Express Yourself

One of my many real smiles, caught by a friend on camera

This morning I was looking at my vision board for the year as I was getting dressed. I hadn’t really paid attention to it in several days. One of the phrases I cut out of a magazine and pasted onto it was “express yourself.”

I always think of Madonna when I read that line, but it has come to mean something deeper to me this year than her iconic song and dance. (Although she really is a maven of expressing herself.) I think about expressing myself as a reveal of who I am. What I’m thinking. How I make sense of the world. What strikes me as beautiful. As okay. As not okay. In a world where so much is not okay, it’s easy to think of expressing myself as a resistance. But I don’t think that’s the whole story.

So far this year, focused on my intention of being a creative and making things, I’ve found a whole untapped well of expression that has much more to do with generosity and gratitude. Expressing myself through a myriad of art forms and everyday mediums (blogging being one of them) has opened my mind up to a new level of abundance — the non-tangible kind.

I’m noticing that when I express myself, I am inviting people to contribute to me with their thoughts, feedback, and perspective. I’m letting them see a bit more of who I am and in exchange, they often reveal a bit more of who they are. When I create something new, always an expression of who I am, I am adding a drop in the ocean of human contribution. And that tends to beget more of the same.

I’m only a couple of months into the new year, but it feels tangibly different to me already. Like I’m tapping into an infinite energy source that will give me as much as I give it. And expressing myself is the giving mechanism. Who knows to what heights I’ll reach through this big experiment, but it feels very positive. Abundant. Interesting. And I haven’t even started dancing yet.