Can you feel it coming?
Something's waking up inside.
Hearts ablaze, we're standing tall.
Breaking chains of yesterday.
Dead America finds it's voice, in the darkness, we make choice.
Truth and healing lead the way, hearts ablaze, we're here to stay.
Rise from ashes, come what may, we're finding hope in disarray.
Today, we are speaking with Njideka Olatunde.
Could you please introduce yourself?
And let people know just a little more about you, please.
Greetings.
And Ed, I wanna thank you for having me as your guest on your show,
and I'm looking forward to sharing information with your listeners.
I'm Njideka Olatunde, my background, I'm a naturopathic practitioner
and my specialty is relieving pain using the power of touch.
And the technique that I use is called touchology, reflexology.
Uh, I like it a lot.
You know, after researching you, I've, I've listened to a few of your
podcast episodes, and a lot of this is interesting to me because I'm a chronic
pain patient myself and I, I have been having that day to day and, you
know, it just adds up when it happens.
But a lot of that pain that comes to me is from stress, you know, and
if I'm not able to control my stress levels, my pain just shoots up.
And, uh, they, they call it, in the medical field, uh, fibromyalgia.
And it's a widespread pain of the muscle.
And it took me a long time to understand how stress is related to my pain.
Now I've got physical injuries that just compiles and everything together
just makes me sometimes useless.
So talk to me about touchology and how it can help me and others relieve our pain
symptoms due to stress and physical pains.
Well, what you just said is the first key, understanding the
connection between pain and stress.
You don't have pain without stress, and you don't have stress without pain.
The two go hand in hand.
And one of the things that's real important in terms of when you
understand the connection between pain and stress, you also have to understand
that in order to relieve the pain and stress which are connected, you
also have to connect the mind, the body, and the spirit as the healing
component to relieving pain and stress.
And that's something we never really think about because when, when you're talking
about pain, which you just said like fibromyalgia in, in, in specifics, it's a
nerve, it's about dealing with, the nerve endings are not operating as they should.
And the thing that we don't understand about the nerve endings and the nervous
system, it is connected directly to the brain, which is the message center.
It's our command center.
It, the brain is what sends the message to all the organs and systems
of the body in terms of operation.
So if a nerve ending is outta sync, it's going to cause havoc
which results in the form of pain.
Now, another way I can kind of explain that to help your listeners
understand what it is that I do in my therapy, the focus is on,
and you asked me about touchology, the focus is on introducing touch.
And the first form of touch, when I see my clients, that I
offer, it's called listening.
And the reason why I say that is because when my clients come to me, they're
coming to me for one thing and one thing only, and that's pain relief.
They're not interested in anything else
but relieving pain.
And as a practitioner, it's important that we understand that.
And we have to understand it from the standpoint that just like when you go
to store to make a purchase, you know what you want and you go in the store
to purchase exactly what you want.
So when you come to a practitioner, you are coming to purchase pain relief.
And so I start my practice with my clients by giving them my first
form of touch, which is listening.
And what I'm listening for is the stress that's connected to the pain.
Once I hear the stress factor, now we know what we need to do.
And just as the client is talking to me about all the things
connected to their pain, they are hearing their stress factor.
But they've never thought about connecting that
to the pain because what you have to understand is stress is always something
that happens outside of the body that we bring inside and we never connect it.
So when you start feeling pain, that what you brought inside the body,
it's trying to find a way to come out.
And it comes out maybe in your back hurting, or your neck
hurting, or your knees hurting, but that's not a way to release.
So what a reflexologist does is, it's looking at that nerve ending
and trying to open up that channel so that that, it's a blockage, can
move itself into where it needs to go to release itself from the body.
So in essence, a, a better way for me to descriptively describe it so that
you can understand is that, think about electricity in your house.
If it goes out, you automatically go to the circuit breaker, flick the switch
and the electricity comes back on.
If it doesn't, then you have to call the electrician to come in and they're
gonna say, Okay, we got a wiring problem.
We, we need to connect the wire so that you can get the electricity.
That's what reflexology is.
We work on the wiring of the body, which are the nerve endings.
