Big Sean On How He Incorporates Spirituality In His Daily Routine With His Son
Sean "Big Sean" Anderson is sharing how meditation and the power of visualization have profoundly transformed his life and career to the extent that he now implements these practices into his daily routine with his son Noah Hasani Anderson.
The rapper-- who has been in the music industry for nearly two decades-- was discovered by Kanye West following a chance encounter when the emcee was interviewed at a local radio station in Detroit, Michigan, where Anderson is from.
After spitting a couple of bars for West, Anderson was ultimately signed to his G.O.O.D. Music record label. Since then, the 35-year-old has released five studio albums and sold millions of records worldwide.
In addition to professional success, Anderson has settled down with singer and longtime partner Jhené Aiko. The couple welcomed Noah on November 8, 2022. In a recent interview on Amanda Seale's Small Doses podcast, the "I Know" lyricist opened up about the way his mother, Myra Anderson, introduced him to meditation and visualization and why he follows similar practices with his son.
Big Sean On How His Mother Introduced Him To Meditation
In the July discussion, Anderson revealed that the topic of meditation and visualization came up when he was 11 years old after telling his mother that he wanted to pursue music as a career.
"My mom. I had an angel for a mama for real. She was the one that introduced me to meditation, and I decided that I wanted to rap," he said. "Back when I was 11-year-old, she was always telling me like 'you can do it. You got to understand like the universe is working with you.'"
Further, into the interview, the "Mercy" rapper disclosed that as he got older, Myra gave him a couple of books to read, including Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra and Ask and It Is Given by Esther Hicks and Jerry Hicks. Both self-help books delved deeper into meditation and visualization and how to use it as a spiritual practice.
"So then, when I turned 17, she gave me some books to read like Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra and Ask and It Is Given by Esther Hicks and Jerry Hicks. One of the main things was about meditation. She was like, just visualize it. Who do you visualize yourself on stage."
Following the lessons over the years, Anderson explained how it all paid off when he manifested being signed to Kanye West's G.O.O. D Music label.
"Being signed to Ye, that's what I wrote in my notebook in my goals," he said. "That was my first choice. Obviously, he didn't know who I was. I ain't know how I was going to meet him, but I just visualized it happened. That was my first example of really manifesting and realizing that God got my back."
Big Sean On The Meditation And Affirmation Practices He Does With His Son
As the subject shifted to fatherhood and some of the practices he implements into his daily routine with Noah, Anderson shared that because the pair have several hours alone together in the morning, he meditates with the infant and goes "over affirmations."
"So I like to meditate before, and I meditate with him too, like I hold him in my arms because he likes for me to hold him every morning," he stated. "Me and him have a couple hours every morning to just ourselves. I go over affirmations with him. I'm happy and fun. I'm brilliant. I'm grateful, all these things."
Anderson wrapped up his statement by gushing about his son and mentioning the lessons he's learned about fatherhood.
"We haven't posted him to the net or nothing you see he's something special... But he's happy, you know what I'm saying. He's just pure love," he stated. "So it's just like I don't really know how to be a good dad, I just know how to be there. That's all I'm going to do, I'm going to let him be who he is and nurture that. I ain't going to try to control him. I'm just going to let him discover the world."
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Smile, Sis! These Five Improvements Can Upgrade Your Oral Hygiene Instantly
This article is in partnership with Sensodyne.
Our teeth are connected to so many things - our nutrition, our confidence, and our overall mood. We often take for granted how important healthy teeth are, until issues like tooth sensitivity or gum recession come to remind us. Like most things related to our bodies, prevention is the best medicine. Here are five things you can do immediately to improve your oral hygiene, prevent tooth sensitivity, and avoid dental issues down the road.
1) Go Easy On the Rough Brushing: Brushing your teeth is and always will be priority number one in the oral hygiene department. No surprises there! However, there is such a thing as applying too much pressure when brushing…and that can lead to problems over time. Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and brush in smooth, circular motions. It may seem counterintuitive, but a gentle approach to brushing is the most effective way to clean those pearly whites without wearing away enamel and exposing sensitive areas of the teeth.
2) Use A Desensitizing Toothpaste: As everyone knows, mouth pain can be highly uncomfortable; but tooth sensitivity is a whole different beast. Hot weather favorites like ice cream and popsicles have the ability to trigger tooth sensitivity, which might make you want to stay away from icy foods altogether. But as always, prevention is the best medicine here. Switching to a toothpaste like Sensodyne’s Sensitivity & Gum toothpaste specifically designed for sensitive teeth will help build a protective layer over sensitive areas of the tooth. Over time, those sharp sensations that occur with extremely cold foods will subside, and you’ll be back to treating yourself to your icy faves like this one!
3) Floss, Rinse, Brush. (And In That Order!): Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not what you do, but how you do it”? Well, the same thing applies to taking care of your teeth. Even if you are flossing and brushing religiously, you could be missing out on some of the benefits simply because you aren’t doing so in the right order. Flossing is best to do before brushing because it removes food particles and plaque from places your toothbrush can’t reach. After a proper flossing sesh, it is important to rinse out your mouth with water after. Finally, you can whip out your toothbrush and get to brushing. Though many of us commonly rinse with water after brushing to remove excess toothpaste, it may not be the best thing for our teeth. That’s because fluoride, the active ingredient in toothpaste that protects your enamel, works best when it gets to sit on the teeth and continue working its magic. Rinsing with water after brushing doesn’t let the toothpaste go to work like it really can. Changing up your order may take some getting used to, but over time, you’ll see the difference.
4) Stay Hydrated: Upping your water supply is a no-fail way to level up your health overall, and your teeth are no exception to this rule. Drinking water not only helps maintain a healthy pH balance in your mouth, but it also washes away residue and acids that can cause enamel erosion. It also helps you steer clear of dry mouth, which is a gateway to bad breath. And who needs that?
5) Show Your Gums Some Love: When it comes to improving your smile, you may be laser-focused on getting your teeth whiter, straighter, and overall healthier. Rightfully so, as these are all attributes of a megawatt smile; but you certainly don’t want to leave gum health out of the equation. If you neglect your gums, you’ll start to notice the effects of plaque buildup, which can irritate the gums and cause gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease. Seeing blood while brushing and flossing is a tell-tale sign that your gums are suffering. You may also experience gum recession — a condition where the gum tissue surrounding your teeth pulls back, exposing more of your tooth. Brushing at least twice a day with a gum-protecting toothpaste like Sensodyne Sensitivity and Gum, coupled with regular dentist visits, will keep your gums shining as bright as those pearly whites.
Why Do Millennials & Gen-Zers Still Feel Like Teenagers? The Pandemic Might Be The Reason.
There’s nothing quite as humbling as navigating adulthood with no instruction manual. Since the turn of the decade, it seems like everything in our society that could go wrong has, inevitably, gone wrong. From the global pandemic, our crippling student debt problem, the loneliness crisis, layoffs, global warming, recession, and not to mention figuring out what to eat for dinner every night. This constant state of uncertainty has many of us wondering, when are the grown-ups coming to fix all of this?
But the catch is, we are the new grown-ups.
As if it happened without our permission, we became the new adults. We are the members of society who are paying taxes, having children, getting married, and keeping our communities afloat, one iced latte at a time. Still, there’s something about doing all these grown-up duties that feel unnaturally grown-up. Enter the #teenagegirlinher20s.
If there’s one hashtag to give you the state of the next cohort of adults, it’s this one. Of the videos that have garnered over 3.9M views, you’ll find a collection of users who are overwhelmed by life’s pressing existential responsibilities, clung to nostalgia, and reminiscent of the days when their mom and dad took care of their insurance plans.
@charlies444ngel no like i cant explain to her why i had to buy multiple tank air dupes from aritzia #teenagegirlinher20s #fyp
The concept of being a 20-something or 30-something teenager is linked to the sentiment of not feeling “grown up enough” to do grown-up things while feeling underprepared and even nihilistic about whether that preparation even matters.
It’s our generation’s version of when we ask our grandmothers how old they are and they simply reply with, “I still feel 45,” all while being every bit of 76 years old. In this, we share a warped concept of time while clinging to a desire for infantilization.
Granted, the pandemic did a number on our concept of time. Many of us who started the pandemic in our early or mid-20s missed out on three fundamental years of socialization, career development, and personal milestones that traditionally help to mark our growth.
Our time to figure out and plan our next steps through fumbling yet active participation was put on pause indefinitely and then resumed provisionally. This in turn has left many of us hanging in the balance of uncertainty as we try to make sense of the disconnect between our minds and bodies in this missing gap of time.
Because we’re all still figuring out what the ramifications of being locked away and frozen in time by a global pandemic will have on us as a society, there really is no “right” way of making up for lost time. Feeling unprepared for any new chapter of life is a natural rite of passage, pandemic or not. However, it’s important to not stay stuck in the last age or period of life that made sense to us because self-growth is the truest evidence of personal progress.
So whether you’re leaning on your inner child, teenager, or 20-something for guidance as you fill the gap between your real age and pandemic age, know that it’s okay to grieve the person you thought you would be and the milestones you thought you’d hit before you ever knew what a pandemic was. If there’s anything that the pandemic taught us, it’s that we have the power to reimagine a better world and life for ourselves. And if we tap into our inner teenager as a compass, we can piece together our next chapter with a fresh outlook.
Sure, we’ve lost a couple of years, but there are still some really amazing ones ahead.
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