Mind of Snaps - Positivity Podcast | Ep. 20 - "What's your story?"

The regular Mind of Snaps podcast is on a hiatus still, but I'm working on bringing it back. There ARE still more podcasts available on my Mind of Snaps Youtube channel, but they just haven't found their way here yet.

I have been releasing Positivity Podcasts from my Patreon here for 3 weeks and I believe this will be the last one for a while. I'm doing my part to put out as much positive and encouraging content as I can during these intense times we're faced with. More of these are available on the Patreon still and if you'd like more to be release publicly for free, subscribing to my Twitch channel, tipping, dropping bits in Twitch and/or subbing via the Patreon can make a massive difference - and so can tweeting out my content, sharing it on socials or telling a friend you think could use a boost. Every little bit counts...literally.

This is my 20th Positivity Podcast on the Patreon and I hope it gets you to start noticing the story you've been telling yourself about your life and problems. Change. The. Story. 

The format for these podcasts definitely evolved over time, but I hope you enjoy listening, even though times have changed.

Listen, and let me know your thoughts.

Hang in there friends, we're all in this together.

-----

Make sure to subscribe to the Patreon if you'd like to make it easier for me to create more free content for everyone!

-----

Jessy (Mind Of Snaps / SheSnaps)

www.MindofSnaps.com

CONTENT --- Twitch | Youtube | TikTok
SOCIAL MEDIA --- Twitter | Instagram

Snap Pack, Best Pack - Join the Community Discord!

