The Joyfulicity Podcast
Let's face it - in a world full of pain and troubles, couldn't we all use a little (or a lot) more joy? But how do we find it, keep it and share it? We'll dig in on that and explore it together here, on the Joyfulicity podcast. What is Joyfulicity? It's my made-up word for the art of living happy. I'm your host Laura Wakefield, a single mother of 9, certified midlife discovery life coach, writer, travel host and yoga and beach lover. Dedicated to helping others discover and maintain greater peace and personal empowerment. Dare to Dream - Plan to Play - Live to Learn. Here's to living life with a smile.
The Joyfulicity Podcast
Danny Rongo - That Oneness Guy
My special guest on this episode is Danny Rongo, affectionately known by his friends and followers as That Oneness Guy.
We will be talking about his views on the concept of oneness, insights he has learned during his personal battle with stage 4 throat cancer, and about his book "The Ways of Oneness - Helping to Navigate Life." Follow my affiliate link to BUY HIS BOOK (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualified purchases) https://amzn.to/48c8w8R
To learn more about Danny, his message and his music, check out his website: http://dannyrongo.com
* Special Note: Since the taping of this episode, my dear friend Danny passed away in 2024. Proceeds from book sales will still benefit his family. He is missed, but his wisdom still carries on.*
Please like and subscribe here, and also visit my links page to see all of the other places we can connect. This is the hub for more information on my website, my coaching program, the podcast, social media and to subscribe to my newsletter. Hope to see you there soon! https://www.joyfulicity.com/links
Welcome to the Joy Felicity Podcast. I'm your host, Laura Wakefield, and my guest today is Danny Rongo, otherwise known to his friends and followers affectionately as that oneness guy. I met Danny on Instagram a long time ago now, a couple of years ago now, I think. And he is just such a delightful guy. He is an all-around, he just does everything. He's a podcaster, an author, a public speaker, a singer-songwriter, a playwright. Just he does it all. And it's been hard this morning, actually, to decide which things to focus on talking with him about. But Danny has the distinction of being the very first person to ever invite me on to be a podcast guest. And that gave me the confidence to start really seriously thinking about really getting started on my own podcast. So I'm just honored and thrilled to have Danny on as my guest today. Welcome, Danny.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, Laura, Laura. Thank you so much. Uh, it's a treat, it's a pleasure. Uh, I enjoyed our first conversation immensely, and I know this is going to be a good follow-up.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. So, Danny's main theme in all of the endeavors that he does is a concept called oneness that he originally encountered through Wayne Dyer, who I also love and follow. Danny, when you say oneness, what does that mean to you? Because a lot of people talk about oneness, but what does that mean in your definition?
SPEAKER_02:Well, like what I've seen over the years, Laura, is that oneness to most people means a uh a bond, but from a physical perspective. People mean uh they say, Well, I understand the fact that I'm a human being and you're a human being, so we should respect each other. And I applaud that. To me, that's fine. And if people want to leave it at that, I'm fine with that. But I've always tried to also tie in this spiritual perspective, because obviously we're not just here as as uh physical beings, obviously, there's the spiritual lessons that we emanate from as well. So when I talk about oneness, I try to steer towards that because to emanate from one source, you can call that source God, which is probably the most identifiable. You can call it spirit, essence, whatever. To me, it does not matter what you call it, because when you name something to me, you negate something. So I like to say God or spirit or soul, which is fine, but I like people to get to the concept that whatever you happen to call that source, you come from that. You're an extension of that source. Just like branches on a tree, just like waves in the ocean, we're all part of it. So when we live from that premise that we're here as these physical beings and as these spiritual beings, but that we emanated from this same source, to me, that helps to solidify the bond aspect of oneness. Like, hey, we are kind of related. And it's not just the fact that we're human beings, it's that we came from the same source. So, to me, like over the decades, it's been more of a battle to try and relay that whole concept of the spiritual side of oneness, but it's been worth it for me because that's what I've been focusing on through my last couple of books and through you know some of these things that I talk about on my uh podcasts and blogs and stuff like that. But it's important for me to try to relay that thought, that process, that we come from a source. Keep it over here, if you may. And we're all from that. Like I said, branches on a tree is probably the best way to make like a visual per se for like people to understand. But um, it's important, man, because we've grown so far away from that, from that knowing Laura. I don't know how to explain it to you, but um just through time, there's been such a divisiveness, so much separateness. Yeah, and it all stems from our ego that we're not from this one source, that we are all different, that because I was born on this side of the planet, I'm definitely different from you, even though we're still human beings, I'm definitely different from you. You know, so they put up these walls that just happen naturally, but they're all ego-driven. And uh yeah, and it's gotten worse and worse and worse over time. Um, I like