Mind Over Masculinity
Let’s stop asking men to "man up" and start asking how we can lift them up. After all, mental health is not just a women’s issue or a men’s issue—it’s a human issue.
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Mind Over Masculinity
The Body-Mind Connection: How Fitness Saved a Rapper's Mental Health
The transformative power of physical movement reaches far beyond muscle growth and weight management—it can literally save lives. In this raw, vulnerable conversation with Brooklyn-based conscious rapper Rich Vision, we explore how fitness became his lifeline during periods of severe depression, suicidal ideation, and personal trauma.
Rich shares how his relationship with fitness evolved from dismissive to essential when he discovered the profound connection between what he ate, how he moved, and how he felt mentally. During the pandemic, confined to a small room and battling mental abuse that nearly ended in suicide, his simple kettlebell workouts became moments of escape where his mind could briefly break free from overwhelming darkness. "It was an escape for me," Rich reveals, "For those 30 or 45 minutes, I wasn't stuck in that negative loop in my head."
What makes this conversation particularly powerful is Rich's emphasis that fitness isn't just about physical transformation—it's about regaining agency when life feels completely out of control. Through consistent movement, he learned to challenge the inner critic that said he couldn't continue for another minute or lift a heavier weight. This skill transferred beyond the gym, helping him rewrite his personal narrative from victim to victor, a journey he chronicles in his book "From Victim to Victor: Transforming Trauma into Triumph."
For listeners struggling with their own mental health challenges, Rich offers actionable wisdom that doesn't require expertise or expensive equipment. Start small—even wit
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What's up everyone, welcome back to another episode of Mind Over Masculinity, the podcast where we strip away the bravado and get real about the struggles, victories and lessons that shape us men. Because, let's face it, strength isn't just about lifting heavy things. It's all about facing the weight of life and learning how to carry it. So today we have a guest whose journey embodies that kind of strength, like Bronx born, brooklyn based conscious rapper Rich Vision. So welcome to the show, rich.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. It's a privilege to be on your podcast.
Speaker 1:Lovely, lovely, rich. So I'd quickly love to introduce you to all of our listeners. Dear listeners, rich, aka Richard Sriram, isn't just making a music, he's making a difference. Yes, so his story is one of the transformation from a rapper to a man that is deeply in touch with his mental health, using his art as a platform to bridge the gap between music and mental wellness. And today we are diving into a topic that's critical but often overlooked how fitness affects mental health. So, without further ado, let's welcome again to the show. Welcome again, Rich, thank you Great. So, rich, like to start with the basics. I mean, what was your relationship with the fitness before you really started seeing it as a kind of tool for the mental health?
Speaker 2:That's a great question, everick.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I had a love-hate relationship with my fitness in regards to mental health, because for a while I thought that people who had a perception that I didn't need to be a fitness guru or, so to speak, to um have good mental health.
Speaker 2:I always thought that, um, it was something that um was natural. I didn't know, like, how my fitness did have a play on my mental health, because beforehand I was a bit overweight. I was, I had poor eating habits. I used to eat so much, a lot of fast foods several years ago and I didn't know, by me eating those types of food, how it would affect my mental health, like, and how I would just, you know, get upset and get angry all of a sudden because of the foods that I was eating. And I thought that was pretty peculiar because I didn't really know that once I started changing my eating habits, how, I feel so much more of a freedom of um, um, like a lightness to me. I don't feel as heavy, so to speak. Um, and I was able to transform my mindset from just practicing um better eating habits and also being active at the gym. I go three to five, uh, three to four times a week now.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, understood. So, um, I mean, four times a week now, okay, okay, understood. So, um, I mean, uh, like uh did, did it feel like something you had to do?
Speaker 2:or uh, did you reach a breaking point that made you realize, man, I need to take that my body seriously and if I want to heal my mind, yes, um, I, the breaking point was like I just, I just didn't like how I looked in the mirror, like I, you know, remember just walking down the street and just feeling so exhausted and winded and I'm just like man, like this can't be life. Like I just, you know, had that one-to-one with myself and say I cannot live like this, like this can't be life.
