Expressing Yourself is YOUR Choice
Thor Challgren, RScP
Our theme of the month at GTC is “Express!” As in express yourself. Let out that unique individuation of the Divine Ideal that can only flow through you. The one and only you.
Are you ready to do that? Express what’s yours to share? Live exactly as you are?
I’d like to say my answer to that question is always “Yes!” But last week, as I considered our new theme and the image Dr. Lori Savage graced us with, I realized something. I’m not always a resounding yes. Let me explain.
I was recently evaluating what to do with one of my creative projects. I had to decide how to proceed forward with it. The questions I should have asked myself were these:
What would I love to do?
What’s uniquely mine to do?
What benefits will this choice bring to me and to the world?
Those questions would be a good start, don’t you agree? (Side note: are those the questions you ask yourself when you’re deciding on a creative endeavor? If not, maybe they should be.)
That’s what I should have asked. But what really went through my mind was this question:
If I don’t do this, what will people think?
Yes, I actually thought that. And honestly it looks even worse when you see the words typed out like they are above. When I first thought it, it didn’t land the way it does now, looking at.
But the truth remained. I was possibly going to make a decision about expressing myself based on what other people would think of me. Not, “What would I love?” Not, “What’s mine to do?” And not, “How will this benefit me and the world?” Rather, if I don’t do, what will people think.
I think we can all agree this was NOT the right question to ask.
Don’t ask for other people to weigh-in on what you should create. As Ernest Holmes reminds us,
When we conceive a new idea we are thinking directly from the creativity of God.
Not the creativity of my neighbor, John; not my high school friend Steven; and especially not @creativeguy4574 on TikTok.
No, I am creating from that infinite source of all creativity, the Consciousness in and through all.
As I said to Dr. James on Sunday, for me to base my choice on others want would be like the girl in the image above asking someone else, “What colors would you like me to paint with?”
When you look at that image (go ahead, scroll up and take another peak), do you get the impression she’s thinking that? No!
She’s going to express herself with all the colors she wants. It’s her creative choice, and she’ll choose whatever lights up her own brilliant connection to all the creativity in the Universe. It’s her choice.
Here’s the thing. Unless you’re renaissance genius Michaelangelo, and you’re being paid $2.9 million by Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, you get to express yourself HOWEVER you want. (Though having said that, even the Sistine Chapel is unique and brilliant and treasured 513 years later because Michelangelo did follow his own creative genius.)
So get messy, pull out your palette of colors, and make everything in your life a creative masterpiece.
It’s your choice.
