We live in a day and age where we can express what we need to say in varying ways over several media outlets. After hearing about the events in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Tennessee last week, I left comments on Facebook, wrote an article, deleted it and shared it elsewhere, considered making a video, sang a song, talked about it with someone in person and over the phone. Some of us can turn to art and draw or write or paint or compose. And some of us have no words to articulate how we truly feel.
When I am upset about something I don't always know how to articulate it. Actually I tend to write it all down or shout it out before I get the chance to process what's going on inside of me, why, and what the most caring and cultivating way for me to share it would be. I like scrolling through Facebook, not necessarily everything I scroll by, but I like looking at the ideas everyone has and how they chose to express themselves. I like seeing the ideas of a like minds and thinking deeper when I see something different. One of my greatest hobbies is learning and reading on Facebook allows me to expand my mind in various ways, however I'm not sure myself or the person posting are benefiting as much as we can.
Expressing yourself is probably the most important thing you can do, but how you express yourself is equally as important. The first is for you the latter is for others. When we open our hearts and minds to other people we expect them to thoroughly understand and respond, but often this doesn't happen. Most of the time we open ourselves up and our thoughts or ideas end up misunderstood or underappreciated.
I don't write this to advise you on how to be better understood, but rather to encourage you to take the time to fully process your thoughts and ideas before putting them out there. You have valuable things to say. Your thoughts and ideas truly matter, if not to anyone else then to me as I learn and grow from them. You make a difference bit by bit. When you express yourself on a real level, with fully thought out ideas, I think more, I want to respond more, and I appreciate what you have to say all the more.
My advice? Articulate what you want to say in some way, whether it's writing or drawing or music or painting or dance. This first step is for you, no one needs to see this. Think about what you just did, do you agree with it? Is it good? How would other people respond to it? Could it be said more clearly? Would your opinion change if you knew a little more or will you defend it even if it's wrong? I think one of the most important parts of this process is to get educated on what you talk about, not to say that we're all blindly posting, but I can get pretty worked up over hearsay and I easily find myself posting things before I even got to process what I was feeling and why.
Keep sharing, keep expressing yourself, but do so in such a way that the receiving end can clearly understand you and respond respectfully if they chose to.
You are all really great. Facebook has been pretty depressing lately, but you expand my mind. Quickly let me share the video that got me thinking about what I say, how and Why. You don't have to watch it, and you might not like it, but it's worth sharing:
I hope as you go through this week you continue to think about what you want to say and what the most loving way to say these things to people may be. Thanks for reading.
