Supporting you to convey your thoughts, to encourage listening and to make an impact.
WAYS OF EXPRESSION
MARCH 01, 2009
Dear {!firstname},
My message "Express Your Voice" might easily be confused with "Speak Out". Even though speaking out is a huge and important part of expressing your voice, it is not the only way. There are many other useful ways to convey what you believe, and if you start thinking about them, you will soon discover that a variety of ways is available to almost everyone!
Sometimes, the person you would like to talk to has already passed away, or maybe that person refuses to speak to you. Perhaps you lost contact with the other person. Or, if there is no specific person who can be addressed, then it might be worthwhile to express your feelings just for yourself in one of the ways I'll describe below.
I
would like to know what my readers think and experience: If you know
somebody who could contribute to this topic, please ask this person to share her story using the form on my website http://www.express-your-voice.com/contact-me.html.
read more below
WAYS OF EXPRESSION
Since I discussed the topic "Different ways of expression" on Barbara Sher's Bulletin Board, I owe my deepest thanks to her and all the people who joined my discussions on the board. The people who commented on my postings were very smart and full of great ideas that I am going to share with you today.
First of all, we need to distinguish between collective ways and individual ways of expression. I will touch the collective ways just shortly, since I think that you will be rather interested in methods that could work for yourself individually.
Many cultures have their form of dance; for instance, dancing Sardana is an expression of cultural solidarity among Catalan people. Languages are tools of expression that can either unite or separate people. Painters and musicians mostly join the style of the epoch in their pictures and music pieces. Buildings communicate about designers, history, culture and power structure.
The basic individual ways of expression are speaking, writing, painting, drawing, dancing, playing music, recording an audio or video file, and creating websites. In fact, recent technical developments and innovations have even increased the abundance of methods that are available to us.
In case you cannot speak personally to someone, you could still write an e-mail. However, be careful about sending e-mails. Since it is impossible to hear the tone of someone's voice in e-mails, they might easily be misunderstood. They even could be sent to other people that you do not know, maybe to people that are not supposed to read what you wrote. I don't want to scare you, however, please be careful in your writing in the way that you respect other people - not only those you write to, but also people you mention.
If there is no other person that you could talk to or send a written note or e-mail to, then you need to look out for other options of expression. If there is no listener, then the only impact you can make that way is on yourself. Perhaps you will feel free after having expressed what you intended to, or you change your own viewpoint when you watch your results.
I suggest you start a journal where you can jot down all your thoughts that you can't express for some reason. If your message might be interesting for other people, then you could consider writing an article or book and designing a website about the topic. In case you might want to choose a more "lively" way of expression, then you could take some pictures, record your voice, or even make a video. Making Art is another way of expression that is worthwhile being considered. You can just paint for yourself, or you can join an exhibition with your painting. However, if you don't want other people to see what you did, you can either shout your words out when you are alone (no, don't disturb the neighbors!) or dance to music that you like.
As there are so many different useful ways of expression available to us nowadays, we need to choose our methods with care. Only use ways that support your purpose of expression and that work for you! Although I believe that it is worthwhile trying out new ways, please don't stick to a method that doesn't work well for you. If it takes you many hours to come up with a picture, then painting shouldn't be your first choice. It is alright to keep working with some of the methods that I described.
SEVEN DIFFERENT WAYS OF EXPRESSION YOU SHOULD CONSIDER IF SPEAKING TO A PERSON IS NOT A POSSIBILITY
1) Dance
in a specific way that expresses your feelings
2) Paint or draw
3) Design a website about the topic
4) Write a journal or a letter (in the case of the letter you might want to burn it afterwards)
5) Make a movie
6) Record an audio tape
7) Take a picture
Please recommend signing up for the Express Your Voice Booster to your interested friends, relatives and colleagues.
Make sure that you visit my website www.express-your-voice.com and check out the new table of contents for my book "Express your Voice - and Make an Impact".
If you would like to know more about expression via art, then check out my article "Express Your Voice Via Art" in Ezine Articles.
Andrea Brigitte Klee
EXPRESS YOUR VOICE BOOSTER
My favorite saying for March:
"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed.
But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak."
- Audre Lorde, writer