feel that word kind of hit a point, if you want to call it. Uh I like to call it since actually since COVID, since the lockdown. I think that actually represented a really good clarity for humanity, if you may. Because that forced a lot of people, because we were shut down, right? Everything was in a lockdown. So it forced us to take deeper looks at ourselves to to our advantage, I might add too, because you know, when like people are shut in by themselves, what do you do? Right? You have to start to question. You do a lot of thinking, right? Right, right, right, right, exactly. Um, so I think that was a very pivotal point in the year 2020, which may have, may have, you know, I'm still hoping, but it may have just turned that corner to make us lead more of our collective consciousness into more of a spiritual base. Because I've always said with oneness that this world, people say, Oh, it's such a horrible world, but and it's our own fault. People like to point fingers at even their God and say, you know, how would God allow this? First of all, God's got nothing to do with it. Your spirit, your entity is here free will. There's no interjection here. Uh, so you know, to think that someone's gonna come in and save us, that ain't the case, or cementity is gonna save us, that's not gonna happen. We are here free will. Um, you know, but like I said, to be able to see that turning point is so important. And I'm just really hoping that it's all gleaning that because we're just the sum of a collective consciousness. And that's why the world seems so kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, and I really love that because in the world there's so many different benchmarks and defining things that we use to show how we're different. You know, our like you said, where we where we were born, our gender, our religion, our the color of our skin, um, our sexuality, all these different things. Oh, we're different than that person, they're different than us. Oh, yeah. And I love the concept that that no, that's those are just simply details that really, in essence, we're the same. We come from the same source.
SPEAKER_02:And and it's the irony too about it, Lori, isn't it? Isn't it the truth? Because on the other side, we're all one. We're all oneness, there is no separation. But it's the irony, yet it's the beauty of it, that as soon as we incarnate into here, what happens? We go from a oneness to a duality. We go from oneness, we go to contrast. What does that mean? Over there, there is no good and bad, up and down, right or wrong, left and right. It's all one. But here we're forced into this contrast for the very reason that being forced into that is what's going to make us come to realize at some point in this lifetime oh, I am from a source of one. I am oneness. That's the that's the whole key to life for us to remember, or I like to separate the word remember, re-member. We need to remember the concept that we're oneness, and that's all it is. And to do that, you have to be forced into what oneness is not. For us to realize what we are, we have to experience what we are not. So the only reason why for us to fully experience oneness, Laura, is for us to come here to experience what oneness is not, and that's what a lot of people don't get. That we're here. That's the biggest reason for us to realize.
SPEAKER_00:I've never heard it said quite like that.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Think about it, because it makes perfect sense. You know, uh, obviously, everything over there, we could be floating around going, everything is great, right? We don't know the difference. So we choose. I fully believe that over there we choose everything. We look at the possibilities from who our parents are going to be to what trials and tribulations we're gonna encounter here, and we put it in place. We kind of make up like a script, a diagram. That's why I fully believe that this whole life is but a dream, like the song says. It really is, because we actually put it in place. You know, we wrote everything out onto the side and we said, let's do this. That's what also makes me truly be amazed at the people who I believe choose to come here with physical handicaps. Yeah, because they're looking at it from the other side and say, I can deal with that, I can do that over there. So they put it in place, they pick their parents and they say, Let's rock, let's do this. So you want to talk about angels and you want to talk about gifted people? That's why I've I've always had that special thing for people who share, you know, who who have fiscal handicapped, it's especially that. And it's just, you know, it's because all of us say, man, what a hard way to go through life.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. In fact, it's funny that you say that. I was watching a television show last night that had that featured a uh guy that was in a wheelchair. He'd been in a car accident when he was about 17 or 18 and was put into a wheelchair. And he has gone on to, you know, through a lot of difficulty. It didn't just happen like that, but now he really motivates and inspires a lot of other people in the same circumstance. And it's amazing to me those people that take their challenges and find a way to use them to bless and inspire and help other people. That's I can't even express how much I admire somebody like that. That they don't just stay stuck in it. You know, of course they go through the grief and the pain and the anger and all the other things, but but they find a way out on the other side to use whatever challenge they're facing for good. And that's just, I think that, in my opinion, that is just kind of what you're talking about of rediscovering, rediscovering what we're here for, even. You know, why are we even going through this? So, what made you decide originally? Hey, I really have all these beliefs, I want to go and share them with other people.
