Yes true. We are encouraged to hide our feelings. We put on a mask. In rehab to some extent people take the mask off and admit the part of themselves they hide. This opening up should be encouraged with friends and family maybe even colleagues if appropriate. People are complex. You are complex I am complex. We need to make a voice too in art or our expression. That’s why I use writing, spoken word, I write stories to explore the complexity of what I feel. What I think I feel in my whole body. There is no mind body separation. You are intertwined. To me the body opens doors to the mind. That’s just me though and Taoism in a practical sense. You learn to express yourself slowly, make mistakes, be vulnerable, be around the people who will pick you up not step all over you. Grow and bring everything within yourself unashamedly into the world. People feel threatened by those that free themselves but that is more their problem than yours.

Don’t just open doors for yourself, open them for others. Because everyone is full of anxieties and doubts. Be the person who breaks the ice because the other person might be afraid to as well. Let’s lead ourselves and open those doors. Everyone potentially needs to be free but it’s within we do it. Then we become an example. For me I have experience. Those pathways took a long time to form. Be patient and don’t feel you need to be perfect or faultless. All of your scars and traumas make you even more beautiful. You have experienced the world. Now experience other things. Don’t regress but yes be innocent like a child in expression. Progress and bring the hurt child inside with you into the present.