Speaker 2:Like I just, you know, had that one-to-one with myself and say I cannot live like this, like I can't serve people who are meant to serve. If you know, if I'm not here for the people I love and I'm not saying I was extremely overweight at the same time, I like for me, um, at that time that was overweight for me and it was, um, something that I was conscientious about. After the fact that, um, because I'm like, if I keep on allowing, um, you know, my eating habits to, um, you know, continue to make poor eating habits, then you, you know, I won't even be here. So, like, for me, it's been about serving other people, because I know that my music is meant to help other people and heal. You know, because, again, I feel like fitness is in line with the mental health and, as well as my music, they all are combined.
Speaker 2:Like for me, being able to touch on, yeah, that it's healing for me to go to the gym and process you know my emotions through, you know, a workout. You know my emotions through, you know, a workout and, at the same time, it helped me realize that I can also apply the same mindset to my music. I can apply the same mindset to my book that I wrote in regards to my mental health journey and how I was able to get fit from not only studying on myself, from not only studying on myself but getting around people who can help me see myself differently than what I saw myself before Understood, and I have to say that I feel like a lot of guys working out is just about getting ripped, looking good, but when you are really going through something, it's deeper than aesthetics, it's survival.
Speaker 1:So you, you talk a lot about resilience and rewriting your own narrative. So how did fitness play a role in that for you?
Speaker 2:uh well, for me it was more of how I was able to just know that like hey, like I don't have to be an expert at fitness to take care of my mental health. Um, and again, like I, I knew, like for me that was the hardest um narrative that I had to fight with them myself was like I thought, like I had to already know all these things about wellness and, as far as, like, fitness is concerned, to feel like I was making a move. And that was the most overwhelming time for me because I was stuck in my head about it. And once I started looking up things like oh, instead of eating this for my fast food, try this alternative, or just different ways to incorporate, you know, different food choices and then also apply it to fitness, I feel like it helped me realize that I could take one step at a time. I don't have to do five days a week, I can do three days a week, I can do two days a week. And I started to train my mind to work for me versus work against me. And what really helped me is to stay accountable to myself and to the people that I'm meant to serve Again, with my music too, because, at the same time, I, in my opinion, I feel like without good um health, there's um, you know, without good health that you know there's nothing, there's, no, there's no other foundation to uplift you.
Speaker 2:And I say that for myself, myself, because I didn't know like my poor bad habits of eating, would you know, affect me to where. You know, maybe if I had a bit of myself, I would have took my fitness series. I would have been like, hey, I needed to go to the gym in order for me to get my mind better. And at the time I didn't really know the difference until I started to incrementally start putting those steps in and getting the reps in so that I can start to change that mindset.
Speaker 1:Got it and was there a moment when you realized that this isn't just a physical anymore? This is helping me mentally too yes, um, for me it was.
Speaker 2:It was, to be honest, it was an escape for me, um, because I was going through trauma, um, especially during the pandemic. Um, I was going to do mental abuse um that almost resulted in suicide, um, and particularly overdose, and I wanted um so much to get better and the only thing I really had was fitness. Um, a lot of people, um, I never really shared with people that like, at least to a certain degree, that fitness really helped save my life. Also, um, because during the pandemic, that's all I really had had was a pair of kettlebells to work out and it was something that really helped me really get through my day-to-day, even though I was confined in a room. It helped me at least for a minute or, you know, a 30-minute workout workout, or 45 minutes, however many minutes I mentally, you know, needed for that workout in my room.
Speaker 2:I allowed myself to go there, um, because it really freed up some of the stuff that I was going through so that I could not be so stuck in that situation mentally. But I can find another way to keep going and, like, for me, like I knew it was helping me get going when I started to see myself not be so into or just not even be so wrapped up into the fact that, like I was going through situations during the pandemic. So it wasn't a ski for me and it was helping me with my mindset, because I knew that I didn't think of the situation as much, even though it was still present at the moment at the forefront. It just allowed me to be more where my feet were, so to speak, um, and not in my head so much okay, okay and uh.