And what we are looking is to get the circulation flowing so that when the
nerve endings sit, can communicate effectively with the brain to do
what it needs to do when a system says, I need this or I want that.
So that's the whole concept.
And if you think about it like that, reflexology is like the
electrician of the body and that's the format of how it works.
Now, one of the things in terms of, if someone's having pain and you have to
look at the stress factor, which I said my first form of touch was listening.
So after I listen and the client has just, you know, shared all that's
connected with that stress that's causing them to be in pain, they're
now open to receive the pain relief.
Which will be the touch part of reflexology, working on the hands, the
feet, and the ears, which is connected to all the parts of the body that
we stimulate those nerve endings.
And so that your listeners understand, if you ever look at a chart of the
anatomy and look at the nervous system, you'll see how all the
nerve endings begin in your head
run straight through your body with their ending points in the feet, hands and ears.
And what we are doing is we are stimulating those nerves that's connected
to wherever it is in the body that you may be having stress or pain for relief.
Now, once that happens, the next form of the touch experience is, there's
no one therapy that can do it all, so when I heard your stress, did I hear
that you need a chiropractic alignment?
'Cause we got some bone structure.
Or did I hear that you need to be able to have an overall stimulation
of the whole nervous system.
You may need acupuncture.
Or did I hear that, um, your diet is not well, so we gotta look at,
there, you need, we need to look at what nutrients, what minerals, what vitamins
may be needed to add to your system.
Or do you need to have a cleanse, or do we need to go look at body cleansing?
Is that something that's needed?
Or do you just need some rest and relaxation?
All of this is about putting together a comprehensive program, which is
your treatment plan based upon the stress that you have shared that
we need to relieve to get you back into optimum health and wellness.
So that's kind of an overview of the process in terms of relieving, uh,
pain using, uh, the power of touch.
What I'm hearing is you are like the electrician coming in and you're searching
the whole system for these breaks.
And how often is it associated to stress as, as to, say, an old injury per se?
What is the leading factor in pain?
Is what I'm getting at.
Because I know that when you first get injured, you have, you know,
disruptions in the tissues and the bones and the body heals itself.
So when we deal with pain, are we looking at this stress level as a leading
indicator of pain in our life then?
Basically pain and stress go hand in hand, you can't separate it.
'Cause if you think about it, even when you have an injury, it
happened because of something.
You could have been playing sports and you got an injury, you could
have, uh, walked down the street and all of a sudden you twisted an
ankle or something, that causes pain.
It's always a stress factor and, and, and, and, and we gotta understand stress.
It's not about being, stress being good or bad, you know, it's not about qualifying.
It's a stress, something that's out of the norm that connects with the nervous system
and the nerve endings to deliver the pain.
Let me give you an example to kinda show you so that can maybe be a little clearer.
Think about your funny bone in your elbow.
If you hit it, what's the first thing you are going to do?
Oh.
You are gonna make a verbal response.
Now when you hit it, that was the stress.
You hit the elbow, then the message travels up the nerve endings to the brain.
Trauma, stress in the elbow.
When that nerve ending sends that message to the brain about the trauma in the
elbow, the brain then sends its natural pain relievers to go to that area.
And the way you activate that is, then you put your hand on, you
start rubbing it, and that releases the body's normal pain relievers.
So that's the whole process when we say stress and pain work hand
in hand with each other, that you don't have pain without the stress.
You don't have the stress without the pain, they go together.
But then you look at, okay, now I know what the problem is.
What do I need to do to solve the problem so I can get back
to my natural state of wellness?
Because that's the optimum.
But we, the thing, the missing piece is we don't work with our body and
assist it in the healing process.
And by not doing that, we make it a lot worse than what it has to be.
Very interesting.
Yeah.
That, uh, action to the trauma, it, it's very interesting.
Our, our first response is that touch and, and that, I've never really thought
of that until just now, but that's an automatic principle in our life.
To initiate blood flow and therefore it, it can actually initiate
healing more, more rapidly.
So I, I really enjoy that a lot.
So let's, let's talk about these stressors in our life that can really
change our overall health, because it's not just pain, it, it can cause
so many issues in the body and we don't even recognize them sometimes
because it doesn't send the pain signal.
