This page will offer a multitude of resources for enhancing the creation of meaning in your life through expression. Enjoy!
There are over 7 Billion people on Earth now.
There have been 100+ Billion people on earth over all time.
You are one.
What are you excited to bring to the world?
Education
When we learn within a subject, we also learn about ourselves. And that knowledge becomes a part of us. Here are some educational resources to power your inner voice, creativity, and expression.
Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative – The hallmark of OLI courses is that their design is based on current research in human learning and they serve as laboratories for ongoing learning research. At Stanford the research base has expanded beyond cognitive science to include many other areas of research in the psychological, social, computer and statistical sciences.
Open Yale Courses – Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.
Stanford on iTunes U. – Stanford on iTunes U is an archive of audio and video content from schools, departments, and programs across the university on Apple’s popular iTunes platform. The site includes Stanford course lectures, faculty presentations, event highlights, music and more.
The Open University – The Open University offers flexible part-time study, supported distance and open learning for undergraduate and postgraduate courses and qualifications.
Udemy – Udemy is an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 100000 courses and 24 million students.
Khan Academy – Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom.
Academic Earth – Academic Earth believes that everyone has the right to a world-class education. Recognizing the existing barriers in academia, we continue our efforts to curate an unparalleled collection of free online courses from the world’s top universities.
Wikiversity – Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning.
Course Era – Every course on Coursera is taught by top instructors from the world’s best universities and educational institutions. Courses include recorded video lectures, auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments, and community discussion forums. When you complete a course, you’ll receive a shareable electronic Course Certificate.
EdX – Founded by Harvard University and MIT in 2012, edX is an online learning destination and MOOC provider, offering high-quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions to learners everywhere.
Hobbies
Etsy – Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items.
Pintrest – Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.
Wikipedia’s List of Hobbies
Discover a Hobby
Not So Boring’s List of Hobbies
Bluprint – World-class experts, guidance for all skill levels, and learning that fits your lifestyle – whether you have two minutes or two hours.Bluprint is home to a collective group of curious, driven doers who believe in the power of creating. From our expert instructors to our passionate employees—we’re here to answer your questions, share inside tips and ensure all of our members thrive in our community.
Gatherings
Storytelling and Speakers
PechaKucha – PechaKucha is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds in total). The format, which keeps presentations concise and fast-paced, powers multiple-speaker events called PechaKucha Nights (PKNs).
TED Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading – TED is a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks.TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 110 languages.
Creative Live – Online classes in photography, art, design, craft & DIY, marketing, business, and entrepreneurship.
Story Gatherings – It is our mission to inspire you–so that you can in turn–inspire those around you to change the world by creating meaningful art.
Story Corps – StoryCorps is an American non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs.
Storynet works to advance all forms of storytelling within the community through promotion, advocacy and education.
Art Start nurtures the voices, hearts and minds of New York City’s under-served youth through consistent creative workshops inside homeless shelters, alternative to incarceration programs, and partnering youth agencies.
Also Discover…
Famous Speeches
Festivals
Burning Man – Burning Man is an annual, nine-day gathering in the desert that includes artistic performances, installations, and music.
Rainbow Gathering – Rainbow Gatherings are temporary loosely knit communities of people who congregate annually in remote forests around the world for one or more weeks at a time to enact a shared ideology of peace, harmony, freedom, and respect.
Oregon County Fair – The Oregon Country Fair is a nonprofit organization, and an annual three-day art and music fair held outside the city limits of Veneta, Oregon, United States.
Carnival of Brazil – The Carnival of Brazil is an annual Brazilian festival held between the Friday afternoon before Ash Wednesday and Ash Wednesday at noon, which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter.
Up Helly Aa – Up Helly Aa can refer to any of twelve fire festivals held annually in the Shetland Islands of Scotland, in the middle of winter to mark the end of the yule season. The main festival involves a procession of up to a thousand guizers in Lerwick and considerably lower numbers in the more rural festivals, formed into squads who march through the town or village in a variety of themed costumes.
Taiwan Lantern Festival – During the Taiwan Lantern Festival, thousands of sky lanterns light over Pingxi District (平溪) in Taiwan. In Yanshui District, the firecrackers ceremony of the Wumiao Temple is also one of the important activities. The Tainan Yanshui Fireworks Display (“beehive of fireworks”) was originally celebrated to ward off evil and disease from the town. The Taipei Pingxi Sky Lanterns were released originally to let others know that the town was safe.
Glastonbury Festival – Glastonbury Festival is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and other arts.
The Day of the Dead – The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere.
Mardi Gras – Fat Tuesday, refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday (known as Shrove Tuesday). Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday”, reflecting the practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.
More Arts Festivals
Edinburgh Fringe Festival – The largest street performance and busking festival in the world.
