until then.
Speaker 1:okay, so I'm rounding this off, yeah, not because I want to rush off, but I have because I have to rush off, but I have a couple of questions to ask on. When we're having a conversation the other day about happiness and joy and I said I don't know how to navigate happy but sadness, pain, good place to be what went? I looked into your eyes, I looked at Shetland and I can't ask what Shetland was listening but what was going through your mind when you heard that Empathy?
Speaker 2:It was like man, like imagine having to having to. So for me, one of the things, one of the blessings again for mental health is a good thing like beauty in the world. Good things don't pass me by like. I acknowledge it, I, I appreciate it, I hold on to it and mental health hack. So for you yourself, when you said that I'm like that means I have to do extra, extra work, extra effort to maintain, and I guess it's your life experience and I guess it is. I mean, it doesn't help that you live in Lagos.
Speaker 1:I love Lagos, though Stop shitting on Lagos. Lagos is good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people in toxic relationships love their partners too. So, so, so, but, but, but but.
Speaker 1:Did you just say that I mean I mean okay, yeah, fair, fair, fair, okay. So Did you just say that I mean I mean okay, yeah, fair, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, fair, fair, okay. So if you were going to Mm, mm, mm, what title of the young god best describes Rodney, somtochukwu or Makache?
Speaker 2:Rodney and the Philosopher's Stone, the introduction to the perfect personality. Yeah, when I was making that, I was really introspecting. I told you yeah.
Speaker 1:Was that the episode I told you about? You were very introspecting. Was that you?
Speaker 2:yeah, Was that the episode. I told you that you were very introspecting.
Speaker 2:Was that it? I can't remember, but that episode, just understanding the Philosopher's Stone and what that represents historically, metaphysically, spiritually, you know it really, really it's something I aspire to, something that again I was living without knowing I was living. And you know what. I'm very worried to speak this way because I know how we can come across. I was one time I was, I was at dinner with some people and they were all talking about their bad days and I was like man, this was a very good day for me this week was actually very, very good and they all started hating on me. So I know that it's weird.
Speaker 2:Obviously I didn't belong there, see belonging. But really it's a function of I take myself very seriously, but also not too seriously. What that means is that I keep promises to myself. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. I don't do anything I don't want to do. Right and as simple as making my bed everyday, little things that future me will not regret, so that when I come back home there's a cozy bed to get into. So imagine applying that mindset through a lot of different things, it's just good for your mental health Right.
Speaker 1:Great yeah, Of course, because you just spoke about the philosophy. What's your patronage, Jack?
Speaker 2:A lightning bolt, yeah, a big blast of lightning inside your head make you, make you feel me. You know I I like lightning. So lightning is my element, because it is pure energy, is bright, it shocks and doesn't hit the same place twice uh, yeah, are you sure? Most times like, and I like the idea of, of catching lightning in the bottle. That's that metaphor, that imagery. You know, I like what it means, I like what it looks like, you know.
Speaker 1:So, um, I know the answer to this question, but I'll ask it what one book? Oh, but just for the sake of those who don't know, influence your life in perspective. It has. It has two episodes about the book, all right, but maybe even three. Maybe even three. But for the sake of those who are like I don't even want to get like me but please tell us.
Speaker 2:The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, and so I even went as far as using my podcast to break down the laws that I live by and the ones that I break. Yeah, so much so that I'm still waiting to do this day for a green to give me my shot of whiskey, because no other creator has made that kind of content with his work. I looked before I made. It is either just reviewing the book in its entirety or hating on it, or loving it, but to actually sit down and think of how each law applies or doesn't apply to your life.
Speaker 1:I think I told you that immediately. I must confess that the way the sighting in B, the ones I live by the ones I don't live by all of that Of course, because you've read god knows how many gazillion times. I'm sure you're going to have some some. Some evolution would take you to a place to go back to some laws and then you know you would review those laws as you get you know. So don't think I don't hate on the book. I just don't read.
Speaker 2:I just won't read it a second time are we settled on that because you read it one time? Oh already, end to end, cover to cover, not covered to cover. I just read it. Are you ready?
Speaker 1:only once the only reason I might want to pick it up now is because of what said on tuesday to read the preface, it might just, it might just, it might just make me read it again, because the she spoke about the, uh, the preference in such a way that they sold it to me and and that is true, a lot of people read books and to read the forward, and I'm one of those people who read through. But I think, at the time when it was a fact maybe that's why I hate fads and it was a fact at the time that, you know, I read it and it just didn't connect. You know, um, so it just didn't connect. But she talking about the preface, uh, my, you see what? You couldn't do shit, and then did.
Speaker 2:To be fair, I did it to shit and then already she wasn't there originally. I got her there and she got you there. So technically, technically, I'm the great grandfather in this situation.
Speaker 1:Before we round this off so Mindful with Tumashe, the full cast Mindful partners I'm sure the podcast Mindful Partners I'm sure you guys are wondering what kind of conversation is this and how this relates with mental health narratives. It's just to tell you that we don't talk only mental health, that there are people who, even though don't sit with mental health questions, understand mental health questions and they're living the best of their lives. There was no way I was not going to get ready to come to a kind of show, because I wanted people to know that mental ill health is a whole different world. But you see, this man in front of me is, unless you've heard him, I don't even know how long are we talking, but you've heard him and you see how connected he is with a psychosocial life. Did I get that? Yeah, they're so in tune. Some of us are there, some of us are working towards it. So if you've not started, this is your permission to start, your permission to start to find a way to make your psychosocial, financial, whatever everything work together, because that exactly is what mental health is when you can deal with daily stressors, because daily stressors will come, when you can deal with the stressors.
