Are your best days behind you?

Are the best moments of your life, your work, your family, your romance, and your health already gone?

These are uncomfortable questions. Because no one wants to consider that the best days of their life have already passed.

That’s why I love working with clients like Tosca Reno. She is a testament to what’s possible at any age when you unite your mind, body and soul.

Tosca has already done so much with her life. She is a New York Times best selling author and a world leader on the topic of health and vitality. She inspires 100’s of thousands of women worldwide with her wisdom and guidance.

Tosca has also been through a lot of pain and grief in her life. She has many legitimate reasons to back down or step aside. But you see, that’s just not her. Despite everything, Tosca is leaning in to the next chapter of her life.

Spend two minutes with Tosca and you will quickly realize there is so much more brilliance, love and radiance to experience her heart.

And she is ready to share it with the world.

I remember when I got to feel her magic firsthand; Tosca booked me for a double photoshoot. We dove deep with my indoor HEARTshot portrait session, and then we hopped into my car and drove to the beach for a SunChaser adventure shoot.

I am grateful for the day we got to spend together. Tosca’s energy continues to inspire me on my own journey.

Big love,

D

PS: If you’re ready for us to work together, I have a great photography deal for Fall and Winter (with limited spots) and I’d love to chat.

PPS: Hair and makeup by the amazing Kelly Davidson.

Pretending the tragedies in the Middle East aren’t happening does not work for me. They are happening. They are heart wrenching and they do deeply impact me.

Over-consuming media—especially graphic content about the violence in the Middle East—also does not work for me. My nervous system quickly goes into deep fear and panic and I become paralyzed with sadness.

I believe there is a path where I can both keep my eyes open and also keep my heart open.

In order to make any positive impact, it feels important to stay connected to what’s going on, while also staying connected to my personal power and my ability to take action.

This path begins by finding a way to regulate my nervous system. To find some sort of grounding and peace within. Otherwise, I am only contributing to the chaos.

It might sound silly to you, but sometimes the most helpful thing to do is to take a few deep intentional breaths, or go for a walk, or find 10 minutes to meditate.

Will any of this stop the tragedies that are taking place? No. But neither will pretending it doesn’t exist or throwing yourself into a panic by over-consuming news media.

Remember, you do not need to do anything in this exact moment. Taking action is a very personal choice.

If you are overwhelmed and have nothing to give, then it’s probably better for you to step back and find your centre again. Then from a more regulated nervous system, you might be able to find your power and take some sort of action to help.

Even small actions count. It’s better than shutting down and pretending this is not happening.

If you’d like to join me for a very special guided meditation tomorrow visit www.ArtistMorning.com. Our theme will be world peace.

God bless.

D

PS: If you can’t join us tomorrow morning at 9am EST I am happy to send you a recording of the guided meditation. Sign up for free at artistmorning.com

For the past few years Apple has been inviting a small group of local photographers into their offices to demo the newest iPhone features.

This is my second year as a member of the group, and last month they invited us in to see what the iPhone 15 can do. At the end of the demonstration they gifted each of us with a new phone so we can take it for a spin.

I feel honoured to be included in this outreach. There are so many epic photographers in the city providing feedback, and sometimes Apple incorporates that feedback into future features.

I particularly like that Apple doesn’t require that we share anything with our audiences, and if we do share, they don’t control whether it’s positive or negative. For me, this shows brand integrity and trust in their products.

For the past two weeks I have been giving the iPhone 15 a run for its money. I’ve been pushing its limits, specifically focusing on its photography and video capabilities.

And yesterday I really put it to the test by doing something I’ve never done before:

I did a full professional photoshoot with an iPhone.

The results shocked me.

Just to be safe, I also brought my $10,000 Canon R5 pro camera with several lenses to compare it with what the $1500 iPhone could do.

I am going to summarize all my findings into a fun YouTube video with side-by-side comparisons (iPhone 15 vs Canon R5) and see if you guys can tell the difference. The full video should be out next week.

As a professional photographer and content creator, I am loving the new iPhone 15. It’s not going to make sense for everyone, but there are a few new features that may be game changers for creators, artists, coaches and thought leaders, which is the majority of my community.

I’m considering making a 10 minute highlight video where I dive into my favourite new features, how to find them on your phone, and push the features to their full potential. Some of the features are sort of hidden and need setting up.

If you’d like a highlight video, leave a comment or an emoji on this post. If enough people are interested, I’ll get working on it next week.

Big love,

D

Last year for about a month I did the online dating thing. After reviewing hundreds of profiles, I discovered something about myself.

After about a week of reviewing the profiles of women in my area, I started to get really frustrated. It seemed like everyone was travelling and going on these epic global adventures, whereas all my photos and memories where local.

I came face to face with something I had been avoiding for over 20 years:

As an entrepreneur and an artist, I have chosen to continually put my time, money and energy into work. Always deferring adventure to a future date, when it “made sense”.

This might of been a smart strategy when I was 20, but unintentionally I kept pushing life, travel and adventure to next summer, next season, next year.

20 years went by and so many travel destinations on my bucket list remain untouched.

That changes this year.

In just over 2 weeks, I am getting on a plane and going to Egypt for 10 days.

