Cellist Gretchen Yanover says that when she was younger, she lived with the feeling that she had a hole in her heart.

In her TEDx talk “What I learned from playing the cello”, she describes how music helped her transform that pain, saying,

“Now, instead of thinking I have a hole in my heart, I shifted my outlook to a vision of a wide-open space. I think of myself as an emotional amplifier, and the cello is my vehicle of expression.”

It’s important for each of us to find expression, and we need vehicles for that expression.

As poet Don Marquis wrote, “Expression is the need of my soul.”

David Kadavy, in his book The Heart to Start: Stop Procrastinating & Start Creating, writes, “Your ego fears your art because if you follow your art, you will self-actualize. You will become your true self. But to do so, you will experience failure, and rejection, and fear.”

He also writes, “Your art is the best expression possible of who you really are.”

To get a sense of who Gretchen Yanover is, check out her piece “Turnaround”.