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Toronto Portrait Photographer || HEARTshots || Black + White Photography

Memoirs and musings of Darius Bashar. Toronto portrait photographer and writer, in pursuit of all things real, raw and intimate. 

How to Build Creative Muscles 💪

 

Hi, I’m Darius.

For the past 22 years I’ve been a creative entrepreneur and artist.

Many of you know me from my photography, some of you know me from my meditations, and some of you know me from the many videos I’ve shared on social media over the years.

I’ve created a lot of stuff in the last 2 decades:

• 1 million+ plus photos

• 2000+ videos

• 500+ podcasts

• 150+ guided meditations

Someone recently asked me if I’d be open to mentoring them in creativity, and it got me thinking about what my best advice would be. So today I’m sharing my best strategies for building creative muscle.

PHASE ONE: Build Your Dreaming Muscle

• Use guided meditation, guided visualizations and journaling to find the creative dreams inside your heart.

• Seek support and guidance to bring your dream out into the world. Write it, speak it, share it, feel it, see it and eventually BE IT.

PHASE TWO: Build Your Courage Muscle

• Create a weekly workout schedule for your creative courage.

• Write, make videos, take photos, or share your voice for 90 mins a day, 2-5 times a week. These are called creative sprints. No phones, no internet, no emails, no texts—just deep, focused work.

• At the end of each creative sprint, you MUST publish something (even if it’s on a private social media account at first). The point is to practice feeling the nerves and insecurities and doing it anyways.

• The more your mind and heart see that you will consistently show up to these workouts and continue to SHARE the new work, the less scary each sprint will be. As you build courage, what was once terrifying will become a walk in the park.

It’s easy to get caught up in the outcome: What will people think? Will my work be loved? Will I get views and comments? The truth is that the PROCESS is infinitely more important—especially if you want to create consistently (and perhaps professionally).

Which muscle (Dreaming or Courage) would you like to see grow must this year?

Big love,

D