Express or Not?

Expressing yourself can be scary. Expressing yourself in a project, an art piece, a goal, something that is meaningful to you...can be scary.

When you put yourself forth, you open up...Open up to opinions, judgments, conflict, being wrong, and failure. Even success or admiration can be scary...Because you might lose yourself in the limelight.

But what is the alternative?

Not to express.

You can shut your SELF down. Blend in and hide.

The only problem is that you become sour. There is this resentment which starts brewing...brewing....slooooowly brewing...towards the entire world. Essentially towards yourself, because you have withdrawn yourself a need...of being you.

There have been many cases when I resented the world (myself) for me not expressing myself. There were times when I lost myself in the perceived limelight. Like many of us, often I want to hide, blend in, not to commit, not to fail, stay safe.

It is a quite human story.

My conclusion is...

Life without expression is like life without love. And life without love...just sucks. And yes there is a price. There is a price for love. In order to love, we have to open up. And yes we might get hurt. Love and hurt come hand in hand. Learning and failing comes hand in hand. Expression and judgment come hand in hand. There is no one without the other.

Therefore the one who wants to express has to be willing to step into the abyss. The abyss where you don't know what's gonna happen. And you should do that while going all out. It's gonna be scary at times and exciting at others. But it's gonna be worthwhile. Regardless of the outcome, you'll feel authentic. I think authenticity is the reason we want expression in the first place.

Simply put life with self-expression feels much better than one without. A life with self-expression is much healthier and happier.