649 thoughts on “Finding and Expressing ‘The Words’”

1. ‘I came to realise that condemning myself for the choices I have made in my life serves no purpose for the life I am living now.’ When we can get to this level of self awareness then I feel that we can move on from our self condemning ways with the understanding that it is not us that is doing the condemning but our mind that is being fed these thoughts from a pool of energy that we have been tapping into. This energy that wants to keep us small and insignificant because then it has control over us is absolutely disgusting.

2. Christine I also share your appreciation of Serge Benhayon and the Benhayon family. They have shown the world that there is another way to live where it is actually okay to show tenderness and delicateness; these are not the negative words that we have all come to associate with them. But very powerful words as they bring us back to the truth of who we are.

3. “I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today, and feel the richness held within me.” Beautiful choice.

4. Great to call this out, this is quite big in our world today, ‘ Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me: it blocked the connection and interaction I deeply craved and what I really felt inside and wanted to express.’

5. From time to time I still struggle with this, finding the right words, when really it isn’t about that. It is about you expressing you, and it is that simple and keeping it simple too, we tend to get in the way and add complications.
   I’m embarking on some higher studies so it will be interesting how my expression changes as I am more relaxed about it then when I studied a few years ago, going into drive and having to pass. This forced expression is a false expression, whereby the intellect wants to rule, and by who’s rule is another can of worms.

   Within us all is a natural ability to express, and that is our soul and essence coming through and that is the next level of expression my body is going to when it is ready.

   Our expressions change over time and I love its unfoldment, enjoy the journey of discovering you.

   1. I can understand this to a certain extent, being on an expression program is a great antidote, ‘spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.’

6. It’s nowhere near as scary or worse case scenario to express how we feel that the mind would have us believe. If anything it’s the complete opposite, there’s no fireworks but a lovely sense of settlement within as I am not inside disturbed with fears/worries/wants/regrets/blah.

   1. It is the lack of self worth, self love, and judgement of ourselves that can get in the way of us expressing, ‘ sitting in continual judgment of what I might say and how that will be received.’

7. True energetic appreciation brings so much to our lives and becomes the glue that holds us from one glorious connection to that next moment of living the True glory of who we are. So living in a deep-humble-appreciate-ive-ness maintains a connection to our essences.

   1. Greg we need to go there more, because when we appreciate more, more is offered, it is the antidote to self worth, fear, regrets etc that keep us separated and away from our true expressions.

      1. Absolutely, bring in more appreciation consistently to our lives.

      2. Shushila I guess the opposite to appreciation is when we condemn ourselves, relearning that these feelings of condemnation are given to us as you say is part of the game to keep us in the separation away from who we truly are and that means our true expression.

8. Being good and nice is something I too can relate to – and it does stop our natural expression from coming out. Letting go of this facade or pretense is a fast track to our true connection.

   1. So many children are fed being good and nice when they are young, they are just some of the words that stunt our naturalness. Words can be used as weapons of mass destruction and the words good and nice are just that.

9. Thank you Christine – our expression is never ending and there is in fact so much to express. But this can only be expressed when we are connected to our essence for this is the true source of our expression.

10. Christine it’s so true what you share, when we let go of being nice, or holding back how we truly feel in other ways, the realness of our expression offers a greater richness to develop in our relationships. This was also a pivotal line for me “I was waiting for the love deep inside me to be met and recognised by others.” It opened me up to realising this is what everyone is wanting and when we place expectations or demands on others we miss this opportunity to meet someone in their essence.

11. I love the way you have equated it to a ripening fruit. We simply have to plant seeds of quality and nurture the body so that what comes from it is from a seed of love, not a seed of hurt and hence protection.

12. When we say what we feel to say in the moment, however clunky that may be is far more respectful than holding it back and building resentment and bitterness.

13. “I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today” This had me melt in my seat.

    1. We can choose to be the love and amazing being we truly are, ‘ I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today, and feel the richness held within me.’

14. Our expression is super important, if we hold back we confirm to others it’s ok to hold back, and likewise when we express we give space for others to equally express as well.

    1. Expressing what is true for us, in full, ‘all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.’

       1. Lorraine I was asked recently why I didn’t eat something and I replied because the particular food they were referring to was dry, tasteless and looked like rubber and I couldn’t see the point of eating it. A member of my family who was eating this food said to me don’t hold back in your expression Mary, meaning that what I had said wasn’t welcome. Sometimes we do not want to hear the truth and will attempt to silence the truth. We see this happening everyday in our society, we would rather hear lies than the truth because then we can live so called ‘comfortable’ lives, which are not comfortable at all because we cannot quell the restlessness we are all feeling because we avoid the truth.

15. I was with a family of five children recently and noticed that the youngest, about three years old, said very little. It didn’t take long to figure out why, as all the other children were speaking for him. It got me to wondering how this will affect him as he grows older – will he continue to expect someone else to express for him so choosing to stay silent and in doing so holding back his unique expression?

    1. From my experience of being the youngest in the family of five it does have an affect because I wasn’t listened to and I didn’t feel heard within the family growing up this has impacted the way I have lived my life negatively until I met Serge Benhayon and started to change my life around.

16. So often we wait for others to love us back before we are willing to open up and be love, but this form of love then is not true love is it, because it comes with conditions? So, I love how you shared here Christine that we can just be love at any moment, unconditionally and therefore why wait and why hold back?

    1. Great question, why would we hold back something we love the most? Expressing who we are.
       It is interesting revelation to come to.. Could it be that we have an issue accepting our beauty and responsibility.

       1. Or, could it be Dana that others have an issue with the beauty and preciousness that we are and so thwart the expression by cutting them down. We do this all the time because we are jealous of the beauty that someone holds within them and we feel in ourselves that we haven’t been bothered to hold ourselves to that same standard of love, care or more.

17. Bendigo and its residents are lucky recipients of having you walking around the town in this amazing joy…

18. Gosh how many times have I wanted to express something to someone and choked on the words, or not been able to deliver what I really wanted to say. We are so conditioned from young to hold back our expression or protect ourselves from rejection or attack that when it comes to telling someone how much we love and appreciate and cherish them it’s like the words have to go through all these barriers we’ve put up and it doesn’t come out with the same massive love we feel.

19. “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express”. Yes, when we gain this appreciation of oneself, one’s whole perspective of everything in life changes and hence our world.

20. When one lives by standards set by others one is victim to the vicissitudes of life, confirming one in the belief of a lack of self-worth. However, as Christine shares, when one claims one’s truth one starts ‘doing the world’ rather than being a victim to it.

21. “Little did I know then that I could choose at any moment to be that Love.” The gift of love that Serge Benhayon has shared with us all is to open up to the love that we already are.

22. “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.” The more we hold back and protect ourselves the more distance there is between ourselves and others, through Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I have reconnected myself to the true love that I am, and as a result I have let go of the protection I once sought and now I am amazed by how beautiful life is.

    1. Serge Benhayon has shown the world that there is a different way to live, that humanity is living the exact opposite to the way we could all be living if we listened to our bodies and not to our minds. When humanity can grasp that the body is just a vehicle of expression and that we do not think at all we are the recipient of what passes through us, then there will be a possibility to change. While we continue to run with the belief that we think, then we will be fed the same lies and nothing will change.

23. I have huge appreciation for an esoteric practitioner who supported me to express what I felt and not my head because I didn’t want to upset the reader. It took several attempts to get there, but once I fully expressed what needed to be said, I felt a huge sense of release and triggered a change that needed to happen. Today I cannot imagine expressing in any other way than honestly and from my heart. It changed my life and quality of all my relationships.

24. It all stems from self worth and value, with these two true self expression becomes part of us.

25. “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.” This really is the essence. Once we drop the baggage we’ve carried around with us for most of our lives, we liberate ourselves to walk lightly in life.

26. We think we’re doing ourselves a favour by being nice, polite and constantly monitoring what we say, but when we do this, it is in fact, very stifling and all of our relationships suffer because we don’t bring who we are, the depth and the beauty, to them. We present to others a surface veneer, a flat, monochrome version where there’s nothing to attack, but nothing to connect to, either. We can either skim about on the surface of life, never deepening lest we connect to something amazing and get attacked for it, or: go deeper, come what may – living with the joy of that connection and trusting and knowing that we can face whatever is there to deal with.

    1. This is very much measured way of expressing: no one gets to know who we are, and we’ve yet to connect to the truth of who we are. It is powerful to be shown the way to true self expression and put to bed all attempts of trying to get it right and pleasing others.

    2. Being nice, and good, is a controlled false way of being, ‘I used to live to be in control of everything happening around me because I believed that this would keep me safe, and keep safe those around me that I felt responsible for.’

27. ‘Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.’ That’s the way to go Christine and definitely something I can relate to in my own life, the more I let go of control, I accept and surrender what is coming and I appreciate what i bring in the whole that life is.

28. When we hold back from expressing out of fear of not getting it ‘right’ we do not give ourselves the opportunity to learn.

29. “Being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others. A story created to stop me from being all that I am” – I recognise this so well, the pretense, that even had myself deceived for a very long time, thinking that I had to be a certain way, anything but just being myself, to be accepted, while not accepting that I already was it all along.

    1. What if Fumiyo we come into this life ready to be deceived, what if we are the master craftsman and that we blame others for our woes and what happened to us, but actually we have orchestrated it all so that we do not represent or take responsibility for the fullness of who we are ?

30. Wow, I didn’t register how much lack of self-worth can block us from expressing and also block us from receiving expressions of truth. This is huge and thank you Christine for making it so clear and easy to understand.

31. And of course we are, all of us here, in the extraordinary process of letting our words just flow… Not constructed, or manufactured, or calibrated, just simply flowing from our inner heart.

    1. Beautiful Cjames2012, we certainly are and this is a gorgeous process to embrace. When we express from our inner heart it is a joy to hear.

    2. “Not constructed, or manufactured, or calibrated, just simply flowing from our inner heart.” This is a big one Chris to master and It took me a few decades to get there.

32. Knowing that you have to rely upon others to express, is more honest than expressing from ‘yourself’ without really EXPRESSING from YOURSELF.

33. Truth comes through us with no ownership.

34. “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express. The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles.” this is the power of living from the divine love that lives within, bringing us back to who we truly are, divine sons of God.

