Breath Before The Next Hundred

Transcript

Gratitude And Milestone Reflections

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I never thought this day would come, or that this episode will take this long to come. But come it as, and I am deeply grateful for every single person who has believed in the ministry of living mindfully. The planning me expected this episode to air in November of 2025. But if you've listened to the becoming of this new season, you know life happened and the lessons from those moments has launched everything we've been exploring in the last four episodes. So before I get into today's episodes at all, allow me to love on you for just a moment. Yes, you for staying with Jimishe through the highs and the lows and everything in between. In the last three years, mindfully Jimishe has moved from just words over the microphone, from launching Living Mindfully, a journey to being the book, to giving legs to mental health advocacy, from demystifying mental health language to launching the a Fight for Life conference focused on men's mental health with even more to come. This journey is just beginning. Thank you. Thank you and thank you. Over the last four episodes, I've been exploring a budding concept uh lent to me by my friend Yemisi, societal narcissism. And the more I explore it, the more I realize how much I do not know. It feels like we are fighting a quiet war, a war to understand what it means to be human in this generation. Yeah. Every generation tries to answer questions that believe the generation before them failed to answer. Yet the resolution always seems to move further away. In our tend to stay authentic, many of us have become legislators over other people's ways of living. Yet, one of the beauties of existence is not uniformity, it is unity in the difference. And that simply says, of course, I didn't render that well. So before Europe people come for me, I'm Yoruba by the way. What that simply means though is what is acceptable in my community, in my yard, may be taboo in your community or your yard. Technology has made the world smaller, yet lived realities remain vastly, vastly different. Similarity exists, yes, but difference is what makes living rich. Paradoxically, a narcissistic society is deeply insecure. Critique feels like attack, discomfort feels like violence, difference feels like threat. In these past months of stillness, it is that I said had given me language, not just for my body and health, but for navigating this noisy world that feels perpetually on the edge. And sitting with pain taught me something important. Pain is unavoidable. It's unexpected, yes, often delivered by those closest to us, yes, and from grief to betrayal and everything in between. Pain teaches us caution, sometimes so much that we build quiet wars inside ourselves. We either rehearse the herd endlessly or project a version of ourselves that feels safer to present. And somewhere in that process, we lose touch with our authentic self. Yes, the huge authentic self that we all bandly all over social media and in our private spaces. The authentic self isn't complicated, I think, but I believe it is very, very difficult to leave. And I'll borrow a leave from Don Miguel Ruiz, you know it, who describes this as domestication. The domestication here means the conditioning of rules, um, expectations, and social norms that shape how we see ourselves and the world. And to be honest, there's nothing wrong with conditioning because, hey, that is how we will learn and be able to um connect, for want of a better word, with the world. But the struggle comes when we over-identify with this conditioning, this domestication, and lose the child we once were. The child who felt freely, forgave easily, played again after falling, that child still lives in all of us somewhere. And much of adulthood is searching for moments to feel safe enough to return there. Which brings me to the very essence of this episode. A hundred episode. Episode hundred doesn't feel like a finish line, it feels like a pause, not stopping, but breathing. When I began Mindfully Trimiche, I thought healing would look like clarity. I thought healing would look like answers, like breakthroughs, neatly closed chapters. No, but healing often looks like staying. And by staying, I mean staying with the questions, staying with the discomfort, staying with the body when it asks you to slow down. The stillness I didn't choose changed me. I stopped trying to be impressive with healing, and I started becoming present. I learned that silence isn't absence, it's information. You know, when they say uh I saw a meme the other day, it said, um shout out to the friends that hear our silences. Maybe someday I'll explore that. But silence isn't absence, I repeat, it is information. I'm learning that rest isn't laziness, it's wisdom. I take it from me, I am functional in every sphere of my life. I just go, go, go. For the longest time, I thought that slowing down, I thought that observing, I thought that even the most mindful things had to be functional. I am learning that faith isn't setting tea, it is trust. I used to think choosing myself meant pulling away, but now I know it means showing up without disappearing, boundaries without bitterness, presence without performance, connection without control, listening to my body before explaining myself, allowing seasons to change without fighting them, letting growth be quiet. Somewhere along the way, I stopped needing to prove I was healed, and I started allowing myself to be human. Some luxury I didn't have for the longest time in my life. Understanding this didn't take away the uncertainties. There are still questions, there is still grief, still moments of uncertainty, but now I know. I do not need to be finished to be faithful. I do not need to be loud to be whole, and I do not need to rush to be becoming. Okay, let's take a pause. If it feels safe, bring attention to your breath. Inhale slowly and exhale gently. Notice your body, not to fix it, but just to thank it, for carrying you, for protecting you, for speaking when words failed. Integration is when body, mind, and spirit stop echoing, when rest no longer feels like guilt, when boundaries no longer feel like punishment, and when growth no longer needs an applause. Inhale slowly and exhale gently. If these episodes in societal narcissism has taught me anything, it's this healing is not performance, empathy is not control, belonging is not self-erasure, and choosing yourself is not abandonment. It is honesty, it's staying connected while staying whole. As we close up today's episode, the hundred episodes, yes, I'm choosing for it to be very short so that it sits nicely with you when you can come back to it over and over. May I invite you to carry these questions into your day, your month, your year gently? Where in my life am I rushing instead of listening? What does my body need more? Rest or reassurance? Where can I show up more honestly without shrinking or hardening? What would it look like to choose myself with compassion instead of defense? As I'd become norm, you know that you do not need to answer these questions today, but I'm inviting you to let them walk with you as you go on your day, as you take a walk, or as you just take time for yourself to connect with yourself so that you will be in the best place to give of yourself and receive from others too. Thank you for walking this journey with me through growth, questions, stillness, and grace. Whether you have listened to one episode or all of the hundred, you belong here. Yes, you do, and I welcome you with open arms, heart and mind. Next week, I am back here with Olachen, and he's coming back not just as a co-host, but as an author who has evolved and is answering certain questions that would serve you and I. I watched it serve him, and he's bringing that to the table next week. So, if something in this episode stayed with you and you'd like to sit with it a little longer, there's a space on WhatsApp. It's also called Mindfully Witchumi She. It is not a space for fixing, it is not a space for diagnosing, it is not a space to give advice, it's a space for reflection, for listening. It's a shared community. I believe strongly in the power of shared stories, and that is what we intend for mindfully with on WhatsApp, the WhatsApp space, to look like. So you're welcome to join if and only if it feels supportive to your process. The link is in the show's episode notes. So whether you join the conversation or you want to keep it private, remember this: your healing does not need an audience. Thank you for listening. Love yourself, love your neighbor, love your country above all of this. Love God, He is the essence of your being. I am Uluwatsumishe or Ladako. Stay mindful.