Mental health articles

How to Express Emotions Positively Find a safe channel to express one’s emotions

The initial reservation about expressing one’s emotions can help to keep all of one’s negative feelings well locked in. However, this is also the initial “edge” that we have to get over. We do not necessarily want to open the floodgates wide, and risk getting swamped by all these feelings. So we need to find the safer methods first (more like sluice gates). We need to begin to let out some of these negative feelings in a way that is not going to swamp us, explode, or horrify others. It is sometimes easier to use the safe space that is usually created by a confidential and therapeutic situation.

Here one can begin to express some of the more unacceptable, negative feelings in an atmosphere of reasonable safety and confidentiality. Later, when these feelings are a bit more integrated, they can be mentioned to other people, when appropriate. Another fairly safe way to express feeling is to start to write: write a personal journal, write letters to those people in your life that you felt that you never said half of what you wanted to say (but don’t send them), write as a means of remembering, write as a record of the things that happened to you that you have never told anyone, or write to tell the real truth. Try it! It might not be your way, but try it out first.

Another quite safe way is through other forms of artistic expression: artwork, painting, music, movement or dance therapy, sculpture, or pottery. All or any of these can be the medium that works for you. If you feel drawn to one of these, try it out. It can be easier then to tell someone afterwards why you shaped things this way rather than that way. This can be the start of turning your art into a form of art therapy.

Tags: emotions