Transcript

speaker 0:   0:00
Hello, friends. Happy today? It is Sunday, April 5th, 2020. And I'm gonna be sharing with you a positivity podcast from November 25th 2019. I'm excited to share this one with you because it's a concept we discuss a lot in stream. But I still think that we need to bring way more awareness to this. We all have a story that we're telling ourselves about our lives, about our days, about who we are as people. The sooner you start paying attention to that story, the sooner you can decide if it serves you or not. And what to do with it from there? Four. An update. Um, this pod podcast was from November. Like I said last year, and it was the first time I had gotten sick in nearly two years, and I have not had any issues like like that sense now. Granted, it hasn't been crazy long time since then, but still, I I used to get sick, get colds, get all kinds of little issues throughout my years constantly. Now, I I feel that my immune system is very strong, and I think a lot of that has to do with obviously myself care, but I really think a lot more of it has to do with my mind. The more I focus on things that serve me, the more I eliminate unnecessary rumination. The more I feel like my body has the energy and is in the right state, it needs to be in to help me, to heal, to help me, to stay healthy, to help me, to stay strong. It doesn't mean I think I'm invincible. Don't don't get that twisted. But I do really believe that this stuff matters. I I remember thinking about feeling so overwhelmed, and now since that last issue or instance where I got sick, that word has become an alarm for me. The moment I hear myself saying or thinking, I'm just feeling overwhelmed. That is an immediate clue to me that I'm thinking or starting to believe in something that is actually contradictory to my my fundamental belief system. So when I hear that word when I see that word, when I think that word overwhelmed my immediate thought is hold on, stop. Take a few breaths and remind yourself that you are not any of your rolls. You are not a broadcaster. You are not a girlfriend. You are not a pet owner parent. Whatever you want to consider it. You're not a daughter. Ah, friends, a hard worker. None of these things that I believe myself to be. I am the thing behind that. I am the beautiful spiritual energy that flows into each of those roles and does its best to be them in those moments. But the fact that I can switch so effortlessly from being a streamer to being a silent person, from being a dedicated family member to being a gamer, whatever any of these different roles, you know, parent employee employer. The fact that you can switch so effortlessly between those roles is another way to remind yourself that you are none of those roles. You are the thing that funnels itself that channels itself into those roles for those purposes at those times. So when you start feeling overwhelmed, let that be a code word for you or an alarm word for you. When I hear the word overwhelm, I stop and think. Do I really believe myself to be something so small that I can be overwhelmed? It's something to consider I believe that you are vast. I believe that you are everything. And how can everything be overwhelmed? Something to think about? I hope you enjoyed today's podcast, and this will be the last podcast that I released for free for at least a little while. I'm going to be worth working to create a CZ much other free content as I can. And I'm thinking that there may be some room for some more spiritual practice kind of content as well. So hit me up in my diems. If I can help you with anything or if you have any suggestions on other types of content I can assist with, and in the meantime there will be new positivity podcasts still coming out every Monday on the Patri on. I've added a few new tears to the patri on, So if you wanna talk and do a video chat where we check in about our mindfulness and our mental health practices, there's one available there that will be doing bi weekly if you want to have a smoke session. My 4 20 friends, um, I just added a $4.20 here for that, and I also added a much shorter session for coaching. So if you're looking for one on one mindfulness coaching that is now available for 30 bucks for a 30 minute session on a monthly basis and if you have a higher tier. So if you have the $10 here, for example, which is what gives you the positivity, podcasts, everything underneath, it also fits, So you can also attend the video chats. You can also attend the smoke sessions if you want. Thio. Um, if you're the $30 here, you get everything underneath it as well. So I hope that clears everything up for you. And just a reminder that all of the stuff that's on the patri on once you sign up for the tear becomes available to you. So if you sign up for the positivity podcast here, you are not only going to see the new ones that are released from when you sign up, you see all of them that have been posted. I really appreciate all of you. Thank you so much for all of the love and support. Please, please be kind to yourselves. It's okay. It's not your fault, but it is your problem. Remember that. And like I said, I hope you enjoy the podcast. Hello. Welcome to another positivity podcast. First off, I have to say apologies for the gap between podcasts. But as usual, I would really like to thank you for being so patient and supportive. I really greatly enjoy working on creating Resource is for this Patri on. And I really hope that you've been enjoying checking them out. Moving forward today. I want to talk about choosing your story. I think most of you here know a bit about my life story and what I've gone through to get where I am now. And honestly, I consider myself super blessed and I'm incredibly grateful. But I can also acknowledge that I've been through some real shit. I'm I'm so honestly grateful for all the shit I've been through, though, because during hard times, as soon as I'm able to get out of my own fucking way, reminding myself of some of the shit I've endured and overcome can be so empowering Recently I'd say for probably around the past few weeks or so, life has been throwing me some curveballs Bra So money, normally, because of my routines and the mindful behaviors I have in those routines. I can usually shake these things off relatively quickly and keep myself focused and on track. Once in a while, though, things will pile on and lied to me, feeling overwhelmed. Usually, if I get to that point, the first sign of overwhelmed tells me it's time to slow down and make some time for myself. I know that I can't get through feelings of overwhelmed if I just keep pushing through an adding more to my plate. If I don't do that, I may lose a day. Too bad behaviors like scrolling through social media, bumming around, watching terrible movies on Netflix or just sitting and staring at the wall, thinking of how things suck. Well, as I mentioned recently, I've been getting a ton of curveballs and surprise expenses and tasks that had me feeling incredibly overwhelmed this time, instead of losing a single day to the unproductive lifestyle that just simply does not help it. All, I feel is, though I lost weeks, my stress levels went through the roof a few weeks ago, and it completely tanked my immune system. I wound up getting sick for the first time in years with an upper respiratory infection which super sucked because I was sick and I had to miss work. It's trust me out even more so I wound up with an eye twitch that would not just go the fuck away. So annoying. Then when I got better in the respiratory infection, healed life through a ton more at me. And rather than doing what I normally do, take time for myself to reassess, re balance and refocus, I just succumbed to the feelings of overwhelmed without realizing what was happening. My days started disappearing. My moods were worsening. I was snacking Maur and sleeping less. I mean, this was partially due to an anxious dog, but I think a lot of it was in my mind as well. I wasn't exercising regularly. It was barely doing my meditations and affirmations, and during them I found I was really struggling to focus. For the first time in nearly two years, I found myself sinking into a rut that was beginning to feel like it was going to be impossible to escape. I'd go through the motions of my