SPEAKER_02:How much time are you gonna have? Um, with me, Laura, it's uh it's something that I I went to very organically. Um because I may have told you like back on our first podcast together that uh, you know, like I'm a musician by trade and uh singer-songwriter. And back when I was, you know, like in my late teens and early 20s is when it started to ramp up when I like I started to perform or I got record deals and I started to, you know, I was a more of a lyricist at that time. And I was always coming across, especially lyrics, that had this commonality through them of a bonding of unifying, I guess, right? And so, you know, like I was in these like rock bands and stuff like that, and like I'm writing these like for these almost heavy metal songs, and these lyrics have these kind of bondings, you know. And the guys in my band were always cool about it. They're like, damn, like you're kind of like on this like trend here, man, of like getting everybody together. So, what's up with that, dude? Heavy metal spirituality, yeah. Yeah, I don't know, but so I said, I'm just gonna go with it. Uh, so I kept writing, and then like when I started to write my own songs, it took on a whole like other level, and like it started to get deeper. Now, this is out in you know, like about the time because I first found Dr. Dyer uh through a friend of mine back in 1976 when we were sophomores in high school. And that was that was when his first book came out, New Erroneous Owns. And so I for some reason he he just he just worked with me, and I've read everything that he's ever written since then. Um, but then like for some reason or another, because Wayne really wasn't even talking about uh bonding and oneness or something similar along those lines back then. He was just talking about finding a spirituality, finding an essence, if you may. Um, but that's when my lyrics started to ramp up even more about this. So from there, you know, it just took me through countless bands, countless opportunities. I started writing poetry about it and more and more, and then it took me into, you know, like my adulthood 30s, still doing the same thing, writing and writing. And then like it was it was probably like around like when I hit my 30s, uh, which was in the in the early 90s. I was born in 61, so somewhere like 1991, uh, is when I first heard the concept of oneness. And I was like, hmm, similar, right? Right.
SPEAKER_01:So like I started saying, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I was like, this is something maybe I can hang my hat on. Now, granted, I would, you know, I I never claimed to be the first person talking about oneness. It has been talked about for centuries, and it's still talked about by thousands and thousands of people and messengers. Um, but I said, wow, this is this is something that I can, you know, use as my foundation. And the foundation is very cool, especially for me because I'm a bass player. So you gotta have that bottom lore, you gotta have that bottom end, right? You gotta have it. So to me, that was my rock of the foundation, was one. So I kind of hung my hat on it, and then you know, fast forward through all the times, uh you know, sharing it more and more. Um and and it wasn't until wow, just uh the latter part of 2016, which was very pivotal for me, because that's when I got laid off from my job at Wall Street. Had to do a whole other like search inside, all right. Something I did for 30 years. Now I'm not doing it no more. Now what?
SPEAKER_00:Now what? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, so I had to do some soul search in there, and that's when I started getting more and more messages about all right, surrender, which became a topic and later a song. Terms like acceptance, which became a topic and a headline and a song for me. And um, you know, I it was at the same time when my uh, you know, my stepdaughter actually she put it to me. She goes, You got all these messages now and you got your song. She goes, Why don't you put it down like into uh, you know, some kind of musical theatrical production? And that's when I actually wrote, um, it's called The Phone Call, a musical to inspire oneness, which was just me. Uh, it was me, microphone, my iPad, and my uh acoustic bass guitar. And I wrote this play around it that I was having a FaceTime call with a friend of mine who was searching for his own spirituality. So he gives me this FaceTime call, which is on the iPad right in front of me. So I go through this whole dialogue. That was the premise of the play. That I have this dialogue with my friend who wants to learn a little bit about Oneness. So as I'm going through concepts, I would say, and listen, here's here's an easy way for me to describe this topic. Put my bass on my shoulders, sing a song. And so the play was about a good like a good like 90 minutes. And man, you talk about rehearsals, Laura.
SPEAKER_00:I would slew on stage by yourself for 90 minutes. That's something.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and again, because now I was technically unemployed because I haven't been working. So I spent day after day, night after night, just in my, you know, then home, you know, like in my office, just rehearsing this. So then I started going around to the local theaters here in New Jersey, and I was blessed to perform at about maybe a dozen of them, um, to some good reviews. Uh, I started to see some people in the seats. And then uh, you know, through the United Solo, if I'm calling it correctly, which is a uh organization in New York, I was able to perform it on Broadway.
