Mind of Snaps - Positivity Podcast | Ep. 32 - "SHADES"

Welcome to "SHADES" - the 32nd Episode of the Mind of Snaps Positivity Podcast!

This is a special podcast series that is separate from the regular Mind of Snaps Podcast, with a new release (typically) posted every Thursday for Patreon supporters!

It is my goal to create as much positive & encouraging content as I can during these intense, uncertain times we're faced with. 2020 has been so much more than anyone expected it to be, and nobody should have to take it on alone. The only way I can continue to do so, is with your help. Become a patron, subscribe to me on Twitch, you can send a tip which I'll turn into an investment... or you can simply share my content on social media. Every little bit helps me be able to continue to create the podcasts and other mindfulness & positivity based content in the future.

The format of these podcasts are forever evolving to reflect current events from personal to global, so I hope you are enjoying them. Please reach out to me if you have any suggestions!

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

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You can find new Positivity Podcasts on Patreon every Monday, and as of September 2020 - every Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, & Stitcher!

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Jessy (Mind Of Snaps / SheSnaps)

www.MindofSnaps.com

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Transcript

Unknown Speaker : 0:00

Hi, everyone. Happy Monday. I'm so excited to be sitting here recording another positivity podcast for you. This weekend, felt hectic for me hectic, a lot going on, had calls, had work, had family stuff and then had to shoot downtown for endgame yesterday with cam and Dan and that was great. feeling a bit exhausted today and there I was meditating because I really, sometimes I think about what I'm going to do for the positivity podcast the night before, like, you know, Sunday evenings as I'm in my wine down mode. I'm thinking about how can I take the lessons of this past week and push them forward into something I can put out on Monday, something that people can then take and apply to their own lives. Last night, I didn't get home until late I had to eat and do a million things. So I was just feeling kind of tired. I didn't give myself enough time to kind of think through any of that, this morning, kind of had to jump right back into the routine again, you know, start working hard. And I'm going through the motions, I'm feeling a little bit tired, you know, worn down is a full day of photoshoots. As crazy as it sounds, it takes a lot out of me. It's a lot of like, there was a lot of thought that goes into it beforehand. There's a lot of work that goes into kind of planning these things out, finding the right locations, trying to put together a look and then walking all over the place swapping outfits quickly trying to change the makeup, trying to not get in my own fucking way with my headspace, all that kind of stuff. So after a long day yesterday and then waking up this morning and kind of jumping right back into the routine. I was finding myself feeling uninspired. And then I sat and I meditated. And wow, every single time I meditate, I'm like, Oh my God, why don't I do this non stop all the time. Because as I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, you know what, it's not a huge surprise that you're feeling