It, it might be a bowel interruption or something like that, and we just overlook
that it's actually stressors in our life.
The, the big thing against stress is like laughter or, you know, companionship.
What, what are some of those things that we can do to combat
these stressors in our life?
First of all, one of the things I always tell my clients, We have
a tendency, because we are quote unquote adults, to get in a box.
And that box is containing us to the point that we, we live with the stress.
We accept the stress as a reality because, as adults, you're supposed
to be quote unquote serious.
You're, you know, I call it being sterile.
What I say that we need to do is we need to spend time letting that
little girl and that little boy inside of us come out and play.
We forget what it was like to be a child, and when you were a child, you
were creative, you were inquisitive.
I mean, nothing bothered you.
You know, you just, you just lived.
And that is the same thing that we need to understand.
So when you start talking about stress, it's because we've become so sterile.
We've become so rigid.
We, we've, you know, we, as I say, especially now when we live in a situation
of 24/7 doom and gloom, we are attached to that and that, that makes us stressful.
That thing, you know, in terms of letting go, I mean, what's going to happen is
going to happen, but you don't have to participate in it so that it becomes
something that's going to happen to you.
It's about realizing you can only do but so much.
And whatever it is that you can do, start with that and focus with that.
All the other stuff is irrelevant.
That's where the stress comes in, trying to deal with everything that's going
on around you and you know you can't.
Yeah.
Drama in our life, you know, the, and, and we love drama and, you know, a
lot of that drama is external, like you said, and we drag it into us.
So I, I really found that that drama, uh, family drama, you know, work drama,
all of that, it can make us sick.
So I found that just being myself and being happy of who, what, and where
I am is truly a key of a happy life.
We're not gonna be happy all the time, and I accept that.
Yeah.
I tell people, I tell people, Put a day on your calendar to be silly.
It does not matter who sees you, how, what they think of you, this is your healing.
Be silly, have a silly day.
I mean, you know, to be so uptight makes you sick and you have to understand that.
You have to know how to let go, be free.
I, I, you know, there used to be a time when everybody used to feel
themselves being a free spirit.
Go back to being a free spirit, however you define it.
Be free, define your freedom and act on it.
And it, and you don't have to qualify or quantitate it to
anybody, this is just who you are.
And those who are supposed to accept you for who you are, those are the
ones you're supposed to be with.
If anybody has a problem with it, that means it's cleansing
time, it's time to let it go.
I like that a lot.
You know, the muddy shoe life, an analogy here I, I use all the time is life is
like a muddy trail and we're a muddy shoe walking down this muddy trail.
And the mud is people, places, and things.
And if we don't control, if we don't control those people,
places and things with boundaries in our life, it gets heavy.
We've all walked in heavy mud and it tires us down.
So find a rock and scrape it off, and that will lighten your load and you
can be happier, freer and cleansed, getting down the road of life.
So muddy trail, uh, people, places and things, we've got to
control those things in our life.
And if we don't, we're gonna be sick.
Is that not the case?
That is, that's what's causing the sickness, you
have defined it so elegantly.
And to add to, you know, when I talk about touch, we've got to
understand touch differently.
Touch is not just, I'm physically touching, touch is mental, it's
physical, it's emotional, it's spiritual, and it's even financial.
And we've got to understand touch in a whole different way.
And I say that to say, let me give you some examples, say somebody is
feeling bad and all of a sudden you just put your hand on their shoulder
and they feel so much better.
That's a touching moment.
Say somebody is having a, um,
they, they just got some bad news and, and it, and it's affecting them.
All you have to do is go up to them and say, You know what?
It's going to be all right, I'm here for you.
Something like that.
That's a touching moment that uplifted them, made them feel better.
You are going through a doorway and all of a sudden somebody's coming behind you
and you hold the door for them, and all of a sudden, oh no, they hold the door
for you and you say to them, thank you.
That's a touching moment.
We've got to understand it's the little small things that touch, that
we need to understand is touching.
And I say that to say, That when you're looking at the
power of touch, it does heal.
Because as a people, we need to touch.
And because we are not touching, that's why we're in all this
craziness that we're in now because we are not touching each other.
We are not connecting.