SPEAKER_00:And um as you had taken Broadway.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. It was on it, it was it was on Broadway. I was able to do a show of it on Broadway, and a lot of family and friends showed up. And uh, you know, it was it was awesome. Um, I loved it. I have, you know, I I I have some really nice video of it, which I use in a lot of my uh postings and stuff. But that was awesome. And uh from that, right after that is when my mom became really ill. And then she passed in in January of 2018.
SPEAKER_01:I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02:And uh it's cool, you know. Uh it and um, you know, like I remember hearing in my head, uh, you know very shortly after she passed, she was, I was like, Mom, where do I take this now? I said, because I had this play, I was blessed enough to perform on Broadway. I go, mom, where to now, which happens to be a song of mine called Where to Now. And I heard her in my head, Laura, she always called me Daniel's son. She went, Daniel son, you need to write a book. And I was like, All right, mom, I got you. So it was from then that I wrote my first book, which is called I Am God, and So Are You, My Friend, A Common Man's Guide to Oneness. And uh, you know, like when I was thinking about the title of it, I was struggling with it. I said, I'm gonna catch a lot of flack in this title, man. And I and I just know it. Again, getting back to the separation, Laura. Right. Because when you say I am God to any stout Catholic, that's blasphemy.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, that's that's blasphemy.
SPEAKER_02:And um, you know, I said, you know what? I'm gonna go out with it because this is what it's about. And I am God, I am an aspect of God, just like I spoke about. I'm a branch, I'm a tree of God. So, yes, I am God, you are God, everyone listen out there. You're a divine replication of your source, whatever you might call it. So I wrote that book. Um, and um, you know, and from there it just started to pick up pace and more and more, and in book signings and some shows. And it hasn't stopped. It hasn't stopped, you know, and it kind of led me to 2020, getting back to that uh now infamous time in history.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Remember when that started? We all thought it would be over in two weeks.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, yeah. Two weeks. No, yeah. But I took the lockdown to write, and because I sensed the fear, Laura, like there was so much fear, and I felt it myself. I'm like, this is not cool. Like, how am I gonna get myself through this?
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:I said, Dan. I said, I so you know, I was shut down because at the time is when I I was I was started working as my second career, which is as a uh paraprofessional, which I love by the way, I love it, and uh, and I've been doing it ever since. Um, so school was shut down, so I was I was home. So I decided to, I was just writing, and it was and it was gonna be just a blog about how I got myself through the pandemic in the eyes of oneness, if you may. And so, and so I wrote it, and I was you know, and I was looking at it, I was like, this is very beneficial. I said, So, aside from going out with just this about how to how to kind of navigate, because that's what I was looking for, Laura. How am I gonna navigate through this turmoil, through all this shit going on?
SPEAKER_00:Totally unprecedented in the lives of people who were are alive right now. Like we'd never think about that.
SPEAKER_02:No, it was all you know, obviously unprecedented. So I was like, how am I gonna get through this? So I wrote it and I said, This is a really good way to navigate through any any kind of pandemic. And then I started to do some research about how many pandemics that we have in history, and then I started to look up facts. Basically, something like this came across one out of every 15 years over the last couple of hundred years, whether we know it or not.
SPEAKER_00:So maybe not so unprecedented.
SPEAKER_02:We just didn't exactly we just feel it wrong because media blew it up. So then as I was pondering that, I was like, why don't I try and piece together you know a way to navigate through some of the most intricate and delicate moments of life love, health, money, fear, ego, uh, duality, contrast, blah, blah, blah, blah. So like I came across with about 12 really good ones, and then I said, I got something here. So I started writing. I dated, you know, like my first journal was I think March 20th of 2020. And then on the last journal, it was like August 15th of 2020. So I wrote for six months solid. And uh and then I I had it. So then I started putting it together, and and that's what actually became the book that I am now going to be releasing finally as in a uh print copy, is The Ways of Oneness Helping to Navigate Life, which I conceived under the blanket of a global pandemic.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and I love that because those all those lessons can be applied to almost any challenge that you're facing, not just to a pandemic, but but other things that you go through in your life, and everybody will go through something.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:You know, that won't all be the same, but we will all have our challenges and and we will all have significant ones of different kinds.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And there was a common, you know, well, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:No, I was just gonna say that there's a common thread through it all. Um, because any way that we look to navigate through any aspect of life, good, bad, hard, difficult, whatever, um, it's always gonna come down to that we're blessed to make choices. So how we look at things, again, it's not it's not the circumstances that define our life. It's rather our attitude towards those circumstances that define our life. And those and our attitude towards those circumstances all come from the way we choose to view those circumstances. So everything still comes back to choices.
