Take a moment right now. Place one hand on your chest, the other on your belly. Now, close your eyes and ask yourself:
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- Where in my body am I holding today’s stress?
- If my emotions had a color, what would they be?
- When was the last time I let myself feel released without judgment?
Now notice:
Did just thinking about these questions create any shift in your body?
A tightness? A release? A sudden urge to move, write, or create?
That’s your body speaking. And it’s desperately trying to tell you something. When we live in a world that rewards “keeping it together” at all costs, we often pay a price.
Sure, it seems impressive to hold everything together and push through the pain. But what if this constant containment is actually making us sick?
Your emotions aren’t meant to be stored. They’re meant to move. And when you understand how expression can help you release and heal, you’ll free yourself to take steps toward living a more authentic, fulfilling life.
Let’s take a look at how you can use journaling, art, and even movement to release pent-up emotions and find a sense of peace and belonging in a thriving community.
Emotions Need Motion
What happens when you stuff down your feelings?
That anger you swallowed at work is living in your clenched jaw. The grief you “got over” is probably camping out in your chest, making it hard to take a full breath.
And that foreboding sense of anxiety you’re ignoring? It’s throwing a party in your stomach.
Research shows that unexpressed emotions trigger inflammatory markers in your body.
When we suppress our emotions, our body wants to release. So it floods the system with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline so that we move and find protection.
But what if there’s no “danger” to escape from? Over time, this turns into emotional constipation, and it will begin to manifest as:
- Chronic tension headaches
- Digestive issues and IBS
- Unexplained body pain
- Compromised immune function
- Sleep disruption
The word “emotion” literally comes from the Latin “emovere,” which means “to move out.” Emotions are energy in motion. When we block that motion, the energy doesn’t disappear. It gets trapped, creating internal pressure that has to go somewhere.
And trust us, it always finds a way out – usually in ways we don’t want.
The Cost of Containing Our Emotions
Did you know that people who regularly suppress their emotions are 35% more likely to experience anxiety and depression? They’re also at higher risk for cardiovascular disease and autoimmune conditions.
But we’ve been taught that “being strong” means not feeling. That successful people don’t have time for emotions. Crying is a weakness, and anger is dangerous.
Our mental health education has failed us here. We’ve created a culture where emotional expression is seen as losing control, when actually, it’s how we maintain control.
There are no “negative” emotions. Every feeling is a messenger, carrying important information about your needs, boundaries, and values. When you shoot the messenger, you miss the message.
Rethinking Expression as Medicine
It’s time for a radical reframe in how we approach our emotions. Expression isn’t self-indulgent. It’s self-preservation.
When you allow emotions to move through healthy outlets, magical things happen in your brain:
- Your amygdala (fear center) calms down
- Your prefrontal cortex (wise adult brain) comes back online
- Stress hormones decrease
- Feel-good chemicals like serotonin and dopamine increase
- New neural pathways form, literally rewiring old trauma patterns
This is why our personal development platform emphasizes expression as a cornerstone of mental wellness. It’s not a luxury. It’s medicine!
And unlike many medications, the side effects are all positive: increased creativity, deeper self-awareness, stronger relationships, and a more regulated nervous system.
The three pillars we’ll explore below – journaling, art, and movement – have been shown to act as proven interventions that can transform your mental health from the inside out.
Journaling as Self-Therapy
Let’s clear something up right now: Therapeutic journaling isn’t about dear diary entries or complaining on paper. There’s a massive difference between venting and transformative journaling.
Venting keeps you stuck in the story. Transformative journaling helps you rewrite it.
The research shows us this works. Just 15-20 minutes of expressive writing, three times a week, can:
- Reduce anxiety symptoms by up to 28%
- Improve immune function
- Lower blood pressure
- Accelerate healing from physical wounds
- Decrease intrusive thoughts
When you write about your experiences and emotions, you’re literally moving them from the emotional brain to the thinking brain.
In a sense, you’re creating distance between you and your feelings, which allows for new perspectives to emerge.
Members of our healthy lifestyle community often report that journaling helps them spot patterns they couldn’t see before.
