Hello and welcome to the Artist Morning Podcast.
My name is Darius and I'm so grateful you and I get this time together.
If you are new here,
I want to let you know this podcast works a bit differently.
We have 20 minutes together and in that 20 minutes,
We're going to do three things.
There is part one,
A lesson and a story,
Part two,
A guided meditation,
And part three,
A writing exercise for you to integrate our lesson today.
And our lesson today is all about resistance.
This is a fundamental element of the creative process.
If you are trying to write more,
If you are trying to create more,
If you're trying to put yourself out there more,
Resistance will show up.
Resistance will impact you if you have no idea what we're talking about.
When I say resistance,
You are in the right spot.
If you have decades of experience around what resistance is,
You are in the right spot.
And so this will be so powerful to anyone out there that's just getting started on Substack,
Just getting started in their self-expression and creativity journey and has experience of what it feels like to feel shy,
To feel scared,
To feel numb,
To feel like you have something to say and for some reason it's not able to be said or expressed at all or in a way that feels true and authentic to who you are.
Now this is really interesting for me.
Maybe you can hear this,
Maybe you can't,
But right now they are taking down a bridge just outside my loft.
That's right.
I said taking down a bridge.
Never heard of anyone taking down a bridge,
But they're taking down an entire bridge.
And for me,
This is actually resistance.
This is resistance saying,
No,
You can't talk about this thing.
How dare you tell people my secrets?
And it's like,
What do you mean this is resistance?
Well,
Let's start by defining what we mean when we say resistance,
Because the definition of it,
Naming it,
Understanding it,
Being able to spot it is a fundamental element to taking its power away.
And so the simplest explanation is an invisible source that will do whatever it takes to prevent you from sharing your gifts,
Your light,
Your most honest,
Soulful work,
An invisible source.
And so it's mysterious,
It's sneaky,
It's stealth.
You know,
I'm going to talk about the most common ways it shows up.
And for me,
This is resistance.
It's like so sneaky.
Any way it can find to convince you not to share your thing,
Your light,
Your gift.
And so I'm going to tell you a little story about resistance while they're taking a bridge down,
Because that's not going to stop me.
That's not going to stop me.
Early on in my photography career,
I had just done this really amazing photo shoot with this particular model,
And it went so well,
Ended up sharing some of the photos.
The photos went super viral.
Long story short,
But like Oprah ended up using one of these photos.
It was like so successful,
So amazing.
And so what does this have to do with resistance?
I'll tell you in a moment.
We had booked a second shoot with the same person.
It's early morning shoot.
I'm driving to pick them up.
And all of a sudden,
This voice comes alive inside my head.
And it starts saying things like,
Today's the day the world is finally going to see that you are a phony.
You're an imposter.
You're pretending that you're a photographer.
That last time was a fluke.
And I'm so excited for you to flop in a spectacular way.
And now my heart is pumping.
I'm just holding on to the steering wheel for dear life.
And I was trying to find any which way to bail,
Because this voice that was trying to convince me that it's trying to take care of me and protect me was like,
Don't do this.
They're going to find out.
You know,
You'll never be able to meet last time's expectations.
That was everything up to this point has just been a fluke.
And so I'm trying to like,
How do I get out of this?
How do I get out of this?
But in my panic,
I didn't realize that I had arrived.
And this person jumped in my car and I'm like,
Oh,
Damn,
There's nothing I can do.
And so I'm panicking and I'm panicking.
We get to the location and something else takes over.
And that's not really the point of the story.
The point of the story is I did the thing,
Not because I was brave,
Just because I didn't want to disappoint this person.
I did the thing,
Put the photos up and the photos were spectacular.
And so this resistance that was trying to convince me that it is the truth,
I took a moment to be like,
Damn,
You're so convincing and you were wrong.
And so this is a powerful story in my life because it allowed me to create this separation from resistance that's been plaguing me my whole life and to acknowledge how convinced it was,
How passionate it was,
How robust its attack on me was.
And yet it was wrong.
It was wrong.
And this allowed me to explore where else resistance was impacting my life and diminishing my life.
And if it could be wrong about this thing,
Where else could have been wrong?
And so this was like 10 years ago and I've been delving,
Just eating up anything I can read,
Watch any event,
Anyone who's talking about resistance as it pertains to creativity.
