Mind of Snaps - Positivity Podcast | Ep. 42 - "Don’t Miss the Fruit on the Vine"

Welcome to "Don’t Miss the Fruit on the Vine" - the 42nd 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.

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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Make sure to become a patron on Patreon to support future content!

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. Happy Monday. You are such a beautiful creature. Oh my goodness.

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I hope your weekend was great. I hope it was filled

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with lots of time well spent. I hope you had some time to yourself, or you read some books or got some cleaning done something great. Let's get into some updates real quick. Today is Monday, July 13 2020. And we have a very exciting couple of weeks ahead of us. First up this Friday is my five year five fucking year, five year anniversary of streaming on Twitch holy balls. I owe a ton of raffles for coaching sessions and we will be running those throughout the day on the 17th. So tune in if you want to win an hour long coaching session or two or more, I have a lot of them to raffle off our next Patreon video chat is the 18th at 10am Mountain Standard Time which is 1pm eastern time, I will post a link to it in the Patreon and in the Patreon supporters discord to don't forget if you're listening to this and you do not have the ability to see the Patreon supporters discord channel, tag myself or a moderator and let them know and they'll make sure to add it to you. Add the role to you, you know, I'm

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also

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the same night as our next video chat the 18th that's also set as our next art night.

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Wow.

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If you have ever wanted to showcase your art of any kind, this night is the night to do that. You can show off your photography, your sculpture, herbs, your graphic art, your your sewing your needle point it really doesn't matter if you have a picture of it or videos of it, you can show it off to the stream that night. Everyone who comes to share stuff, whatever kind of art you create gets five minutes of time on my channel to share with the community. So you go into discord, and you talk through voice chat about whatever it is that you've created while I show the pictures or videos that you've shared with me to the entire crowd. So anything you want to share, you have the option to share it, you don't sign up in advance, it's all first come first serve. So 18 7pm Mountain Standard Time, which is 10pm. Eastern time. And then the following Saturday is the 25th. And that will be our next open mic night, which operates by the same general idea where everyone gets five minutes to share on stream. But for open mic, you can share a short story you can sing a song, share a song, recite some poetry, talk about your day, whatever feels right to you. totally up to you. Just remember that with both of those events, you are on my channel on Twitch. So that means you do have to abide by twitch to us.

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Okay, but aside

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from that, anything goes on.

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Oh, let's let's move. Let's move right on into this. Okay,

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this week

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for our positivity podcast which by the way I'm thinking of renaming these. I feel like positivity podcasts makes these sound kind of like they're just these like bubbly of noxious well look on the bright side of things kind of cast which really doesn't fully represent them. So if you have a better idea for these little mindfulness reminders that I put out each Monday a better reminder or a better idea of what we call these. Hit me with some title suggestions. I don't know maybe even just mindful reminders

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of No, no, I don't know. Just a thought. Anyway,

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moving along for this week's cast, I wanted to share a story that I heard just yesterday, I was with my boyfriend and we were listening to an audio book that I just started recently, from ROM das and Mira by bush called walking each other home conversations on loving and dying. It is a beautiful book so far and seems to be just filled to the brim with so much necessary advice and perspective. As someone who has had a great deal of encounters with death in my family and people who I was close with, I think a lot of what they talk about in this book is stuff that needs to be talked about so much more, but we avoid it. And I think the more that we lean into conversations regarding our own Aging and dying and death, the more we can make peace with it and live our lives more fully.

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In the book,

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ROM das tells a story that was meant to help elaborate the difference between living in the moment and living for the moment. He's telling the story to two men from Silicon Valley that were visiting with him to seek guidance on how to better serve the world through their technology. So in this story, there's a man living in the jungle and one day he decides to go for a walk. While he's walking, a tiger appears behind him and begins to chase them. He runs as fast as he can to try to escape this charging animal, only to find himself at the edge of steep,

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steep cliff.

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As he looks down, he notices yet another Tiger on the ground below staring up at him trapped between two tigers and a steep cliff. That would be lead to certain death if he should fall. Without panicking, the man notices down. The man looks down and notices a thick vine that runs along this steep overhang. He uses it and begins to climb down away from Tiger at the top. So he's managed to escape that tiger. He's holding tightly to this vine on the cliff side looking down at this Tiger underneath him. When two small mice appear from a crack in the wall. They move over to the vine and begin knowing at it quickly making his safety line disappeared bit by bit. after noticing the mice, the man looks up and sees a perfect strawberry on the vine. A perfectly ripe, perfectly plump and beautiful strawberry. He reaches up plucks it from the vine pops it into his mouth. And sighs contentedly as he enjoyed This final pleasure of life.

