How do you express youself?

I recently moved house, to a new village far enough from my old home to not know what’s where. It’s been an interesting experience to notice old habits necessarily falling away, and my discomfort with not having new patterns in place that I can auto-pilot my way through. While discombobulating, it’s also been a time of waking up and becoming more aware of what does, and what does not, enhance well-being.

We are all different, but my clinical experience has again and again underlined to me the importance of us each finding our own ways of expressing what we feel, and of discharging strong emotions. When we do this, it’s like we’re a bottle of pop that has had the lid gently unscrewed, allowing just a little of the fizz to escape. When we don’t, we’re like a bottle shaken and shaken by life’s events, and sooner or later, our lid will come off with a bang.

Music is one way of expressing, be it singing, playing instruments, or listening to music that matches or changes your mood. Writing in a journal, writing prose or poetry, doodling, drawing, sculpting, dancing, exercising, acting, clowning, boxing, primal screaming...there are so, so many ways to express feelings. No one method is right for everyone, we are unique and each need to find our own path.

The irony is, when the going gets tough, emotional expression may be one of the first things to go. My recent experience of this prompted me to want to blog about it, because when life is busy, that’s the time we need to double down and express more, because so much more is passing through us.

How do you express yourself?