35. Expressing our truth that we feel deep down is what brings us closer, anything else lets us just stray even further form the truth we know.

36. Nobody can say what is there for you to say because nobody except you can express exactly as you do.

    1. Yes, so true, and it shows how we are all equally powerful and that nobody can tell us what to do or say.

       1. Unless we let them and give our power away in which case that is our choice which actually makes what you say correct!

    2. So true Nicola, even when we say exactly the same words as someone else, the quality and vibrations of all that we have lived are communicated through our voice.

       1. Very true Chan, there must be some advanced mathematics in this!

37. Control is not safe at all and does not even work except to imprison us. It is so great to let it go. Not something I have fully done yet as it is a persistent beast that can be discovered lurking in many corners.

    1. I am working on this too Nicola, and I find it helps to build trust within myself and then I am more likely to trust others, also to trust what I know, how I feel and what is delivered to me to be expressed. Trust helps me let go of control.

       1. I feel there is a point where we even go beyond trust. When people speak about trust it often comes with some idea that they trust things will be ok whatever that means for them. There is a level where we simply surrender to God’s Will or the Divine Will or our Soul or whatever you want to call it – this allows for true power and is not a surrender in the bastardised version of that word!

38. Our expression is so needed in the world today, too many people are hiding and holding back and then everyone misses out on hearing the truth we can all bring.

39. How damaging it is to hold our expression back, not only to ourselves, but also the true expression of others and this affects every relationship in life.
    “The moment I started to claim this truth within myself was the moment the relationships around me started to blossom. The deeply felt truth, confirmation, and the richness of what I had capped in myself and others started to unfold.”

40. We have mixed up “right” with Truth. This whole right thing and getting it right is harmful. What is truly right and healing is Truth. The more we understand that the more we and everyone else is released from the imprisonment of “right”.

41. The words reflect whatever we connect to whether that be truth or lies.

    1. So true Nicola, and we can feel through ones expression how much truth they emanate and share with the world. What you’ve shared makes sense because what we choose to align to, truth or lies cannot be hidden as it comes through our expression.

42. Letting others speak for me was actually a very calculated and manipulative way to live, as I was constantly influencing others to my way of thinking so they would say what I wanted. Until I read this article just now I had not considered just how controlling it was to live this way. I am eternally grateful that this is no longer how I live.

43. I love the ease in which you share your journey with allowing the words (that have always been there) a voice.
    Thank you, I can definitely relate to not speaking and relying on others to do so.

44. Whenever we hold back saying what needs to be said we all miss out of the depth of awareness that was on offer.

45. Thank you for expressing in words all that you are.

46. We make the harmful choices we make because we get something out of it – it helps a lot to be honest about what this is if we want out of this un-merry-go-round!

47. We are always expressing what is working through us I suspect as we are the receivers of energy not the source of it, so building an awareness with what the two sources feel like should be part and parcel of our education growing up.

48. It is a forever unfolding back to where we come from and who we really are. When we were young we did not have a problem with expressing but we play a game now and that game of expression has become so familiar that it is our normal.

49. “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.” I can relate to having this same fear as you have expressed Christine, one I am stepping out from and feeling the joy of knowing and expressing me, the world hasn’t fallen apart, and if others react when i speak my truth it is their choice, it is self loving for me to speak my truth and loving for others to hear it whether it is accepted or not. Thank you for an inspiring blog Christine.

    1. I too have held back for all those reasons and in doing so held back my beautiful expression. It was all about being accepted by those around me and therefore so very aware of not rocking the boat. What a damaging way to live, and there will be few who haven’t done so. But I, like you Jill, have learnt to speak up and ‘the world hasn’t fallen apart”!

       1. Ingrid it’s interesting to observe that when we speak the truth how it can irritate and upset other people. For example I was attending a worldwide sales ‘TEAMS’ meeting which is a platform similar to Zoom. Someone on the call saw me as my camera was on and said you look amazing Mary and I replied thank you I am amazing and I heard someone say no humbleness there in a sneery voice, people just cannot cope with someone who actually feels awesome everyday and is not afraid to show the world. Have we got so used to being miserable that when someone is actually full of vitality it is not welcome?

50. The purity of what you written is phenomenal — as the expression of what we feel is always inside us, it is more that we have got used to hold it in and become silent..What I have come to feel is how much of that silence actually creates a tension and unease in the body, that does not serve us or others.

51. Trying to find the right words or say the right thing was like putting duct tape over my mouth, it was so stifling. The thing was that by holding something down that’s meant to be said resulted in lots of things erupting out in what you would say not the ‘right’ way. It’s like having one hand tied behind your back and trying to drive… yes, you can do it, but your body doesn’t feel fully solid and balanced doing it, and you start to make adjustments to make it work instead of simply using the two arms you have and not compromising.

52. Being nice and being good are simply ways that we lie to ourselves and in turn to those around us; in these moments we are not being true. When we pretend to be something that we are not, or express in direct opposition to what we are feeling at a particular moment in time, our whole body feels it and it is a feeling that is actually foreign to who we truly are.

53. Anything expressed without love is just as damaging and as sharp as a outburst of emotional rage or anger. We just have become so desensitised from being aware of the fact.

54. How absolutely self empowering to begin to express what we are feeling within and how everything changes from that one choice. Thank you for sharing your story Christine – it is very inspiring to read.
    “It was the moment that the lid came off the jar that being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others. A story created to stop me from being all that I am”.

    1. And equally self empowering to start bringing appreciation and acceptance to our lives, ‘Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.’

    2. Stephanie the same sentence caught my attention too
       “It was the moment that the lid came off the jar that being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others. A story created to stop me from being all that I am”.
       We have created so many stories and justifications of why we are the way we are that we believe the stories we have been given. Our stories then give us an excuse for with drawing from life because we think life is too hard. These are the lies we are fed and believe because we think we think and that our thoughts belong to us because we thought them. This has to be the biggest lie of them all and one I’m still struggling to come to terms with because the feeling my thoughts belong to me is so entrenched but I’m sure I’m not alone in this lie of thinking.

55. I have found it so very healing just to express what I feel without having to worry how the other will receive it. The more I do this, a momentum builds that now I find that I easily express and in doing so my old habit of holding back from expressing what was true for me, just drops away.

56. ‘Little did I know then that I could choose at any moment to be that Love. I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today, and feel the richness held within me’. When we start to accept and care for ourselves, we reawaken the love that we are and have always been.

    1. What is it about us as a race of human-beings that we withhold the richness of the inner heart you speak of from ourselves? This makes no sense to me but we all do it. Seemingly preferring instead to seek this richness from someone else, who is also in denial of this richness that is within us yet we run a million miles from it?

57. It is great to know that we always can grow and learn and are not stuck in a ‘I just can’t express’ ideal forever because we think that’s ‘just us’.

58. This is wonderful to read Christine, I still stumble at times with my expression but it is so much more expanded from what it was. It feels great to be more open and accepting and honest even if it can be sometimes uncomfortable. The feedback is most often more openness from the other person too because there is not the confusion that is created when we do hold back.

59. When we come to understand that “Choosing to hide and hold back” who we naturally are not only affects the person we are with but also ourselves we are finally at the point in our lives when we are able to appreciate the power of our expression. Every word we speak and every movement we make comes with everything we are feeling at that moment in time and can be felt by the receiver, therefore we have a huge responsibility as to the way we express in every moment.

60. Taking the lid off the jar can seem like a big jolt. But we can open it slightly and it doesn’t take long to realise how glorious it feels to have it fully off and to no longer be contained within a jar!

61. Each of us bring a particular color, texture and flavor to what we express. Nothing replaces it even if you can fully appreciate what came through the expression of another one, if you can feel the truth contained therein.

62. ‘spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.’ I can relate to this Christine, it made me quite indecisive which then made me frustrated on myself as I knew deep down the truth instead of what I chose the ‘right and wrong’ out of fear of making mistakes.

63. A very clear exposure on the truth of being nice and good and how lethal it is in blocking our true expression. “Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me: it blocked the connection and interaction I deeply craved and what I really felt inside and wanted to express”.

64. Wow Christine this is incredible , what a terrible spell to have yourself under . But no more as can been seen by this beautiful writing and expression , thank you for the god news.

65. Gorgeous to read how your life and you have unfolded, ‘Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express. The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles.’

66. I wonder how many of us are just watching life pass us by and waiting for it to start? When all we have to do to live it is not hold back any more and express ourselves. Sure it can be challenging at first but it’s like any other muscle in the body – as we exercise it we become stronger. Nothing to lose in my view so why not give it a go?

67. We can think everything will be fine and safe if we control all around us, what an illusion, we can never really control all around us. I am learning to surrender and trust more and more, to connect with my body and be guided from its innate wisdom.

68. Great to call and expose this very common pattern, ‘ Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me: it blocked the connection and interaction I deeply craved and what I really felt inside and wanted to express.’ It feels so lovely for me personally to have let go, and probably more letting go still needed of this old false way of behaving.

69. ‘It was the moment that the lid came off the jar that being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others. A story created to stop me from being all that I am.’ Beautifully expressed and something I can relate to, how we avoid our true expression to protect ourselves and not live our graceful power.

70. Lack of self worth limits us in so many areas, and, as you show here having not felt what you wanted to express was more than enough, ‘trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.’

71. I can so relate to what you have shared Christine, about your past of the being good nice etc for me I felt imprisoned in a box. I am coming to experience these words in my life now also “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express. ” as I learn to deepen my love and tenderness for my self, how I express is changing to be much more open and honest.

72. “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.” Good call Christine and one I can so relate to. Holding back can be so exhausting. Feeling freedom to express and be our natural selves is liberating – and not just for ourselves,

73. It’s crazy that we have to re-learn what we came into the world already knowing. When we were babies, and even young children, we did not apologies for how we felt, we simply screamed it or spoke it or cried it. It was all there.

74. Letting our true selves out, the only way to live with true freedom. Otherwise we are in constant reaction to the world around us, cowering or fighting but either way still controlled by what is going on outside of us.

75. Acknowledging that “Being good, being nice, and being caring” is but a form of protection out of fear of rejection and to hide the feeling of lack of self-worth is the first step to dismantling the wall that is actually the cause which results in one being rejected as it prevents openness and connection with another.