And today I want to share with you my learnings and I want to share this with you in a manner that will allow you to identify what's happening,
But more importantly,
What to do when resistance shows up,
Like an actual three-step framework of like,
This is what I will do to prevent resistance from having this huge impact on my life.
Okay.
Now I want to say this is a part of a much bigger lesson that we dive into in the Creative Sanctuary,
Which is my 12-week one-on-one container.
And I'm going to try to take a piece of it,
A key piece and share it with you here.
There's lots more I can say about it,
But I really do think what I'm about to share has tremendous value,
Especially for new and emerging creators and writers.
And so step one is let's get clear on the definition.
An invisible source that will do whatever it takes to prevent you from sharing your light,
Your gifts,
Your heart with the world.
Now let's get even more specific because there's five forms resistance takes.
And within these five forms,
You're going to find probably 99% of how resistance can impact you.
Okay.
And this is true for everyone.
The first most powerful form it can take,
You know,
Sometimes I like to think about resistance is the godfather of this family,
This organized crime family that wreaks havoc on creators.
And these are like the key captains of this organized crime.
The first one that wreaks the most havoc is perfectionism.
Perfectionism is the number one killer of creative energy because it will overwhelm you and lead you to procrastinate to the point where you're exhausting.
You don't do anything.
The number two comparison.
Comparison kills joy and comparison is complicated because it's not just comparison to other people.
And when we do that,
We're compare our,
You know,
Level three to their level 300.
And we're like,
How come we're not the same?
But we can also compare,
Which is what happened with me in the story to ourselves and be like,
That was,
I peaked.
I'm never going to do anything like that again.
So I might as well quit.
Number three,
Fear of rejection.
Big one.
Fear of rejection is complicated because if resistance is sneaky enough,
It looks like I don't even want to try.
I don't even want to make a book.
I don't even want to write a course anymore.
No,
No,
No.
I don't want to.
And underneath that aggression,
That coping mechanism is sadness of I don't think I can.
I'm afraid I'll get rejected.
So it's sneaky because it's underneath.
Number four,
Imposter syndrome.
Oh my gosh.
Who are you to think you can have a sub stack?
Who are you?
You're too old.
You're too young.
You're not educated enough.
You're too educated.
You're too big.
You're too small.
It's like anything.
You're too black.
You're too white.
You're too everything.
It could say it'll be like too much too late.
Who are you?
Who are you trying to fool here?
Number five,
Victim mindset.
This is a sneaky,
Sneaky one,
You know,
Because it convinces us that it's not my fault.
It's not my fault.
It's the government.
It's not my fault.
It's my family.
It's not my fault.
It's the country.
It's my boss.
It's and some of these are so legitimate.
But here's the wake up call,
Y'all.
I want to be honest with you.
If you really want to be a creator,
Life is hard.
Hard things happen.
And you have to activate this next level of like no matter what happens,
It's happening for me,
Not to me.
No matter what happens,
It happened for me,
Not to me.
Even if it's reasonable and legitimate and sad,
It happened for me,
For my highest good.
So again,
Perfectionism,
Comparison,
Fear of rejection,
Imposter syndrome,
Victim mindset.
These are the manifestations of resistance.
And lastly,
In our lesson piece,
Before we move on to our meditation,
There's three things that give resistance power.
Number one,
It's invisibility.
I'm not really here.
This is you.
You're doing this.
There's nothing I'm doing.
This is just how life is.
Number two,
It's ability to isolate you and monopolize the conversation so I can whisper in your ear.
When there's no one else there,
You're in big trouble.
Number three,
Its ability to be invisible and to isolate you gives it tremendous opportunity to shape your identity,
Shape who you think you are.
I'm not the type of person that can do this.
I can't do hard things.
Too old.
I missed my chance.
I am an epic unfinisher.
I just don't follow through.
This is the most dangerous impact resistance can have.
Most dangerous impact is when it starts to secretly,
Unconsciously convince you of something to the point where you give up and change your identity of who you are.
So this is a jam-packed lesson.
The good news is there's one more piece,
Right?
Oh my gosh,
Darius,
You've overwhelmed me.
There's so much resistance can do.
Here's the good news.
There's a way out.
There is a way out.
And here it is.
Three steps to outsmart and diminish the power of resistance.
The first step is this,
Like,
Just naming it.
We have to do it.
