An Unexpected Delight at SteemFest²!
During day #5, we asked "What can we do to increase the value of Steem?" and I received one amazing answer that I will share in my next post along with the story of our adventures yesterday in Lisbon, Portugal featuring from left to right @starkerz, @ashleypeat, @tomasgeorge, and me!
Yesterday I was shocked to find it was 1 PM when I woke up! I wrote https://steemit.com/steemfest/@jerrybanfield/stories-of-steemfest-connecting-comedy-voting-music-uber-and-witnessing as soon as I woke up and then went out to dinner a bit after 5 pm.
I am so impressed with my body's new ability to go long periods of time without eating or complaining because the last food I had before this was around 8 pm at dinner the night before! @tomasgeorge helped me stick with intermittent fasting which I normally do as eating 8 hours a day and not eating 16.
Here is our dinner together! Guess which one is mine?
Alright here it is the best whole plant food option I could find! Yes this is the exact same restaurant we ate at a couple days ago. We liked it once so why not twice!
I ate another creamy and delicious desert which surely was not vegan and I view my eating with a "bend to avoid breaking" philosophy.
Wow!
After dinner I had an amazing experience in the lobby with @quinneaker, @saramiller, @virtualgrowth, and @everlove which was incredible and only possible in person. We stood in the lobby of the Hotel HF Fenix Lisboa maintained eye contact and were mostly silent for 5 to 10 minutes each! My thought to describe the feeling was "this is way better than getting high."
We initially started what I this is called "Deep looking" while we were talking in the lobby. In making my usual heavy eye contact with each, I noticed that unlike most people I talk to that look away before I do, Quinn and Sara maintained eye contact with me as long as I would which initially left me feeling a bit awkward because I am used to being the dominate eye contacter among almost everyone I see every day.
At first, I made a joke of it but then @virtualgrowth stepped up and offered to give it a shot with me. I laughed almost the entire 5 or 10 minutes I looked him in the eyes. Next I went up to my room wondering why I had been hesitant to maintain eye contact with the others after feeling comfortable with @virtualgrowth right away.
Then I got a hunger for more and went back downstairs. When I came back down, all I wanted to do was look and not even talk. We spent somewhere between 20 minutes and an hour in the lobby with next @saramiller then @quinneaker and finally @everlove taking turns maintaining mostly silent eye contact for around 5 minutes each with then some slow and deep conversation.
While this paragraph may look ordinary on the page, for my brain this was a supernatural experience. I felt high for the next hour which stands out in a life where I avoid any state of intoxication and stick to almost all natural whole plant foods and green matcha tea. @tomasgeorge laughed when he had to repeat himself when it was time to go because I could not comprehend anything he was saying. The language center in my brain was off and it took a noticable few seconds to spin up.
Most of us are like a peasant or a beggar in the street when it comes to true human connection. Many of us make it through almost every day of our lives without having more than one or two moments of true connection. A lot of us want this so bad and yet are not ready to actually receive it when the opportunity is in front of us. I have been having inspirations for months to help people meetup locally where I live to do this and now that I have experienced it for myself with people I just met, I am ready to go forth!
We often reserve moments of connection like this for loved ones only and often we miss even those as we have a busy day. If we want to have happy lives, it is essential we simply take time to really see each other without our masks, egos, titles, and armor. The easiest way to do this is maintain silent eye contact for as long as comfortable although often starting may be uncomfortable. Get through the discomfort and into the immense joy of true connection which is a 100% natural way to achieve a higher state of consciousness which so many of us try to do by ourselves with alcohol, drugs, sex, work, etc.
Thank you @quinneaker, @saramiller, @virtualgrowth, and @everlove for connecting with me so completely!
After @tomasgeorge finishing editing and rendering the video of my standup comedy last night which took over 9 hours to upload to YouTube, we went out to Timeout for more food!
The best option I could find was a stand with an amazing selection of dried fruit and nuts where I dropped 20 Euros on this bag of delicious treats!
With enough food for nearly the rest of the trip except for the dinner tomorrow, @starkerz and @ashleypeat stopped for another creamy and delicious treat this time with cinnamon on top!