Suddenly, that recurring anxiety makes sense. That relationship dynamic becomes clear. The roots of that self-sabotage reveal themselves on the page.
Journaling Styles for Every Mood
Not all journaling is created equal – and one method that works wonders for someone else may not be for you.
Different emotional states call for different approaches. Think of this as your journaling menu:
Stream of Consciousness (When you don’t know what you’re feeling)
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write without stopping, without editing, without thinking. Let whatever wants to come out, come out.
Even if you write “I don’t know what to write” fifty times, this practice bypasses your inner critic and taps directly into your subconscious.
Shadow Work Prompts (For excavating buried emotions)
These prompts help you explore the parts of yourself you typically hide or deny:
- “The part of me I’m most ashamed of is…”
- “If people really knew me, they’d discover…”
- “What I’m pretending not to know is…”
Gratitude Lists (For rewiring negativity bias)
But make them specific! Instead of “grateful for my family,” try “grateful for the way my daughter’s laugh sounds like bubbles popping.” Specificity activates different neural pathways and creates stronger positive associations.
Future Self Letters (For hope and direction)
Write a letter from your future self to your current self. What does Future You want Current You to know? What wisdom do they have to share? This practice activates hope and creates a roadmap for growth.
Dialogue Journaling (For internal conflicts)
Having an internal battle? Put it on paper. Write a conversation between the conflicting parts of yourself. Let your anxious self talk to your confident self. Let your inner child speak to your inner parent. You’ll be amazed at what emerges.
Remember: There’s no wrong way to journal. Messy, angry, sad, confused writing is perfect writing. You’re just making space!
Our social emotional learning programs teach that the simple act of naming an emotion reduces its power over you by up to 50%. Imagine what happens when you not only name it but explore it, understand it, and ultimately, befriend it.
Art as a Language of the Subconscious
Sometimes, the most profound truths live in places words can’t reach.
That’s because trauma and deep emotions often get stored in the non-verbal parts of your brain. It’s the same parts that developed before you even had language.
This is why you can talk about your childhood trauma for years in therapy and still feel stuck. Or why explaining your anxiety logically doesn’t make it go away.
Your logical brain might know you’re safe now, but your emotional brain is still living in the past.
This is where art becomes medicine. When you create, you’re speaking directly to those wordless parts of yourself. You’re giving form to the formless, making the invisible visible.
And here’s the best part: You don’t need talent. You just need intention.
Creating Without Performing
Let’s get something straight: Your healing art is not for Instagram. It’s not for your fridge. It’s not for anyone’s approval. It’s private medicine, meant only for you.
Our personal development platform members often share how liberating it feels to create “bad” art on purpose. In fact, the worse it looks, the better it often feels.
Why? Because you’re finally expressing without performing.
Scribble Release
Grab a marker and paper. Think about what’s bothering you.
Now scribble, hard, fast, and angry. Let your hand move with the intensity of your emotion. Fill the page. Then rip it up. Burn it (safely). Bury it.
The physical destruction completes the emotional release – you’ll be amazed at just how effective it is!
Color Emotion Mapping
Close your eyes. What color is your sadness? Your rage? Your hope? Now put those colors on paper, letting them blend or clash however they want. No shapes needed – just color expressing feeling.
Collage for Clarity
Sometimes we don’t know what we feel until we see it. Flip through magazines, tearing out any images or words that resonate. Don’t think! Just tear!
Then arrange them on paper. The patterns that emerge often reveal what your subconscious is processing.
Clay for Grounding
There’s something primal about working with clay. Squeeze it when you’re angry. Smooth it when you’re anxious. Build and destroy and rebuild. Your hands know things your head doesn’t.
Here’s what’s happening in your body when you create: Repetitive motions like coloring or painting activate your parasympathetic nervous system—your rest-and-digest response. Your breathing deepens. Your heart rate slows. Your muscles relax.
You’re literally painting your way out of fight-or-flight mode.
This is why adult coloring books became a phenomenon. It’s not about the pretty pictures—it’s about the meditative state that repetitive, creative action induces. You can’t ruminate and color detailed patterns at the same time. Your brain has to choose, and creativity wins.
