Hello and welcome to the Artist Morning Podcast.
My name is Darius and I am so grateful that you and I get this time together.
If you're new to the podcast,
First and foremost,
Let me welcome you.
It's so great to connect with you in this manner.
This podcast works a bit differently.
It is a solo audio experience.
I will share a story and a lesson,
Something that's made a big impact in my life.
That's part one.
Part two is a guided meditation.
It's usually around 10 minutes long.
So we take it from the head experience into the heart experience,
Into the soul experience to help bring that lesson in deeper.
And then we go to part three,
Which is a writing exercise intended to bring the whole thing together in a deeper,
More meaningful,
More personalized way for you.
And so let's dive in.
I gotta tell you,
These last few weeks have been very stressful.
We are moving,
Y'all.
We are moving.
For nine years,
I have lived in this dream loft.
Law literally my dream.
This creative sanctuary.
Artist morning was born here.
Writers club was born here.
Heart shots were born here.
My sub stack was born here.
Insight timer was born here.
My version at least.
So many things were birthed in this loft.
So many memories,
So many creative breakthroughs.
And my family's growing.
16-year-old daughter,
Nine-month-old baby boy who's starting to crawl,
And the loft no longer can contain him and us.
And so we've been on the hunt for a house.
And the last few weeks have been incredibly challenging.
Maybe you can relate if you've had to move,
It's usually really stressful.
And even if you've never had to move or moving is not stressful to you,
The story is still very relevant because within it is a reminder and a practice to help you during very challenging times where we lose ourselves or we go so deep into it that we get microscopic.
You know what I'm talking about?
Let me give you an example.
I live in Toronto and the real estate market is kind of bonkers here.
Despite having a successful business,
Multiple six figures,
A great tax record,
Great credit score.
If you're self-employed in Toronto,
That's makes things much harder in terms of real estate.
And so we've been looking for places,
Applying,
Putting offers in and getting rejected.
That's the truth.
And in the midst of this,
All my stuff started to come up,
All my stuff,
All the old stuff.
Stuff.
Getting rejected when you try to go up to a cute girl in high school and all of it and oh look they have all my information and they're looking at my credit score and they're looking at us as a couple and they're saying no you're not good enough.
And I started to spiral,
And I started to go into all of the mind stuff.
Now,
This isn't a story about real estate,
This could be anything.
Any moment in your life where you go so in and you make it so personal,
And you lean into the paradigm that is victim,
And there's some righteousness you get,
Some power you get from making it not your fault and it happening to you,
In the midst of this,
I lost grip of how amazing my life is,
How fortunate I am,
How much power I have,
How much agency I have,
How much support I have,
Because I went in,
In,
In,
In,
In,
In,
Deep,
Deep,
Deep,
Deep,
Deep until I was microscopic and the situation was so big around me and it hit a breaking point where my mom,
I remember going for a walk with her and I was like,
It's just such a hard market and it's so difficult.
And she's like,
Be careful of the words you are saying.
They're like spells.
They make your reality.
And I was like,
No,
I'm not,
I'm not making this up.
This is what it is.
It's just what is.
And I caught myself there.
It's just what is.
It's how it is.
There's nothing I can do about it.
And in that place,
I took a deep breath.
And I went back and up.
I took another deep breath and I felt my energy go back.
And up.
I took another deep breath and I felt my energy go back and up until I was almost hovering above myself.
I was watching my human in the drama.
I was watching the drama,
The theater,
Unfold in front of my human.
And I realized the deeper and smaller I went into the drama,
The more overwhelmed I was.
And in this pause,
This break,
This deep breath up and back,
Up and back.
I was able to fall back into the seat of my soul.
Fall back into the seat of my soul.
And from that place,
I was instantly grounded,
Empowered,
In peace.
From the seat of my soul,
I was able to remember that the thing is never the thing.
The stress is never what you think it is.
The thing is never the thing.
It's an opportunity.
It's an exam.
It's a moment ripe with spiritual growth if you allow it to.
The thing is never the thing.
I'm like,
Oh my gosh,
I got caught up in the thing.
It was so microscopic that I forgot about my soul.
This,
In front of me,
Was an exam.
An exam before I was able to graduate to the next level.
It was a test for me,
For my highest good,
To give me an opportunity to utilize the wisdom,
The experience,
The books,
The therapy,
The coaching,
The prayers.
It's like,
Bravo,
D.
You've studied.
You've done the work.
Now apply the work.
Apply it.
The thing is never the thing.
What is the spiritual experience available to you in the midst of the chaos,
In the midst of the fear,
The sadness,
The anger?
Now,
Again,
It's tricky.
I'm never saying to bypass the experience.
Don't feel the fear.
Don't feel the sadness.
I felt it.
I felt it.
I reached out.
I communicated to my men's group.
