Thinking on new ways to express yourself? Depends on what do you want to express and who do you need to express than idea or feeling.
To express something means you communicate an idea or feeling to someone or to a group. Do you feel you are free to communicate what you need when you need to? Are you ready to react in the right moment and in the right way?
Why should you think about these questions? Because these are some of the elements you have to consider before exploring ways to express yourself. You can communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings and you can react different to each one of them, it is not the same the need to exchange a few words with a co-worker than to communicate your feelings to someone you like. The moment is important too, what you need to express is private or may be known publicly? Are you articulated enough or is it hard for you to find the right words?
In the expression process you have to make clear what you want to talk about. If those are thoughts you can use many forms to communicate them, but if those are feelings you have to be aware of the time and moment and the person you want to talk to.
Here you will find some ideas you can use, but please apply your best criteria to decide which is the best for you, here are some suggestions:
Write. You don’t need to be a master of writing to take out those hidden feelings or fears, this may not sound new, but writing is one of the best tools to acknowledge to yourself what is happening. When you need to heal inner injuries writing is a useful tool, and it is also handy to make things clear in private before talking it to someone else. This is also a good way to share your thoughts with someone, it can be very serious, creative or even poetic. Please remember, try to make things as clear as possible, keeping in mind a written message is quite difficult to erase, be careful with the way you write your message and the words you use, the best recommendation in these and all ways of expressing yourself is: avoid saying crazy stuff when you are angry, when you are wrathful you can say things that may affect your life and others more than you could have ever imagined.
Draw or paint. This is a very creative way to express yourself and trying it, may help you find those unknown talents. You don’t need many tools to do this you can start with something as simple as paper and a pencil. This does not need to be perfect, but if you discover you love this form, you can always take special classes or learn by yourself using tutorials.
Music. Music is one of the elements that carry the sweetest and the hardest messages, you can create it or take someone else words to express yourself, as sometimes they have found the right match to what you need to say. Also singing can be really relieving, you can sign for happiness, sadness and anger, a good song will fill you with the energy of what you want to say, and you can live the fullest the moment and the sensation.
Body art. Body art is one of the ways to express yourself, that can be a real statement for something, but please remember, doing something in your body just because you are going through an extreme happiness or sadness moment may not be the best idea, so please ask someone neutral, if this is the right thing to do, as there are many body art forms that are permanent, and you may not want to regret it later on.
Photography and video. Nowadays almost anyone has a camera, photography has become the ultimate way of expression as “an image worth more than a thousand words” you just need to take the right one to show what you feel, and as this has a huge potential people have designed and created a bunch of platforms where you can show your friends and the whole world how you feel, how you look, what you like and what you don’t. In this fast world videos and pictures have become the easiest way to express yourself and everything at the reach of your hands. You can be really extraordinary, and creative you can do and share almost everything! it is up to you and who do you want to reach through this media.
This is the ultimate way to express yourself and is effective in almost 99% of the time; talk directly with the person you need to. This is not the easiest one but is the fastest, the most direct way, and in the right conditions the most effective one. When you talk to someone face to face you can see his/her reactions, you can say what you need and also can have the fastest feedback. What is the point of sending elaborated messages if you don’t have a reply? Talking to someone is really useful if you want to listen and be heard.
How can you do this task successfully?
Have the idea you want to communicate clear in your mind.
Set a time and place where you don’t have any interruptions, when there are important topics to discuss, interruptions can be harmful for communication.
Avoid discussing important topics when you are angry, if this is the case it is better to postpone it for later. When you are upset, you won’t be able to transmit what you want in the right words and if the person is angry will not understand it either. If you start calm but feel you are getting angry take a deep breath and no matter what don’t yell, screaming and fighting will make things worse and you won’t be able to communicate what you need.
You can use the smallest or the biggest tools to express yourself, just find “the what and for whom” is the message you want to say and do it. Nothing is worse that keep it all in.