76. I find if I have to think too hard about what I’m going to say, then something isn’t right. I have also had moments where what needed to be said just came out without any pre-planning whatsoever. Then there are the times when I feel something is there to be said but I hold back.

77. Trusting myself and what I felt and then wanted to share was very hard for me at times particularly growing up. For me there is a feeling of valuing one self and allowing the space to express and allowing others this courtesy to shows a deep level of respect and I find conversations are much more open and intimate in these moments. The words are always just there when we are connected to ourselves and then express from this connection.

78. “Little did I know then that I could choose at any moment to be that Love”. How amazing is it that we are always free to make this choice, the choice to be who we naturally are. That we don’t is simply showing us how many invisible barriers we have placed in love’s way.

79. I usually had the same feeling of needing the external approval before I trust in what I had to say. This is a very unloving choice that has disempowered and disconnected myself from my inner knowing for long time.
    By honouring my body and appreciating myself first, I’m recovering the clarity to listen within me what I have to express and how to do it. In fact, without self-judgements I’m realising that it’s something very simple. I just have to allow it to be.

80. ‘I came to realise that condemning myself for the choices I have made in my life serves no purpose for the life I am living now.’ We are not the sinners the church wants us to believe we are, full of guilt and shame. Yes, we have to be honest and responsible for the choices made but then get on with living in a way we know is true.

81. Everyone’s voice is important and needed if this world is to change to be the loving place it could be.

    1. That is so true and one day we will all know that and it will come to pass

82. ‘Little did I know then that I could choose at any moment to be that Love.’ That love is always there within us, just waiting to be connected to.

83. This is truly ‘good medicine’ Christine. Holding back creates an enormous pressure within the body which can feel like a dam being filled to the brim and only one more drop (stress from lack of expression) in danger of breaking open and causing havoc with a major flood being let loose (emotions) on the surrounding area (other people). Very harming for all.
    “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth”.

84. If we do not express then we will never grow – for in expression is great re-discovery and learning of ourselves and others.

85. ‘Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express’. Mine too Christine and the more I express and share myself the more natural it becomes to express without any fuss, or need from the other.

86. In line with what is being share in this blog I know that I always found myself not being able to write or to express myself in speaking, as that just being a singularity of me and in that I gave that quality to be with others, something I had to accept and live with. But in the recent years i have found that I have something to say from the deep pool of love my heart is and since then my writing is amazing and my way of expressing in speech is with that a quality and very important to not hold back for bringing this to the world.

87. This is gorgeous Christine and something I have experienced in my own life as very true also – ‘Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.’

88. You’ve certainly found your words Christine! What an inspiration you are for all of us who shy away from being our true selves.

89. And the most wonderful thing is… If we simply start to listen to our body, the body will lead the way and find the words for us… This really is an extraordinary feeling and can be experienced by everyone.

90. I have spent a lot of time trying to get it just right in what I wish to express, and in this trying, the right words do not come. I live a simple life and am a student of The Way of the Livingness presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, and thus have learned to respect and care for my body. Thus I can feel so much more from my body, but do not express it! What I am learning is that I do not have to ‘try’, for my body is communicating everything and I just have to allow myself to open my mouth and express!

    1. Jacqmcfadden04 a while back I had a session with a practitioner and for the last 10-15 minutes of the session there was nothing to say verbally however our bodies were in complete union with each other and this felt electrifying it was as though our bodies were communicating but not with words. Is it possible that in the future speech will not be necessary because our bodies will be communicating on a vibrational level where the speech is not required?

91. ‘Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth’. I so relate to this and is still a work in progress for me just to express my feelings……but I can feel the harm and the tension it causes in my body when I do not express especially with a recent experience.

92. I too was very good at being nice, but have now seen the power of surrender and allowing the honesty of what I feel to be expressed. Observing how we speak and the quality we speak in has been something I have been exploring lately, especially the space I allow myself to express in. Do I rush or do I allow the space to share all that is there to be shared? It’s great to observe how and when we express and if we hold back in certain situations. Thank you Christine, what you share above is deeply inspiring and shows that we all have so much to express and learn constantly.

93. Expressing who we are is simple when we feel ourselves within and appreciate the quality in which we bring to everything we do. It’s a beautiful aspect of life to be aware of and work on as the depths of this relationship, the relationship to our inner quality, is limitless.

94. Holding back my expression meant that when i did say things they were so loaded and there was so much controlled frustration and fury behind my words that people would shut down and not want to engage with me.
    Learning to speak as I feel and as needed at the time has been a work in progress. It means I am more consistent and honest and as a result people are closer to me not pushed away as I had feared.

95. I love you expression Christine and it shows that there is so much for all to have when each of us starts expressing the truth that we deep down know and feel.

96. Beautiful to read this again Christine and to feel the freedom that comes when we choose to allow ourselves to express how we feel. Imagine how different our relationships, and the world, would be today if we all chose to speak and express with honesty from our hearts, with the love that we all are in essence – far more enriched and genuine I am sure as we would be openly sharing far more of our true and loving selves with each other.

97. Whist it is true that in any moment we can choose love, the reality is that it is not that easy, and nor should it be sold as being that easy. Yes, I would venture that nearly all human beings want love – or at least their version anyway. But true love, or the expression of the Fire of one’s Soul – for that is actually what true love is – is actually rarely sought in full. And when it is, the problem that one faces is that they are hindered by the energetic momentums of their past choices. And this is because, love is an energetic emanation. It is not an emotion, or a physical action, or though it can be expressed as the latter. And so, you cannot emanate love unless you live that and move according to its impulse. Thus, you cannot make a decision from the mind, and simply say, today I choose love. For yes, that is a good start, but then it requires a dedication to moving in a certain way that activates the body so that it emanates that which has previously laid dormant within us to varying degrees. Now, if you have lived a life void of true love, then that will be difficult at first, for the body will want to move as you have always moved it, not as you will want to move it. That is called momentum, and thus why the esoteric path back to love is a necessarily long one, and one that is allows for continuous imperfection, and why the process of returning to love is an ever deepening one.

    1. Yes to return to love is an ever deepening process and what we are here to do. The truth is that we ALL know what Love is because we are all love at essence and therefore all know what is not loving. So when we first make a conscious choice to say YES to love, we can also remember to say NO to all that is not truly loving and that includes gradually letting go of our addiction to the sticky emotions that masquerade as love such as nice and good. True love does not contain one ounce of emotion.

98. Expression is now one of my greatest joys and all thanks to the appreciation I have discovered about myself through the presentations by Serge Benhayon.

99. ‘I used to live to be in control of everything happening around me because I believed that this would keep me safe, and keep safe those around me that I felt responsible for.’ How many of us have lived or do live in this way? This creates so much tension in our bodies and limits our ability to be open and enjoy life.

100. “I came to realize that condemning myself for the choices I have made in my life serves no purpose for the life I am living now.” I love what you are saying here and it directly contradicts everything that most religions say which is that we need to live with guilt and regret for our poor choice. The truth is that all that is needed is to take responsibility for our choices.

101. I can feel that I have accepted and appreciate myself so much more than I ever have and yet with this has come an awareness that I still have much deeper to go with it. It is like there are layers of playing small that I have habitually got used to and letting them go unveils another way of doing it…and living big and not hiding, but along side it I find another habit, more subtle, but no less about hiding….it reminds me that all of life is about learning not getting to an end point.

102. This is such a familiar feeling for me – “kept the door open while I waited for my life to begin” – we wait for someone to start the life we are expecting, the picture we have subscribed to. Yet none ever comes along that gets it completely right. Perhaps there are moments of excitement that this might be ‘the person’, ‘the job’, ‘the one thing’ that will do it but rarely do we consider ourselves to be ‘the one’ to change our lives.Thank you for putting it out there.

103. Sometimes I feel like there’s nothing to say, and there’s also time when I go into this kind of ‘waiting until I get it right then I will’ sort of holding back. But if we are truly a vehicle through which energy expresses, is it actually ever possible for us not to have anything to express? I must be putting so much effort into interfering with its flow to make it so plausible that I have an issue with expressing myself.

104. I can also relate to what you write here, lack of self worth has held me back so much over the years and especially when it comes to expressing myself. I always found it strange how with some people I could express freely and then with others, if I felt inferior in any way I would often clam up.

105. “This was my life, living with a focus on getting it right and living by standards not set up by me but by the world as it was around me. Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me” – Christine, you have touched on a common experience for many and I can relate to this too, especially the being ‘nice’ part. The being Nice might fit into our society as one who does not ruffle anyones feathers and always accommodates for others etc etc, however there is often a falseness that is associated with being ‘nice’. Nice is a word that actually makes me shudder these days, as I have come to realise that if someone or something is ‘nice’ – to me it often means meek, dis-empowered and un-true to self and others. And believe me I have done my fair share of being Nice which I am not particularly proud of and I still have to be very careful not to slip into that as a default pattern, which really would only happen if I ‘check out’ and am not myself to begin with. Thankfully I too have learned to re-connect to myself and speak up more and be honest, leaving the nice part behind and hence bringing much understanding and love to myself and my relationships – a far more refreshing way to relate! Thanks for this great reminder!

106. Even when we finally realise that we have been holding back our words and then choose to speak up more, the slipping back into our old patterns can so easily reemerge and creep up on us without us noticing, and it is only when we get a reality check do we realise how much holding back we have really been doing. To get out of the behavioural pattern of holding back does take some work, but well worth the effect.

107. It is staggering to realise how much we can censor ourselves from saying what we feel for fear of rejection or disapproval from others. I started to question what exactly do they disapprove of. Change happens when people see that they have another choice so why would I hold back any part of myself?

     1. Spot on Nicole – we can so easily fall for watering down our expression and not fully sharing how we feel when what we have to say can trigger rejection or disapproval from another. Just the other day I found myself expressing to a friend how something they had done was not ok for me and they took it personally and so I found myself wanting to be apologetic! And yet in retrospect I know that what I was saying was true and simply calling another on their disregard in a clear but loving way. My old pattern was to apologise for what I knew to be true which is crazy – we should never have to apologise for truth! And so this was a great reminder for me to stand by the truth…and to trust that this friend will, with some space, understand and perhaps one day speak to me again. But at least I expressed and am learning more and more to lay boundaries around what does not feel right, which is something I have not much done in the past!