Speaker 1:I mean, like you have been open about your struggles with the mental health and even confronting thoughts of society. So what role did the movement and exercise play in helping you get through those dark moments?
Speaker 2:um, what was that? What was that?
Speaker 1:yeah, I was just saying like uh, what role did the movement and exercise played in helping you get through those dark moments?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, it was just um, similar, just, you know, an escape, um, because it it helped me, um, not to be so much in my head. So it's pretty much like the same of like just being able to just like, only focus on, like, the workout and not be so caught up in what was, you know, happening, you know, at the moment. For me, it was just one of those things that I, um, I was conscious about, like how it would help me, um, not, um, be stuck in that same negative loop that was in my head of like this is going to be my, you know, forever situation. It just helped me to realize that my situation is only temporary and everything will get better in time, okay, and everything will get better in time, Okay, and like, did it change your relationship with yourself?
Speaker 1:I mean?
Speaker 2:like, did it give you back a sense of power over your life? Yes, very much so. It gave me a lot of agency to be able to control my fitness and how it controlled my, my. And this is my mindset because, like, ever since I got into this trajectory of fitness journey, um, so to speak, I I've been not only reaching so many different fitness goal um heights, so to speak, um, and breaking, you know, my own limitations, but also allowed some of the limiting beliefs that I had prior about myself, about, like, oh, not being able to release weight, um, and feeling like um again, like, oh, I'm just gonna be this, you know this size forever. And I see from years back how, how I looked and now I feel such a sense of self-worth in me, like I have more of a confidence in me.
Speaker 1:Before I had such a low self-esteem and what it really brought back to me was a huge sense of self where it really brought back to me was a huge sense of self and like, uh, I mean, I have heard like people do say that uh, just go for it and you will feel better. And when you are deep in it that sounds so dismissive, like nah, this is bigger than a joke. But at the same time, when you are in pain, moving through it physically, it actually does something.
Speaker 1:So yeah does it reminds you that you were alive? Something like this, yeah yes, exactly yes.
Speaker 2:It's like being present in a moment.
Speaker 2:It's like everything else around me is crumbling, but I'm here, focused on the workout routine for 45 minutes and it feels like for a moment the problems go away, even though they're still there.
Speaker 2:It just helps me feel like I'm centered and grounded, and that's what fitness helped me do. It helped me stay grounded and, at the same time, um, you know, it has been really essential part of my mental health journey. I mean, if it wasn't for things like fitness and personal development, spaces like I wouldn't even, honestly, have a book out where it's helping and healing other people that have been through traumas called From Victim to Victor, transforming Trauma into Triumph, and during that time, I was able to fast track, so to speak, my healing journey, which I'm still healing from certain things, from mental abuse and low self-worth, in order for me to continue to write that narrative that I'm not a victim and I am a victor, and everything that happens for me, to me, is happening for me. And I want people to be empowered that once they, you know, buy the book that it will help them to, I'm hoping you know that it will help them to heal and to get the help that they deserve.
Speaker 1:Understood. That's true, yeah, and and like as an artist, your mind is your tool. So do you feel like taking care of your mind I mean taking care of your body made you sharper, creatively?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Definitely. In some aspects it did Because I went back to like. You know, having that same focus of like OK, you know, if I'm training for 45 minutes I'm doing legs, 45 minutes I'm doing legs, I'm doing abs, I'm doing this um workout, and it really helped me realize that I can still apply those same principles to my songwriting process. I can work on a song for like 30-40 minutes and just laser in on it and um, it really did, um aid a bit in my creative process as far as like, definitely as far as like the focus is concerned, because focus is a big thing for me, because there's so many things fighting for my attention One social media and then everything around me. It's, you know, with the internet it's so easy to be in other spaces mentally where I'm not feeling like I'm present. So fitness definitely helped and also this being able to monitor my time management skills has played a big role as well as far as that as well.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Understood. Yeah, um has played a big role as well. That have been through struggles as well, because I'm not saying like before, I was like a hard. I did, you know, pretend like I had a hard exterior but honestly I didn't. It was just like a front because I wanted to feel validated and heard and seen and witnessed.