I am not just going to Egypt; I am joining a small, carefully curated group of solo travellers who have signed up for a truly immersive exploration of Egyptian culture, food, art and history.

• We are camping in the White Desert with the Bedouins.
• We are crawling deep into the center of the ancient Pyramids.
• We are swimming in the Nile River, the longest river on the planet and the source of life for all of Egypt.

There’s actually around 20 other deeply immersive and cultural things our group will be doing.

I’m done waiting for the right time.

Next year, next season, next winter is not promised to any of us.

I can’t leave this planet without finally seeing the Pyramids. It’s been on my bucket list for way too long and it’s finally time for me to start checking things off.

The company that is responsible for organizing virtually every part of this epic trip is called Tryps. They specialize in immersive cultural experiences for solo travellers. They plan and organize every detail, which is so awesome.

Wish me luck!

D

I am so freakin excited! My Insight Timer course "Supercharge Your Creativity" just passed 2,000 students with an average rating of 4.93 out of 5 stars. 🤯

That’s 2,000 students who are bringing more magic and creativity into their lives. ✨

This course is an amalgamation of my all-time favourite tips, tools and pillars that I have discovered over the past 14 years. It’s all about activating and awakening the creative power sources each and every one of us has within ourselves.

When I created this course, I organized, summarized and optimized my most powerful creative tools and frameworks to help you SAVE a ton of time, energy and money moving forward on your self-expression journey.

Using your computer or Insight Timer app, each day we will connect with a new spiritual power source to rekindle the clarity, confidence and momentum of your unique creative spark.

This course will also deepen your relationship with the tremendous wisdom and love that lives within your own heart. By the end of the 7 days, you will feel reunited with your creative dreams, while also feeling grounded in self-compassion and the loving patience needed to put the work in.

So if you feel something magical inside your heart longing to be expressed in the world… OR maybe you’re already working on something but it’s moving too slowly… OR maybe you just feel stuck or overwhelmed by the idea of sharing your creations with the world...

…then Supercharge Your Creativity is designed for you.

Also note: it was important to me to make this course as accessible as possible. The cost is only $59—or FREE if you already have an Insight Timer Plus membership. In terms of timing, it works out to less than 20 mins per day.

And when you sign up for Insight Timer Plus you not only get my course, but you get access to over 2000 additional courses on their app. This is honestly the deal of the century!

Here’s the link to my course —> CLICK HERE

Big love,

D

What do YOU know to be true about manifesting?

Not what you learned in a book, or a course, or in an Instagram Reel, but rather what have you personally observed to be true?

Last week I started a list of observations I have experienced around manifestation. I started with 7 things, then almost every day I would meet someone new and ask if they had anything they wanted to add, from what they observed in their own life.

Currently I have 20 observations.

I wanted to call them rules on how manifesting works, but rules is way too rigid a word. Observations feels more honest and accurate.

I am going to make a longer YouTube video on this soon, but for now, here are a few observations I have so far:

1. Manifesting loves gratitude.
2. Manifesting loves joy.
3. Manifesting loves commitment.
4. Manifesting/dreaming is a skill. The more you practice the stronger the muscle gets.
5. Commitment is not the same as attachment. Attachment is a form of control and manifesting does not like being controlled or micromanaged. Fully committed while unattached is the sweet spot.
6. Manifesting does not react well to comparison. Comparison will steal your joy. See #2 for why that matters.
7. Manifesting requires faith, deep belief and surrender. Surrender is the opposite of giving up because it requires your deepest trust.
8. Manifesting does not respond well to goals with rigid timelines, e.g. “I will make $10k by Sep 1.” Timelines imply attachment. Manifesting wants to know you are fully committed. If that September 1st goal isn’t met, will you give up?
9. Manifesting LOVES movement. Moving your voice = sharing your dreams. Moving your breath = keeping your heart channels open. Moving your body = any physical action towards the goal, no matter how small, will build momentum.

I have 11 more observations so far. And I have a feeling there are A LOT more.

If you have any to add, share them below or send me a DM.

Big love,

D

Entrepreneurship can be really hard. It’s an emotional rollercoaster ride with many ups and downs.

Most of us don’t start off with big teams; it’s often just one person—the solopreneur—out there chasing dreams.

Sure, it’s cool being your own boss and having total autonomy with every decision, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

You might be unsure where to spend your time, energy and money most effectively. And when there’s no one to bounce ideas off of, we have no idea if the issues we’re going through are common or if it’s just us.

If unchecked, this isolating approach to entrepreneurship can become too intense and lead to overwhelm and burnout.

Entrepreneurship can be really hard… but it doesn’t have to be.

One solution that has been a game changer for me is to find a carefully curated community of like minded entrepreneurs and build real and meaningful connections.

Careful curation is key.

You want to find other entrepreneurs who are at a similar stage of their business, with similar values, and who are equally hungry for real connection.

For me, that means it can’t just be about money and business. I look for other entrepreneurs who value balance, family, health, FUN and going deep on a wide variety of topics.

These types of interactions and relationships need time to develop. They also grow best when you can actually be in the same physical space with one another.