day and then camp out on the couch with the dogs and immerse myself in horrible social media scrolling and in excessive consumption of reddit posts. And it's like the worst stuff, too. Like am I, V s Hole and Bridezillas Just real petty stuff. It was like I realized it didn't help, but I wasn't ready to face the reality of my life and all the tasks I had ahead of me. So rather than starting out and taking some baby steps towards things, just blamed my circumstances and my feelings of overwhelmed for my inaction, my stream started to suffer. I started thinking of ways to project blame for my behavior on anything and anyone that I could. This weekend. I had a major breakthrough, though, and I'm so, so grateful. I almost allowed myself to get lost again rather than face the hard work I had ahead of me. But almost on a whim, I decided I needed, like, needed to sit down and meditate for at least 10 minutes After that, I figured I would know which tasked tackle next, and I would be able to at least get a couple things done. During my meditation, I noticed the thoughts arising and I was able to question them a bit. This was immensely helpful. Now here's where things may get a bit spiritually and I may lose some of y'all, but try to stay with me. I personally believe in a lot of things similar to what Buddhism teaches, though I don't personally identify with any particular religion or anything. Um, but I do believe in a lot of the things that I've read about in Buddhism, including the concept of not self after experiencing the dissolution of my ego, also known as the Default Mode Network during a psychedelic experience. And after meditating on the concept of not self, I've gotten to a point where I don't believe where I believe that I don't exist as the person I've grown up believing myself to be. I believe I am, and we all are expansive beings. When we stop associating ourselves with our thoughts and our past behavior so much, we start to realize we can truly be whoever we want. I spent a lot of my life believing I was angry, depressed and an anxious person. I can comfortably say today that none of those things are true. I am simply a person who has been plagued by uncomfortable thought patterns in the past thought patterns. I've been working really hard to overwrite. There's this quote I really liked from this book called Bikini Power that came to mind during that meditation I was mentioning earlier. It was in reference to a student asking a Buddhist nun how she's able to help those who are grieving when she has so much to grieve for herself. I'm going to read it to you now. When you take on others suffering, you have to open your heart, toe all other people who are feeling the same. It is paradoxical. You think if I take on theirs on top of mine, it is going to be unbearable because it already is unbearable. How can I take more than what this already is? The paradox is that it takes the grief away. It is actually impossible to take on the sorrow of everyone. If there is a self to be there, you have to let go of self clinging and realize your true nature is incredibly vast, completely perfect, lucid and compassionate. It can accommodate everything. This quote stood out to me and I even wrote it in my journal. It arises in my mind quite often. During that meditation, I started noticing things, thoughts coming up, saying things like, You're overwhelmed. You can't possibly handle all of this at once. How could you even think about streaming or trying to help others when you're such a mess yourself? As I saw my brain start rushing to get back into old thought patterns, trying to tell me I'm not enough trying to tell me life is being cruel to me, trying to tell me everything is so hard and I wish I could just get a break. That's all. I need a break. This quote came to mind. The quote practically slap me upside the head and was like, Hey, remember that you don't fucking exist, Which again I know is a strange concept. But when I totally recommend looking into, I started remembering that I do believe that I am, and that you are a vast being capable of handling whatever comes your way. The issue I recognized was I was telling myself a terrible story, and I didn't stop to question it. I was looking at myself. Is this poor woman down under luck overwhelmed and overworked, underappreciated and incapable of digging my way out of this mess. I'm in without an extreme amount of help that I'd probably never get during that meditation. Having that quote come up and then remembering something I talk about regularly have stories we tell ourselves matter. It became so clear that I needed to choose a new story. I came out of that meditation feeling strong as puck and ready to kick ass because I chose right then and there chose to see that the story I had been telling myself was bullshit. I am not some weak woman waiting for a fucking knight in shining armor to rescue me from my woes. I am a fucking badass, and you are too. So my new story became I am an expense of being. I am here to help others in need. In order to help others in need, I have to look for the lessons in all of my struggles. I have to be someone who overcomes shit regularly to show others that it can be done. I've got a lead by example. I've got a show that not only can it be done, but it can be done with a smile and no need for a fucking eye twitch. So this new story gave me a great opportunity for self reflection. I looked back on my past and I started comparing it to the work I have ahead of me. I have countless examples of times where I thought there is no way I can get through this. I just want to quit. Yet I persevered, and I made it to where I am today. And that was before I actually started being mindful and working on myself more. The person I am today is 10 times the person I was in my past. If I can get through the pain of my childhood abandonment, my abusive relationships, extreme poverty, physical injuries, suits, suicide attempt, outrageous levels of self loathing in all of the other shit I dealt with in the past, I can get through this. So why am I sharing this with you today? What can you take away from my stressful weeks? Well, let's take the time to check in with yourself real quick and find out if your situation is as dire as you may feel, it is. Get mindful again. Go back to those good habits you had in the past or create new ones if you've never had them Or if you've been slacking, remember to your future is so bright you gotta wear shades Us H A D E E s. If you remember this acronym, it can help you with your self care shades stands for sleep, hydration, air like go the fuck outside regularly, even if it's cold and diet, exercise and stillness that could be meditation that can just be sitting with yourself for awhile, whatever. But without your body and mind in at least a decent level of balance, it can be almost impossible to see past our own perspective and realize we're telling ourselves a shitty story that does not have to be true. So I ask you now, what have you been doing for yourself lately? Have you been allowing yourself to be dragged around by your impulses and old thought patterns? Have you been practicing any self care? Have you been meditating or reflecting on your life and thoughts? If not, it's the beginning of a new week. It's time to change your story. Think about the way you describe your situation to others. Does it make you feel worse, or does it make you feel empowered and ready to tackle the hardship? Pay attention to the thoughts that arise when you feel like you've hit a brick wall. They may be trying to tell you that the wall in front of you will stop you forever, and you're stuck with a difficult or painful existence urine. However, if you tell those thoughts to shut the fuck up for a second and take a step back, you may notice that the wall only looked massive because you practically had your nose up against it. Taking some steps back may allow you to see that you can break through a weak point in that wall or just walk the fuck around it. So today, on this lovely Monday, whether you can recognize the story you've been telling yourself lately or not, it is time to choose a new story. What will your story be? Will you be the victim or the victor? Will you be insignificant or a fucking badass? Choose. You got this uncle manifest some dope shit