108. When we live from a place of connection to our bodies sand not from our heads expressing feels natural. It is when we live in our heads and allow thoughts of ‘not good enough’ or express from a place of fear of rejection or attack that we cap our expression and hold back what we feel.

109. This blog is a great support in sharing how many have changed their expression not for something different but back to what they know is true. So often we are so caught up in changing and worrying how that is perceived by others. If we all spoke from our natural ability would there be such a thing as disharmony in any interactions? Would there be a platform for ideals and beliefs to feed from?

110. I can really relate to what you have shared in that a lack of self-worth can stop us being able to express what we want to say as I could feel this when growing up and often felt very ‘silent’ in that because I did not have self-worth, self-love or true self-confidence I felt I had nothing valuable to share or express with another and so would feel insignificant. This is so true ‘Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me: it blocked the connection and interaction I deeply craved and what I really felt inside and wanted to express.’ And I love the practical examples you have given of how this unfolded for you.

111. When I give myself permission to say what I really feel it doesn’t always come out how I might ‘like’ it too, but it comes out as it needs to.

112. I have noticed how I have held back and have been the good and nice girl/woman in my life. i lived a life sympathising with others which was very draining. I have started to express myself more freely and this has resulted in exposing the false energy of sympathy at the same time. I cannot say I am completely free of it yet but with my commitment to express truth in how I am with myself and what I say from the inside out it is unfolding beautifully.

113. When we allow ourselves to really connect to our own truth, how and what we express is simple as our expression comes direct from our hearts and not from our heads, and no thinking is needed. Words are just there to be shared in full honesty and love with another.

114. Many people have been stuck in, ‘Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me: it blocked the connection and interaction I deeply craved and what I really felt inside and wanted to express.’ Great to hear that you, and many more, now accept, appreciate and express yourself.

115. Expression is everything so when we begin to express ourselves more freely we start to see that our expression is found in everything from our walk, a touch, a look or a handshake. Our expression is a direct reflection of the divine from within and when we share that with honesty, amazing things start to unfold.

116. “I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see.” This feels amazing Christine. How many people can truly say that they love being exposed. It feels so safe to hide away, but ultimately this comes with a price, a price of not feeling the love and joy that is waiting. This is very inspiring.

117. Finding and expressing ourselves becomes effortless when we have a daily rhythm of self-care and self nourishment which is an expression of self-love. In loving ourselves it becomes easier to share more of ourselves and the ‘right’ words or movements are just there….

118. Beautiful Christine, holding back expression in the name of being nice and seeking approval serves nobody. Being yourself, in full, expressing all of what’s there… is you choosing to ‘play your part’ in the whole.

119. ‘The moment I started to claim this truth within myself was the moment the relationships around me started to blossom.’ This is beautiful Christine and shows us what is possible when we claim and live who we truly are there is a ripple affect that blesses everyone around us.

120. ‘The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles’ … this is just stunning. In light of this… accepting, surrendering and appreciating you and then expressing this… is worth far more than choosing to be controlled by any seeming fear or protection we keep ourselves less for.

121. Hiding and pleasing others, putting myself second to everyone seemed comfortable, they could not reject me or attack me at least that was what I had lived with. At the same time I attacked myself, I rejected myself, I was the one who carried the pain of not speaking up, holding back the many words I knew were there inside me waiting to come out. And now they do come out (most of the times) it feels joyful and also very natural to express myself.

122. A fabulous blog thank you Christine. So many gems including “I was waiting for the love deep inside me to be met and recognised by others around me.” How I can relate to this, and as you say it’s actually just a simple choice to stop waiting and start living it in full now.

123. “Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be.” So true, we can tie ourselves in knots when we hold back on who we are.

124. ‘I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today, and feel the richness held within me’. Every moment is a moment or opportunity to choose differently.

125. I often could never find the words to express myself, and would often repeat myself to make sure I had been heard as my voice was not claimed because of lack of self-worth and feeling I had nothing to contribute! These days, I observe, I have much to contribute and not always verbally, but I have observed how much I reflect to others, which is al the loving choices I have made to truly nurture and nourish my body which is a bridge to my Soul and living Soulfully. So much can be communicated through the law of reflection.

126. Brilliant Christine – I know the game of seeking approval all too well – it’s absolutely stifling. What we truly want is connection and this is only possible when we express from our hearts without holding back.

127. Our words can be like a beautiful clear stream that is so nurturing, or they can be the blasting hot wind of the desert that shrivel life .. we have a choice as to how we express… each one of us.

128. We spend so much time waiting for others to be loving with us first that we abdicate responsibility for being love to and for ourselves, appreciating that we are love – we just work extremely hard to deny or dull the undeniable fact!!!! Go figure. Thank heaven for people in our lives who don’t deny this fact and to Serge Benhayon and his beautiful family who definitely showed me who I am underneath all my protective layers and that it is possible to be tender, loving and perfectly imperfect in this crazy world.

129. Your words shared Christine are so timely for me right now and show me that it is only our heads that feed us with pictures of an outcome from what we may express that hinders our growth and joy. Allowing ourselves to naturally share and express is divine and is our true way forth. Thank you.

130. What is that block – I can always feel so much inside, and yet there are many many different gauzes between what is felt inside, and what I allow to come out. Yes, thats right.. its what I allow, carefully measured and attuned to what others might think, what i believe to be appropriate etc. But the truth is always there inside waiting for me to express it in full.

131. ‘As the fruit starts to ripen and the words start to find their way out, what impulses forth is the most amazing joy – I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see.’ The joy of being a part of the whole and only you can express in the way you do.

132. I have never considered how much love I block out or choose not to see through my blinkered glasses, that is all around me. It may just be people are expressing it in their own way, but how I think or need love to be. I’m going to play with this today, to be open to love but not how I think it should be.

     1. That is exactly it Gyl, I saw this great video on Unimed Living that shares the same thing http://www.unimedliving.com/relationships/building-relationships/evolving-relationships/love-is-all-around-us-if-we-see-hear-and-feel-it.html ~ enjoy 😊

133. reading this blog this morning Christine I see a large flower getting ready to bloom. Every petal that opens is a surrender to the natural rhythm of nature and reflects to me the absolute joy of connection to our heart and the expression that flows from there. We cannot deny the power of surrender and the knowing that whatever is there to be expressed is magic for someone to hear and feel around us. Thank you.

134. This is an amazing blog, thank you Christine, it actually physically hurts and damages our body to not express our feelings, sometimes turning into very serious illness and disease, that can debilitate a persons life. It’s also a form of abuse to stay silent and not share how we feel. But at the sane time it’s important to not be demanding as this just comes from need, but allow ourselves or others all the time and space they need. Many people have been hurt and don’t trust people, are scared to open up or even feel their own feelings.

135. It’s interesting reading your blog on expressing your truth and finding myself wanting to respond with something profound and not coming up with the words. But really all I want to say is how gorgeous what it is that you have shared. What I love is that I can feel how you have really let go and gone for it. No holding back and the appreciation that you are feeding back to yourself is supporting you to express even more. Super inspiring Christine.

136. Yes you could say that it is very wrong to try and get it right – but wrong is just another aspect of right. We think there is something good about right which there might be because good like right and nice is another one of those deceptive words. What matters is love and truth and they are not about right, wrong, good or nice which we are imposters we cripple and tie ourselves up in knots with.

137. Becoming more aware that Expresson is Everything and the more I actually express I have been able to see that it really does create more space to express more. Still I catch myself from holding back but now I am actually observing it and clocking that it is a game that I have been dancing with.

138. Simple-Living Global and Universal Medicine has supported me to understand what expression is all about. I have never been much of a talker and I wished I would talk more. But I understand now that we communicate in many ways, like how I live my life is a very powerful way to express myself.
     Parenting also helped me understand that children are more likely to do what I do rather than what I say.
     All this has helped me accept that not talking is ok. Which has allowed me accept where I am, and made it easier to talk!

139. “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words…” I love this as it takes out the belief that we first have to get somewhere before we can be. There is already so much there to draw from and if we do everything is already gained as everything else will step by step fall into place.

140. I love how you express that you love being exposed, it just feels like such a free way to live. When I read that line I feel as if I have just jumped out of the ocean. I am so glad you have taken the time to write this article, it is so easy to relate to and it blew me away how much we all have similar issues – its like you were tapping into my thoughts. You sound so free of all the worry and right and wrong, I hope one day I can move past this too.

141. Christine I can so relate to what you shared. I use to struggle to express, could not find the words. But with the support of Serge Benhayon I started to work on myself, accepting, surrendering and appreciating myself and my inner strength and confidence started to unfold. Now I am able to express my truth with out holding back, I am not scared to make a mistake or be exposed. I know in my journey of truth I am forever unfolding.

142. Thank you Christine, a beautiful blog inspiring me to express ‘me’ in full and in my true essence. Certainly a work in progress for me, but something I am committed to; committed to accepting, surrendering to and appreciating my full emanating expression.

143. I have often got tongue tied, know what I want to say, yet not getting the right words out or in the correct order, and rather than just stopping and taking a moment to reconnect to myself, I have held back and not expressed at all. It is so much easier now that I take my time and don’t try to rush through what there is to say.

     1. I can relate Sally, and staying connected to the body is key or I get caught up in my head trying to sound ‘right’ when I express.

144. I have had many of those ‘I don’t know what to say’ moments, and have often said ‘I have nothing to say’ – which I now know is not true, because when that happens I am often left feeing stuck – if there really was nothing to be said, why feel stuck? I am learning to just stay with a feeling and let whatever may come out, in whatever form that may take.

145. Accepting who we are is the only way forth in our evolution with the renouncing of the old to make way for what is true for all of us.

146. Your words were so true for me ‘Choosing the ‘right’ Birthday card, Mother’s Day card, Sympathy card – one that reflects what you want to say, the truth that you hold within but can’t get the words out.’ I used to spend ages looking for the right card, now I look for a blank card that I can write my own words, because it’s an expression from me and another’s words now, are their expression and not mine.

147. Calculating what we say before we say it and changing the words we use based on if we think others will react, the fact that what we say may expose something or cause an issue to come up really diminishes the power of what we can reflect to other people and how we can support them to see an alternative way of living that doesn’t involve self bashing, judgement, contracting from life and so forth.

148. Thank you Christine for writing this blog, I have just realised I spend my life trying to ‘get it right’. I often see this in kids from a young age growing up; how they look, talk, walk, dress – which affects them in many ways into their adult years.

