Express Yourself!

E is for "Express Yourself!!!!!"

The the more you do it, the better you get.  And in our world today, there are SO many options and ways to express ourselves.  When you think of it, it's breathtaking...

...and yet there is so much misunderstanding.

Aside from the obvious messages when expressing ourselves, an understated part of expressing and communicating is incorporating verbal and nonverbal cues; to listening to what IS said or portrayed, and to what IS NOT; to carefully selecting visual objects or words while keeping in mind length, message medium, and the audience involved.


HOW DO YOU EXPRESS YOURSELF???  Here are some examples - enjoy them and leave your expressions in the comments.


Whether you express yourself with the faces you make, or the images you create

... be they comics
 

 ... photos

... or paintings, drawings, sculptures, etc.

The songs that you sing...

OR The way you move your the body and gifts you were given -as this Dance clip at Central Station, Antwerp Belgium shows..

And this Martha Graham clip expresses:

Or the words you share...Be they:
(Kenneth Branagh's) Shakespeare's Henry V Speech on the Eve of Saint Crispen's Day

Or. (Taylor Mali's) Slam poetry, relaying bravery, passion, and pathos

 

Others may take a completely different approach and express themselves through cooking, baking, decorating...

From: djssugarshack

The keys to successful expression are:

• experiment in multi-modal means of expression
• practice with others
• practice in front of a mirror or tape yourself
• keep track of others' reactions to your various means and modes of exprssion
• put your whole 'self' into it
• embrace it and have fun!

Some interesting tid-bits on expression:

1. Slam poetry is a multi-modal means of expression. While it is a verbal-visual-vocal retelling involving words, facial expressions, body posture and movement, voice volume adjustments,  and visual body cues.
2. Comic books are another means of multi-modal expression integrating visual and verbal communication.  While the writers select the essence of the story, artists enhance the message as readers integrate the art and word with their own stores of knowledge and experiences to construct the entire story.
3. Music and science:  Michaeleen Doucleff in Saturday/Sunday (Feb. 1-12, 2012) Wall Street Journal article, "Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker" notes that science has uncovered what in music evokes emotional reactions - in this case why Adale's "Someone Like You' makes listeners cry:

Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda analyzed properties of songs that made people cry and found they contained an "appoggiatura" - a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound, which when resolved releases a 'feel good' feeling.

"'Someone Like You' which Adele wrote with Dan Wilson is sprinkled with ornamental notes similar to appoggiaturas....[and] during the chorus, Adele slightly modulates her pitch at the end of long notes right before the accompaniment goes to a new harmony, creating mini-roller coasters of tension and resolution" said Dr. Guhn, psychologist at the University of British Columboia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject."

Martin Guhn and Marcel Zentner found that 'chill-provoking' musical passages shared at least four features: (1) "They began softly and then suddenly became loud. (2)They included an abrupt entrance of a new 'voice'. (3)They often involved an expansion of the frequencies played (ex. the voilins jump up one octave to echo the melody). (4) They contained unexpected deviations in the melody or the harmony.  Music is most likely to tingle the spine, in short, when it includes surprises in volume, timbre and harmonic pattern."

 Regardless of the mean or mode of expression, do it as Taylor Mali says..."with authority!"

Facial Literacy Or...Securing Social Skills - Part 1

Facial Literacy - n. The ability to read faces.  

In my training as a school psychologist and lead facilitator for Mel Levine's Schools Attuned program one issue that kept coming up was the difficulty we professionals have with teaching or providing remedial intervention for kids with weak social skills.  In my opinion, there are many reasons for this difficulty, but one of them is that kids with weak social skills are befuddled with, and have a lot of trouble interpreting facial and non-verbal cues.

This is a vital skill when interacting with others because the face provides information that words often do not, or that may for various reasons conflict with verbal information.  Reading these emotions are so important for social (and sometimes for physical) survival.

Reading faces: When reading faces there are a number of factors that need to be integrated:

• Eye Contact:  When speaking with people it is important to look at them in the face (but not to stare).  We equate having eye contact with a sense of interest and honesty, and when people cannot look us in the eye, we are more wary and apprehensive. 
• Eyes also express emotion, excitement, exhaustion.  
• Eye brows communicate emotion and excitement as well.  A raised brow appears questioning or possible excitement.  A furrowed brow expresses anger; a relaxed brow contentment.
• Our mouths, even when not talking are expressive as well.  We frown,  smile, smirk, pout, grimace, gag, and gasp. Each nuanced move expresses an emotion or reaction.

Other non-verbal cues essential for reading others: Listening (not just hearing, but listening) and processing what is being said, reading faces, reading posture, understanding and being able to adhere to a 'social distance' when interacting, and acknowledging (if not agreeing) with others' responses, feelings and perceptions are all integral to social success. In time, I hope to cover all these factors, but let's start with Facial Literacy now, and build from there.

So what can you do to help your kids' "Facial Literacy"?

• Make faces.  Play games.  Have one person/team make a face and have the others guess the emotion they are trying to relay.  IF you don't guess correctly talk (and listen) about what was 'misread'. 
• Talk about what the consequences are in social interactions when you make different faces.
• Picture books and graphic novels are great books to read faces with - together.  Look at the facial cues the artist is giving.  One of my favorite examples is in Laika by Nick Abadzis (First Second Books).  As this story takes place in Soviet Russia in the 1950's and is about the space race, the main characters cannot frequently say what they are actually feeling and it is through the facial expressions and body language found in the illustrations that the reader "reads" their true intent.
• When out at restaurants, on walks, waiting on lines in the supermarket, look at faces and make up stories about what these people may be thinking or feeling.  It helps boost creativity as well as verbal and non verbal expression and social cognition.  Just do it tactfully and politely so as not to offend someone you do not want to offend.
• Draw faces with different expressions on cards.  Make a separate card with the name of the corresponding emotion.  Play memory or matching games with the cards.