In moments of being unencumbered, we are congruent, and the body fits the soul like a glove. It’s important to note that to express, to bring what is in out, is not limited to the act of being verbal. Expressing includes any act of embodiment, be it dancing, singing, drumming, or praying silently. It includes manifesting one’s inwardness just as cleanly in solitude as in the presence of others. In truth, all these forms of expression—gestural and verbal, alone and with others—are essential.

Let me give a personal example. I have, for many reasons, including issues of my own making, forever felt invisible in family or group settings. Initially, this stemmed from fearfully pleasing a narcissistic mother at all cost. It led to years of unexpressed hurts and rejections, which accrued into a callous that guarded the heart within my heart. I am and have always been a very open and emotionally accessible person, but at a certain depth, the surviving core could not be touched. Though this started with mother, I cultivated this protection, and it affected the depth at which I could relate to anyone.

Eventually, this didn’t work. It wasn’t enough. I realized the world was not losing color, but that I was screening the deepest emotional colors out. That I state this so calmly and clearly in one sentence hardly reflects the difficult and slow, grinding way this awareness pained itself into my daily consciousness. Rather, it emerged in me gradually as I began to acknowledge and voice the hurts and feelings of invisibility I’ve carried all my life.

In feeling safe enough to say this or that hurt me—to myself or to a therapist or a loved one—I inherently affirmed my emotional existence in two ways. First, in expressing these pains, I, for the first time, affirmed that I have feelings to be hurt. Secondly, by clearly accepting and attesting that others have hurt me, I established that I am not solely responsible for all the pain I’ve experienced. In essence, expressing what was hidden gave me proof that I exist with a right to the emotional life inherent in being human.

As these repressed pains found their way like bubbles to the surface, insights of acceptance were seeping through to the heart within my heart. By ex-pressing, I was releasing some of the pressurized thoughts of the apprentice. I was beginning to free myself from the noise of the marketplace.