Directory of Fringe Festivals – Performance art is awesome. And Fringe Festivals are where they thrive. This is a list of them from around the world.
Oregon County Fair – The Oregon Country Fair is a nonprofit organization, and an annual three-day art and music fair held outside the city limits of Veneta, Oregon, United States.
Boomtown Fair – Each yearly instalment of the festival is referred to as a “Chapter”; this reflects that each instalment continues the storyline from the previous year, with the series having begun in 2009. The festival site is split into several districts, and the storyline narrative is reflected in the design of the districts, streets and venues, which are populated by hundreds of actors to play the role of inhabitants.
European Juggling Convention – The European Juggling Convention (EJC), is the largest juggling convention in the world, regularly attracting several thousand participants.
Holi – Holi is a Hindu spring festival, originating from the Indian subcontinent, celebrated predominantly in India, but has also spread to other areas of Asia and parts of the Western world through the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent, also known as the “festival of colours” or the “festival of love”.
Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival – The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival is an annual winter festival that takes place with a theme in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, and now is the largest ice and snow festival in the world.
More Music Festivals
Music festivals are also FILLED with art and all kinds of expression! Festivals are where people go to dance, listen, display their art, and so much more.
Here are some good ones:
Symbiosis
Lightning in a Bottle
Tomorrowland
Bass Coast
Beloved
Envision
Hadra
Noisily
Origin
Rainbow Serpent
Rebirth
Sonic Bloom
Universo Paralello
Bonnaroo
Everfest
Coachella
The Arts
Classic Art
Google Arts & Culture – Enough said.
Artsy – Artsy is a free online platform for collecting and discovering art. Artsy’s search engine and database draw connections and map relationships among works of art.
Poetry Foundation – Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 100-year archive of POETRY magazine.
Duke University Press – For almost fifty years Theater has been the most informative, serious, and imaginative American journal available to readers interested in contemporary theater and performance.
Story Net – The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website, Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White and dozens more.
Improv Everywhere – Improv Everywhere is a comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is “We Cause Scenes”. The group carries out pranks, which they call “missions”, in public places. The stated goal of these missions is to cause scenes of “chaos and joy.”
Videography
TED – Technology. Entertainment. Design. TED is a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks.
Karmatube – KarmaTube is a collection of inspiring videos accompanied by simple actions that every viewer can take.
YouTube – Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Vimeo – Vimeo was born in 2004, created by a group of filmmakers who wanted an easy and beautiful way to share videos with their friends. Word started to spread, and an insanely supportive community of creators began to blossom.
Webby Awards – The leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.
The Do Lectures – The Encouragement Network. Inspirational talks from passionate, creative people.
Internet Movie Database – IMDb, the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.
Netflix – Netflix is the world’s leading internet entertainment service with 139 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages.
Creative Live – Online classes in photography, art, design, craft & DIY, marketing, business, and entrepreneurship. Available on-demand 24-7.
Photography
National Geographic – A world leader in geography, cartography and exploration.
Instagram – A simple, fun & creative way to capture, edit & share photos, videos & messages with friends & family.
Shutterstock – Search millions of royalty free stock images, photos, videos, and music. Get inspired by 1000s of new, high-resolution stock images added daily.
Google Images – Enough said.
Unsplash – Over 850,000 free (do-whatever-you-want) high-resolution photos brought to you by the world’s most generous community of photographers. Find inspiration in the new photos we hand-select every day or use our search to find and download exactly what you’re looking for.
500px – One of the most vibrant photo sharing platforms on the net.
Your Shot – A photographic community by National Geographic.
More Unique Expressions
Brain Pickings – An inventory of cross-disciplinary interestingness, spanning art, science, design, history, philosophy, and more.
SoulPancake – Content that explores life’s big questions, celebrates humanity and champions creativity.
Daniel Pink – The Puzzle of Motivation | Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose
Jill Bolte Taylor – “A Stroke of Insight”
This TED talk shows how life the way we express ourselves can change, depending on where in the brain we are.
Alike – Short Film
Lego Movie — explore/discover, express yourself – “you’re the special”
Bruno Mars — marriage proposal on street and car and theater
Unique Traveling Experiences
Airbnb Experiences – Airbnb Experiences are activities designed and led by inspiring locals. They go beyond typical tours or classes by immersing guests in each host’s unique world. It’s an opportunity for anyone to share their hobbies, skills, or expertise without needing an extra room.
Atlas Obscura – Definitive guidebook and friendly tour-guide to the world’s most wondrous places. Travel tips, articles, strange facts and unique events.