SPEAKER_00:And you are such a good example of that, because that's what I was gonna just ask you a minute ago. Um, Danny was originally supposed to be one of the first guests on the show, but you've been going through your own serious challenge battling throat cancer in the last, well, I think for a while. Now, can you tell talk about that a little bit?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, um, again, guys, how we talk about moments and defining moments. Uh it's it it like hit my family. Now, cancer is obviously so prevalent in today's society, but uh, I was actually diagnosed back on September of 21, Laura, which is a couple of years ago, and uh, you know, scared the hell out of me, scared the hell out of my wife, Andrea, and my family. Um, but like what we've decided to do, and it's something that I'd like to share uh with, you know, I go over your guests, is if you're ever diagnosed with something to that nature, something that's as grim and as scary as that, take a step back. You really need to become the CEO of your life and of your health. You're gonna hear so many things thrown at you, so many things that are new, so many things that are foreign to you, and so many things that are scary.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Like I was told right away, uh, this is gonna take aggressive uh chemo and radiation. And uh, you know, like my my first thought, obviously with my wife as well, too, was like, is that all you guys got nowadays? This is 2021. Oh my god, you know, is it you know, but they don't say that, they just go right to their source and say, This is what you should do. You could die, you know. I'm like, oh, it's pleasant. So I decided to really work on, all right, I wanted to become the CEO of my health. So we started to really dive into uh what are some of the alternative and and natural um methods per se, uh like how to get through cancer to any degree. And you know, it starts with all right, first of all, I went totally plant-based for seven months. Um, I got off everything that cancer fuels off of, which means all processed foods, all sugars, anything that can break out of the sugar. Um, but from that, I started to get stronger, actually. I dropped weight because I stopped eating all the garbage. Uh, but I started to get a little healthier, a little stronger, stayed in touch uh with uh some of my doctors. I I got uh affiliated with um Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City at this time, and uh I I came across uh a guy who's still the leader on my team, is Dr. David Pfister, who I who I found out uh weirdly enough, is that he's the same doctor who saved Michael Douglas's life, the aftermath who had stage four throat cancer just like me. Wow. And uh yeah, so uh I was like, well, I got a good guy. Right. That's for sure. Yeah. Um so he understood all that I was going through, and he understood why I took my own measures when I did to clean my body out, to come to some kind of. I told him about my spirituality lore, I told him about everything, as opposed to the five doctors prior to him who said, No, do it now. No, that ain't gonna work. Dr. Pister said, We can work with this. I applaud what you did. Good for you. You know what I mean? That's rare to find that that's because I didn't settle on that first doctor, the second, third, or the fourth. He was my fifth.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:And the chief of head and neck oncology in New York City from Orioles Lone Counter, the chief told me this that I made the right choice. Here's what we can do. He threw a couple opportunities at me. There at the time there was a clinical trial that uh that worked with my form of cancer. He put that to me as a possibility. He also put out to uh to me the possibility of coupling that with immunotherapy, to which I said, all right, fine, let's try this. So I was able to do that for the better part of this is going back to this time last year. I was doing that, and I did it for about four months through I think May through maybe September of last year. Um, I was like doing the immunotherapy plus the clinical trial. It came to a point last fall where you know, like I went in front of the scan, and unfortunately, it showed that the cancer uh moved into my bones, which was not good. And also that it was that those treatments were, you know, having an effectiveness on the cancer in my bones, but it was losing its effectiveness on the main point, which is my head and neck and my throat. So at that point, I was like, all right, Doc, I said, what's the next move? And he says, well, from here, he was now we're looking at something more aggressive. And he advised a seven-week program of uh chemotherapy once a week and uh uh five days a week of radiation with 35 treatments starting in January of 23. And I was like, all right, so like to make this uh as short as I can, folks, I apologize, but it's my show, thanks to Laura.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. Well, and you've been so good and so open and transparent. On social media was sharing your journey. And I I just I wanted you to do that here because I think it's inspirational to a lot of people to see how you've been coping and getting through this.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Mark. Because my whole thought about this from the whole from the inception of it was that I never, ever, ever said why me? Never. Because one of the things that I mentioned briefly just uh a couple minutes ago was the term acceptance. And to me, acceptance means that you learn to see life through the eyes of oneness. What does that mean, Dan? It it means that there is no right or wrong, life just is. So I never questioned why I got this. I just knew that it was a part of my journey. And how we spoke about earlier, Danny Boy on the other side, back before I came here, I was like, I can tell I could do cancer, I'll get through it, I'll get over it, right? I put it in my own chart. So I did it. But I've always said from the start, I am gonna share this. I do want to make it public because people have an option. You can either keep that to yourself and your family, or you can share it. And I wanted to share it for two reasons. One was because um I knew I was gonna receive a bowl of love, which was off the charts, Laura, and is still off the charts. The abundance of love, joy that I received from this, from strangers, family, friends, has been incredible. I cannot put a word on it. People have helped me, people have supported me emotionally, financially, and all I've ever said is that I have no words, just love. Because I don't know how to thank people for that. I really don't. Well, that's that's that's why I I signed everything that everyone ever said to me. I have no words, just love. Um, that was the first point to for me to gather that energy. We're all about energy, Laura, right? People sending me love, people praying for me on Facebook, what does that mean? It's an energy, it's I'm part of that energy. I want it all, I want it all, I want to heal, I want it all. That was the first part. The second point was that if my journey helps one person, just one, then it's worth it. I've no, I've known that I've helped literally hundreds already.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, absolutely. I've been following your journey and have been so impressed. And and a lot of the things that you say have helped me in other struggles that I've had. You know, I haven't I haven't dealt with cancer in my life personally, but I've dealt with other struggles, and a lot of your messages have been inspirational to me in handling those. And I've really appreciated watching sort of the grace and the resilience that you have brought to this whole journey.