Unknown Speaker : 2:10

less than prepared, I guess for this week's positivity podcast. And like I said, I don't really put a ton of work into preparing for these in advance, I really want it to be based on what I'm encountering, so that I can, you know, put it forward as it's still really fresh in my mind. So, you know, I was feeling that kind of lack of here's the, here's the thing that stands out until I sat and meditated, and then suddenly, I'm like, oh, my goodness, you know, this is the week to remind people about shades, because we talk about it a lot in stream and sometimes I take for granted the fact that not everyone has been a part of this community for the same amount of time. So we talk about and we reference shades often, but I don't think I do enough to make sure that Everyone knows what the fuck it means. So this week, I want to do a little shades refresher. The reason for that is a multi multi faceted approach, I guess, one being the Coronavirus scares, everything going on right now with people being concerned about getting sick. I want to remind everyone of a way that we can prioritize our minds and our bodies, which can help us to stay healthier and safer throughout situations like this. And then to being we all tend to be easily overwhelmed when we're not giving ourselves our best shot when we're feeling stressed when we're feeling tired when we're feeling fatigued. And this you know, we're going through a lot all of us so many of us are working on trying to progress in our lives with our goals, trying to progress in our personal goals towards you know, self development, all of that. So, this week, reminder yourself of shades. Sh ADS, your future is so fucking bright. You got to wear shades. Remember it like that, okay? remind yourself of shades. And remember that this isn't just like a fun, you know, acronym that we came up with, to push some kind of agenda where we're trying to give you the best chance you can to exceed in your personal goals with your personal life and stay healthy and focused. When you're not prioritizing your mind and your body. It's no surprise that you're feeling a little stuck. It's no surprise that when you are presented with obstacles or challenges, you feel overwhelmed by them and think oh my goodness, how can I even get through this? You need the perspective and the balance that this shades routine can bring into your life. I fully believe that it's something that I check in with myself frequently on and I would love if we do this more often for each other And for ourselves and our families, when people are having a hard time or even when they're not, and they just seem a little off a little fatigued, whatever. Let's check in on shades. How are you doing with your sleep with your hydration with going out and getting some air now and then with your diet with exercise, and I almost want to say most importantly, with meditation with stillness, the final s in shades stillness. If I hadn't sat down to meditate today, I will tell you exactly what would have happened. My brain feeling a little uninspired because I was still a little tired from the weekend would have just said, you know what the community will understand. Don't release anything, it's not necessary. Just tell them you'll get one out tomorrow. And then tomorrow morning, you'll be feeling better tomorrow morning. You'll be feeling more inspired and you can sit and do this thing that you've committed to. But instead today I sat I was like, You know what? Nope. I feel my brain trying to give me an out. If I recognize myself justifying things that's kind of a big clue like, Oh, no, you better check that because you're justifying it should be an easy this is the right call or it isn't right, at least in my, my experience with myself and my own goals. When I start justifying, I noticed that something's off. So I caught the justification, recognized that I was trying to skirt around getting work done. And I sat and meditated for 20 minutes. After that 20 minutes, I recognized that the thoughts that were coming up when I gave myself some space, some stillness, related to my family, my friends, my community, the people who I want to help the most. So as I'm sitting there focusing on this mantra that really brings me a lot of peace. I start seeing these flashes of all of my reasons why all of the reasons why I get up every day and put work in on myself and you know into this community on Patreon. TWITCH all of that. And I was I was really grateful for that. So by the end of the meditation, I was like, Well, I know what I'm doing. I'm gonna go ahead and I'm going to talk about shades today. Because I recognize during my meditation The reason that I was feeling a little off was because my shades was off my there were some things that are not where they need to be. And it took the final letter in that it took that stillness for me to gain the clarity that I needed to see that that's all that's wrong. In reality with me this week, is I just didn't get enough sleep. You know, dietary like I could have done a little more for myself. I had a night out with my girlfriends as like our final kind of girls night out dinner before I potentially move. So it's not like I've been eating as clean as I traditionally do. Because I'm like, probably at 28 pretty pretty fucking clean. So if I hadn't had that stillness today, I would not have recognized all the ways that I'm not giving myself my best shot at it. Feeling good feeling energized, accomplishing my goals staying focused all of that. So let's jump right in to shapes. I want to get into the details of it a little bit more. So like I said, if you if you are feeling a little, little fucky today, if you're like, I don't know today is just maybe not my day, maybe maybe next week will be a better week for me maybe next month, maybe next year, maybe next life. Do me a favor and check in with shades remind yourself that your future is so fucking bright. You need need shades got to put them bitches on. And again, the first US starts for sleep. You know, I mentioned that the final SS stillness, I definitely say a think that meditation is is very helpful for getting better sleep. But at the very least, if you're not at that point yet where you're meditating, you know before you go to About every night or maybe after you wake up in the mornings, whatever. Just make sure that you're doing as much as you can to keep a reasonable sleep schedule again, like the 8020 rule, I think is pretty reasonable here. If you're doing your best to get decent sleep 80% of the time, you'll be alright on those 20% days right before you go to sleep, turn your heat down if you're not doing it already, keep your house nice and cool. We all tend to get warmer while we're sleeping. So if you notice you're waking up a lot in the middle of the night, you may need to cut off your your water or your drinking a few hours before bed, see a pee it all out before you get into bed. You may need to cut back on eating before bed. You may need to make sure that your house is cooler. I highly recommend an iMac it's made a big difference for me, and especially for my friends out there that have ADHD as well. Our brains are very quick, you know even without ADHD but you know it's kind of amplified, but our brains are Quick to see things and start spinning all these different thoughts about those things. So when you're trying to sleep, laying down, putting a mask on and just letting yourself exist there, focus on a mantra focus on your breathing, it can help a lot because then you're just working on kind of letting go of the thoughts as they arise from your day, you're not introducing any new shit to think about. So sleep mask, especially with little do hubs on your nose can be really, really helpful. And please remember that sleep is so so so vital. Because sleep issues are not just caused by mental issues or distress or illness, they can also cause them. So if you are not treating sleep as a priority in your life, you may be helping to exacerbate the symptoms of mental illness that you're already battling or you may be bringing it into a place that wouldn't have existed already. So really remember how important that is. affirmations before bed can be beneficial. You know, it's a form have cognitive behavioral therapy take your time to tell yourself I sleep well at night. I understand that this is time my body means you know, visualize yourself resting through the night waking up the next morning like