     1. It is crazy how much time and energy we can waste from trying to be ‘good’ and get it ‘right’, all that is needed is for us all is to be loving and true.

149. The truth is that sometimes it is another person who delivers the precise expression that captures in full something. Another time it is you. In other occasions, it is the collaboration between unimposing parties that makes it possible. What is important is not who says what, but feeling that we feel free to express and we are honoured when we do so.

150. It is my Dads birthday today. There is a little tradition we have in our family writing funny poems in each other’s birthday cards that one of my sisters started .. starting with Roses are Red, Violets are Blue! It has been going on for years and they are very funny but what I loved and got from reading your blog is yes, we can try to find the right card or the ‘right’ words to say to a person but the truth is how we are when we are actually with them as this is also how our love and care can be felt. Sometimes no words but just how we are with another is more powerful. I agree with what Christine shared ‘every moment is precious’.

151. Expressing what and how we feel is truly an amazing thing but it can also be devastating when we hold things in. It’s like there is a well of fullness within us that is naturally overflowing and all we need to do is allow that fullness to be seen and felt by others. But it requires us to allow that and not hold it to ourselves. Whilst writing this I can feel I’m saying this to myself since I’ve been holding back a lot of what I feel there is within me to share with others. Appreciating ourselves is such a huge thing that should not be under estimated.

152. Every moment is a precious moment to hold ourselves in a deep and tender embrace knowing that the expression our presence holds is all that is needed – true and conscious presence is living divinity.

153. It is interesting how when we let our pride get in the way of what we say and that the idea of someone rejecting us is the deciding point to where we shut down and not express in full what it is that we feel. Catching this and letting go of such a harmful belief is one that I am constantly keeping an eye on. To share what we feel and get impulsed to say is crucial – because to not share such impulses is cheating every one of the gold that is available to us all of the time.

154. “Being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others. A story created to stop me from being all that I am.” It is so true. Interestingly throughout most of my life acting nice, acting good, acting caring was actually championed as something very desirable. It is only recently that I have like you started to reflect on the truth of what is actually going on.

155. Being good is the antithesis of being true. A mask we wear to hide behind. Christine, I can feel your joy in stepping out from behind such a shield, you have given yourself full permission to shine and it is felt in your every word, thankyou.

156. I love what you share about trying, I have only come to fully realise just how much I try – in everything – it’s exhausting, I’m constantly betraying myself and with this reflecting not love.

157. Being nice, good and caring without the expression of love was me ,for years and years and not being able to express fully in certain situations still eludes me at times. Before Universal Medicine it was all about putting others first which kind of leaves you as a type of second rate citizen but now I totally do things for myself. Had a bubble bath last night, with salts.

     1. That is gorgeous kevmchardy – the choice to bring in a loving choice brings a wealth of new beginnings and a new marker. Your ‘Foundations’ have just become richer for the choice you made.

     2. I know that same feeling of what being nice does to expression Kev, it’s like a clamp comes down and what I truly feel gets locked away. And I agree, it’s part of putting others first, even though they are also treated really as second rate citizens if they don’t get the truth or the fullness of who we are. Awesome about your bubble bath, all that love you pour into yourself is the same love you take out to express to the world!

158. If we really stop and consider what you are sharing and how expression is Everything then isn’t it time that we all start going for it. Imagine schools that really supported every child in their own unique expression and encouraged them to go for it, that wouldn’t tolerate any kind of bullying or comparison and knocked any abuse like this on the head. To be there in a class where everyone had a genuine interest you developing and express everything that you had inside to come out. I know that this would have a ginormous impact on adults and how they live in life.

159. Thank you Christine, and we hold back in so many ways, trying to control and manipulate and coerce, when really, if we let go AND go for it, the world unfolds before us.

160. Allowing ourselves to simple be us there is an endless wealth inside we can access. It is very freeing to let go of any ideal, picture or image of how we should be and let our expression out.

     1. …ps while being responsible with that expression….

161. I find speaking much easier than writing and learning to be still enough to trust and develop my writing has been met with a great deal of reluctance. Taking the time to develop my writing has helped me take more care with the words I use when I am speaking and I am much less reckless with my words.

162. “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express”. My world has changed and continues to expand as I, too, increasingly accept and surrender to myself. Self-appreciating is such a powerful vehicle of loving change.

163. It is the best feeling ever to be able to express freely, honestly and with the intention to serve others well. It is incredible to be able to let my reactions take a back seat and my words to effortlessly flow from me. I can’t thank Serge Benhayon enough for helping me clear the heavy layers of self-doubt and self-loathing that enable this to happen.

164. I found this piece of writing very encouraging, as although I have improved my expression, there is still massive room to improve it or build on it more, although yesterday I had two very heated phone calls where I might have expressed a little too much and not in a very nice way. I made my point but it didn’t stop me from feeling that I should ring back and apologise.

165. Great that you are not holding back anymore and can let out and receive all that love and joy, ‘Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.’

166. “Chewing away at life in bite-size pieces in the days when my children were small, was what kept the door open while I waited for my life to begin. I was waiting for the love deep inside me to be met and recognised by others around me” – yes Christine, what reality you share, … waiting for life ‘to begin’ was the story i’d hoped for as a young woman, and deliberately too…predominantly for some knight in shining armour to appear.. and until that happened my life seemed ‘on hold’.. and in this ‘held back’. It’s only these past few years that the expression of myself has started to take the front seat, and the freedom of ‘me driving me’ is proving the greatest car ride (!)

167. Most of my life I have been on manual control of my expression where very little was expressed. Just as you have said Christine, lack of self-worth controlled me to the point where I would only speak when asked and then it would be a short as possible. The number of courses over the years that presenters started by saying there are no stupid questions, so please just ask. Ah, there was always someone else that always had the same question as me, so by waiting someone else would ask. Now, I have re-learned to be that child who never stops asking questions and expressing when it feels needed.

168. I can relate with not having trusted what I had to say in the past, and judging it as not being good enough to be said or written, ‘spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.’

169. After holding back for most of my life I am finally learning to express what I truly feel without fear of getting it wrong. When I hold back what is there to be expressed I feel the pain of the contraction I my body. When I express truth I feel the expansion in my body.

170. Christine – this is a revelation for many who still feel they have to play the game of being ‘nice’ and caring’ :
     “It was the moment that the lid came off the jar that being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others. A story created to stop me from being all that I am.” – well said! And just so this does not get taken out of context and re-interpreted, it is not about being nasty or mean to people, but it is all about being genuine, being transparent and being YOU with people. I am certainly on my way to learning this more and more each day – and sometimes I still slip into old patterns of niceness, rather then being genuine…everyday is a learning!

171. it’s true that we choose to not express in fear of getting it wrong – but if we place labels of wrong or right on things then we miss out on delivering truth to someone. I too was like this ad to some extent this can still be a thing for me today – but as i make more loving choices in how i live, then i find it harder to hold back what is there to be said. I have to fight it, which ultimately is holding me back – and others.

172. ‘one that reflects what you want to say, the truth that you hold within but can’t get the words out.’ This is how I used to feel, I had a huge blockage in expressing what I feel when it comes to writing messages on birthday card, etc.. Now, I have learnt to connect to myself first before I write a message, allow myself to feel what flows and the words just comes out, effortlessly and beautifully.

173. Thank you for sharing this Christine. “…all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside…” This line is so supportive for me at present as a reminder that I don’t have to get it right all the time, and that if I am open and expressing from my truth, I will not truly offend, upset or harm others.

174. When I connect to and with my body and I go to write, sometimes I write words that I don’t even know the meaning of but I have a feeling for them. They will be words that I haven’t used before and I often marvel at how they just appear. For fun, I will then look them up in the dictionary and 100% of the time the meaning of the word is confirmed with what I had felt it to be. This to me is confirmation that true expression comes from our body and can indeed be very simple and easy.

175. How freeing it is to express unencumbered, to the world at large without considering another’s reaction or feeling that we need to alter or perfect this expression in any way. Expressing freely is a known within our body and is a loving remedy for ourselves and others.

176. ‘As the fruit starts to ripen and the words start to find their way out, what impulses forth is the most amazing joy – I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see.’ beautifully said Christine…open to all.

177. To start to take the responsibility about our expression is a lovingly action. An empowering choice. We come back to truly living again instead of existing and function. Everyone who chooses so, is a blessing for the community and humanity in whole.

178. “Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me:” These words show so clearly what happens when we hold back the words we really want to express in the fear of upsetting or hurting others. Meanwhile all those words that are not expressed are not going away; as you say, they sit and fester, creating a even bigger barrier for any further expression.

179. You make it very clear that we all miss out when one person holds themselves back and doesn’t express; nothing we do or don’t do ever happens in isolation, even if we think it does.

180. The words that cannot be held back and wish to pour out from our bodies is the deep love that we have kept within but in truth cannot but emanate.

181. Your words “little did I know that all I had to do was start to say what I felt inside to others” Christine this is the key to expression that I have been looking for. So simple and all I need to do is just that, thank you for sharing this with us!

182. As the fruit starts to ripen and the words start to find their way out, what impulses forth is the most amazing joy – I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see. And aren’t we so thank-full that your words are coming out Christine, as we are all blessed by their truth.

183. It is easy to get all hung up on what we want to write and how it will be received then in the end just write a standard safety message, instead of how we truly feel about a person and how they have enriched our lives for having spent time with them.

184. When we are fully connected to our bodies (work in progress for me!) there is no need to find words, they just come, no effort required. This takes all the anxiousness out of planning what to say which just comes from the head, and will never have the same loving energy of words spoken with truth and honesty from the body.

185. this is beautiful to read and deeply inspiring. by choosing to hold back we are shutting ourselves off from love. The love that we are naturally from. Learning to let go of the false protection and open up to that love and everything changes.

186. It makes sense to me that if we do not claim and express what we have felt we will have low self worth and seek behaviours like controlling life and others as a means of creating safety. Yet there is no safety when we’re living life in little parts because we deny the whole that we come from and all the support that is truly available.

187. This is wonderful Christine, and I know for myself that I have begun to touch the surface here and that there is so much more to allow when it comes to remaining open and transparent and expressing. It feels like an ever evolving process and a beautiful one at that when fear of the consequences is let go of.

