The secret to an authentic and confident life is to be able to express yourself completely. There are times when we fear how people around you may react to your emotions. And thus, to avoid and conflicts, as we age, we learn to suppress our emotions and opinions. Therefore, expressing yourself is an art that needs to be mastered, which will help you not always go with the flow and stand accountable for your thoughts and beliefs. The most crucial thing about expressing oneself is that it creates an outcome that is positive within yourself and the people around you.
Lastly, there are plenty of other ways to express yourself apart from being verbally straightforward. You can dive into your hobbies and find several ways in which you can express your emotions and thoughts creatively. Physical expressions can include dancing (Lee et al., 2013) or perhaps the way you dress yourself up. You can also express your thoughts and opinions in the form of writing stories or poems (Kempler, 2003). Another excellent way of self-expression is through using different colours on paper or maybe just one!
In all, expressing oneself in an appropriate manner is difficult but not impossible, and following the above step can make you a better emotion regulator and expressor. To some, it may seem that it is not required, but it does help in the long term.
“A person without self-expression is a person without freedom” – Robin S.
How to express yourself
References
Kahn, J. H., & Garrison, A. M. (2009). Emotional self-disclosure and emotional avoidance: Relations with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 56(4), 573.
Kempler, N. Z. (2003). Finding our voice through poetry and psychotherapy. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 16(4), 217-220.
Kever, A., Grynberg, D., Eeckhout, C., Mermillod, M., Fantini, C., & Vermeulen, N. (2015). The body language: The spontaneous influence of congruent bodily arousal on the awareness of emotional words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 41(3), 582.
Koole, S. L. (2009). The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Cognition and Emotion, 23(1), 4-41.
Lee, J., Lee, H. J., Ko, B., & Boswell, B. (2013). Effects of Creative Dance on Students Self-Expression and Perceptions of Dance. International Journal of Applied Sports Sciences, 25(1).
Segal, D. L., Tucker, H. C., & Coolidge, F. L. (2009). A comparison of positive versus negative emotional expression in a written disclosure study among distressed students. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 18(4), 367-381.
Stephenson, R. C. (2006). Promoting self-expression through art therapy. Generations, 30(1), 24-26.
Takaesu, A. (2012). EFL journal writing: An exploratory study in self-expression as a bridge for creative writing. Accents Asia, 5(1), 45-54.