Dear Emily:

The verb to express is the opposite of the verb to repress. When we repress (push down, restrain, subdue) too much of ourselves, we become strangers to ourselves and we are forever lost and confused.

To express what we repressed for so long is to bring up to the surface what we pushed down, under the surface, for so long that we forgot that it’s there. To express is an act of personal freedom to be and to become who you are.

How to express yourself: one way is by using words, talking, writing or typing away your thoughts and feelings. There are other ways, but in context of your thread, if you choose to express yourself further here, it will be by typing away your thoughts and feelings, more so than you have so far.

I will give you an example by expressing myself next. I will express something that is difficult/ uncomfortable for me to express, which means that some part of it is still repressed. I am not planning what I will be typing and I will not edit it, here it goes: when I was a girl, I loved my mother more than I can tell you, the strongest emotion. My attention was on her, she was everything for me, all I cared about was that she would be okay. But she always looked at other people, not at me, she cared about other people, didn’t even see me. All that love I felt, there was nothing but vacuum around it, around me, I lived with a strong longing that was forever unsatisfied, an emptiness around me and within me. I was the loneliest child in the world.

anita