We then talked for hours about the best ways to add value to Steem and I got an incredible idea that I will share with you in my next post. Until then, here is my standup comedy from YouTube filmed and edited by @tomasgeorge! I will plan to get a transcript of this and dedicate a post to the video and everything said in it this week!
Thank you very much for joining us for our adventures! I am excited to share what I hope is my best idea for Steem so far in the next post! Originally I put it all in this post and I realized it was already long enough ... again.
Love,
Jerry Banfield
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I felt that this was quite a profound experience and am very grateful that you chose to feature it. To me that is what is even more profound as it shows that not only did you experience something profound but you are honoring and integrating it.
Your words shared here are medicine that many people need. Intimacy, love, honesty, self expression, vulnerability, consideration, presence, exchange these are as you said very limited in the world and cultures we live in.
We all know how awkward or inappropriate it usually is to "stare" at someone or give them such a gaze. I am used to this also but have found that for the people who are ready such as your self it is so worth it and greatly outweighs the people who judge me or dislike me for it.
We can't place anyone nor will we likely ever be perfect. Yet we CAN be HONEST and express the truth of our soul. Finding soul friends/brothers/sisters/lovers is priceless. Its very hard to find them hiding all the time....
Thanks for sharing this, I hope it intrigues and inspires many!
Grateful we met had shared this time. I hope our connection and exchange continues to flourish improving ours and many others lives!
I will talk to you more soon about the things we discussed that can significantly help further the cause of a sustainable, happy and free world.
SteemOn!
Yes yes yes yes yes!
SURE DO WISH WE ALL IN THE COMMENT SETION COULD HAVE BEEN THERE TO MEET SO MANY PEOPLE INCLUDING JERRY
BY THE WAY ANYONE HERE WATCH JERRYBANFIELD IN YOUTUBE
HES THE BEST!
What a perfect opportunity to tune into REAL soulful connection, and do something with it!! Such power coming through this post--and those commenting on the most profound and intimate part of it is priceless. Grateful to witness and be a part of deep and true exchange.
Nice post! What will happening, if someone resteem your post?
You're welcome, @jerrybanfield! We provide the same realness and intimacy for everyone, which makes a lot of people uncomfortable. It is an honor to connect with someone who is willing and grateful to receive the profound gift of human connection such as yourself!
Thank you for your genuine acknowledgement here on the blockchain. That's significant on a lot of levels too - not only were you willing to go deeper in real life in a situation that many forsake, but you are willing to share your testimony & witness as to how profound it really IS, and in a public ledger no less. Thank you!
Many blessings to you Jerry 💛
BY THE WAY SBD IS WORTH MORE THAN STEEM
Thank you for sharing your stories with us! How I wish I could have been out there experiencing Steemfest for myself. It looks like it's been so much fun for everyone who attended!
I was fascinated by this paragraph in particular. I, myself, am usually the dominant eye contacter amongst people I meet. I find that you can tell a lot about someone by how soon they look away or how long they stay when you're making eye contact with them.
I also really related to this paragraph. It is this lack of genuine human connection in today's world that motivated me to start writing my blog Friendship In a New Age. I want to help re-popularize the idea of real connection and true intimacy between friends because I believe it will lead to stronger connections all around.
I appreciate that you are commenting on this part of the post as I find it to be very important and that fact that he is writing about it in a post here is quite profound.
Thanks for contributing to the exploration of this profoundly important aspect of the human experience.
Blessings~*~
Thank you so much @quinneaker! I think that section was the most profound part of this post, actually. I'm so glad that someone with his large following is on here talking about what I believe is such a vital conversation that needs to be had. Now more than ever, in today's technological advent, we have become so disconnected from each other because we have relied on digital communications, digital connections, for too long. We have forgotten the importance of connecting on a human to human level, in person.
Practices like the one @jerrybanfield described in this post are just one of several ways to attempt to re-ignite that level of intimacy and connection between people. SO glad he's talking about it! :D
Exactly!
BY THE WAY ARE YOU A WITNESS
No, I'm definitely not a witness (^_^:)> That would be nice if I were though lol
Hey @jerrybanfield thank you for kind information regarding Steemfest² I missed those moments so much may be next year I will join you sir and personally meet you on another Steemfest³ I am super excited to meet you personally and get some mind blowing ideas to get success like you in life.