Speaker 1:Of course he said something during this conversation. He said it does not affect the way he functions. Yeah, when it begins to affect the way you function, then maybe we can begin to raise. So don't think he's trying to be dismissive, he's gotten so he's not trying to be, but he's um that again, psychosocial, financial, everything. I know that if it's something is, if it's supposed to be, it will be. If it's not like live on water, live on water leave.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, yes, yes it's a person that is doing him. There's no coffee here. It's a person that is doing him.
Speaker 2:That's why he's yeah as I said under the bus.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I will throw you under the worst. If you don't got a way to end today, what legacy would you believe in behind um?
Speaker 2:I've won. When you start something like this, you hope that it means something to somebody. You hope that just one person you know before you start think of the financials or making money from it, or fame or whatever. But the way people feel about the thing, the way an individual will take your words and things and use that to create beauty in their lives, you don't anticipate how that will happen, in the mirror of ways it can happen, and so when it does, it's sweeter than mother's milk to me, sweeter than mother's milk ask me if I remember what mother's milk is like.
Speaker 1:The post complex is your other Complex is your Oedipus Complex gain is. I don't know, but it's fine, hey, I love my mother. What?
Speaker 2:can I say but if it was to end, if I was to die today, if the podcast was to end today, I would move forward from it, knowing I've given it, I give it, and you just surrender to evolution.
Speaker 1:Surrender to it, yeah, you know, yeah, create a playlist for Rodney life according to Rodney, a playlist like music. Yeah, what would be your first song?
Speaker 2:butterfly effect Travis Scott yeah, yeah, um smooth criminal. Butterfly Effect Travis Scott yeah, yeah, um Smooth Criminal. Michael Jackson, michael Jackson.
Speaker 1:I was expecting Michael Jackson first, but hey, but it's okay, yeah um Bully mm-hmm right Lil Wayne okay, um what goes around comes around, just timbalik.
Speaker 2:Oh good, I have a dream westlife, but that's abba though the Westlife version. I don't know. Abba like that me, and Abba did not see that junction. Yeah, yeah, it's Westlife keep enjoying yourself. You're good since you've been gone, kelly Clarkson, mr John.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I am White Clef John. I'm glad you didn't know it. I'm glad.
Speaker 1:I'm glad You're feeling like one up, one up to me, fair, I'm glad. I'm glad You're feeling like one up, one up to me, one up to me, okay, fair, fair yeah.
Speaker 2:The show goes on to pay. Fiasco. Okay, I didn't know that too.
Speaker 1:How can you always show? Want to show me off, though, yeah.
Speaker 2:If I Were A Boy. But the remix With R Kelly yes.
Speaker 1:That.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you know, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh, that version I played the heaven out of it. Yeah yeah, I hope it's still of it. Yeah yeah, I hope it's still. People can still stream it.
Speaker 2:That's a bit of a habit. Look at it A habit.
Speaker 1:All right, let's move on this half. What would you be saying to anyone listening right now, in the moment? Not something that just comes to you in the moment. Not something you have to think about in the moment. Not something, something that just comes in your moment, something you have to think about in the moment.
Speaker 2:Listen to mindfully with to me sure I didn't say so much.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, move on, for it is something else.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not selling the show, okay, go ahead. But I'm you asked because I was thinking that anyway, oh okay, I was thinking that because, the same way, I'm here as a as a sort of example of what good mental health looks like yeah, the similar example of somebody who has taken the experiences and turned shit to sugar.
Speaker 2:You've turned that copper into gold, like the philosopher's stone yeah you know you're a living, breathing philosopher's stone, which means that the words that come out of your mouth because we see that who you listen to, what you listen to, look, whoever whoever has your ears has your life. The person feels really dealing with you. But go ahead. Yeah, whoever has your ears has your life, and if your philosopher's stone is talking, you got to listen, oh yeah, and if you don't, listen, thank you if you don't listen to me.
Speaker 2:I say this personal the people that that that turn their ears away from me. I know where their lives are right now and it's not like I'm wishing ill on them, but I can see clear as day. You know what happens when people don't listen, when someone has spoken to you and you don't listen. So if you listen to this podcast that, to me, has painstakingly, literally flew to Abuja to get this moment, to get this voice.
Speaker 1:She oh, my, you better listen, okay. So what question do you have for me, my question for you? Have for me, my question for you? Just one, rodney one.
Speaker 2:What do you want to be when you grow up?
Speaker 1:Me yeah Me Describe you. The me that is still a child.
Speaker 2:Hmm, I want to grow into the child that I am, you know chop, you get a fist bump there, by the way, in the mouth of the beef yeah, the me that is still a child.
Speaker 1:I don't want to the wisdom or whatever it is that come with aging. I'm not running, I embrace it. You know, I embrace that easily, of course, but I don't want to ever, ever, ever leave my little girl, the little mean. She's so sweet, that's the little me. She's so sweet. That's the little me before five she was so sweet. I love her.
Speaker 2:I love her. I love her. I know he's human. Yeah, I love him too.
Speaker 1:Love yourself, love your neighbor, love your country above all of this. Love God, he is the essence of your neighbor. Love your country above all of this. Love God, he is the essence of your being Mindful. Return, he returns Next week. Love you.
Speaker 2:Love you too. If we're gonna feel alive, then let's feel it now. We could all be grown to pieces because time's a ticking bomb.
Speaker 1:We could all be dead tomorrow, but our love will carry on. When you know your days are numbered and you're looking in my eyes, it's not the end of you, cause the energy never dies, oh, oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.