Sometimes we hold back what we feel because as a child we were taught to do this by a domineering person in our lives, or family or status expects we behave in certain areas, that we really want to say something but we instead hold it in.

A person may have been taught to not show his or her emotions, or to not express themselves, and one carries those limitations into adulthood and are shy, nervous or afraid to speak out, and can hide, push down, or not show what we are feeling – even deep painful feelings, by masking the outward signs with a neutral face, a steady voice, with words like “I am fine” or by trying to stop the feeling itself from being felt.

People can know and even deep within feel their emotions, but don’t show them after years of teaching themselves not to do so.

One reason I did this was because I was told that people didn’t want to know when I was unhappy or sad, and I did discover that when I was feeling down and I would tell certain people their face would drop because they wanted to hear something positive from me, not something sad.

Not wanting people to feel bad I shut up and kept my depression and sadness within me.

The problem is when suppression becomes a habit with a person, and we do it often or all the time.

Emotions are energy, and holding them within makes us an unhappy person, because our mind, body and soul yearn to express themselves.

Plus, you see confident people speak out, and deep within you want to do that as well, and you know that you should have your own say and be powerful for you as well.

Please don’t play yourself down, you deserve to have your say, and to influence people, and to contribute, and you also have the divine right to cry in public, get angry in public, to call something what it is without fearing that we may upset people, you have the right like us all to demand your rights or to demand that someone else’s rights are observed and respected, shared, and their story told.

You need to share you, and you can do that by speaking out, and you can also do that by publicly showing your emotions, because your emotions in specific instances shows who you are and how you feel about situations, people, events and what you truly believe in, your tears are valuable.

Your psychical body reacts to your suppressing your feelings and emotions, just as your body feels free and powerful when you step up and express your true feelings loudly with deep love, anger, compassion, and demands.

When you let yourself be, and be natural, you are freely acting out what is going on within you so much so that your physical body, words, facial expressions, heart pumping, are examples of how much things mean to you.

When you love someone, grabbing that person, physically showing your love, making love, goes a long way and is exhilarating, a fierce deep expression of freedom that ends in a thankful feeling of deep meaningful satisfaction.

Letting the cat out of the bag, as the expression goes, is like an awakening, like reaching an new level of maturity and understanding about yourself and what you are capable of. Never be frightened of waking up the real honest true you – because this is who you really are and what you really need to be.

All the best from
James M Sandbrook.
20-10-2026.