Mind of Snaps - Positivity Podcast | Ep. 41 - "Dream Deliberately"

Welcome to "Dream Deliberately" - the 41st 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 Monday 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 was 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.

To help, you can: 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.

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

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You can find new Positivity Podcasts on Patreon every Monday; Patreon archive positivity podcast episodes are available free for the community every Thursday at 4pm 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

Good morning, my beautiful friends. Happy Monday or whatever day you're listening to this. It is July 6 2020. And for me at least it is a gorgeous day. I just spent my morning sitting outside on my patio with my coffee, a book, peaceful music. And my little poppers book came out a little bit too. She was she was rolling around in some dust. That's her favorite thing. I'm going to be honest, though, I have been struggling to wake up early like I used to. And I've been getting up between like seven and 8am every day, which some of you might still be relatively early, but I've really, really missed my five AM's though. So last night, as I laid in bed trying to rest I decided to set my entire focus on getting up on time today. This is something I know I talk to you all about regularly, imagining yourself doing something and great detail, it can be such a valuable practice, and it can make it so much easier to actually follow through. So this morning, my alarm went off, and I managed to avoid going back and crawling into bed again, which was so exciting for me. And as I turned off the alarm, there was almost this feeling of deja vu. As I watched myself move through my routine, just as I had imagined it the night before. I had committed to getting up at five, visualize it in as much detail as possible, and it worked. And this isn't the only moment of deja vu style feelings I've had recently. Right now we're on our second month of living out here in Arizona, after moving from Chicago before we moved, the prospect of living somewhere that allowed me more time outside, more warm sunlight. It was a wonderful thought, but it still felt so far away when we didn't have an update or a move date and I felt the surge of stress. As I thought about how much I wanted that end date, I would do my best to relax into my present moments, while trusting in the notion that the future I craved would come to pass. When we finally had an estimated move date, and had found a house out here to rent, I remember submitting my application for the house and knowing I'd have to wait at least a few days before hearing if we got it or not. I continued to submit applications for other spaces, but I couldn't ignore the very strong feeling I had that the first house I found in loved was going to be the one for us. As we packed up our home, the place I had personally lived for the past 10 years and had lived there previously for 10 years as a child. I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed at times. There was so much to do in so little time. And since we are in a pandemic, many of our usual options for accomplishing the move. Were not available to us. There were plenty of moments of stress to be sure. But I was determined to not sacrifice my inner peace over everything that was going on

Unknown Speaker : 3:11

the house we had liked the most the one I had felt the strong feeling that said it was the one had a bunch of wonderful pictures of it online on the real estate site where I had found it. The possibility of us getting the house seemed so promising. So in times when I began to feel stressed, overworked or exhausted, I would take some time to sit down with my iPad, bring up the photos, the photos of the house, and then just sit with them. I'd scroll through the pictures over and over and over, looking at each one and doing my best to visualize us there. I'd imagine the meals i'd cook in the kitchen that was much larger than the one I was accustomed to. I'd imagine having moments at the community pool with my boyfriend. I'd see us taking our dogs for nice long walks in the warm air. I linger especially long on one photo, the photo of the outdoor patio area. I imagined us with a nice patio set. sitting outside in the mornings sitting outside in the evenings, reading books, having coffee, and eventually having little get togethers once it became safe to do so, back in the area we were living at in the time at the time, the outdoor life was what I felt like I was missing the most. I craved time in the fresh air but didn't feel like I had many opportunities for it, especially as this year happened to be a particularly rainy one. The mosquitoes made it damn near impossible for my boyfriend to spend time outside without being miserable because they love him. And as much as I loved our yard and space, I couldn't spend much time outdoors either because of the frequently inclement weather and the buggy atmosphere. I mostly got to enjoy the view of outside and As much as the actual act of being outside, as I worked my ass off to get us out here, the images of me sitting outside on our patio, working, writing, hanging out all of it, it all stayed fresh. In my mind, I would tell myself that all the work was worth it, because there would come a day where I would be doing exactly what I had imagined. Now, I do want to point out that although I used this particular house as my inspiration for my visualizations, I was aware that we might not get the house and I had already decided that if it fell through, I would just repeat the process with the next house we found. Fortunately for us, we did get the house. We got out here safely after a wild road trip in an RV with two dogs and a cat and all of our belongings. And this morning, I wrote this positivity podcast sitting out on that very patio as I had imagined. Another thing I had imagined was me feeling healthy and strong despite the heat. I have a heart condition. You see, it's it's not serious or anything. I mean, I guess, you know, it's kind of a thing but whatever. It's It's frustrating. It's it's not as dangerous as it is frustrating but this particular heart condition has a tendency to be easily impacted by extreme weather, or by abrupt temperature fluctuations.

Unknown Speaker : 6:27

He especially,

Unknown Speaker : 6:29

had a tendency to make me dizzy really quickly, moving in and out of hot and cold temperatures like going from air conditioning to heat, or vice versa, could cause this wave of dizziness to hit me like a ton of bricks. I wanted this move though. I wanted to see what it could

Unknown Speaker : 6:48

be like if I trust it in my body to adapt

Unknown Speaker : 6:51

rather than staying fearful that I might not be equipped for a desert climate. When I would imagine myself feeling healthy And strong while walking our dogs hiking or just sitting outside, I began to really believe that it would be possible for me to love this climate that I once disliked. There definitely was a point where I had no intentions of ever living in Arizona. I committed mentally to avoid one simple thing once we moved, I decided that I would never complain about the heat, I would trust my body and do my best to take care of it. As a result, I felt strangely assured that I would love it here and that I would be heading into a newer, healthier lifestyle once we arrived. And now, here we are. I walked the dogs with Alex several times a day, I stood outside every damn chance I get. And I've only gotten severely dizzy maybe three times since moving, but I haven't passed out once. Ray seems like maybe a strange thing to be proud of. But there was a long period of my life where I struggled to keep certain jobs because I would pass out easily At work, it's not fun. It's super sucked. I'm feeling healthier now than I have in a long time though. And I am consistently surprised at how much I love, love, love this heat.

