Applause has always been a bit of a strange thing for me. Maybe like it’s nice to be the centre of attention, but it’s also strange, embarrassing.
But applauding itself is never strange, on the contrary – it’s an expression of gratitude, of appreciation, a way of conveying the information that the experience touched me. Well, sometimes it is just polite, but most of the time it is from the bottom of my heart. Hands are an extension of the heart and by clasping our hands together to make a strange noise we are expressing our heartfelt gratitude.
I’ve noticed in my own case that the more I work on befriending my inner self, the less bizarre it becomes to receive applause. Isn’t this receiving vs giving a subject that has taken some tinkering with in my life. It always tends to be more about giving, and over the last few years I’ve consciously developed the taking aspect. Accepting life, accepting gratitude, accepting recognition.
In order to make life move, you need both – to accept life and to give it in whatever form you can. Like breathing – only by breathing in we die and only by breathing out we die.
Picture by Hayley Murray.
