Holding yourself back SHOULD hurt!

I was in my basement last night working on my R & B Christmas playlist and like I do every year, I was trying to sing the songs. Which I still can do pretty decently when I want to.

But when I was trying to hit “those notes” I found it to be painful. I was coughing, my throat hurt and was out of breath and…I sounded HORRIBLE!

Later on, I came upon a song I really LOVED and when I sung it this time, I must say it sounded pretty good, not as good as the original artist, but…yeah decent.

When I thought of why, it hit me. I was holding back! When I didn’t hold back there was no pain and it sounded pretty good!

Holding back takes effort. I had to close my throat and exercise a whole lot of muscles I cannot name so I would not be so loud and no one would hear me singing this thing. When I dropped that effort: It was amazing!

I think this lesson applies to all of life.

Think of it, most of the pain we experience in life is because we held back. A good chunk of our regrets is stuff we didn’t do, not what we did.

Think of it, some of the most physically attractive people you have seen are not really “beautiful”. Sometimes I think that it is because they KNOW they are attractive so they pick and choose who to express themselves around and how to “express” themselves when these people show up. Funny thing happens when they run across the people that they think deserve their prettiness or “handsomeness” they are twisting themselves around so that they fit their desired crowd. They hold back their real voice to fit in and/or look good and/or get applause and/or have people see how “successful” they are. They seem exist to say “I’m hanging with the cool people”. I think we have a name for these folks: FAKE! Don’t ever be FAKE, just so people will say you made it!

The most beautiful people are the ones who do not hold back who and what they are EVER. I say that it is because they are using the gift that God has given them. These are the people we want to be around because there is a liberty and freedom about being around them. Around them, people can also be who THEY are. Around them, people can themselves feel beautiful.

So are YOU Beautiful?

Absolutely! In fact no one that exists now, has ever existed or will ever exist is as beautiful as you are. Why? Because YOU have never existed before. YOU will never exist again. There may be some who kinda look like you or maybe walk or talk like you. But they are not YOU!

I assert that your uniqueness is Gods gift to the world. Hiding yourself hides Gods intention. So, yes, holding yourself back SHOULD hurt! You are denying to the world what God has sent! YOU!

You may say that some people in power may try to suppress me or hold me back and I cannot fight through that, so me just being to myself is being safe so I can just survive this deal. I don’t want to be hurt, I don’t want my family hurt.

I get it. A lot of times, people DO suppress what they fear. They suppress the people they expect whose beauty will outshine theirs and they will do whatever they must to make sure their light (seems to) shine brighter.

This IMO is the basis for most of the oppression we see in the world. These “powerful” people always need to be the hero, they always have to be the one who saves the pretty girl or solves the crime. They must ALWAYS be the object of love, affection and respect. And yes they WILL make YOU the one from which the world must be rescued. They need to devalue YOU to make themselves feel valuable!

Still, hiding yourself from these people still makes no sense. Because they are coming after you anyway, so there is no point to it. If you are hiding and holding yourself back because survival is your aim, I think Helen Keller has a message for you about that.

The folks who want to suppress your voice and your light will do so whether or not you show it. They suppress that which they fear you CAN show yourself to be, not what you DO show.

You may say I expressed myself, but no one responded to me. That makes no sense either, because whether you know it or not, people DID hear you and whether or not they said, it did impact them. Especially the children who need to hear it.

So I invite you to share your voice, sing your song. Whatever comes (or doesn’t) will show up. And that will also be beautiful.