Love Your Amazing Self!
Truth!
In this season of gift-giving, thanksgiving and joy, it is also important to remember that we should give thanks to the one person that we tend to forget. Ourselves!
Learning to appreciate what you have right now (gratitude) and appreciate yourself (self-love) are skills that many of us have to put effort in.
Ofusu Jones-Quartey, a meditation teacher and hip-hop musician, write gentle poetic reminders of self-love in his new book, "Love Your Amazing Self: Joyful Verses for Young Voices." The book is beautifully illustrated by Ndubisi Okoye and each page invites the eyes to read heartfelt words that make you stop and realize that time and each experience is precious.
Ofosu is also known as the recording artist - Born I - and has been teaching mindfulness and meditation for greater than 10 years. He uses these practices and his beliefs to meld them into hip-hop and electronic music.
In Ofusu's words:
"The world has its ideas of who you are
But you don't need them
To be the person you really are inside
is Freedom"
Thank you for your time and interest in this podcast! I invite you to leave a heartfelt review on whichever podcast platform you listen to. It does so much to bring exposure to the podcast and helps lift others up!
To leave a review, helping us spread the contents of this podcast- click on this link! Thank you!
Connect with me!
Website: In the Rising Podcast Website
Email: Bettina@intherising.com
In the Rising Pinterest:
In the Rising Facebook
Check out the Website: Fit after Breast Cancer
Love Your Amazing Self!
Truth!
In this season of gift-giving, thanksgiving and joy, it is also important to remember that we should give thanks to the one person that we tend to forget. Ourselves!
Learning to appreciate what you have right now (gratitude) and appreciate yourself (self-love) are skills that many of us have to put effort in.
Ofusu Jones-Quartey, a meditation teacher and hip-hop musician, write gentle poetic reminders of self-love in his new book, "Love Your Amazing Self: Joyful Verses for Young Voices." The book is beautifully illustrated by Ndubisi Okoye and each page invites the eyes to read heartfelt words that make you stop and realize that time and each experience is precious.
Ofosu is also known as the recording artist - Born I - and has been teaching mindfulness and meditation for greater than 10 years. He uses these practices and his beliefs to meld them into hip-hop and electronic music.
In Ofusu's words:
"The world has its ideas of who you are
But you don't need them
To be the person you really are inside
is Freedom"
Thank you for your time and interest in this podcast! I invite you to leave a heartfelt review on whichever podcast platform you listen to. It does so much to bring exposure to the podcast and helps lift others up!
To leave a review, helping us spread the contents of this podcast- click on this link! Thank you!
Connect with me!
Website: In the Rising Podcast Website
Email: Bettina@intherising.com
In the Rising Pinterest:
In the Rising Facebook
Check out the Website: Fit after Breast Cancer
love-your-amazing-self-words-of-inspiration-and-truth-by-ofusu-jones-quartery
[00:00:00] Ofusu Jones: And when we make mistakes in life, in the process of living that negativity bias can turn on us in the form of our inner critic, where we are constantly criticizing ourselves and saying that, oh, I should have done this better. I, you know, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:00:23] Bettina M Brown: Hello, hello, and welcome to In The Rising Podcast. My name is Bettina Brown, and this is the platform I've chosen to talk about living a life that's in alignment with our hopes, our dreams, and our goals. And turning our back on that shame blame game that does nothing for us, nor does it help turn that needle to our own true north and to our destiny.
My special guest today is a Fasu Jordans Corte, who is an amazing hip hop artist, an amazing author, and just a good. You know, you know when you meet him, right? You know, when you meet people, if they're, if they're just good human beings. And this is definitely, , what Ofusu is. He is the author of Love Your Amazing Self, and I invite you to listen to our conversation.
Thank you so much for being on In The Rising Podcast. It's a pleasure to speak with you and your topic, your book, love Your Amazing Self is right up my alley and is really important for people to hear. So first off, thank you so much for being here.
[00:01:26] Ofusu Jones: Thank you so much for having me. Really means a lot that, that you decided to highlight the book.