Work as Expression
Outside Online’s 100 Best Places To Work
Wikipedia’s List of Occupations
Lifehack’s 25 Odd Jobs That Make Good Money
Mashable’s Dream Jobs That Pay
AOL’s Odd Jobs From Gross To Weird
Business Insider’s Weird Jobs You’ll Be Surprised To Know Exist
How Oxytocin Can Make Your Job More Meaningful
Brain Pickings’ How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love
Books
Soul Pancake – Chew on Life’s Big Questions
Speak your mind, unload your questions, figure out what it means to be human
Deep Work – Cal Newport
Rules for focused success in a distracted world
Ishmael – Daniel Quinn
This book will help promote cultural literacy for greater expression
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
Another book for cultural literacy, spawning greater expression
Reclaiming Conversation – Sherry Turkle
Communication is one of our most unique forms of expression. This books focus on conversing in the digital age.
What is Art For? – Ellen Dissanayake
This book provides a lovely breakdown of art as a source of meaningful expression.
The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron
A must-read for any artist, this book is a manifesto for art as a way of living.
The Elements of Expression – Arthur Plotnik
This book aims to bridge the gap between our thoughts and our actions, especially our words.
Mastering the Art of Self-Expression – Laura Thomas
“This instructive workbook takes you on a journey to reconnect with your creative spirit through self-exploration and play. You practice non-judgment and mindfulness while reclaiming your refrigerator art.”
Quotes
“Our heroes take on impossible jobs and stay with them for the long haul because they live by a standard that trumps effectiveness. The name of that standard, I think, is faithfulness — faithfulness to your gifts, faithfulness to your perception of the needs of the world, and faithfulness to offering your gifts to whatever needs are within your reach.
The tighter we cling to the norm of effectiveness the smaller the tasks we’ll take on, because they are the only ones that get short-term results… Care about being effective, of course, but care even more about being faithful … to your calling, and to the true needs of those entrusted to your care.”
— Dr. Adam Grant
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” — Rumi
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. – Albert Einstein
“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” –Farrah Gray
“He who has a why can endure any how.” — Frederick Nietzsche
“When you make a decision to go against what society expects of you, and trust your gut, you will be choosing an uncomfortable and even painful journey that will be worth your while. The burden will be so enormous that you will have three options every step of the way: give up, give in or give it all you’ve got. Choose the latter.” –Thomas Oppong
“Don’t let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions. It’s your life, not theirs. Do what matters most to you; do what makes you feel alive and happy. Don’t let the expectations and ideas of others limit who you are. If you let others tell you who you are, you are living their reality — not yours. There is more to life than pleasing people. There is much more to life than following others’ prescribed path. There is so much more to life than what you experience right now. You need to decide who you are for yourself. Become a whole being. Adventure.” ― Roy T. Bennett
“Ability is of little account with opportunity.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso
“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions hidden by the answers.” – James Baldwin
“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old. They grow old because they stop pursuing their dreams.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“True happiness involves the full use of one’s power and talents.” – John W. Gardner
“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” – Lao Tzu
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou
“Every day we are presented with opportunities to live as if it’s business as usual or to create something exceptional, something beyond who we’ve been, what we’ve imagined, and what we know. Each day is a new occasion to express ourselves, to challenge existing options, to set aside current standards, to question firmly held assumptions, to break or even reinvent the mold. It’s with that choice that we begin to get at that spirit so unique, so fundamentally who we are that when fully expressed it yields a sheer and spontaneous joy in just being alive—a shift that makes available to us the full possibility of being human.” – Nancy Zapolski“The most visible creators are those artists whose medium is life itself. The ones who express the inexpressible—without brush, hammer, clay, or guitar. They neither paint nor sculpt. Their medium is simply being. Whatever their presence touches has increased life. They see, but don’t have to draw…because they are the artists of being alive…”* – Donna J. Stone
“What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.” – Alain de Botton
“Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like. “ – Paul Graham
“If we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.” – Carl Sagan
“We strive toward knowledge, always more knowledge, but must understand that we are, and will remain, surrounded by mystery.” – Marcelo Gleiser, Island of Knowledge
“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love.” – Alice Walker, The Color Purple
“All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“To lose the appetite for meaning we call thinking and cease to ask unanswerable questions,” Hannah Arendt asserted in her spectacular meditation on the life of the mind, would be to “lose not only the ability to produce those thought-things that we call works of art but also the capacity to ask all the answerable questions upon which every civilization is founded.” – Lisa Randall
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“All knowledge is vain save when there is work, And all work is empty save when there is love” – Khalil Gibran
Poems
Wendell Berry: “I” [“No, no, there is no going back”]
No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over the grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.
Kahil Gibran: On Work (from The Prophet)
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons,
and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.
But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.
You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection,
even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy,
even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching.
Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.”
But I say, not in sleep but in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.
Express Yourself!
