Express Yourself

Blue Blood The Water Within More to Life magazine 2012

As an adult is dancing in the rain, rolling down a grassy hill, singing aloud or smiling for no reason such a bad thing? What if, for just one day, you do things on a whim; taking your favourite expressions or song lyrics as inspiration, and live them out just for the sheer joy of it? What would that feel like…liberating, foolish or plain mad? Well as I ought to practice what I preach I gave it a go, blew caution to the wind and just went for it…

1. Rise and Shine! I did. I got up and greeted each family member with a big fat smile (tis the best way I know how to ‘shine’). No nagging the children to get up, get dressed, blah, blah blah…just a perky ‘Good Morning’ and the biggest, most loving toothy grin I could muster, whipping the curtains open in each room to a triumphant ‘Ta dah!’ Admittedly the reactions were not all positive at 7am on a Sunday morning, with both male member of my family asking me if I felt ‘alright’, with my pre-teen son adding ‘O.M.G Mum, are you sure?’ Normally this would have resulted in a tug-of-words, but instead, today, true to my mission I smiled, gave him a kiss and employed my second inspirational expression…

2. ‘Don’t worry, be happy!’ Yes, whatever negativity or question of sanity that would be thrown at me today (and I was sure this would not be the first time my newly employed ‘state of joy’ would be seen as a moment of madness), I was going to let it fly right by me, whoosh! Now this is not a blasé quip at life. It’s a far from easy undertaking, but just for today I decided nothing negative would toy with me. So my less than ‘perfect’ figure, my distinctly average singing voice didn’t matter a jot as I spent an hour after breakfast ‘grooving’ in the living room, curtains wide open (lucky neighbours), busting my rather swanky moves to my favourite Daft Punk, Wham and Madonna tracks. I was the dancing queen, I wasn’t worried and it made me very, very happy! But I couldn’t keep this up all day and as the weather was so good it time for the third instalment…

3. ‘Make hay while the sun shines.’ To the delight of my daughter, the youngest and so perhaps most in touch with my elated mood today, I announced we were off to the woods. So with two fingers up at the washing and housework, it was off to climb trees, play Pooh sticks, call birds, wave at passers-by, sniff wild flowers, and lay down in the long grass to watch the clouds trans form into reclining giants, puppies and angels. And for anyone who didn’t want to join in today I just thought, fin, take it or leave it, after all sitting on the fence too long only leaves you with slinters in your rear! To make the most of any situation, especially when good times present themselves, making decisions and getting on with that is really helpful…after all you can always change your mind, which is far better than having no ‘mind’ at all.

4. ‘Imagine’ or ‘You got to have a dream.’ In all you do, and so apt when out with younger people or those of a more ‘right brain’ persuasion, is the power of the ‘Dreamtime’ or your own imagination. Not just when at play, but in all aspects of life the ability to perceive our own reality in a wondrous and more positive light is a really precious gift that lifts the spirit. When I put my children to be that night, after they realised I hadn’t gone completely barking, I wished them ‘sweet dreams’ with every ounce of my being. My daughter took this as a sign to dream of guinea pigs and chocolate and my son a little older beamed back at me, knowing he could now enter a space where his soul could take flight, he could go back in time, transform into the wind even speak to his heroes from the past. And then he could shoot into the future and see himself in his dream job, living a life that made him really happy. Our imagination opens wonderful possibilities to manifest really extraordinary events and our dreams can allow us to map these out as well as giving our bodies a chance to recharge. And in my dream that night I was of the stars, the freedom and joy inexplicable, the voices I heard were full of wisdom and reminded me of my final inspiration that I would like to share…

5. Love is all that matters. Often even just a little love can go a long, long way. To really love a person, for example, is to accept them as they are and focus on the positive, be kind in your criticisms, not cruel, and demonstrate love – a hug, a kiss, the squeeze of a hand, a knowing wink or your time can do so much more than material things. And applying this idea to yourself is of the utmost importance, for then you openly apply it to your life and all life. Some say love is a drug which perhaps is truer of infatuation, real love however is the only currency that matters; it is the best expression of our energetic being. And it summed up my day beautifully.

Well just as the old saying goes ‘Before enlightenment, cook, wash, clean, after enlightenment, cook, wash, clean’, my single day of frivolity didn’t completely change my world, I still had stuff to do the next day, I still needed to remind the children to brush their teeth and so on, but neither did my world come to a crashing halt, and I didn’t get carried off by ‘men in white’. What it served to remind me was that life, when lived as a true expression of who you are, even if just once a day, or week, can be so much more enjoyable and reflect back to you why it is worth living. How fortunate are we who can choose expression over repression… give it a go, just for one day and see for yourself! First published in More To Life 2014

(c) Kate Osborne, Solarus Ltd