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I've really enjoyed the story. And I enjoyed the way that ROM spoke of it after. That particular story helped explain to me fully the notion of living in the moment rather than for it. When living for the moment, everything is all rushed for the purpose of survival. You're clinging to that moment, when living completely in the moment, there is freedom to enjoy every second, because you have known from the start that no additional moment is promised. If that man hanging from the vine had been too attached to his mortal life, he likely would have been in a state of panic, rather than surrender. He would have felt so trapped between the two tigers especially after noticing those little mice, that he likely wouldn't have even noticed the strawberry on the vine. This man instead was just going with what felt right based on his circumstances without clinging to himself to his life. He did his best to avoid the dangers. And when he realized he was stuck, he accepted it. And in turning his head upwards, I noticed that strawberry on the vine and plucked it without hesitation, he was able to have a beautiful moment of pleasure and joy, right before his death. That is not something we talk about as often as we should. Death is something that every single one of us will meet at some point. Yet we try to pretend that it's something we have the possibility of beating or avoiding. We try so hard to prolong our potential exposure to it. But it is coming. That can often come without warning. And many of us have experienced that as well. Yet as soon as the intensity of our losses fade, we go back to deluding ourselves into believing for certain that we have this incredibly long life ahead of us, when in reality, we have no way of knowing. Now, I'm not telling you this to scare you. I want us to be able to have conversations like this more often because I do believe they're valuable. We as humans, are fragile beings. We are always between two tigers, on a vine being chewed off by mice, always. Now if you are fully identified with your body, rather than your consciousness or your soul, this is a horrifying thought for many, the idea of something happening to you human body is enough to cause fear and panic. Because we get trapped in the notion that we are only human. But that's only a part of us. Another great quote comes to mind here. You don't have a soul.

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You have a body, you

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are a soul.

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You are a soul. The body is merely a vehicle for transporting your consciousness around in this lifetime. It's not all that you are. We talk a lot in this community about belief systems, and how incredibly valuable they can be. When it comes to bringing peace and perspective into your own life. If the mere thought of death is still something that haunts you, it's a sign that you've identified too much with your sense of self, with your ego with your body, your brain, whatever, rather than your soul. And you know, the soul can be referred to as your energy or your consciousness or your spirit, whatever feels right to you. Ultimately, I believe that essentially all religions are pointing to the same thing. They're all different languages being used to describe the same ideas, including the idea of everlasting life being possible, but not as long as you believe yourself to strictly be human. This reminds me of when my dad passed away last year. I remember being in the hospital room with him, holding his hand tightly with our entire family basically all around. He had suffered an unexpected stroke only the day before. He was in a coma and we had all come together to respect his final wishes, which included a Do Not Resuscitate order a DNR which basically meant once we were all ready, we would be allowing the money staff to turn off his life support and allow nature to take its course. We hadn't anticipated this stroke, obviously. yet. Here we all were preparing to say our goodbyes to our father. We all hugged and kissed him and did our best to talk to him believing he could hear us despite his coma. After all, my siblings were done visiting his bedside, I walked up and I grabbed his hand. I could feel his warmth and his energy in the room and in his hand, and it felt incredibly peaceful and serene. This wouldn't be my first time sitting with someone as they passed, and I'm sure it won't be the last time either. I thought about some of the previous deaths I had, I had been there for and I thought about the ways that we had clung to them and hoped they wouldn't leave us. I didn't want my dad to Go through that same experience, you know, whatever his experience might have been like in that comatose state. So I kissed my dad on his forehead. And without really thinking about it, I just said, it's okay to let go, Daddy, we love you. Moments later, his life support was turned off. And we all sat and watched as he's slowly took his final breaths. One of the most memorable aspects of this was the feeling in the room. I felt the difference in his hand, and could see that the light had gone out in his body, so to speak, but the feeling in the room didn't change.

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It didn't feel like he had left us at all.

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I turned to one of my older brothers and just said, Well, he gets to be everything again now. And his eyes widened for a moment and then he nodded in agreement. Start smiling. He felt it too. We've talked about that moment several times since then. We could both feel that he was still with us, which brought us a great deal of additional peace. And reminds me of yet another quote that I had heard from ROM das. Rom das had this wonderful Indian guru named maharajji. And he adored him. He had completely changed his life because up until meeting him, meeting maharajji ROM das had never felt or experienced unconditional love.

