Super Soul Special: Oprah and Common: Your Life in Focus
Aug 16, 2023
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Oscar-winning rapper, actor, writer, philanthropist, and activist, Common, shares his journey of love and self-discovery. He discusses the importance of expressing love through intention and action, personal growth following a breakup, the power of self-reflection and self-love, and the divine expression of writing. The podcast explores the transformative power of love in relationships and personal crises.
Listening and taking action are essential components of showing true love in relationships.
Self-love can be discovered through building a relationship with God, practicing mindfulness, and engaging in therapy.
Deep dives
The Power of Love and Listening
Common N. Peace shares a personal story of realizing the importance of love and listening in his relationship with his daughter. When she expressed feeling neglected, he chose to listen rather than defend himself, understanding that true love is an action word. He reflects on the need to show love through actions and intention, and how this recognition transformed his understanding of love.
The Journey of Self-Love
Common explores his journey of self-love and the lessons he learned through a difficult breakup. He realized that despite external success and recognition, he had not been truly loving himself. Through building a relationship with God, practicing mindfulness, and engaging in therapy, he began to heal and understand the importance of self-love. He also acknowledges the societal stigma around therapy in the African American community, but emphasizes its benefits and the importance of breaking generational cycles.
Divine Expression through Writing
Common discusses his process of writing and the importance of being in a divine and open state to allow creativity to flow. He shares that writing is a form of divine expression, and he relies on silence and moments of reflection to tap into that flow. He also emphasizes the need to connect with oneself and to listen to one's inner voice to create from a place of authenticity.
As a part of “Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus,” Oscar-, Grammy-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning rapper, actor, writer, philanthropist and activist Common talks in front of a live audience in Denver. In a spoken essay from his New York Times best-selling memoir, Let Love Have the Last Word, Common shares his journey in discovering love, where he failed in love, and the three components that helped him discover self-love. He punctuates his talk with spurts of rhythmic, poetic flow about healing relationships and about using love as a true action.