This November I will be attending my first Savvy Social Retreat.

It’s located at a gorgeous hotel in Niagara Falls.

It’s 3 days of carefully curated discussions, workshops, meditations, meals, and lots of free time to organically connect with 30+ heart centred entrepreneurs.

My hope is that we are all able to rest our overworked minds, so that we can bring our walls down and connect in a sincere and meaningful way, so that we all walk away feeling empowered, inspired and recharged.

Also, I will be facilitating the opening session on the Saturday with a heart expanding 90 minute deep dive that will include many of my favourite mindfulness tools: meditation, journaling, breathwork and more.

There are a few tickets still available if you are interested in joining us.

Click here for tickets.

Big love,

D

If everything is energy—which I believe to be true—then the vibrations I put out will attract similar ones back.

So I am trying something new today. I will follow what feels great, nurture it, and see where it takes me.

I tend to spend a lot of time and energy on what isn’t or what I don’t have. The energy of “what isn’t” can help build awareness around an issue, but fixating on it will NOT get you to what could be.

Those are two very different vibrations. One is victim energy, and we think, “It’s happening to me.” The other is creation energy, which says, “It’s happening for me and through me.”

This morning I journaled about what feels great. I reflected on all my favourite things in my life, and I even expanded on them by imagining how those things could grow in the most wonderful ways.

I wrote about the many incredible humans in my life and how much love they bring into my existence. How blessed I am for my health. How adventurous and creative my life has been.

Several times during this exercise, my mind wanted to go into fix-it mode and shift focus onto problems and issues that I need to improve.

But each time I said, “Maybe tomorrow, mind. Today we are going to stay in the energy of what feels great and what could be.”

This is not about being a “bliss junky” who ignores life obligations because they are unable to sit with heavier feelings. In fact, I spend a ton of time with the heavier feelings.

This is about changing the ratio.

For example, I used to consume a lot of mainstream news every single day, sometimes for hours. It was not good for my health. The energy of mainstream media these days is founded in fear, scarcity and drama.

My solution was not to shut it off completely because there is some value in what they provide. Instead, I cut down my watch time by over 95% and filled the gap with things that were more aligned with where I was going.

I feel like this next chapter of my life is asking me to do the same thing, except now I’m changing the ratio within my thoughts and dreams.

What could today look like for YOU if you followed your joy?

D

8 years ago, I had no idea that my entire life would transform in the most magical way.

I spent 4 days in nature with zero internet, surrounded by an eclectic mix of other adults going through the same. I first felt intimidated and shy.

Imagine zero social media. Zero tech. Yes there was a landline in case of emergencies—but no buzzing, no distractions and NO FEEDS!

The organizers asked everyone not to talk about work. The idea was to leave “work you” at home and explore other sides of yourself.

To help with this, we had to choose a nickname and use it during the whole experience. No real names!

Over the course of the 4 days, the organizers curated group events, dance parties, nature activities, deep conversations, workshops and all of our meals.

We went so deep, but also laughed so hard. It was the perfect combo of sacred and silly.

By the 4th day, I felt like I just made 100+ new besties. This was year one at a summer camp for adults called Camp Reset.

It’s a choose-your-own-adventure type of experience. It offers so many things that it’s actually impossible to do them all, but that’s not the point. The point is to feel into your heart and follow your bliss.

The most important way in which Reset changed my life was that it showed me how transformative PLAY can be. Up until that point, all the deep personal development and spiritual work I did was super serious, and that only got me so far.

But then comes this wacky group of humans inviting me to tap into my inner child and to play like I did when I was a little kid.

I thought, ok this might be fun—and it was. But what knocked my socks off was how healing it was, how empowering play could be and HOW FREEING it was to the parts of adult Darius that were stuck and lost.

My world changed forever.

Play has since become a foundational element of all my work, my photography, and even my meditations. None of that would of been possible without Reset.

I am forever grateful to the humans who bring this incredible event to life.

I will be attending Reset again this year and I’m also running a really cool workshop at camp.

If you are interested in joining me, here is the link to buy tickets.

Ticket sales end Sep 1 and Reset takes place from Sep 14 to 17.

Big love,

D

You can’t skip steps.

It’s important to go slow. Especially in those painful moments.

Sit in silence, open your heart, and actually feel.

The messy parts.

The heavy parts.

The juicy parts.

ALL the parts.

You can’t skip steps.

You might think you can skip this process by jumping ahead to something else. Something fun, something numb, something that prevents you from getting super fucking real about what’s actually going on.

But you’re just deferring the pain to a later date. And if you do that too many times, you’ll have a mountain of pain to process and that might break you.

You can’t skip steps.

Feel your fucking feels, brother.

Look at yourself. Look into your heart and be real about who you are, what you want, and what you don’t want in your life.

Then get off your phone, sit in silence, and feel all the feels. Feel them slowly and feel them all the way through.

Because feelings aren’t meant to be pushed aside. Not just pain and guilt, but even joy and love—these are just two sides of the same coin.

Don’t close your eyes. These moments are important, and they’re worth remembering. They will shape your future.

Once you’re done, stand up straight, take a deep breath, and keep that glorious heart of yours open—even if it hurts.