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So that

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that feeling of getting to experience unconditional love changed him, and it changed many others. So many of maharajji his followers felt very attached to him. They felt like if if he died, they would lose that. So one day one of maharajji his followers fearing his eventual death, said please don't leave us maharaji And he's simply smiled back at them and replied, My dear, where would I go? I don't believe my dad left us. I don't believe my sister left us. I don't believe anyone who has passed before me has truly gone anywhere. Nor do I believe that

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I, I will

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when I meet my eventual earthly death. I'm made of the same thing, you are the same thing everything is

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we are all one.

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We're all the universe experiencing itself as a human for a while.

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We're all the ocean, the entire ocean.

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Even though we get so convinced that all we are is individual waves that go up only to eventually come crashing back down. Even if my egoic self should die, even when my body withers and rejoins the earth. My energy will live on and will always be a part of everything. If I should die young hope that you will all still speak out to the universe knowing that you're speaking to me. I hope that you'll still be compassionate towards yourselves. Knowing that I'm in there to along with everyone else you know and love. You are never alone. Never. So think of the man with the Tigers behind him and in front of him and consider your life right now. Do you feel like you're trapped between a scary past

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and a future that will certainly end in death?

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If so, that's okay. It's not necessarily untrue.

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You likely have had

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a great deal of pain and trauma and stress in your past. And no matter what we do to try to hide from it, death will eventually find us all. This isn't a flaw of the system. It's not a punishment for not being prepared enough. It just is what it is. all existing life will eventually meet death. The bodies that care Through our existence may cease to function but the soul lives on. It's time to make peace with that notion. So you can live a life where you don't feel ruled by fear, where you acknowledge that you deserve to live your life fully and wholly without fear of death,

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knowing it will

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happen at some point no matter what you do. Now, of course, this doesn't necessarily mean you should live your life recklessly, without regard for the beauty of your life. But what it does mean is that you should find a way to live in each moment fully, so that fear doesn't cloud your vision and cause you to miss the awesome qualities of your existence. Don't be so stressed over the past and so fearful of the future that you can't breathe deeply. Look around and notice the fruit on the vine. every moment, every moment even No one's right before a certain death, every moment is filled to the brim with so much beauty and joy. Every moment is filled with so much fucking love. And you can feel it if you open yourself up to it. Buddhists meditate on images of their own bodies after they die. They imagine themselves slowly becoming one with the earth. They visualize the process of death and accept it as a natural part of this existence. I personally find this notion to be beautiful. The idea that after my body ceases to live, it gets to rejoin the earth and feed new and existing life. I find that to be beautiful. If you don't find that concept to be as lovely as I do, that's totally okay. There are other ways to become more comfortable with the notion of death and dying. It is up to you though, to take the time to find them. Find all attachment To your physical existence and to your sense of self, and start working to reduce or release them, while also working on completely and totally loving and appreciating every moment you have in this life. They there are perfect, plump, juicy strawberries all around you. So many learn to look for them and enjoy them fully without worrying about what comes next. Because right in front of you, there's a strawberry,

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eat that shit.

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every second of your life here is a blessing every second you have with people that you love with the things you love. Those are all blessings. Every moment is an opportunity to learn, grow and connect to the people around you into the world around you. It would be such a shame for you to miss those moments because fear has blocked them from your view. Don't get so busy trying to make a living, that you forget to live your life and don't get so hung up on avoiding death that you forget to

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enjoy living.

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I know this particular cast may have been hard to hear, but I do hope that it's beneficial to you all. And I hope you understand why I believe conversations related to aging and death have a valid place here. I'd like us to all take good care of ourselves so we can enjoy more of our moments. I want us to commit to living life fully, regardless of how challenging it can be at times. I think accepting and coming to terms with our own belief systems around death and dying can help us to truly enjoy our lives. You are a beautiful invest being You are so much more than you give yourself credit for. Do some compassionate soul searching and find a way to re identify yourself with who you truly are and who you aren't. open yourself up to life. open yourself to the universe because it loves you. And it is you. You are everything.

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Take a few slow deep breaths.

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Remind yourself that you are strong, resilient, and connected to all that is. Enjoy all the lovely fruit you find hanging on the vines and be sure to manifest dope shit.