Hello,
Beautiful humans.
My name is Darius.
And many of you know me as Darius,
The meditation guy,
The insight timer guy.
And you might be surprised to find out that I am also the photographer guy.
Before all this awesome stuff at insight timer,
I was a professional photographer,
I still am a professional photographer.
And I'd love to tell you a story about probably my most successful photography project that almost never happened,
Okay?
Many years back.
You guys remember that really intense experience we all shared,
The pandemic where everything was shut down and we weren't allowed to talk to strangers or talk to people or our family?
Yeah.
At the tail end of that,
I was just so stir crazy that there's this desire in me to take my camera out,
Go onto the streets,
Meet strangers and see if they'd be interested in being in a 60 second photo shoot with me.
I would ask them a question at the end of that 60-second photo shoot.
The question,
I think,
Played a big role.
Videos going really viral on the internet and the question was really simple but very powerful if you could send a message back to your younger self what would you say and then strangers from all over just shared the most incredible insights.
Okay,
That's the context.
This project changed my life.
This project impacted millions of people.
And this project almost never happened.
And here's why.
The first few days I went out,
Take photos with people.
I got rejected a lot.
Many people said no.
And I didn't like that feeling and I made a story in my head that this is a terrible idea and no one is interested in any of this.
And then I checked myself and I realized.
The way I was showing up.
Was as if I was gonna burden someone.
I was gonna be a burden on their day.
You know,
I was like,
Excuse me,
Can I take it?
Do you mind if I take a photo?
Do you want to be in this photo project with me?
And it was this like,
Maybe energy,
This like,
I'm not sure of myself energy.
And I think this is the pieces.
Potentially powerful to many of you watching this.
Is there a way in which you are showing up?
As if you were gonna burn someone.
You know,
And the.
Blessing for me was eventually a few people said yes.
I got their consent.
They said yeah,
You can share this stuff.
No problem.
I started sharing it and then I saw hundreds of people commenting on the photos of this individual,
This person who was usually shy and was not sure if they wanted to be in the photos.
And they were just blessing them with like,
You're so beautiful,
You're so radiant,
You're so intelligent.
You know,
They were just like the internet.
It was the best of the internet.
People were so kind,
So sweet.
I gave them these professional photos.
And then it clicked in my head.
I'm not a burden,
I'm blessing this person's life.
I'm about to bless this person's life and yes,
If I ask and they say no,
I'm not interested,
I say no problem at all.
Blessing.
Or burden.
And my question to you here is,
Is there a way in which you might be showing up consciously or unconsciously as if you were going to burden someone?
By telling them about your business,
Your art,
Your idea,
Yourself.
Are you showing up like,
Uh,
Are you?
Uh,
Hi.
Hi.
Hello.
And bringing the burden energy that's confusing them and being like,
I'm not sure if I want to work with you or talk to you or be.
In relation with you.
And what would happen if you zoomed out for a second,
Got real with yourself and said,
I can help people.
I can bless people's lives.
I'm here to share and support and be a blessing.
And if you are a blessing,
Which many of you are,
I know you are,
What would happen if you shared you,
The blessing,
With your community and the world?
So that's what I'm gonna leave you with,
Blessing,
Burden.
How are you showing up and what would happen if you stepped into the truth?
That you,
My friend,
Are a blessing in this world.
Thank you for listening,
My name is Darius,
And I will see you next time.
Bye.
