Self-Expression

 

Play Out Loud

“The gremlins are constantly there to make sure that self-expression—through song, dance, art—take a backseat to self-protection and self-consciousness. But these forms of self-expression are pathways to making connections and living wholeheartedly.”

Brene Brown

          How do you play? Most of our self-expression begins as play. Children sing spontaneously as though music just springs out of them when they are happy. When grown-ups are happy, we may sing out loud, but only when we are alone and know it won’t be heard or when we’re playing with children. They give us permission to be childlike.

          Children spontaneously create art as well. When I was little, I wanted one of those giant boxes of crayons more than I wanted food. I went through coloring books faster than those Duke-boys drove that ugly car on a Saturday night. Play is the way children learn to connect with the world and with each other. And not just human children, but all kinds of babies. Just watch a litter of puppies or kittens, or baby lambs or goats—they jump around, pounce on each other, caterwaul, hiss, and bark.

          When was it, do you think, that you began to be more self-conscious than self-expressive? Did someone tell you that your singing or your art was not “good enough,” or did you realize that you couldn’t hit those high notes, or could only draw stick figures and so you stopped trying? Did you know that several famous artists use stick figures in all their paintings? J. S. Lowry and Keith Haring to name a couple. Creating, whether song or art or dance, is a spontaneous response to joy. It doesn’t require anything but expression.

          When we give up joyful self-expression because we aren’t “good at it,” we forgo the happiness it brings to simply create and express. One of the ways we begin to live wholeheartedly is to put the brakes on our “can’t do’s.” Just do it! Just open-up your throat and sing out loud. Just pick up a brush and slap some paint on something. Just turn on some music and dance around your living room. Play, play, play! Send those gremlins packing!

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane