How Do You Express Yourself?
How does the world see you?
In what ways does the real you become visible and show itself?
What do you do that represents you?
How do you express yourself?
There are some 7 billion people on Earth but only one you.
With such a multitude of humans it’s tempting to fit in, act the same, toe the line, be one of the gang and blend in among the throng.
And lose yourself!
But, that’s not what you came to Earth for. That’s not why you have your own special name and set of skills and inbuilt brilliance that no-one else possesses in quite the same combination.
You need to let that out. Your best is yet to come!
The art of expression
A few weeks ago I met some friends who invited me to an art exhibition of a young man they knew. They said he was different.
I like people who are different so I eagerly agreed to go along.
I wasn’t disappointed as I met Matthew Leggatt, a polite, engaging, young fellow who paints for himself and what he feels. He told me he doesn’t paint to be noticed or to create art that he knows will sell, but rather to express what’s inside him.
I wanted to keep this secret…but I can’t…here’s my favourite picture of his. It deserves to be seen by the world.
It captures something different, I’m sure you’ll agree!
Intrigued, I asked him a few questions like how he got started,
“I’ve always been a creative person and used to sketch a lot. My walls at home looked blank and because I felt mass prints are so soulless, I thought I’d have a go myself.”
So, is this an actual expression of you in some form?
“It does express me in a clear way though I don’t think about it. I don’t aim for a particular style, it just comes out. Maybe this is reflective of my own interests and personality; strong and bright colours, moody subject matters”.
Well, to me it matters not. It matters only that Matthew has found an active outlet to express himself in a way that accurately portrays much of who he is.
What’s your art?
Finding natural expression
For Matt it’s his painting that natural expresses his individuality. What’s yours?
How do you naturally let you out to be alive? What’s your stand out?
Maybe you are a dancer or sing hip hop or are a graffiti artist. Perhaps it’s sport that has your name and spirit on it. It could be your charity work or love of nature that you write about or just the way you laugh at everything and anything. The thing that’s your thing!
Whatever it is it must be 100% YOU! Not a copy cat version of someone else or a person that on the outside is showy and who tells everybody that they love money and status when, deep inside, they know they actually hate pure money making for the sake of it but aren’t confident enough to declare that soul.
Finding YOUR natural expression is to release yourself fully into life. Like air filling a world balloon or a bird taking to the sky on the breeze.
The fight with life starts to come to an end, the ability to let life happen and respond to you for just who you are, magically stirs into life. You may even be only a few steps away from being a genius!
No more expressing yourself in mad fashion statements or anger or unusual behaviour or jobs you hate or a social life you’re not fond of one jot.
It will be true and it will be you.
It’s time to be honest to yourself, to your life, and to the real you underneath who only wishes to be able to freely express who they wonderfully are.
And to paint a picture of your life everyone will love to see!
You can see Matthew’s art at his site right here.
How do you express yourself? How easily do you do that or has it been a challenge? Or perhaps you feel it’s best just to get on with life and not be pre-occupied with expressing yourself too much? Express your thoughts on expressing yourself.
***Don’t forget to check out my sister site http://100percentchampions.com/ which is sporting motivation with a decided spiritual twist***
Header image courtesy of brentbat.
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Awesome post, John! We all need that creative outlet, somewhere and somehow to express our innermost feelings and our reality. So much of life requires a degree of submission to societal norms — at the office, in an interview, in various social contexts. People who wear their emotions on their sleeves can be draining. But we all need to be able to express those parts of us.
I do it both in word on my blog and with my guitar. My thoughts are expressed in words on my blog and my feelings and passion is expressed through music. I don’t play other peoples music; I improvise and just let the music and the mood come out. I do the same, though less successfully, with the piano as well.
Thanks for the insight, John!
Love that Ken, you jam how the music takes you and write how the feelings find you. Awesomely you hombre!
John,
Thanks for sharing Matthew Leggatt’s work, and passion with us.
My form of expression? I try to paint a picture with my words so people can see their hearts a littler clearer.
Take good care,
Alex
That’s poetry Alex you know..”paint a picture with my words so people can see their hearts a little clearer”. And your words paint bright vivid colours of life Alex, I can tell you. Hearts are clearer as a result and oh so much warmer!! Thank you for your natural expression that you give so freely.
Hi John,
I have to agree with what you said about the expression being 100% you.
I do a lot of work with behavior assessments and one of the things we look at in people is their natural vs adapted behavior.
When you spend a significant amount of your energy adapting your behavior, it causes a lot of stress.
The same goes for expressing yourself in a way that isn’t really you.
I enjoyed this post,
Thanks
Bryce
Yes, I’ve been a suppressed and stressed soul in my time Bryce so I agree with your words. When we can express ourselves just as we are in a natural form it’s as if all the fights and struggles begin to disappear and the joy comes out like the sun. The world can tell when we’re real, don’t you think?
Hi John,
Apologies for not being around here that often recently – fitting a full-time job into my life took some work at first, but I’m getting there!
Incredible post, and thank you for featuring an incredible artist. Matthew is clearly someone who doesn’t let his talent be influenced by outside expectations and pressure. Sure, we all feel expectation from our readers and audience, but the reason they started being interested in us was because of our natural work. To change that natural work when it already fits, into something else just to please our audience, is damaging, and ultimately futile.
Hope all is well my friend
Hey Stuart, no complaints from me, always good to have you drop by; the kettle’s always on and there’s a pie in the oven. And you speak great sense, doing what pleases us is the way to be and never to artificially please others….blogging or living! Good luck with the new job and come back soon for a chat. Rock on!
These days I express myself through writing and leading discussion groups. And through martial arts. Having a lot of fun letting it all out!!
Letting it out, and letting you out Galen – that’s why it’s fun…because it’s you all over! Make merry this Christmas x
> And to paint a picture of your life everyone will love to see!
Beautiful metaphor!
Now I’m curious if I can even draw or sketch the life I want to lead.
I think you can JD as you’re creative as they come. Crayons???