I communicated to my mastermind,
I communicated with my wife,
I prayed,
I journaled,
I walked,
I talked with my mom,
Talked with my dad.
I made space for the human experience,
For the emotional experience.
But then I came back and up.
Back and up,
Back and up.
Into the seat of my soul.
And I remember.
All of this was written.
All of this was written.
All of this was predestined.
All of this was a beautiful,
Benevolent test for my soul,
For my spirit to grow and expand.
The thing is never the thing.
That night I slept.
I slept well.
I woke up and I realized there's nothing to lose here.
We are already winning,
We are already abundant,
We are already surrounded by so much love.
Privilege,
And blessing.
And when I was able to return back to the energy of trust,
Of blessing,
Of joy.
Of the seat of my soul,
Of You know it's gonna work out better than you ever imagined.
And it felt like in that moment,
The universe was like,
You passed.
You remembered.
You remembered that you are always supported and guided.
You remembered how powerful your words are,
How powerful your thoughts are.
You remembered to make space for your feelings.
You remembered to reach out for help.
And you remembered that universe,
That God,
That angels always,
Always,
Always have your back.
And once I was able to process this and understand this on a spiritual level,
Everything shifted.
Frequency shifted.
Vibration shifted.
A few hours later,
We get a call from our agent.
The place,
The beautiful dream place,
Said yes.
The next chapter,
The next era of my family,
Of my creative expression was here.
I passed the exam.
Thank you,
Universe.
Thank you,
God.
Thank you,
Soul.
Thank you,
Seat of my soul.
Heh heh heh heh heh.
What a wild ride this human experience is.
My goodness.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for listening.
We're gonna move in to a short meditation practice.
It's just about 10 minutes and then if you're interested.
.
.
In the write-up below there will be a writing exercise to allow you to continue going deep.
Maybe somewhere in your life.
There's an opportunity to sit back and up into the seat of your soul and remember,
Remember,
Remember just who you are.
And so let's prepare for meditation.
Said a lot of things.
Those words probably brought you into your headspace.
So let's settle in.
Let's find a place to sit with your eyes closed.
Taking a few deep breaths,
Slowing everything down.
As we intentionally move into our heart space.
Imagine.
In front of you.
Is some sort of situation in your life.
You are watching it in front of you unfolding.
Something that perhaps heightens your emotions,
Can be stressful,
Can be uncertain.
And if you go too far into it,
If you lean in and get smaller and smaller and smaller,
The situation becomes overwhelming.
So instead,
Dear one,
We are going to take a few deep breaths.
And go back and up.
Back and up.
Okay,
So settle in.
Seeing the drama in front of you,
The thing,
The thing,
The thing happening,
Whatever it is.
And see and feel the possibility available to you to lean into the thing and get smaller and smaller and smaller.
And if you're open to it,
Let's just practice what it's like to take a deep breath and go back and up.
Back and up,
Each time zooming out,
Zooming out,
Zooming out.
What if the thing is not the thing?
What it is a beautiful opportunity for you to practice.
Coming back?
To the seat of your soul.
Taking a deep breath.
Bringing your perspective back and up.
Back and up.
Each breath,
You get lighter.
Each breath,
You get stronger.
Each breath you move towards the seat of your soul.
The situation is sitting in front of your human.
And in a moment,
We're going to take a deep breath in.
And we're going to find ourselves hovering above and behind your human.
Ready?
Deep breath in.
Big exhale out.
Zoom,
Zoom,
Zoom.
There's your human.
In front of you,
Beautiful human.
Incredible human,
Thank you.
The drama is in front of your human,
The energy.
And you are here in the seat of your soul.
Soften your forehead,
Soften your jaw.
Remember who you are.
Remember how powerful How supported.
How it's all happening for you,
Never happening to you.
It's happening for you,
For your highest good.
There are lessons here.
There are gems here,
There are gifts here.
You are closer to a breakthrough than you might realize.
You are closer to a breakthrough than you might realize.
This is our last song,
I'm gonna leave some space.
For you to sit in the seat of your soul.
And perhaps see that the thing happening in front of you is happening for you and your highest good.
And let's take a deep breath to bring our meditation to an end,
Breathing in.
Big exhale out.
All of us will forget.
All of us will lean into the drama and get smaller and smaller and smaller.
I hope this practice will help you to remember that a pause,
A breath,
Intentionally zooming out,
Up,
And back,
And remembering that the seat of your soul is available to you at any time.
No matter what you're going through,
You can come back to the seat of your soul and remember that whatever it is that's happening is happening for you and your highest good.
Thank you so much for meditating with me.
Thanks for listening to the lesson in the story.
If you're interested in part three,
The writing exercise that will help you integrate the podcast episode today,
It will be listed below.
Thanks once again,
My name is Darius and I will see you next time.