Movement as Emotional Alchemy
Have you ever noticed how dogs shake after a stressful event? Or how children naturally jump, spin, and flail when they’re excited or upset?
This isn’t just random activity. They’re actively completing the stress cycle, allowing emotions to literally move through and out of their bodies. It’s just… natural!
But somewhere along the way, we adults learned to be still. To sit with our stress. To “compose ourselves.”
And now that stress is composed into your tight shoulders, your clenched jaw, your shallow breathing.
Emotions literally get stuck in your fascia and muscles. This isn’t metaphorical – as bodyworkers and somatic therapists will tell you, they work with patients every day to help them release the “built-up” emotions and stress in their bodies.
So how can we release these stuck emotions and complete our own stress cycles?
Practical Movements You Can Use Now
Different emotions need different movements. Your body intuitively knows what it needs; we just have to give it permission to move. Here are some of our favorite – and incredibly practical – movements you can do right now to help your body release and begin resting:
For Anxiety: The Shake-Off
Stand up. Start shaking your hands, then your arms, then your whole body.
Get more active. Shake like a dog coming out of water!
Do this for 60 seconds, and notice how the movement discharges built-up stress hormones and resets your nervous system.
For Depression: Intentional Walking
When you’re feeling emotions similar to depression, any movement feels impossible.
But small movements lead to momentum. So just start with five minutes.
As you walk, just hold one intention: to notice.
- Five things you can see
- Four things you can hear
- Three things you can touch
- Two things you can smell
- One thing you can taste
Movement plus mindfulness interrupts the depression loop.
For Anger: Power Moves
Feeling a bit of anger boiling beneath the surface? Fight it out!
Punch the air. Stomp your feet. Do jumping jacks. Sprint up stairs. Anger is energy that needs a powerful outlet. Give it one that doesn’t hurt you or anyone else.
For Overwhelm: Grounding Poses
Poses are a wonderful tool that you can use any time to help yourself heal. Try different ones, such as child’s pose, mountain pose, or simply lying on the ground.
When you’re spinning out, you need to literally ground yourself. Feel the earth holding you.
Movement is all about integration. Every time you move with intention, you’re teaching your nervous system: “It’s safe to feel. It’s safe to release. It’s safe to be alive in this body.”
Our social emotional learning approach recognizes that you can’t think your way out of trauma – you have to literally move through it.
This is why our healthy lifestyle community incorporates movement challenges. When you move in community, you’re not just healing yourself. You’re creating a field of healing that supports everyone. Your courage to express gives others permission to do the same.
Your Expression Prescription
So, how can you put all of these new ideas into action? Here’s your homework (but let’s call it “heartwork” instead):
Start by creating your personal “Expression Emergency Kit”:
- A journal that’s just for you
- Art supplies that feel good (crayons, markers, clay)
- A movement playlist for different moods
- A designated space where you can express freely
Then start using your new kit with a simple and consistent routine. Start with the 5-5-5 Practice:
- 5 minutes journaling (stream of consciousness)
- 5 minutes creating (doodle, color, collage)
- 5 minutes moving (dance, stretch, shake)
That’s 15 minutes. Less time than scrolling social media. But infinitely more healing.
Remember: Messy expression is better than perfect suppression. Your scribbles matter more than masterpieces. And that time you spend in thoughtful silence as you create can do wonders for all parts of your mind, body, and soul.
What matters is that you’re letting it move. You’re letting it out. You’re letting yourself heal.
Because when you express, you expand. When you release, you create space. And in that space, anything becomes possible!
Experience Healing In Community with AlignUs
Ready to transform your stuck emotions into flowing energy? Knowing how to start releasing your emotions and finding healing is great, but doing it alone is only part of the process.
You need a place where you can connect with others and feel supported on your journey.
Our community of like-minded individuals is here to help you navigate your healing process and provide guidance, encouragement, and understanding. In our safe and inclusive space, you can express yourself freely without judgment or fear.
Join the AlignUs community where movement, expression, and connection merge to create lasting mental wellness!
