Thursday, January 7, 2010

Appropriate, inappropriate, or just downright crazy: how freedom of expression can change the world

Deciding whether you want your virtual persona to be appropriate, or to let it be a representation of the wilder side of you is a tough decision.

Keeping on the safe side of things is, well, safe but certainly not rewarding. It is not that expressing yourself freely gives you an adrenaline rush, or that bordering on the risqué in and of itself puts you under the spotlight. The problem is that all creative, innovative, ideas are at first 'crazy'. If you do not let your ideas roam freely, you can never change your reality, solve your problems, or --if you are an idealist visionary --change the world.

Somehow, 'inappropriate' and 'out-there' ideas become automatically equated with the profane. People vigilantly censor themselves lest they break a cultural taboo. But sadly, in doing so they lock their potential away; and live as mindless followers in a pitiful herd.

When I say 'wilder side', I am not referring to taking your shirt off for a stranger in front of a webcam! I am referring to these thoughts that come to mind and you just brush them off because they are 'unconventional', or maybe you file them under the 'never going to happen' tab.

So before you censor yourself, trust it. Trust that you are genuinely good and that you have genuinely good ideas. Don't believe what the pessimists say. We humans are not dirty nasty creatures operating on basic instincts--our Cerebral cortex does, sometimes, take the upper hand!

You might change yourself, your community, or even your world if you just let yourself truly BE.