SPEAKER_02:That's so very kind for you to say that, Laura. It means the world to me. Thank you. Thank you so much. Like I said, I'm I'm you know, I'm just I'm not doing it for applause. I'm trying to do it. Like I said, I want that energy to come to me. It's all about the energy. I know it's out there, I know I'm part of it, so I want it. And also, if I can help anyone, that's that's the jam.
SPEAKER_00:I love too what you said that that cancer is not the only part of your life, it's part of your path, it's part of your journey. And you'd mentioned earlier, you know, a job loss and you know, just different struggles that come to us in our lives that it's so easy to get stuck in. Why me? And this is horrible, and my whole life is horrible. But oftentimes they'll help you learn things you couldn't have learned another way, or turn a corner in your life into just a like your job loss sent you on a completely different career path. Like it's it's hard to see where we're in the midst of a struggle, what that struggle is going to bring to our lives. But but your message is always to just stay in acceptance mode and sort of ride it out and see where it goes and learn what you can and share what you can. And I love that.
SPEAKER_02:No, thank you. Yeah, and uh, you know, that's where I was able to tie in what I've garnished from oneness, what I've taken in on like over my lifetime through my own spiritual journey. And it is a journey, folks. It it you know, I it never ends, obviously. Uh, we just keep growing and growing and growing because everything about this whole lifetime and uh this whole journey is about growth because we're constantly changing, right? Constantly changing. That's part of the duality again, because on the other side it's just oneness. But here is when everything is changes, and it always leads me back to a uh one of my favorite quotes from Lao Tzu, uh, who lived 600 years before Jesus, when uh he said that which is real never changes. So like when people think about it, like everything about this life is changing. We're growing older, like somewhere inside me still is that little five-year-old Danny boy. Somewhere inside you is that five-year-old little Laura girl, you know? And but look at look at how we've changed. So it's changed so much from that, but that which is real never changes, meaning that our essence, your soul, which was alive and thriving before you came into this being, and will be alive and thriving when we choose to leave and when we exit, it'll it'll be the that same energy, that same essence.
SPEAKER_00:I totally and our underlying value systems and and absolute truths, you're right. They don't change, they stay the same, they just are thrown into different circumstances.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And then we kind of go through those. So when will your new when will this new book be coming out? Your the ways of oneness, when will that be?
SPEAKER_02:Ways of oneness. I'm gonna be having that probably out over the next week or so.
SPEAKER_00:Um, really quickly then.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, um, I'm just finalizing stuff uh on my pages and like on my Amazon author page where it's going to be available on Amazon and uh putting some stuff together, some you know, like like introductory kind of uh posts and videos, and uh I just made a video trailer just the other day. So I'm getting stuff ready for like a kind of official release file the next week or so.