Unknown Speaker : 8:15

Yesterday I

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was even sitting outside intermittently, of course, with my cat while reading in the shade in 110 degree weather and I felt wonderful.

Unknown Speaker : 8:27

The heat now feels like this

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big warm hug from life. And I find myself feeling soothed by it rather than overwhelmed by it. I fully believe that if I had stayed in my fear that my heart condition would prevent me from enjoying desert living, I would not have been able to transition here as easily. I saw it and my mind trusted in my body to adapt

Unknown Speaker : 8:50

and did my best to take good care of it to ensure that I had the ample energy reserves needed to facilitate that adaptation and it worked. Now going back to what I was kind of talking about, as I was mentioning the book I was reading. I'd like to share a small excerpt from the book I was reading or started reading yesterday and was reading this morning too. It's called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. This is a well known book. So I'm sure some of you have heard of it. Many of you have probably already read it. It is a profoundly moving story from a man who survived the Nazi concentration camps. I highly suggest reading it is there are so many moments in the book that I feel could be very beneficial to those of us struggling to make it through the intensity of our current predicament. The book is filled with so much tragic wisdom that I made a note of a large number of quotes, but decided to choose just one for today's podcast. The quote from Viktor Frankl is as follows. It is a peculiarity of a man That he can only live by looking to the future. And this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task. He also quotes Nietzsche as he says, He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how, since the move, my life has been further complicated, and my mindset has been challenged in ways I would never and could never have anticipated. I unintentionally became one of the faces of a now massive movement against sexual harassment and abuse, which has led to me being accused of being a liar and being threatened with legal action that could cause me to lose so much of what I've worked so hard to build. On top of that, I'm now facing daily harassment on Every social media account I have and my email. The harassment isn't necessarily new. You know, I'm a woman, I got my start in the online gaming space. So I've been dealing with shit for a while, but it has never felt more deeply personal. There are people digging through everything they can find out about my life, for the purpose of using it to prove their beliefs, that I am a horrible sociopath, hell bent on harming the innocent. It's strange, to say the least, to feel to really feel someone's hatred for you through simple words on a screen. I don't think anyone could have prepared me for that. being criticized and disliked comes with the job of being a content creator. But being hated. That's us. That's certainly a new experience. It's it's unique. While all of that is going on in my professional life, I'm also working through a great deal of things in my personal life. Someone very close to me attempted suicide on Tuesday of last week. Fortunately, they are safe and they appear to be well on their way towards a much deeper form of healing than I've ever witnessed in their past. But regardless, knowing someone I love so very much had been that close to taking their life. It's really hard. We are also in a state that opened up too early and without appropriate precaution. So all reports are that COVID is currently being spread through our area like wildfire, and that nearly every hospital around that max capacity. My boyfriend is in need of surgery to repair his inguinal hernia. And I would be lying if I said I didn't worry over him frequently, knowing that if his condition worsened, he would be forced to go into the hospital alone and face a emergency surgery without me being able to be there with him and advocate for him. Every time his pain worsens, we worry that he'll have to go into the hospital and I worry that I might lose the love of my life. There's a ton of additional stressors and things going on that I don't intend to get into for the sake of time. I expect this will be one of the longer podcasts I've done in a while, but it feels important. Just know if previous versions of myself were going through as many things as I'm currently working through. I think those versions would have felt that they were fighting an uphill and impossible to win battle. I would have been frustrated with life for not just giving me a damn break.

Unknown Speaker : 13:46

After what has already felt like a

Unknown Speaker : 13:48

somewhat challenging existence. I refuse to allow any external influence to rob me of my peace, my belief in myself and In the ultimate beauty of our universe, that quote,

Unknown Speaker : 14:06

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how has really been ringing true for me as of late and last night it really connected with me. I've decided that my y is going to be to show my community that we all must endure painful times in life, but that we can do so with a certain lightness in our hearts. I will go through whatever it takes no matter how extreme and every bit of pain I experienced will be used to help myself and our community grow stronger, connect more deeply and feel more peaceful. I will continue to create new visualizations of the future that I'm working towards, and I will adjust them as necessary based on how life actually turns out. Sure, I have hopes and goals for my future. But I refuse to be locked into expecting anything to happen for sure,

Unknown Speaker : 15:05

or into expecting that

Unknown Speaker : 15:07

some day will come where I no longer experience any form of pain or face any challenges. So my challenge to you this week is to dream deliberately to create a y that will allow you to carry yourself through this current how through whatever it is that you are experiencing or struggling with. Imagine the future you crave and all the detail you can and then work to move towards it with conscious intention and action. If you're struggling to look far into the future to imagine a new life, start closer. Start with today. Start by taking a few deep breaths and then imagining yourself Moving through your day with intention, feeling light and joyful or determined and focused whatever it is you prefer. Tonight before bed for you rest your mind and your body. Visualize yourself waking up when and how you want to imagine yourself moving through tomorrow with energy and purpose. You are a powerful being capable of such incredible things. But first, you must acknowledge your own power and decide which things you'd like to accomplish and who you would like to be as you do. So.

Unknown Speaker : 16:44

Choose

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dream deliberately, my friends.

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Then manifest dope shit.