Good morning,
And welcome to The Artist's Morning.
My name's Darius,
And I'm so grateful that you and I get this time together.
Our practice today is one that has a lot of potential to help you connect with your own motivation,
Your own inspiration,
And potentially inspire you to take actions that are aligned with your greatest good,
Your greatest joy,
And your greatest creative expression.
And today's practice might be emotional for you because we are going to speak about a very important topic.
The theme is death.
As an artist,
As a creator,
I have a conflicted relationship with deadlines.
They can be very emotionally intense and even stressful,
And they're crucial to helping me focus my energy to get a creative project completed.
And so let's think about that word,
Deadline.
The great deadline for all of us is the end of our lives.
Nobody knows when.
Could be 50 years from now.
Could be 50 minutes from now.
And I'm not trying to be overly harsh or alarming.
My intention is reminding and potentially waking those up who are forgetting.
That all of us must die.
Let's take a deep breath here.
And if this is too much for you today,
It's okay.
You can shut this off.
Find a different meditation.
But I want to offer up that maybe this is the wake-up call we need.
Let's go slow.
Breathing into your heart.
We are here now.
This topic is important.
And this topic can be challenging.
We are here now.
Feel your heart.
Feel your feet.
When we wake up to the preciousness of our lives,
Incredible things can happen.
I'm going to share a couple of more challenging but potentially profound notions.
I am 42 years old.
And it occurred to me this morning that there is a very good chance that I have more days behind me than I have in front of me.
I began to panic when I realized this.
And then I remembered my relationship with deadlines.
They are challenging and they are incredibly focusing and motivating.
When you wake up to the reality that time is moving forward,
There is the potential to gain focus,
Momentum,
And power.
Maybe you have more days in front of you than behind you.
Maybe you have less than I do.
But here's the good news.
Here's the great news.
All it takes is one moment.
All it takes is one moment of courage to say yes.
To say yes to that thing in your heart that's in service of your soul.
To say yes to that thing in your heart that wants to be expressed,
That wants to be experienced,
That wants to go on an adventure.
Let's take a deep breath here.
Breathing in.
Letting it go.
I'm going to share those three truths.
Those challenging but potentially awakening truths again.
Do your best to keep your heart open,
Your feet grounded,
And to remember that you are always protected and supported by the universe.
Reality number one.
One day you must die.
That's how it works here on earth.
Reality number two.
There is a good chance you have more days behind you than you have in front of you.
Feel the impact of that.
Reality number three.
All it takes is a single moment to change your life.
One moment where we acknowledge these two truths and wake up and say yes.
Say yes to that truth inside our hearts.
Say yes to that trip.
Say yes to that dance.
Say yes to that conversation.
Say yes to that creative project.
Say yes to sharing our voice,
To writing our book,
To living our truth are still here.
You have energy.
You have a voice.
You have a body.
You have ideas.
You have visions.
You are still here.
There is a part of you that is ready to wake up and remember why your incredible spirit chose to come here.
To have this experience,
This human experience.
I want to invite those parts to wake up now.
You are still here.
I am still here.
Holy smokes,
We are alive.
What a blessing to be alive.
Not everyone gets to make it this far.
This is our last song coming up,
Dear artist.
I am going to leave a lot of open space for you to just connect with your life force energy.
Connect with maybe the sadness,
The tenderness,
The one day all of us must die.
Maybe connect with the joy,
The inspiration that we are still here.
We are still here.
We still have voice.
We still have power.
We still have agency.
If there is something you want to do,
If there is somewhere you want to go,
If there is some conversation you want to have,
You are still here.
Bravo,
Dear artist.
Bravo,
Dear creator.
You made it to the end of this meditation.
I have a feeling this meditation could be very challenging to many.
I am okay with that.
I also know it has the potential to help some of us really wake up to how incredible,
How precious,
How beautiful life can be.
I do not know how long I will be here.
I am okay taking creative risks and saying things that are so true in my heart.
Thank you for going on this journey with me.
Thank you for trusting me.
For those that are joining us live at The Artist Morning,
I am going to share a journal prompt on this theme and allow us to continue this exploration together.
If you are catching us on a replay,
You can do the same.
Thank you once again for meditating with me.
My name is Darius and I will see you next time.