SPEAKER_00:So I don't want you to give away too much from the book because I want everybody to go and buy your book, but do you have like a little teaser sample idea for us of how you know what what what are some sample advice from the book about how to deal with challenges and trials and and life?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, again, oh, because like I said, the book was written with that whole pandemic all around us at the time. So everything's getting tied back in, even though I'm talking about you know, uh life and death and family and fear and ego, and so all these, you know, very intricate and delicate moments and aspects of life, it's getting tied back to how to navigate through it, which then from how the how to navigate through that pandemic. And again, we're looking at choices and we always have you know the option to take because it's about navigation, but we have a choice to go left or right, right? So if there's any one kind of headline to like look through how to like a navigational guide, is just like when you're coming into that fork in the road and you can either go this way or or this way, you have to make that choice. So to me, the choice is easier to come by and more comfortable with us when we have more of a spiritual foundation, when we have more of a oneness foundation to life. It helps to take some of the burden off we're trying to go, we're trying to go, we're trying, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:Exactly, because I find myself sometimes, I you know, I have always struggled with anxiety in my life, and I'll get to a fork in the road, you know, uh metaphorically, or sometimes even for real, and get paralyzed a little bit. I can't I can't make a decision because what if I make the wrong one? And and that, and I'm getting better at that, but I think you're right that having that that connection to spirit and getting used to knowing what that feels like, accepting that because sometimes the you're guided toward the choice that maybe isn't even the one that you wanted, or the maybe it's a little scary down that road and you're not sure if you should do it, you know. So, what would be your advice to someone who's stuck in paralysis mode of just being unable to make a decision?
SPEAKER_02:Um take takes a moment to like or two to breathe, you know what I mean? Try to go within, try to calm this up, you know, having having anxious thoughts, which which lead to, you know, what you mentioned about anxiety, that's that's available to everyone. But you know, like what I like to say is that uh there's really no anxiety out there. We're thinking anxious thoughts, which is making this kind of spin out of control. When this spins out of control, we kind of lose our essence, we kind of lose touch with what's what, which could lead to physical, you know, abnormalities. You can lose your breath, right? You actually lose your breath, you feel tightening, like in a sense. Now that stuff's real, but it's triggered from how we're thinking, you know, that's like something Dyer said decades ago. You know, he he he actually mentioned it about you know uh anxiety and he coupled it with fear. He said, There is no fear in the world, there's only fearful thoughts, there is no anxiety in the world, there's only anxious thoughts. You know, so when we get a handle on that, yeah, you know what I mean? It's how we're processing a thought. And unfortunately, we're letting ourselves spin out of control with it, which in turn leads to, you know, like I said, shortness of breath, sweating, nervousness. Yeah, more. I get it all the time.
SPEAKER_00:I love that because this anxiety takes on all this sense of power and control. And and I love that because when you realize that doesn't actually exist at all, it's all up here. That means that I truly I have the power and control as to how that's going to affect me and and how I'm gonna show up for that in my life. I I I love that concept that the anxiety itself doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, it's it's all it's it's all here. Ain't that cool when you think about it like that?
SPEAKER_00:That's very cool. I I love that concept. That I'm gonna really ponder on that one.
SPEAKER_02:A lot of people who will argue with you on that and say, what do you mean? So I'm making it up. No, you're not making up your physical ailments that you're getting from it. Right. You're just not controlling your anxious thoughts.
SPEAKER_00:But it in and of itself actually is imaginary.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The way that we're responding to it is very real, and you know, and maybe whatever circumstances that we're dealing with are real, that are difficult. Of course, anxiety itself really isn't as powerful as we let it be.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and then you know, you have that choice. All right, I can I can let it affect me, or I can breathe, go within, try to meditate to some degree to try and face it, whatever it may be, from a different perspective. And therein lies your victory if you can face it from another angle.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I I love that. I'm really gonna give that concept some deep thought because it's life-changing. I I do. I actually think that that is a life-changing thing if you can really learn to integrate that. Yeah, you know, that you can you can start to feel the anxiety, and then you can learn how to turn it off by realizing that I I am actually in control of this.
SPEAKER_02:And let me tell you and and everybody else out there, too. Please don't think that I'm just some person who's got it all wrapped up and under control. I am the freaking worst. My wife yells at me so much because I am just calls me nervous Dan, because I, you know, I'm just so wound up at like at like some points. Uh, you know, I have to really severely put on the brakes, really talk to myself. Uh, but fear was a big part of my life. I believe fear was actually what led to me getting cancer, you know, because I couldn't really control all the fears that I had buried in me. And it was uh with uh thanks to my friend who was actually on my first podcast back, my friend Heather Dean, who's a spiritual hypotherapist from France. Uh, by the way, look her up. You want to talk about someone who's funny and comical just like you, she's a piss. And um, but she actually hypnotized me, put me on the hypnosis, and took me back to that little, you know, very afraid five-year-old five, six, seven-year-old boy who's afraid to die. And that was me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But uh I've always had yeah, yeah, yeah, but so cool, so very cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, amazing. So I have another question for you, but before I ask it, tell everybody where all they can find you. You I know you've got a website, a podcast, all of that stuff. Share with everybody where is that oneness guy? Where's Danny?
