In our lifetimes, the promotion of individual expression has been on the rise. These ideas can mostly be observed in art. Who among us can adequately define art, but expression is a close shot. In fact, expressionism is a genre of art. We express ideas, emotions, feelings, religion, in mediums of fashion, automobiles, photography, painting, music, and drama. As youths, we even express ourselves physically in sports, dance, ballet, gymnastics, and all types of play. If you’re not around kids often, you should stop and watch the next time you drive by a playground. Kids don’t need a rhyme or reason, sets and reps, exercise programming and methodology. They create games, they express with their bodies. One moment they're whacking a tetherball around a pole and the next minute they're trying to swing off of the monkey bars as far as their buddy. Then, a dump of dopamine hits after they’ve won a game and they take off sprinting like Forrest Gump because they can’t contain their joy. At some point between then and now, whatever age you’re at, we’ve lost that. We view physical exertion as exercise. Something that must be planned and regimented. Something that is a discipline. We’ve completely lost the ability to express ourselves physically. We don’t play anymore, we don’t do the monkey bars, we don’t try backbends on the living room floor, we don’t take a break from the standard corporate position (in a chair, hunched over, staring at a screen) to skip around the building. We could go down the rabbit hole of why, and it will likely never see an end. Instead, I’m proposing a revival. A physical expressionism revival. I don’t mean for us to launch an online forum and schedule a conference. I mean in our individual lives. And in individual ways.

Children don’t choose activities on the playground based on their body type or if they feel like they’re too fat or too skinny. They choose their modality of movement based on what they want to do. On what they like. As we get older and introduced to more sports and regulated modes of movement, we gradually figure out what we’re good at and what we’re not. Eventually, we get boxed into one specific position of one specific sport and ride that out until we’re not good enough to compete at the next level, or we get told that we’re not athletic at all and cease pursuing any and all physical activity. Clearly, some bodies are not meant to do some things at a high level. Unless you’re born in Kenya, you will likely never set the world record for the marathon. Unless you’re born in North America, Scandinavia, or Canada, you will likely not win a Stanley cup. If you’re tall and skinny, you likely won’t be a good weightlifter. If you’re short and stocky, you likely won’t go to the NBA finals unless you’re in the stands. Fortunately for all of us, the ways in which we move our bodies and the things we can do with them are infinite. There are many human physical archetypes and morphologies, but there is only one of you. There is also not a direct correlation between your body type and what you like to do. Typically, we like things that we’re good at and when we’re good at something we tend to enjoy it without much effort, but that doesn’t have to be you. Hell, if Spud Webb can win a dunk contest, I think you’re allowed to try whatever you want. Regardless of what you like and what you may or may not be good at, it’s your responsibility to find out. Nay, it’s your gift to try out. Even if you’re not good at something, you won’t know unless you try. You may find out that you aren’t naturally gifted at something, but you love the challenge. You may not be great at something on the first try, and later on after practice you find that you’re excellent.

My point is, your physical expression should be just as prevalent as all of the other artistic expressions you partake in. Not because I’m an elitist meathead (even though that may be true), but because it’s healthy physically, spiritually and mentally. Because you’ll set an amazing example for the children in your life to not lose that creativity and quality. Because you’re stuck with your body for the rest of your life, and you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and your Creator to not close it off to its possibilities. So, dance, sprint, stretch, lift, carry, play, throw, catch, dodge, chase, jump. If you need ideas, really, stop by your local playground. But for everyone’s sake… don’t stop and watch for too long.