I appreciate it.
[00:01:33] Bettina M Brown: Absolutely. And this is a book that's really needed. I'd like you to just. What prompts you to talk about the things that you do?
[00:01:41] Ofusu Jones: Yeah. You know, a lot of it is based on my own journey. Recognizing that I, you know, I came from a loving household, you know, had both parents and everything.
On the surface was, just as it should be, but I still inevitably fell into, anxiety and depression as. Older in, in my young adolescence and in my teenage years and and those challenges stayed with me in my young adult life. And as I had kids of my own, I started to think of, What would've been helpful?
What additional messaging would've been helpful for me as, as a kid. I also worked with young people and adults as a mindfulness educator, and I could see the same kind of patterning happening that as kids are mature into, early adolescents and young adolescents, they are, they begin to. Not all, but many begin to, fall into what Tara Brock calls the trance of unworthiness, believing that they're not good enough as they are, that they have to either have this item or that item or this online persona or this way of being, et cetera, in order to be valid, in order to be lovable.
And, I want to. Create something that serves as an antidote to that line of thinking. So this book is covertly is is overtly written for young people, but also covertly written for adults also, so that we can, when, when adults and young people are sharing this book together, there can be this collective experience of, inspiring self-love and self compass.
[00:03:26] Bettina M Brown: And when I read this to my son, each breath is a gift and a message from nature to live your life now, not behind you, or later I realized that he may not at 12 fully understand that, but I certainly, yeah, can absorb that in a way that as my life has moved on from, you know, adolescence into twenties, that I can think of that line differently.
So just the person reading that with their. We'll take a message from that as well. Yeah. And you highlighted something, that is so prevalent in many age groups that somehow being you is not good enough, right. When you're working with people and your mindfulness and, and you're like, What, what is that?
Why do you feel that we are not thinking we're good enough? Hmm.
[00:04:14] Ofusu Jones: So I think that there are sort of two, two things at play here, and they both stem from. A common origin, human beings have what's called negativity bias. And it's, it's the reason why we slow down when there's an accident on the road to to, to see what's happening.
It's the reason why. Negative news stories are always the ones that feel most sensational. It's the reason why when something, negative is trending on Twitter, that's where everybody, you know, goes first. That comes from our evolutionary, ability to solve problems. We're always looking for the problem so that we can solve it so that we can, you know, be, be happier, essentially.
But I think what has happened to us over time is that that negativity bias has turned on ourselves. You know, we're not, we're, we're no longer. Searching out threats in the wild, you know? So when we're, when we're at home, in our relatively modern lives, that mechanism is still going. What could be better?
What could be better? What could be better? Oh, oh, I could be better. Why? Why did I say that? Why aren't I doing this? Why, why don't I look like that person? Why am I not as, as, as popular as this person? What, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? So there's this, and. And when we make mistakes in life, in the process of living that negativity bias can turn on us in the form of our inner critic, where we are constantly criticizing ourselves and saying that, oh, I should have done this better.
I, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And that, that voice can get very loud and, and we can believe it, very deeply. And you have that compounded with the external messaging from social media, from general media, and just from the language of. Current culture. , and, and, and the culture of our current culture, which, is always asking us to, to do more, to take the perfect picture, to be in the perfect scenario, to say the perfect things.
Where are the perfect things and. This internal and external messaging of you are not enough, can quickly become something that we believe is innate and is absolutely true. And this book is really meant to challenge that idea.
[00:06:41] Bettina M Brown: And you now work in mindfulness. You are a hip hop artist. How, how do you combine those to.
Be that light. You know, we're, we're, we have, you're right. We have, we have used negativity to be a solution, but now we only carried, it used to be we'd only carried our environment, our town, now we're carrying the entire planet. Yeah. Which is too much for too much. That's not what we're designed for. But now you are here, you are one soul and you are wanting to make a change.
How are you using your gifts as an artist and writer to do?