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's it's it's easy, folks. Everything can be found, you know, I stem from my website, which is my main hub, which is that onenessguy.com. You'll find everything there from uh my podcast, blogs, vlogs, my songs, uh videos. Um, everything is every you know, like everything is pretty much right there. And plus, uh I am on all social media platforms. You just got to look for uh that oneness guy, and then you'll find me, but everything stems from pretty much from the website that oneness guy.
SPEAKER_00:So that's the main place to go to find out Danny Rongo. And you perform your songs at senior centers, correct? Is or at least you used to.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, those those like shows, which I'm hoping to get back to, you know, as a vocalist, I've been at at Senior Assisted Living Homes, which I absolutely love. I've been doing them for five years, and uh I can't wait to get back to them. But see, you know, I'm talking about gratification, it just it lifts my spirit because they really don't have much to look forward to at all for other days. So when it's entertainment day, they get excited. And uh I'm I'm looking forward to get back back to singing. I'm not there yet. The throat's kind of getting there, but uh it's it's it's still gonna take a little while before I can sing, Laura. But uh I'll I'll be back to that.
SPEAKER_00:I'm so happy though that you're kind of on the mend and on the upswing, and that's really made me thrilled to see that.
SPEAKER_01:So thank you.
SPEAKER_00:As you know, the underlying theme of this podcast is seeking joy in daily living. And so, how does the concept of oneness and coming to understand that spiritual side of us, how does that lead to greater peace and joy in someone's life?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, honestly, folks, finding finding joy, if it's not one of your main, you know, as um aspirations of life, uh it should be. We should all want to live as as joyfully as we can. Our essence, our spirit knows nothing but joy and love. Um, and again, this lifetime takes us away from that for the obvious reasons that we mentioned earlier, but it's part of our core. And an easier way for me has been to celebrate oneness because once I understood more about that inherent bond, about that inherent connection, again, not just to the physical, but to my spiritual essence, to know that I emanate from a source which is nothing but joy and love. Well, I want to tap into that as often as possible. So when I started to embrace and celebrate oneness more, uh, yes, again, I don't live that, you know, a happy rainbow, you know, unicorn way of life. But I do no one does. But the miserable times, Laura, are so much less for me now, you know, especially dealing what I've been dealing with with cancer too. Talk about wanting, you know, like to appreciate joyful moments in life when you when you're dealing with something as serious as that. Yeah. So learn to celebrate your connection, which will in turn make, which will in turn make you appreciate the joy in your life when you encounter it, when you're in an opportunity with family and friends. Like it means so much more. So much more. When you understand that these people are vibrating now at the same frequencies that you are, because they love you, be it your, you know, your workmates, your family, your your friends. You know, when you're around people who who who enter you know who vibrate with you, you feel it, it's the energy. But understanding oneness will help us, you know, appreciate that more, which in turn makes us appreciate the joy in life more. Because it's not supposed to be the struggle. Although it is, it's not supposed to be. We're supposed to just go, we're supposed to enjoy as much and love and live and laugh as much as we can, which is why I've always, you know, was so attracted to your moniker when I first saw it some time ago, some years ago, about joyful listening.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, wow, someone who wants to celebrate something like that, how cool is that? Right? It's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, that would be. You know, like that was kind of in a pandemic driven, also, just everything was gloom and doom and heavy, and and that's all real, and you can't ignore it. That's also joy, yeah. And I feel like we need to reach for as much of that as we possibly can. And you're right, the connections we form with other people is the basis of so much of that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and we always have choices too, Laura. You can always say, hey, listen, you know, you can choose to be a joyful person or not, you can choose to experience and revel in joyful moments in your life or not. It's on you, it's not right or wrong. If you don't want it, that's fine. That's fine. It's your path, it's your journey. Nothing is right or wrong again. Life just is.
SPEAKER_00:It just is.
SPEAKER_02:Life just is, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's that's brilliant. Well, Danny, thank you so, so much for being always enjoy talking with you. And I encourage everybody else out there to go to that onenessguy.com and check out all the different things that Danny's doing and go out and buy his book. I'm gonna get a copy in about a week, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Wonderful. Thank you, Danny. Thank you for joining me today on the Joy Felicity Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and share, and come follow me on all major social media sites at JoyFelicity or on my website, joyfelicity.com. You can follow the link in the description for this episode to all of the places that we can connect. Have a great day, everybody, and remember dare to dream, plan to play, live to learn.