Speaker 2:So for me, it's definitely helped me, um, be able to normalize, you know, conversations about mental health because of the fact that, like, I've seen so many people, um, I've seen so many people go through things silently and I feel like some of the stuff that I'm putting out is really speaking to those same emotions and those same inner demons, so to speak, of what people have been facing in the past, and it's bringing awareness to something that they felt like they were not seen or heard about from prior to me speaking about mental health the way I do and the fast that I do with my social media, with my music, with my book.
Speaker 2:So it's been really helpful and allowing me to create more of a community around mental health and it helps me to continue to normalize it because, again, like you said, it is such a taboo topic that is not really talked about unless it's mental health awareness day, you know honestly so for me to be able to speak about it on a daily basis, it's bringing a lot of um hope and liberation to people. Um that again also needs to feel like they're heard, because um people don't feel um seen, um by other people witness, unless someone else is being at the forefront to be that role model for them, so to speak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I understand that it's really, really great, but we glorify the grind and the late nights. But what if the real flex is longevity and the ability to keep creating at a high level because you take care of your mind and the body? What do?
Speaker 1:you say yeah yeah, so, uh, I mean, you also came from a world where a lot of people get stuck in the cycles like poverty, trauma, street life or just a maybe of kind of um, what to say like this is this is all there is like. So how help help break that mindset? How did it work? I'm sorry, uh-huh.
Speaker 2:What was?
Speaker 1:the last part. I couldn't. I'm saying like how does that fitness help break those mindsets?
Speaker 2:Well, as far as fitness, it helped me to stay present. Yeah, just to stay present, yeah, just to stay present. And this helped me to again as far as fitness, where my thing about fitness is, it's a mental game. It really is a mental game because the way I see it is, when I'm in the gym and I'm working out, I have a certain goal and I usually track all my workouts. It's like, okay, today I'm doing an hour workout, you know, which is 40 minutes on weights, 20 minutes to cardio, and you know, for me it's helped me to just stay focused, uh, on it, you know, hit my targets, um, and as as well.
Speaker 2:I hope that's answered your question.
Speaker 2:But it also just, yeah, it helped me just to stay focused, um, because um, and, and also another thing about that is um helped me get out of my head because, um, and on the workout, because what happened was, um, even during the workouts I would be so like there's so many voices about this and that coming at me, and even during the workout, um, I noticed that it helped me say, okay, even if the other voice you know, I call it maybe the devil, I'm not sure people may call it a different name.
Speaker 2:I just say inner critic for me says you can't lift that weight so heavy, you're too tired. Fall back from the run. And every time when these voices or inner critics start to take a hold of my mind, I realize wait a minute, who's talking? So with the fitness journey for me, it helps me realize that even in the gym, I get to control my mindset. I get to control the voices that talk to me in my head when I don't feel like lifting that weight, heavy weight, when I don't feel like going for the extra minute that I promised myself I will. And it helps me also stay accountable to whatever I wrote down. So that's how, for me, fitness has helped me, because it helped me stay committed to my commitments.
Speaker 1:Okay and like do you think that more young men, especially in underprivileged areas, need access to the fitness, not just as an activity but a kind of mental health resource?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm very adamant about fitness and regards to mental health and I love what you're doing. If I was like mine over masculinity because, like for me, like fitness has been such an important part of my mental health journey not even in my music, but just my everyday life, like it's really been keeping me sustained and I feel like, if I didn't become like I feel like if I didn't become so adamant about my, my fitness journey, then my mental health definitely would have suffered a lot too. Um, as well, because of the fact that, like you know, there was times where I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping and like it does, you know, and everything. I just felt my body crashing so hard during the pandemic because I didn't, I wasn't careful with how I cared for myself, I didn't have self-care of me loving myself enough to do a workout for an hour and it doesn't have to be long and I think, for for me, what I want to, um, what I'd like to express to you know, anyone who's listening, is the fact that it starts small. I could start with a five minute workout on youtube and see how that makes you feel like I.