Unknown Speaker : 11:13

and do whatever you can to you know set yourself up for that I wrote a post on my website mind if snaps calm all about sleep, how to get better sleep at night so check that out when you have time that has more information on this. So that's that's the first letter in shades sleep, go get some good rest put your devices down before bed at least a half an hour give yourself some wine downtime. Triple dog dare you to bring meditation in. Try sleep mask, keep the house cool, all anything and everything you can do to set yourself up for better rest do it it is so vital and especially if you have like dementia or Alzheimer's if those run in your family, there is an important aspect of sleep which can potentially help prevent those things from worsening. Developing. There's stuff cerebral cerebral spinal fluid that goes in and kind of flushes out gunk that can help lead to the worsening of dementia and Alzheimer's. So if you want to keep your brain healthy, and your self healthy, go to sleep there was like, Alright, so obviously I harped on that one a lot. Moving on to the H in shades, that's hydration. This this one stat has been pretty instrumental in my life, I pay close attention to this level of hydration, just 1% below optimal for whatever it is for your body and you'll find that out over time. Just 1% below optimal can affect your mood, your concentration and it can cause headaches. If you're a frequent migraine sufferer. If you deal with headaches a lot. If you tend to feel a little bit more brain fog, that could be a contributing factor. definitely get yourself a good quality review. Have a water bottle, carry that shit around. When you first get up in the morning, slam some water, start your day off with the reminder that your hydration is important. You know the things you do when you first get up in the morning, you're kind of setting the tone for your day, hey, brain, this is what's important to me. So rather than going for your phone and social media, telling your brain This is what's important to me go to water. This is important to me, I require this. It also matters a lot. You know, dehydration can impair your short term memory functions. It can make it harder for you to recall long term memory.

