Expressing Yourself

Do you have trouble expressing yourself? Do you feel as if if you say something, you will be judged for the outcome of your emotions because the person or people you were explaining it too wasn't comprehending it well? Are you afraid to talk to others because you are afraid that you will be triggered by what they may say? Well, I am here to say that you are not alone in this. Although it may seem that I have my life together, I don't. I claim that I am an open book but honestly, I only tell people the parts of the story that I know won't trigger me by whatever they may or may not say. I keep those dark secrets in the back of my head because I don't want others to think that I am "that dark" or "way too deep" because that is how I think. By doing that it is called, "Afraid of the Unknown". You are scared of not knowing what will happen. You put this shield or wall up trying to save yourself from being hurt. Instead of going through trillion of scenarios about what may or may not happen, you automatically say, "okay well not going to understand me so why even try to express myself fully".

I know one thing that I am practicing over the course of this year is giving someone a chance to understand me before I go ahead and shut down for assuming that they don't understand.

So, what are some steps that you can do to express yourself more without shutting down?