Best wishes Sir.
The very most juicy moments in life for me are experiencing the profound nature of connection. I found there to be quite a few people who were open this year to delving deeper into the possibilities, and more true, raw and vulnerable expression with each other.
These moments with you were truly some of those juicy moments, where we step into the fear of ideas, and just show up as our true selves. Those were some of the most real experiences of SF2 -- true connection which we all deeply yearn for.
I am grateful to witness and be a part of this open exchange. I love that it spontaneously happened in the open for others to witness, and how you really faced the discomfort on many levels.
Your heartfelt writing about this experience here on the blockchain is yet another testament to your vulnerability, and I hope others will feel the value of your experience.
Grateful to connect with you @jerrybanfield.
THIS COMMENT DESCRIBES ME WHEN JERRY INTRODUCED ME TO STEEMIT
;) THNAK YOU JERRY
<3
So well stated! Ok, now I a little bit sad (again) that I couldn't be there. The vulnerability - that's such a major part of the best things in life and wow- how much effort do most of us put into avoiding it?! I think I speak for everyone- A Lot. And for some good reasons too but because it has become such a convenience to do so- many, many of us are missing out on too much of our own lives, and depriving others of same. Even as I read this and imagine myself there I feel it- such exhilaration and fear also, to be honest. What is that? (I imagine scenes with tremendous clarity- Lol). But hey, when you join together as a family- when is there a better time?
It truly was the perfect opportunity to engage the moment, to question fears and ideas, and to just be present. In my experience it is a rarity to find people open and vulnerable enough to really go there. There is indeed a very great connection of community happening through Steemit and this is just one of the indications that together, awakening can happen.
I am grateful and blessed that at the @gardenofeden we get to experience these kinds of relationships, and challenge ourselves to stand in the discomfort and joys of knowing ourselves and each other. This is doing the real work.
Grateful for your comment @dougbudlong and to see there are others who can feel the great value of showing up as ourselves....together.
The "human connection" theme has been coming up a lot lately. Well, it always gets at least casual mention because under the surface, a lot of people are aware of an unnatural "lack" that has been culminating and giving root to some unsettling social symptoms. But I've been observing deeper discussions about it in recent days. It's good to know that collective awareness is bringing this to the work table.. (as you described) We start to speak to each other about perceptions,..how we've changed as individuals, which brings realization. And what you described (one perspective anyway): playing with common responses to physical presence, examining and managing reactions- intentionally. Play time is when the a lot of the magic happens.This is what coping and preparing for healthy adjustment looks like! Thanks for sharing the experience.
Yes I loved how he mentioned that for over an hour he felt not only "high" but also that the language part of is brain was turned off because he was fully communicating on a different level.
It is astonishing to me time and time again no matter how many times I facilitate it how much information, data, experience, communication can take place with conscious, present authentic eye contact.
So grateful there is more and more of this happening.
Bless~*~
MAYBE IF WE DIG DEEP ENOUGH WE MAY GET TO INTERACT WITH THE UNCONSCIOUS PARTS OF OUR MINDS
This is great! Eye contact for more than 10 seconds is definitely strange to people (me included), but when we dare to do it, it gets so deep! It is undescribable.
Happy that you can talk about this simple but yet profound thing here!
Thankfully someone is commenting about the profound implications of this part of the post.
Cheers!
Yaa you right.....👍
THE IMPORTANT THING IS YOU HAVE FUN
BUT THINK OF THE FESTIVES AND FUN AT STEEMFEST
WHICH JERRY IS DESCRIBING FOR THE PAST 5-DAYS MAN I TELL YOU
HAPPINESS IS THE BEST THING EVER
high on eye contact lol that's cool that you're finding great connections there. It helps to have some passion in common to do those things so that's probably what helped and inspired you to do it.
Great job at the steemfest @jerrybanfield. Intermittent fasting has been something that I really want to do consistently. Been researching about this.^^
I'm pretty sure you can't beat me on a eye contact challenge. Looking forward to your new post. Stay safe.
Thanks For Share Your Life good info .