Unknown Speaker : 13:36

It can help give you tons and tons of energy if you are well hydrated. And if you're not, you know that that fatigue that blah feeling that is so frequently associated with dehydration. So check your hydration. Figure out whatever feels right for your body. Drink a bunch of water your pee should be nearly clear. All right. Getting with PP not like not the hang down a bit but the stuff that comes out of it. Well, that's if you have the hang down but you get what I'm saying just drink water. Alright, Anyway, moving on to the A, the A in shades. So we've got sleep hydration now we're on air. Air has always been kind of a tag team deal it's air slash sunlight slash nature. Get yourself outside. I understand that in some areas of the world it's still really fucking cold right now. Cold exposure is not the worst thing for you do some research on that, you know, prepare yourself to the best of your ability but I'm saying even if you just go sit outside, five minutes at a time, take some nice deep breaths you know, go for a short brisk walk with a coat. bundle up if you need to go Wim Hof style if you don't, but get outside and whenever possible, you know, get yourself into some sunlight. Vitamin D is pretty good. crucial in that in that respect, and then go out into nature whenever possible, the weather is starting to change in a lot of our areas. So as it changes, build those habits now learn to go for walks, go see some fucking trees once in a while, it is very important and our connection to the nature that we are, you know, our connection to nature, both inside and outside of ourselves is, is under utilized is is not brought up enough, but genuinely going out and being in nature going for a little walk through a park or whatever can help improve your memory. It can help improve your cognition it can give you all can give you those feelings of like, Oh, wow. And that's powerful. That's powerful against depression, anxiety, PTSD, that is another reminder that there's so much beauty in the world that you could start seeing a little bit more of so going on. In nature, it can boost your mindset, your mental health, your actual physical health, and it can boost your memory and cognition. So get yourselves outside as often as you can get that fresh air, figure out whatever it's going to take to do it. Maybe it's only you can only do it on the weekends, maybe you can take a break. brisk walk during the day, figure it out, you know, figure it out. For my Letterkenny fans, I can't I can't say it right, but you know what I'm saying? All right. So that's the A, in shades, sleep, hydration, air diet, giving you the de next diet is super important. I'm not about to harp on this one too much. Because I'm not a nutritionist. You know, I myself get very confused over what is proper nutrition. So I'm kind of going the ethical omnivore route to the best of my ability. I tried to get cleaner, you know, healthier sourced meats, stuff that's not from those mass produced places. And I like to try and balance out a decent amount of veggies, a decent amount of fruits. That helps me to feel my best intermittent fasting helps me to feel my best. What works for you may not work for me and vice versa, but it's time to put the fucking work in to figure out what does work for you. If you have to talk to nutritionist, do some research, try keto. Try fasting, try all these whatever. Try whatever it takes that can create the lifestyle not the weight that you're looking for, but the lifestyle that you're looking for. When I am fed properly, I noticed that I am energized I am jacked the fuck up. I feel good. My stomach isn't bugging me like we really normalize a lot of digestive issues that could be corrected or at least aided through proper diet. So if you feel yucky and you don't have some kind of you know, medical condition but if your stomach feels yucky and bloated a lot of the time If you find that you don't have like a regular pooping schedule, if you find that after eating, you tend to want to take a nap instead of go and do things. Check your diet, cut the soda cut the processed crap to the best of your ability. Just pay attention to what goes into your body, start reading those labels, start doing your research. This isn't something you have to make a total overhaul change on overnight, but it is something that you need to be aware of your gut health is vital in your mental health. It is important in your physical health. If your body is spending a ton of time digesting garbage that doesn't give it nutrients. You are literally wasting your energy. Quite literally you only have so much to get you through the day. And your little energy battery is draining through the intensive process of digestion and you're not getting shit out of it. Not like that kind of shit. But I mean like nutrients like the stuff you need to help your body and your mind feel healthy. So do your research. Eat clean to the best of your ability go 8020 it's not about the weight. It's not about the weight in this thing this this is about your energy levels. This is about your health overall. So check it check your diet, the Ian shades this exercise. Exercise can help improve your mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, negative mood, it can help you improve your self esteem your cognitive function. It can improve your sleep, your sex drive, your stress levels, your mood, your weight, your cholesterol. There are so many different things that exercise brings into our lives including like a sense of progression. It feels good to get stronger to get better at things 30 minutes a day. It can be broken up it can be five minutes here, five minutes there taking the stairs instead of the elevator parking at the far back part of the parking lot. Going for a quick walk around the block. Dancing a little bit doing lunges squats while you're vacuuming. Just get Some stretching and get some exercise in at least 30 minutes a day. It is so so, so important. And especially for my friends that are battling anxiety and depression, and and these disorders of our minds. Exercise is a really, really vital part of it, please. And no, it's not enjoyable for everyone. Find the type of workout that feels right to you. Yoga videos can be great going for walks and listening to podcasts, whatever martial arts like seriously find something even if you can't, if you don't have full mobility, whatever, do what you can with what you got, but move that body. Okay, exercise. All right, and then the final S is stillness. As I was saying at the beginning of this podcast, which turned out to be longer than I was anticipating stillness is so important. Learning how to just sit still before bed and not be on your phone sit still in the morning before you get on your phone. Those those times can be so crucial in helping to bring the clarity that you need and deserve into your life. And then when you go a step further and you start meditating, you are helping to boost your immune system. meditation can help you with your energy levels, it can reduce your blood pressure, folks with inflammatory disorders, asthma, apparently those things can be aided, like I've noticed a lot of my chronic pain went down. A lot of the difficulty that I felt with moving during the day has been reduced from my meditative practice. It can also be great for relaxation and calming though it's not always about that. It can help you to learn how to reallocate your limited brain resources. Yes, they are limited your brain is powerful as Spock but it can only do so much. If you have a million different programs running so to speak. You have to learn how to shut some of those down so that you can reallocate those resources towards the things that help you towards the things that bring you forward in your life, and then your mental and physical health. So please, I have a video on meditation on my YouTube. There's a guided meditation here on the Patreon. Please give it a shot. It really is. It has helped change my life. So that's shaves. That's your recap for today. If you are not feeling your best today, check in will with all of those. Make a plan today to start taking better care of your mind and your body. Start prioritizing your overall well being instead of just really like Cheetos though, you know, you can still have Cheetos, but just maybe only 20% of the time, right? We can do this. It's all about balance.

Unknown Speaker : 22:48

Take this information, make your week fucking great. I look forward to today with you. I look forward to our video chat which we're setting up for next Saturday at one pm Central time. No forgetty everyone who is listening to this podcast you are welcome to attend. I'll put out a sign out sheet sign up sheet sometime this week. Be kind to yourselves. You deserve great things. You're capable of great things. Give yourself your best shot and then manifest some dope shit.

Unknown Speaker : 23:22

love you bye