188. There is so much wisdom within us and it can be allowed expression whether that’s a word, a movement or a look.

189. I am beginning to realise just how much I have held back from expressing all of me, and how the world only got pieces of me rather than the full and vibrant me. There were times when people (including myself) got glimpses of me but I would soon retreat thinking this was too much …how would I be able to sustain this? I would then question if that was really me or not as that was not my normal way of being. Looking back I can see how I have played a game of stepping forward and being the fuller me, only to retreat back into the comfort and less demanding role of being less than who I truly am. The crazy thing is as you say Christine, there is so much joy to share when we accept and surrender to who we are.

190. Holding back is like putting the brakes on and the world never gets to see how gorgeous we really are . I can so relate to this, Christine as I have been holding back for so long it seems quite normal. I am inspired by what you have shared.

191. “…all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others…” This is the first domino to fall, and then expression just flows!

192. Christine, the moment i started to express truly, my whole entire life opened up and everything became clearer, richer, more supple and with flow…My writing, speech and words changed, my clothes, the colour of my clothes, relationships, the way i did business, interacted with colleagues, cared for myself, exercised, you name it, literally everything was touched ….And the most important thing i’m learning in expression’s grace, is confidence. Over the years i have felt my confidence grow as i become (more) used to expressing what’s inside and what is felt without care/concern for what others may think, or i think they think (!) Expressing is a joy.

193. What an amazing unfolding and sharing, such a joy to feel it, thank you.

194. I felt the joy in which you write and share who you truly are, just gorgeous.

195. “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.” Its funny isn’t it because when you do begin to say what you truly feel inside to others, there is rarely the rejection you anticipated, the truth is felt and therefore unable to be denied.

     1. So true Jeanette, the fear that builds the walls and prevents us from expressing what we feel is very big and feels almost impassable, but once we actually embrace the moment and take the risk, it dissipates and we find that the walls do not exist and we have been making mountains out of not even molehills. Whereas often trying to please and be nice brings a whole ton of judgmental reaction against us as we have not expressed our truth and have created a false impression that ultimately doesn’t hold up, it has no foundation.

196. Expression is Everything – thank you for your open blog Christine

197. ‘Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I expres’.What a change from being in control, nice and good. The love and joy you now have in your life Christine is tangible in the words you have written.

198. I never considered myself someone to play nice, but when I reflected on my relationships, I could feel there was so many areas that I just wouldn’t go for fear or rocking the boat. I was open, but I still held back, there was more to say, there always will be. Colluding, ignoring, denying what we observe, is playing nice, not wanting to upset people by stating what we feel the truth is, is playing nice. I can feel there is so much freedom in making a commitment to stand by what I say and speak how I feel, it is simple and there is nothing to regret.

199. I have always been afraid of expressing myself unless I had been drinking alcohol and then that was far from being me and it is now a long time since alcohol passed my lips. I am still learning the importance of expression and how when something is expressed with truth there is nothing to be afraid of.

     1. ‘When something is expressed with truth there is nothing to be afraid of’ this is so lovely and true. It is actually when we don’t express our truth that we feel the anxiety of this.

200. When we second guess ourselves or think what we have to say doesn’t matter it gives our power away. When we claim that our expression is needed and we have something to contribute then the flood gate of expression can open.

201. I find when I am connected to my body the words are always there instantly and there is no need to go searching for them. The truth of our expression is found in the movements of our bodies. Thank you Christine.

202. True words of wisdom come from my body, and when I try to express from my head, this is where I struggle and the words never seem good enough, only contrived. When I allow myself to truly feel my body and just allow the words to come it takes away the over-thinking of what to say, and words simply flow. We all have an immense, endless wisdom inside of us, it is just re-connecting to it that is not so simple, it takes work but any work that connects us to who we truly are is so worth it, because we’re worth it.

203. From reading this blog I can see how holding back has come from a lack of self worth that I carried around with me. It’s pretty cool to be able to take a. Few steps back and see that not expressing goes pretty deep and relates to a lack of appreciation. This has allowed me to stop playing the silent game and do so by appreciating myself.

204. I have experienced this too Christine, when I have had the courage to express the truth the way has opened up for more expansive communication, not only in me but also in the other person/s as they can also feel it.

205. The game of being good, nice and caring is absolutely crippling. Knowing the words are there if we choose to connect to ourselves and see the truth is a huge support as I often feel confused about situations and unsure about what to say.

206. I have always known that we should express what we feel, these feelings come through us, not to us. We really don’t own them, and what right do we have to keep them from humanity?

207. Holding back what we want to say in fear of being judged or actually judging ourself and then holding ourselves in that judgement only feeds the lack of self worth in a vicious circle. In fact having this theme running in our lives can be quite debilitating in all kinds of situations during our working day and home life.

208. Holding back the love that lives within, that from nature is there to express and evolve, is not only hurting ourselves but also leaves others in a lesser state. If we can surrender ourselves to express the love that lives within we do know what to say or express what is needed in any situation and with that we as humanity do evolve back to the love we all originate from.

209. Trying to compress all that is inside into a version compatible with the ‘outside’ world is a quite a task… however allowing all that is there to be expressed unaltered and thus seamlessly from the inside out, comes when we let go of the limitations of what we think we ‘should be’ in the world, but give ourselves space and permission to be all that we are – without conditions.

210. I really understand your previous way of living, and often feel stuck in protection rather than expressing the love I naturally am. I can feel how painful this is and how tiring it is also – exhausting in fact to hold back all this love than naturally flows through our bodies requires some serious force the other way!

211. Letting ourselves feel the gold that is within. That is making us have the trust in our expression, that nothing can alter it only our own mistrust of this inner gold.

212. ‘The moment I started to claim this truth within myself was the moment the relationships around me started to blossom.’ The power and magic that happens when we claim our expression constantly amazes me.

213. It is as though we let ourselves out of the box or the cage when we begin to communicate and express (to ourselves and to others) without holding back and in no fear or with no investment of how it needs to be received. I can feel the ‘letting go’ that you have come to and describe through your words here Christine and I can completely relate to the ‘permission’ that you have given yourself to do so; from this I can also see the huge shift in the enjoyment and down-right fun that you must now experience life to be, from a much more real place and relationship with who you are.
     Discarding the images of ‘who we are not’ or ‘who we thought we were’ crumbles down the barriers we have built between us and true expression and brings a great abundance of healing to life.

214. When we connect to ourselves and express what we have already felt, the words are there in an instant without trying, doing or striving to find or perfect them. In fact, there is ever-present expression on tap.

215. When we express from the love that we feel, when we express with our whole body open wide, it’s a joy like no other. No rejection is felt from the possible response of other, for we know we have shared ourselves in full shared all the love we have… I have experienced many moments of this grandness and now I’m making it my day to day.

216. It is beautiful and empowering to know that we all have our own unique expression that we are responsible for delivering! The world is less if I don’t develop mine to it’s potential!

217. This reminds me that I only have issues if I make them “Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be.” I have felt down about myself, and I have felt great about myself, what has happened is a choice. I choose small steps to heal, and small steps to confirm that healing and small steps to live that and express it. I am inspired by others who have walked a path such as this, it is a choice.

218. “Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me”. I wonder how many more of these ideals and beliefs we have within us that do this to us?

219. We so often compromise expressing the truth we feel for being good, nice, accepted or safe, at the expense of living who we truly are, through which we all miss out on the blessing that comes through sharing our connection to love.

220. What you have written here is so true ‘Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express’ – gradually what seems to happen is the old way of expressing just seems inadequate to how we feel and the quality of the words we use requires us to go deeper with our expression.

221. Your honesty is very inspiring – l wonder what precedes that choice to bottle it all up and not express what is truly going on? After all, we don’t do things for no reason. But then we get to unlearn and undo it all and the difference is quite phenomenal. Not expressing is a veritable health hazard.

222. I love your example of relying on cards to express how we feel. Awesome that so many cards now have blank pages encouraging us to express for ourselves how we feel and what we want to communicate.

223. I love how your describe the airtight seal of niceness Christine! We are defended and protected from sharing who we truly are in so many ways and the shield of niceness is a not so obvious facade. Much better I think to be more open and direct in what we really feel and think as the energy of niceness still harms us and another.

224. This is a great piece of shared expression Christine ,so many of us can relate to holding back our expression in fear of judgement and protection/hiding the real depth of love that we are just in case of reaction from others etc. So many gems here “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express. The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles.” By loosening and opening the lid and allowing expression to come out un hindered by judgement fear, right or wrong is so naturally liberating and there for us all when we choose to express.

225. One of the most important part of expression is practice. The more we do it, the more we learn what expression is and the more we have a choice to change the quality of our expression.

226. To love being exposed and seen without any guard or protection. How remarkable, when most of us are terrified at the prospect of really being open and out there for all to see. It strikes me that the difference here is self love and the more we connect to ourselves and really appreciate what we bring to the world, the less we feel like hiding and the more we want to be out there in the world for all to see and feel our glorious selves.

227. Universal Medicine has offered so many gifts in my life, not the least of which is saying what I feel. It may not be popular all of the time, but it is real, and it provides me much joy to be myself and not hide who I am.

228. Blogs like these are life changing. we learn so much from each other when we talk and simply share our observations and what is truly going on in our lives.

229. Finding and expressing ‘the words’ is always a joy. It is always very confirming. And, it may also allow to deepen.

230. It is like a baby chic hatching out of its egg and it feeling so new and awkward. Starting to express yourself and speak what it is you are feeling is such a precious process and we have to allow ourselves grace and space. Developing this expression can seem full on but once you start to let it flow it really does feel amazing. For me I have to keep an eye out for slipping back to a belief and pattern that I feel I am less or having nothing worth saying and saying NO to it.

231. Choosing to hold back is a part of our lives we need to admit to and address. I know holding back has been a huge issue in my life and very uncomfortable too, when i see how it is dishonest and disempowering.

232. It is so freeing to know that we are only ever a vehicle of expression, so my responsibility is not to find the right word only align to the energy that is true and of my essence.

233. ‘I was waiting for the love deep inside me to be met and recognised by others around me.’ If we wait for others to see the love within ourselves before first feeling and seeing this for ourselves we will be waiting forever! It’s like playing a game of saying I know what’s inside me but you tell me first before I go and check! If you see this in me I might then go and have a peak and see if it’s real. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine are great becons of light reflecting to us all that we are. A true blessing in a world where currently everyone is looking for some form of confirmation about themselves from the outside. They offer a reflection and confirmation of truth.