It's hard.
It's difficult.
But we need to name it.
We got to get real.
Okay,
So step number one is name it.
Name that resistance is here and give it a specific name.
You know,
I'm in the resistance of perfectionism.
I'm in the fear of rejection.
I'm in comparison.
So name it.
We'll separate you from it.
Okay,
That'll take 25% of its power away.
Number two,
Tell at least one other human with your voice that you are in resistance.
As soon as you do that,
You take its power away to be isolating you.
And when you do that,
You take another 25% of its power away just by saying it.
Resistance is like,
Damn,
Why did you tell someone else?
Now they're going to give you thoughts and opinions.
And I just wanted to be the only one telling you things.
You ruined it.
Why did you tell someone else?
So by naming it and by telling one other human,
We've diminished 50% of resistance's power.
And the last and important step here,
Our job as creators is to keep the channel open.
Keep the creative channel open.
Keep our hearts open.
Keep our connection to something above and beyond us open.
Whatever you want to call it.
I like calling it the creative channel.
And so we need to do whatever it takes to keep the channel open because guess what?
Resistance is doing whatever it takes to close that channel and keep you quiet.
So if resistance is really powerful,
Here's the good news.
After you've named it,
After you've told one person you're in it,
All you have to do is find a teeny tiny action to take to demonstrate to resistance that it cannot control you.
So when it comes to Substack,
For example,
Teeny tiny step,
You can just journal,
Write for yourself.
Don't give up on writing.
I see you resistance.
I know you're here and I'm going to continue writing.
Teeny tiny step.
You want to take a tiny step above that?
Write a small post on Substack.
Doesn't need to be a gigantic post.
Just keep that channel open.
Shipping,
Sharing,
Speaking up.
Resistance will absolutely hate that.
So again,
The three steps.
Name it.
Get specific about what type of resistance is here.
Tell one other human or maybe more than one other human.
And number three,
Keep that channel open.
Find a teeny tiny step you can take that keeps your creative channels open.
We're going to get a meditation in this mix because it's going to be important.
So thank you so much for your presence,
For your attention,
For your creativity,
For your honesty.
I've said a lot of things.
So let's just take a moment to slow down,
Slow down,
Slow down.
Yeah,
We've been in our headspace by design,
Less in the story,
The framework.
And so let's use our breath to move us from our headspace.
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down into our heart space.
And if it's available to you,
Closing your eyes,
Beginning to take longer,
Deeper breaths.
Bringing a softness to your forehead,
Your jaw,
Your eyes,
Your neck.
As we bring softness to our headspace,
Allows our head to relax so that we can go deeper into our heart space.
Whatever you've been through,
How ever large resistances impact on you.
You dear one are here now.
You have made it through every single one of your hardest days.
Let's take a moment to soak that in.
You have made it through every single one of your hardest days.
And somehow you are here.
In this creative space.
Which means you are connected to that desire inside your heart to defy resistance.
That desire inside your heart to share your gifts and your light with the world.
There is courage there,
There is tenacity there.
There's boldness.
So breathe that in.
Wonderful resistance is an invisible source trying to hold us down.
And we are still here.
Heart open,
Voice open,
Feet grounded,
Crown tall,
Ready to receive.
Deep breath.
Your channel is open.
Your chakras are open.
Accessing.
More confidence now.
Allow your body to fall into the energy of more confidence.
What does it feel like in your body?
Again,
Softening your head.
Intentionally moving into your heart space.
Heart open.
I am not afraid of you resistance.
I am supported.
I am guided.
I am brave and confident.
I let go of external validation.
I let go of any attachment or story that I no longer need to hold.
I am not afraid to make mistakes and to get messy and to learn and grow.
This is our last song.
I'm going to sit quiet and allow you and your incredible creative spirit to get some quality time together.
And to bring our practice to an end,
Let's place one hand on our heart.
Connecting with this incredible creative portal that is your heart.
Thank you heart.
Thank you for feeling so much.
Thank you for caring so much.
One last affirmation if you are open to it.
One of my favorites.
All I need is within me now.
All I need is within me now.
Bravo,
Dear artist.
That is episode three.
Thank you for being here.
I'll share the writing exercise in the description below.
Such an honor to go on these deep journeys with you all.
Thank you so much for being here with me.
My name is Darius and I will see you next time.