And my unscientific study, as it relates to that pandemic that we
were in for two and a half years, it's a, because of the lack of
touch, many people made a transition.
Because I couldn't see my family member, that's touch.
I couldn't talk to my family member, that's touch.
I couldn't even be in their presence, that was an energy exchange, that's touch.
Those are the important things that give us our healing, and that gives
us the foundation for us to be able to live the lives we are supposed to live.
That's how powerful touch is.
I like that a lot.
You know, we, we don't go deep enough into what our response and our cravings are.
You know, we, we get the, you know, addictions, the quick highs, and then
that always plummets into the deep lows.
But when we get that connection and that touch, it is remarkable
what happens in our life.
And, you know, I'm, I'm about to enjoy my fortieth wedding anniversary this month.
Thank you to Theresa, my beautiful wife.
And I'll tell you half, maybe even over half of our relationship
together, was filled with turmoil, and these trials, tribulations and
it's because we were relying on other people's vision of what we should be.
And you, you outlined this expression, if you will.
You need to be able to express who you are, not what somebody wants you to be.
And that allowed my wife and I to really get that connection and it showed
us that it's okay to be who you are.
And when we support each other, allowing us to be who we are instead of who we want
you to be, we can really move mountains.
And I, I really think that that's the direction our nation, our world,
needs to go is this healing through that touch that you just outlined.
It's so much more than just a pat on the back.
I, I love how deep you went into that.
Once we come, thank you for sharing the relationship with your wife because
what you just shared, that's about touch because of the fact that you are
able to exchange with each other, you connect with each other, that's touching.
And, and to be in a relationship, it's a partnership that's based on being able
to touch each other mentally, physically, emotionally, and even financially.
You have to understand, and that's why so many people have problems
in relationships because they don't understand the power of touch.
And we have to put that back in our lives as our foundation in terms of
that's what a healthy relationship is.
This is, touch is what gives you a healthy mind and body.
It's about touch, touch is so powerful.
And I say this to say, That is the one thing when it comes to
healing that pharmaceuticals cannot bottle, cannot market, and cannot
package because it's inside you.
That's right.
Uh, I like that a lot.
You know, the divisions in our nation is, is something, well,
you kind of said it, childish.
And we, we are acting like children, we're not grown up about the situations,
the actual needs in our world.
And when we allow these divisions to take over our mindset, we forget how
to love and give that loving touch.
And there, there's historical evidence of what we are going through right now,
and I'm, I'm gonna say it's World War II, pre-World War II, and I'm here to
say I don't want that for anyone here.
And if we are not able to say, No, that's not decent behavior.
We're in for some rocky roads, let's just put it that way.
And I'm, I'm really wondering how, how far our world will let
this next round of hostilities go before we find that touch again.
You know, it's something you said that sparked a thought
that came across my mind.
Something that I'm very passionate about is our young people.
I'm gonna say this, and the reason why I'm saying that is, because our young
people are under some undue stress and pain that we cannot possibly imagine.
As adults, we can find outlets to relieve our stress and pain, but our young people
have not been shown what outlets are available for them to relieve stress.
I say that in, in conjunction with what you just said and what you just
presented about the world order.
Our children right now are of the adult mindsets in terms
of moving things forward.
We as adults are being silly children trying to dictate, and
control, and regulate them and they are resisting and, as they should.
Because the problem is, and the one thing I know about young people,
they have a serious problem with you physically touching them.
And you know why?
Because we never spend the time to positively touch our children
mentally, physically, and emotionally.
By, because that's missing in their lives, they only have the
negative component of touch, which is what we are doing as adults.
We are showing them how you negatively touch, not positively touch.
And the way to change this is, which I tell parents, adults, guardian, or anybody
with children, Do the, the first powerful form of touch that's called listening.
When you spend time listening to a young person, you'll be surprised
at what you can learn from them.
They are very aware of what's going on, they are connected.
But you always come to them with, this is what you should be doing, or this
is what I did when I was your age.
It worked for our time.
This is a new time now, so we need to connect with them by listening and
then, not saying you have to agree with everything they say, but listen.
Because the thing that they want from you more than anything is support
and encouragement to move forward in terms of where we need to go.
That's right.
You, you know, I, I think you said that so well, uh, as we are recording this.
I just started to release season 24 of the podcast, and I opened the season
with a young man, Lawrence Harris.
And I'll tell you, this young man just made my heart crumble because I, I see
so much maturity in that young man that I don't see in our leadership today.
And it gave me extreme hope in our world because of our youth today.
So just like you, I want to congratulate them for being that strong.
Uh, you shouldn't have to be at that age, but I will tell you because of
the work you're doing now, you're going to move mountains in our
world when we need it the most.
And I can honestly say now, I have hope because of that
young man that I interviewed.
Uh, I really enjoy that.
And it, it's, it's for me personally, my life right now.
What's important to me is to be able to put the work that I do on the table
and pass it on to that next generation for them to take it to the next step.
Not do what I do, I'm giving you a foundation, take it to where you wanna do.
And guess what?
I'm sitting in my rocking chair supporting you 100% and I'm here
for you 'cause I know the pitfalls.
I can tell you how to avoid the pitfalls, that's how we need to be
interacting with our young people.
Whatever our talents or skills are, give it to them and help them
take it to the next level because you know what they're gonna face.
But you can, you can be the one that can be their armor of
protection as they move forward in making this world a better place.
Yeah.
You know, and authority sometimes don't know when to pass the
authority on to the next generation.
And, and that's where we are right now.
And I can say that we're, we're really seeing a shuffle of the minds, if you
will, where this old guard that's been doing the same thing for forty to fifty
years needs to crumble and pass it on to these bright young individuals that are
showing so much prospect in our world.
And we, we need to stop looking at the profit and start looking at the people.
I, I really think that's really big.
And when you look at the people, you now move away from
focusing only on the problem.
You now can start looking at, okay, I know what the problem
is, now where is the solution?
We need to be talking about Solutions.
And solutions are the people.
That's the solution, dealing with the people is how you get the solution.
And so to spend time always talking about the problem, it's what
causes the pain and the stress because you are in a stuck mode.
That's what I talk about being in the box, it is comfortable to
keep on talking about the problem.
But when you talk about solution, that means you have
to start putting some action.
Solution means providing action.
That's right.
You know, and that's, that's what we're doing here today.
And so many excellent podcasters are actually starting to put
their voice out there and say, No.
The regular news and the cycle that we've been stuck in is not right.
And when we are brave enough to stand up and start speaking the
truth as we know it, that's when we start finding these solutions.
And the key, like you said, listen.
When we listen, we can discover.
If we're always just talking, we never know what we're fighting for.
So if we're listening, we're actually in a discovery mode.
And that is really truly where we need to be, listening to people,
finding out where those problems are, and coming up with these divine
solutions because they're there.
And, and there's the resources and there's the manpower that no one
should be struggling the way we are.
So these systematic approaches need to crumble and let new ideas come in.
And that's called the power of touch.
Yes.
Uh, amen.
I like it.
So is there anything else that we should let our listeners
understand before we wrap things up?
One thing I'd like your listeners to really understand as it relates
to healing, I always tell my clients that you're gonna have
to stop going to your doctors
and taking your body there like it's an automobile.
And I say that to say is when your car breaks down, it has an engine light on,
or something's clanking, or something.
The first thing you do, you take it to the mechanic.
The mechanic is what?
Mechanically inclined.
So if you say this is what's wrong, they automatically know what they need to do.
If you're in pain, you can't walk into your doctor's office and say, Oh, my
back is aching, and they're automatically supposed to know what to do to relieve it.
You've got to go into your doctor's office with
the mindset that you know you want relief and you want, you're gonna
need to work with your doctor.
Don't just put your body in your doctor's hands, work with your doctor hand in hand
because it's gonna take the two of you to bring about the solution that you need.
You're gonna have to see your doctor as the person who is assisting you as
you assist your body in the healing process, and that's how healing begins.
Because when you go in there and you, you know you're in pain, the first thing
the doctor's going to say to you, because a doctor does not do the first form of
healing, which is listening, so when you go in there, you tell the doctor, I got
pain in such and such a place in my body.
And what's the doctor going to say to you?
Well, we are gonna need to do some tests.
But in the meantime, here's a prescription for your pain.
Now, I don't even know what's causing your pain, but I give you a prescription.
You have to understand that you want the doctor to assist you because you are
the only one that can heal your body.
All we do as practitioners is work with you and give you the guidance
and support for the healing to begin.
When you understand that, then you have taken back control of
your wellness to where it belongs.
Inside you and with you.
Yeah, I like that a lot.
You know, you really need that relationship in any healing journey.
So if you work in conjunction with each other, it's gonna go a lot quicker,
easier, and you'll heal a lot quicker.
So Njideka, is there a place where people can reach out to you, get involved and see
what you're doing, and, uh, get your help?
Well, the first thing I want to do, or to share with you, there's a, in, in the
African culture, when you visit somebody's home for the first time, you bring a gift.
So I come with a gift for you and your listening audience.
I have put together what is called a medication/addiction- free poster,
it's a chart for you that helps you in terms of you'd like to find some other
alternatives in terms of relieving pain without dealing with a medication.
And all you have to do is go to touchologyreflexology.com and download
the poster, that's my gift for me spending time with you here today.
The other thing is, I have a book, which is called Reflexology Today, A
Family Affair, which is, which breaks down how you can use reflexology as an
alternative in relieving pain and stress.
And with, you can go to my website to get, to get the book, it's focusonhealing.com.
And what I encourage everybody to do, go to my website, focusonhealing.com.
And I suggest to you, go to my contact page if you have any
questions, any comments, anything that you wanna know about relieving
pain using the power of touch.
Send me your questions, send me your comments,
I will get back to you 'cause I'd love to hear from you.
And I, I'd say that to say, you know, in terms of, the thing
that I'm on, this, like, what I could say, it's like a movement.
We're, we're, we're talking about putting the power of touch
back into our wellness agenda.
And the way we do that is by having conversations in terms of how we
see touch, how we understand touch.
And once we start that, we can turn this whole thing around.
And, and so I, the thing that I say, and thanks to you for having me as a guest
on your podcast, is for the listeners to understand that the power to heal
is inside you and to always remember that the power of touch heals all.
That's right.
You know, Njideka, you are a fantastic guest.
You have a lot to offer, and, you know, people need to understand more about
touch and you outline so much more that we don't recognize about touch.
I really enjoyed that aspect of our conversation today and I can't
thank you enough for being here, part of the Dead America Podcast.
My honor and privilege, I thank you
Yo.
Dr. Njideka, you know the place.
This word for the healers in here.
Natural vibes your foundation.
Ancient wisdom meets modern pain, no pills needed, break the chain.
Dr. Njideka, here's the way, mind, body, soul, and our money sway.
Opioid free, the futures here today.
And try to forstall the chemical thing, and check out the answering.
From root to tree, from earth to sky, traditional knowledge can't deny.
Whole body healing, that's no lie.
Natural remedy that's the key, unlocking what's supposed to be.
Balance and peace internally, ancient truth set me free.
Natural remedy,
naturally.
Let the suffering end this time, people searching for relief to find.
But the answer been here from long ago, grandmother wisdom, let it flow.
Holistic, but that's how we go.
No dependency, no side effect, just pure intention and respect.
The body know it heal itself when we trust in the natures wealth,
spiritual health bring physical health.
Natural remedy that's the key, unlocking what's supposed to be.
Balance and peace internally, ancient truth set me free.
Natural remedy, naturally.
Mind
clear,
body strong, soul at peace where it belong.
Integration, that's the song, right from the start we're near all along.
Dr. Njideka showed you the way forward, combination of old and modern word.
No reject progress, no reject root, find a balance, that's the truth.
Present day, they need ancestral truth we don't need to suffer
endlessly, when nature offers energy.
Break the chain of dependency, choose the part of family.
Conscious healing set me free.
Natural remedy that's the key, unlocking what's supposed to be.
Balance and peace internally, ancient truth set me free.
Natural remedy,
naturally.
Hope flying free, the futures here today, mind, body, soul are all on it's way.
Dr. Njideka heals the way, natural advice every single day.
RESPECT!