234. Christine, this is great, ‘Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.’ I have noticed that since I have started to express and to be honest and share what I am feeling that this has inspired others to do the same, it almost gives permission to open up and show that its ok and is in fact very natural to do so.

235. We all contain magic within, we but need to open our mouths and hearts and let it out.

236. Trying to find the ‘perfect’ words that say what you feel, but don’t offend or rock anyone’s boat is really difficult. It is so much easier to express the truth, even if it causes reactions. There is healing for all in truth and only stagnation in niceness.

     1. I love this Carmin, there are no perfect words and sometimes the words that cause a reaction are precisely the words that are needed.

237. I had the realisation today that I have been totally under the illusion that I had to ‘heal’ my stuff before I could connect to the love inside of me, when all along all I had to do was to make the choice to connect to my body first and then I would BE the love that I truly am and then my expression would come from my body and not my head!

238. Working hard to fit in with the societal norms and expectations of others is hard work and is an imposed constraint on our natural harmony and expression that is all the while awaiting an unencumbered flow.

239. Christine I love reading this. To not look to others to be the ones who can express but know that the words, the expression is all there within me. I have put wanting to be liked, to be accepted, to be loved before my expression after feeling the reaction in others at me simply expressing what seemed obvious truths that others were invested in hiding from. Now it’s about liking, accepting and loving myself; and this connection with me I am connected with everyone and can express truth knowing what is to be expressed for a particular situation, particular people and that it has a ripple effect for everyone.

240. Beautiful sharing Christine. It is incredible to realise we are not who we think we are. We may believe ourselves to be shy, submissive, and nice yet come to to realise a greater depth and truth to us – that perhaps we have a lot to express, that we are a leader and that we are deeply loving, yet very clear and direct, no superficial ‘niceness’ at all.

241. “this is one of the harsh judgments I have held of myself for such a long time, spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.” This is just as I also have experienced, I was one of the world’s best at beating myself up for how I may have handled things in a discussion, would spend hours/days playing scenarios out in my mind about how I could have said something . And In other instances, I might play out the scenarios of what I should say about something, sometimes writing down little notes to myself of some of the sentences I would express. This could take days and of course, I would always find when the time came that I just could not carry it out as I had wished. I spent so much time trying to ‘get it right’. I am slowly learning not to judge myself, stop trying to get things right ( there is no ‘right’, only true) but to connect deeply to my own essence and trust what I feel deep down needs to be said, not holding back, but expressing really lovingly what is there to be said.

242. Christine, every time I read this article I am blown away, I love this, ‘Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.’ This is what I am starting to do, Im actually starting to express what I am feeling, this feels very simple and important, even though there are sometimes reactions from others I now feel that I cannot hold back what I feel inside, it feels painful and stifling to hold back and not express.

243. I certainly know the impact of what holding back on what to express has on the body. This is something that I have struggled with my whole life and it has been totally down to the fact of what I care about what other people think of me and not wanting to say the wrong thing. Since the expression words with Serge Benhayon I have started to crack this ideal and belief and the more I express the more I realise there is so much to be said. Like an onion there are layers and layers peeling back and it feels so freeing. I have the hugest appreciation for Serge and what he presents, forever supportive and deepening.

244. We are never too young nor too old to work on our expression. I’ve only just begun working on my expression through these blog posts – I’m not here to pander to people, be nice or be something I’m not. Admittedly, the words don’t always come – but that is a reflection to me of not being truly connected to myself.

245. I am learning the best way to speak is not from the head but by feeling what needs to be expressed. It has long been a fact the children are always asking questions every day and college students ask only a few… who is learning more?

246. When we let out what is inside we let ourselves out. In doing so, we let others see who we are. This is a great foundation on which to build relationships with all the many people we have in our lives and that we meet.

247. This blog highlights to me how we can get so caught up in good vs bad when really we should be asking ourselves what feels true vs what does not. If we keep it to true or not true – then we don’t have to play the ‘nice’ role – as truth has no room for emotion or role playing. It is simply black and white.

248. How beautiful Christine “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.” Learning to do these things can be life changing as you say. I really understand how they can. Thank you for sharing.

249. I too used to hide and thought that things had to be a certain way before I would find true love. So when I realized I could just choose to be love now it was an empowering moment. At first I felt the sadness of what I have chosen in the past to hide but now I am choosing to express love more and more every day.

250. Being totally invested in wanting to be accepted by others is absolutely crippling. I have my whole life been choosing to play ball with this and it certainly effects everything about me. The calculation and constructing what to say, even if I don’t think I am doing it – its happening. Re-programming myself to see that this is not what it is about and that I am Everything that I need to be and it is nothing what so ever about what I do has been life changing. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I got to see the game I was playing and have held onto for dear life. Today I am letting it go, recognise it when I go into it, nominate it and come back to feeling the Grandness within me.

251. Feels like a big key here is the ability to surrender and let go of control. Control creates a holding onto and an unwillingness to allow and accept life and what it brings. How can we possibility find the words to say or live with the fullness we are in life when we are still trying to control what goes on in it?

252. I had grown up with a bit of the old values that were still prevalent of ‘children should be seen and not heard’. It favoured my life and its lack of expression. I had learned that speaking the truth was fun when people expected lies; it would take all of the energy out of a possible confutation. Now living and speaking the truth is just a foundation of who I am and I truly in-joy speaking.

253. We have just celebrated a birthday in the family and I am struck by how little of what goes on is a true celebration of the person for simply being them. I loved the point in this article about finding just the right birthday card, realising that this is simply another abdication of responsibility from saying what we truly want to say.

254. “The words are within us but we often don’t know that…” This is very true, as the approach we can take to the thought of writing can make it off putting, until you just sit down, pen in hand and just start, not knowing what you are actually going to write. It’s funny, as we are taught through schooling to ‘know’ but really it’s about trusting what you deeply know…. the backlog of invisible pressure, the feeling of an idea, but not knowing the exact words just pour out once you start… it’s like pulling the plug, and letting the water flow. Doesn’t have to be perfect, in grammar or sentence construction, because that can be tidied up later, but what’s important is to get that feeling and expression out… and then the feeling once completed is a tremendous feedback to the body… then the process starts again!

255. ‘Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.’ So true Christine, a fear that is very strong in most… and most amazing to let go of.

256. True support is to allow another to truly feel the amazingness that they are, to simply reflect our amazingness so they can claim the same for themselves. This is what we can support ourselves on too. So instead of knowing what is the right thing to say, just allow ourselves and others to go there—to just express, and see what comes.

257. What a freeing revelation to realize that being good, being nice and being caring was what actually blocked connection, as these behaviors take us away from first feeling how we are with ourselves. Very often I find these behaviors received when without first a connection with ourselves, imposing, as there seems to be need that comes with them in expressing I am better than you. It feels hugely imposing to feel there is no equality in such an interaction.

258. When we let go of this idea that we need to say ‘the right thing’ or that this is something we need to make up, the beautiful and most astounding thing is the words are just naturally there, and flow out of you like a river does. And then what you say may be what you least expect. How stunning to just let this flow at last without censoring, styling, editing, and adjusting. God knows Christine there is a magnificent majesty in the simple way these things want to come out.

259. I feel for myself that there has been a direct correlation between the increase in appreciation I have for myself and the increase in my participating in discussions, in my ability to express freely how I feel and to communicate also.

260. When trying to get it right and second guessing other people in order to stay safe, all of the focus goes towards that activity and there is little space to feel what is actually true let alone expressing it. I know this pattern so well, having run with it most of my life. Now that like you I have felt the yukky falseness of trying to appear nice, good and caring, I am not caught in that pattern less and less, and boy the communications tend to be so much more vital, joyful and empowering.

261. “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected” Wow this is a super powerful statment, when we express without holding back without fear of what others may think and without personal agendas then we are blessing the world. To express the fullness of who we are without holding back is to express heaven.

262. I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see. I love feeling all of you in this line Christine!

263. Wow! The feeling I have is that I have contributed to the being good and nice pile of rubbish that has kept me in protection. It is time I stepped out of the shadows and stepped forth into the reality that I am a Son of God!

264. “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.” This is a statement that applies almost universally… crazy really that we are all waiting for the same thing… to be met for who we are. Someone has to start and from there we can snowball the return back till every last one of us does so.

265. I can feel how I have missed out on enjoying life through holding back “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.” This is happening less now and there is so much joy often in my life, I feel I am returning to something rather than gaining something new, it feels incredible.

266. This reminds me of how I can be hard on myself…”Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be.” I have definitely seen when I am hard on myself, it gives me issues, and then I hold back and hide a bit longer. If I don’t get hard on myself, I move on, learning from what happened. It has been hard to swallow, at times, how much I have chosen to hold back through choice, but also deeply healing to be so honest and raw, I can feel that true healing can only come from this honesty.

267. Over many years I have capped myself with too many issues and it was all about me wanting to be liked. So as you rightly say Christine, I have also found that I have capped myself by being at the nice end of life. I have found that the time to take care of an issue is when it arises and not to put it off until another day. The learning curve is gradual, but I am finding that to persist in being good for the good of humanity with little or no self, is the path that will bring about my next point of evolution.

268. One example that comes to my mind is the evil of the “f” word. Fowl language clouds my mind and holds me back from true expression!

269. What a great exposé and like you I like being exposed for it shows me where I need to pull my socks up!

270. We do not always speak from the same place. Not really sure how to put this in words but I do have the feeling when we do not feel our body deeply, we become an object that aligns to a dense energy that surrounds you. Yet, when you connect to the body, you detach from the denseness and from the words of others. You speak from a different place. The energy this movement brings and represents is totally different from what was there.

271. Niceness is so horrible to feel. “Why are you lying to me”. Yuck.

     1. Staying silent and holding back is also yuck, which has been my old habit and serves no-one, including myself.

        1. This is what is so important to recognise. Let’s be honest – we are all existing in a lesser state than our truth – so every one of us needs to evolve. Thus any opportunity to express and expand and advance someone’s (including our own) awareness needs to be grabbed and embraced. I have struggled with this – both as the ‘expresser’ and as the ‘receiver’. BUT – the more I get my self, my ego, my pride out of the way and play for the bigger picture rather than just my bubble, the more I can see how essential our expression is for the whole of humanity.