Speaker 2:I know there's certain people who say just do two minutes of writing and see how you feel, and then you could stop, and then you could just go on your day. But I feel like once I do something for a couple minutes and I get momentum, I don't want to stop. So like it builds for me a belt with the um resilience, a belt, um a catalyst in my mind, so to speak, of being able to just find um strength, um where there was none, or motivation where I felt like there was no motivation. It kept me devoted to that mindset of like always improving myself through my fitness journey and I highly recommend it because without good health, how can one sustain themselves? Really?
Speaker 2:I see statistics, I see people who make poor choices and I see the anger that they have inside of them because of the foods that they eat. And even if one looks up like how food affects, you know, mental health, one will be alarmed. I was alarmed. I was alarmed by eating certain foods, how they will make me Like sometimes I would eat fast food and even recently, and I would just get angry and I was just like, wow, where is this coming from? And I didn't know how food impacts mental health until I started to do the research. So I would definitely recommend fitness as a way to cope with mental health. I definitely would recommend even journaling for me, writing it out, reading books Like it's just for me. A lot of those things really help me to get where I am today mentally.
Speaker 1:Understood, got it so okay, and that's just really really great. And uh, before we wrap, like if someone listening right now who is struggling, feeling stuck, depressed or out of control, what's the one thing that you would tell them to do today? To start taking back their bar.
Speaker 2:Honestly get with someone who is able to help, like a therapist or a mentor, counselor, someone who knows mental health and is a professional, because for me, if I didn't have a therapist and I say for me, therapist, personal development spaces, books, books, like every single thing, music that helped me. I I say start with therapy. Um, because it will unlock a lot of the things that, um, you may not know is stifling your mental health. Like for me, like one thing that I, I, um, I got what I honestly got with a life coach and, um, that's a different type of coach and that helped my mindset, because I had resentment for someone who held space for me, who helped me, um, get through my suicide ideation. So, like, having all those people in my corner, like to help me with my mind. That's what I would suggest. Like, don't be afraid to reach out for help.
Speaker 2:I wrote a song about that um recently and it's called I Don't Keep it To Myself and I have it out on on Spotify. It's called I Don't Keep it To Myself and I wrote it because I felt like keeping things inside was helping me. It was not. It was destroying me mentally and also destroying the people that were the closest to me because it was hurting them seeing me so empty and so depressed and lonely inside, and being able to release that weight helped me grow immensely in my mental health.
Speaker 2:Wellness journey, like self-care, is so important. It's not selfish and you are, if you're listening, please remember you are worthy, you are the priority and no one's going to take care of your mental health more than you. So, again, it's not selfish to choose yourself and to choose your mental health journey. What happened after you take those steps is for me, in my opinion, is um inner freedom, liberation, healing, and that's the things that I've experienced with someone who's a suicide survivor many times over.
Speaker 2:Even um last year, when I contemplated I I thankfully I had those tools in my toolbox mentally where I was able to reach out in my mind and say wait a minute, hold up. You worked way too hard to put everything out. You know to end your life when you have so many people that you're meant to serve with your music and with your book, and that's what I want to tell you is that you have a purpose and you have someone to reach with your story that you're holding on to. So don't keep it to yourself. Embrace your story, because your story matters not only to me but to other people who need that, that story to get through there.
Speaker 1:Go through exactly, exactly, true.
Speaker 1:Uh, that's amazing, I have to say, and um also like, uh, it's really really great, and uh I have to say that, uh, your story is definitely the proof that healing isn't just about one thing, it's all about all the things. It's the music, the movement and the mindset shifts. So, to everyone who is listening, if today's episode hit home for you, don't just sit on it, move literally. So go for a run, do some pushups, take a walk, let your body remind you that you are alive and that you have the power. So if you want to hear more from Rich, check out his music and follow his journey and tap into what he's doing. I'll put all the links into the show notes for easy difference. And remember that mental health isn't just about surviving, it's all about thriving. So stay strong, stay moving and, as always, keep pushing forward. So this is your host Avik, signing off from Mind Over Masculinity. Until next time, be good to to yourself. So thank you so much.