[00:07:15] Ofusu Jones: I really thought long and hard about what would be, what would make my life meaningful. What would, when, when it's all said and done for me, what would, what would be the evidence of a life well lived and for me, I think that encouraging people to recognize their basic goodness, reminding myself and others that you are enough, we are enough, to to if, if I can simply encourage other.
People in this world to remember that who they are inside is no accident. All the gifts that they have are worthy. That each one of us is our own particular brand of genius. And, and for there to be less, less sadness and self-hatred in the world, then that that would be, a life well lived. So whether I'm expressing that in a hip hop song or whether I'm expressing.
In a book or, in any, or, or in the work that I do in, in teaching. That's really the central message for me is that you are enough. You
[00:08:27] Bettina M Brown: are enough right now and even as you write books and produce songs and have a good chat at the coffee shop, you are enough and you just share that enoughness. Yeah.
I really like what you said, a life well lived, because that is something we hope to rise up to, to by whatever day that is. To say yes. I lived a good life. You've done tremendous things. You just transcend peace across our, our zoom right now with yourself. What do you see yourself rising up to next?
What is on the horizon for osu?
[00:09:02] Ofusu Jones: Hmm. Well, thank you for those kind words. And I've, and I'm, I've, I've really enjoyed our conversation. Well, on a fundamental level, I just want to keep improving as a, as a person, to, to keep coming home to myself, and, and expressing that in the world, in, in whatever way that shows up on a, on a more practical level, I, I plan on writing a children's album to a accompany.
Love Your Amazing Self to, to put these verses to music and I'll be working on that. And I'll be working on that this month. Well, Yeah, this month, into the new year. So that'll be something that I'll be releasing in the new year. And, , I recorded a hip hop album last year called In This Moment, and I will be releasing some follow up music to that as well.
So there'll be more music, music to accompany the book. Love Your Amazing Self. Some, some, some additional music, and hopefully some visuals. And, and who knows, maybe another book as well.
[00:09:57] Bettina M Brown: I love that this is a dynamic book. It is really well illustrated as well. It is something that calls you in and I love it.
Joyful versus for young voices because we all have a voice and to acknowledge the young ones are so important as well. absolutely. I am so grateful for your time. This has been really a wonderful conversation to me. It's been a delight and pleasure, and congratulations on everything you've done. On what you're planning to do.
[00:10:25] Ofusu Jones: It's amazing. Bettina, thank you so much for having me. And, yeah. For, for your listeners, just a, a gentle reminder to say something kind to yourself. It's, think, think of what you check in with, how you're feeling in this moment, and. If your best friend or loved one was feeling the same way, what would you say to them?
And just say those same things to yourself.
[00:10:46] Bettina M Brown: Yes, absolutely. And your book is available everywhere,
[00:10:49] Ofusu Jones: right? That's right. So cool. I walked into Barnes and Noble with my, with my kids and saw it, saw it in there the other day. So really nice feeling. I, I always want to encourage people to support their local independent book sellers, and so please do that.
It's available everywhere in all formats online, all over the place.
[00:11:09] Bettina M Brown: You know, every once in a while you have conversations with someone. You know, you could have a really great conversation for like another six hours of your day having a nice cheesecake and a nice cup of tea with you, and just kind of delve into the lessons you've learned, what your visions are for the future, and how you hope to kind of raise up the whole vibration of yourself.
Your family and humanity in general with what you're doing. You have a service attitude, and yet you also are realistic enough to see what's around you and know where you can fit and make a difference, and that's absolutely what o OSU did today. It is completely what he's done in his book. Love your amazing, self joyful verses for young voices, and I welcome you to look for this book and read it to your child.
Read it to anyone, and you will notice that not only is the person listening to you receiving something, but you as the speaker. Are receiving as well. If you feel that this conversation is something that would be beneficial for someone, you know, I invite you to share this. The more hands and ears that we put this podcast into, the better for all of us together.
I also invite you to leave a heartfelt true review on Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you get your podcast from because it does help raise up the podcast and again, spreads the word. Thank you so much for your time because it's that one thing we don't get back, and until next time, let's keep building one another up.