272. “…we rely on others to bring together what it is we would like to say. ”
     I can relate to this very well Christine, this relying on others to express what needs to be said, leaning back thinking – they have said it already so eloquently, so I don’t need to express it again. But that is holding back if the impulse and the words are there to say it again, some things just need to be expressed a million times until they are heard and we need all the different angles and ways to express it to make it really sink in.

     1. I am enjoying how much more I am appreciating ‘different angles in life’, we all have something to share, a a way of expressing that is equally of service for all of humanity.

     2. I agree Judith, for our wayward spirits can get more and more sophisticated in holding us back, so yes, absolutely, ‘ some things just need to be expressed a million times until they are heard and we need all the different angles and ways to express it to make it really sink in.

     3. You are so right Judith, every time something is repeated there is just that little bit more that is added. It is the difference of a normal printer that is just one pass or a 3D printer that builds in layers.

273. It was quite a revelation to me to learn that we do not originate thought, that words are fed through us, we are simply channels, vessels of expression, and that what we express is dependent on the energy or consciousness that we align to. Truth is in our bodies, not in our minds. I am learning to feel in my body and to express what I feel, even if it is a hesitant interruption of ‘I’m sorry guys, but something doesn’t feel quite right here’. Sometimes others have felt it too and are relieved that whatever it is has been brought out into the open. In our relationships we can let things fester or we can, albeit tentatively, explore what’s truly going on, not with judgement or criticism, but simply feeling the energy that’s playing out.

274. I have recently been really focussing on my expression in emails. I write over a hundred every day, many of them rapid short responses to an on-going conversation. Super easy to just chuck one or two words out and press send. But in the last few weeks I’ve been just taking a couple of seconds to pause and ensure that my response has my full presence and commitment. You may think that you haven’t got time for this….but what I’ve seen happen is that through a fuller expression, the actual volume of emails drops, allowing more space – but, even if that doesn’t happen, it’s an absolute joy to do because that expanded expression feeds all over aspects of my day. It’s medicine for the day.

     1. Very inspiring Otto – and I agree it is true medicine for the day, I have tried it and it makes life fuller – more joy-full.

275. Christine what a gift is it for all of us that you have chosen to write this amazing blog – as your not holding back is what is an inspiration for all of us – Thank you.

276. Surely “getting it right” is about what feels right from the truth within.

277. When I observe more and don’t invest in a relationship needing to be something, it becomes far easier to express what I want to say… I would say being invested in what other people think has been a huge expression killer.

278. “Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be.” Yes I can very much relate to what you are saying here. Thoughts like ‘people are just not interested in what I have to say’ would be normal and I did not feel like I had something to share unless I had learned something out of a book. Now through studying with Universal Medicine, I know we can have all something to say and bring to the world and there is a wisdom to tap into as vast as the universe, no books required.

279. This has been a huge burden in my life also and this sentence is all to familiar – ‘ I was waiting for the love deep inside me to be met and recognised by others around me.’ – I was totally unaware that this was the deep seed that was running through me until I got to see it and understand it from the presentations by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. It is such a strong belief that even with many years of letting it go and connecting to the amazing Love that I am I still have moments where I feel that I am not enough and seek it from others. When this is happening I am clocking it and simply being honest that there is still a lack of self worth to nurture and heal.

280. Thank you Christine for sharing what I feel I have done all my life too. It is very hard to be our true selves when there is the fear of rejection hanging over our heads. The holding back our expression cuts us off from ourselves and the world. To know that, no matter what we have the right to express lovingly what is there to be shared and also, someone else may need hear what we have to say!

281. When I come to the truth that our body is a vehicle of expression, it exposes how I am making it all about me when I find it hard to express myself. And what usually comes out is far from being true – either caked up with niceness/cleverness or emotionally.

282. If I may add… And ‘phew’ for the toxicity of being caught in needing to ‘get it right’…!
     How this completely strings us up, hindering any possibility of expressing that which is true, and is sourced from the deep love that resides within our being.

283. How powerful Christine… The inner angst you speak of would I’m sure resonate with so very many.
     We have been a society completely versed in our collective ‘holding back’ – preferring the apparent ‘safety’ of the ‘polite’, the ‘nice’, and that which does not rock anyone’s boat – but to what avail?
     Such suppression takes its toll upon us and as you’ve shared, can leave us in never-ending patterns of being hard on ourselves which serve nought either.
     Open our hearts, and let it out – and our lives have the opportunity to transform.
     Thank-you for your deeply inspiring blog. More please on this subject and your experiences…!

284. Give me the rawness of imperfect expression any day over the polished manners of one steeped in etiquette.

285. So true Christine, this is such a strong and imprisoning image we can hold ‘Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.’

286. Something that I have found recently is that there was a part of me that always thought that I needed to find ‘the words’ and that actually in fact there aren’t any right words, to just begin to express and allow the words to come

287. assuming I would get it ‘wrong’ has been a long term pattern to let go of, with my expression. I had always been sure there was a right way to express myself, from the bounds of social convention, but i now see how ‘safe’ a stance that was, rather than opting for expressing what was my truth.

288. ‘Chewing away at life in bite-size pieces in the days when my children were small, was what kept the door open while I waited for my life to begin. I was waiting for the love deep inside me to be met and recognised by others around me.’ a waiting game played by myself and many… and there is never an end until we take that inner step to be the Love we truly are.

289. I can feel a deep level of appreciation having read your words Christine as I recall that insidious pattern of ‘Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me’. It felt like a trap that allowed me to hide from the world and not express my light – and now as I learn that my feelings are not so very different from the rest of the world, I can feel the power and freedom of being who I am unreservedly.

290. That was an awesome article Christine which nailed the expansion that’s achieved by expressing from truth. Thank you

291. For my work as a political scientist, I used to play a lot with quotes from others. I was really good at incorporating them into my reasoning so their words became mines (even if the quote was done and the author acknowledged). All this process was entered in my mind.
     Since I have connected with Universal Medicine, I have realised that finding and expressing the words I feel are true is something that comes increasingly from my whole body.

292. You made me realize that the reason I cannot find great birthday cards anymore is because they never truly express what I want to say – so I have been writing them myself for quite a while now without fully appreciating the wealth of expression I have in this regard.

293. We can really hold ourselves back if we impose on ourselves a picture of what ‘getting it right’ should look like, or how being nice or kind should look like. It’s not that we can’t be nice or kind, it is innate in us to be genuinely loving, it’s when we try and mould our expression into an ideal rather than allow it to be what is naturally there from deep inside that we end up twisting our true expression or putting a cap on it.

     1. It is quite unexpected and powerful to realise that our true expression is vastly more appropriate and powerful than any idea we have what our expression should be. The key, though, is not to exchange one ideal for a supposedly better ideal.

294. There more I realize the need for speaking up, saying what needs to be said to expose the ill and false and give truth a voice, not just for myself but because it is so much needed for and with everyone, the easier it gets to express even the uncomfortable things. We express not just for ourselves but for and on behalf of everybody.

295. Holding back the words that are there inside is keeping us from the true connection we can have with ourselves and others. I find that it is the judgement of myself is the biggest hurdle to step over, and just let myself be all that I am without perfection. It is deeply inspiring to read this blog.

296. Reading this blog I remembered something, how growing up I never felt I could express myself and many times I would feel a frustration of wanting to say something but feeling I couldn’t, in the sense that you are sharing of not knowing what to say or not feeling I couldn’t get the words out. I could really relate to what you shared here ‘Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be. It was a barrier that I believed was real and that kept me from expressing outwardly but also stopped others from expressing their truth to me.’ I also always used to have loads of throat problems like tonsillitis which I related to this. I would have loved to have known the more practical steps or unfolding that happened for you for this to change. However I know from my own experience if you know Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and have attended even one workshop or presentation this would have deeply set in motion the return of love back to yourself. For me energetic barriers I put in place have been removed, hurts have been healed and my connection and relationship with me …. well there actually is one! 😀😍 And this is how my expression has changed and what I need or feel to say comes from my body and heart. It is easy when we are truly connected to ourselves and the love that we are.

297. “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express. The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles.” Christine now that I don’t live in nervous tension, always in protection mode in case I will be asked to have an opinion or contribute, as I judged myself poorly at expressing, I covered up by being a doer. Now I have a loving appreciation for the depths and breadth my expression can go, and I am not phased as the trust I have built within knows I have all the Divine intelligence and Wisdom waiting to be expressed. It’s a miracle indeed and very humbling to feel the power within and know we are supported, which in turn supports another.

298. Once on the path of the Way of the Livingness, there is an unfolding grace every day. The appreciation of how much we have to offer ourselves and those in our lives is a daily experience that continually grows.

299. Living with expectations and playing the roles of what society dictates for us is definitely a contributor of disharmony in our bodies as we not only override the true nature of tenderness and delicateness in our bodies for the acceptance and recognition of others but also see ourselves inadequate to handle life and blind to the greatness that we truly are.

300. How often do we rely on others to say what it is we want to say? I know I have lived much of my life like this, especially when it comes to expressing something in a challenging situation. But this leaves me feeling small and lesser and not very good about myself. Letting others speak for us may seem like an easy option, but we only miss out on the joy that stems from expressing what needs to be said when we feel it. The times I have managed to speak up have left me feeling expanded, free, stronger and lighter. Why would I choose to shrink away from expressing if this is how I feel when I do?

301. I’ve shocked myself at some of the conversations I’ve been having at work lately; reincarnation, food choices, the appreciation program ….. however, it feels brilliant to be talking about things that really matter, that are affecting us all in our daily lives, rather than banal conversation where we’re talking but not really saying anything or truly sharing with each other.

302. I just love your blog, Christine. We are expressing all the time, in one way or another, whether we’re using words or not. I have noticed in myself that when I’m open, as in I’m allowing for things to happen as opposed to needing a certain result or outcome, I can just share how I’m feeling or what there is to say without any effort, it just happens. However, if I’m ‘trying’ at all, I suddenly have to think about what I’m saying and it feels very limited, as though I’ve lost sight of the big picture.

303. This is so powerful Christine. The words are within us and all we have to do is realise we can all choose Love. