Humans’ Basic Need of Self-Expression
Aside from the physiological needs of humans such as food and oxygen, the frequently neglected and oftentimes deemed unnecessary need to survive on our sojourn in life is to be able to express ourselves.
It’s not the type of expression that springs from the insecure ego who constantly demands likes and applause just to have itself validated. It’s the expression that is borne out of necessity. The necessity and the urgency to express yourself without the need of outside validation, or else you’ll die. It’s that kind of expression that we need to hone so that we can harness its healing power and the inner peace that it brings.
What keeps us however from getting in touch with our expressive side which has the potential of healing our souls, is our lack of courage to pursue them wholeheartedly. Because of our fears, primarily the fear of being misunderstood among others, we tend to tiptoe with half-assed efforts instead of engaging it with all our soul, with all our might, and in the fullness of our selves. And in doing so, we fail to unlock the full potential of that self-expression, which adds to our current suffocation and sickness of reality.
It’s only after we render ourselves vulnerable to our self-expressions will we be able to discover the strength we need to keep us up on our feet, and the hope that tomorrow will be better, if not the best that is yet to come for us.
So write that poetry that had been bugging you for quite some time now. Draw that abstract idea, paint that rather absurd image that resides in your head even if the only word that the world will ever describe it is ‘nonsensical’. Sing like the world’s an open stadium with no other humans around. Dance such that gods and goddesses that ever were will be put to shame.
You may not have created something that will outshine John Keats, Pablo Picasso, Bob Dylan or Michael Jackson. But it doesn’t matter. It’s because you were able to achieve something far more important than what you were able to realize:
You’ve been able to breathe.
And in the process of breathing, you were able to make somebody else breathe as well.
