Learning to express ourselves

Like many of us, I grew up in a home where expressing emotions, especially big ones, was not allowed. Expressing discomfort or pain was not allowed either.

I learned, like far too many of us, how to stuff everything down and dissociate at a very young age. To not express my feelings. To not tell someone when I was hurt or upset or even hungry or tired.

I have carried this learning well into my adult life. Generally until a couple years ago the only time I would express anything was when I was overwhelmed & then everything I’d been stuffing down would explode all over the place & come out all sideways.

Over the last couple years I’ve been practicing sharing when something bothers me instead of bottling up. It’s been a process of slowing own, analyzing why I’m upset, and then doing the extremely-hard-for-me thing of using my words and telling someone what is going on for me.

It has been messy. Imperfect. There have been times I’ve over analyzed and taken too much responsibility and times I…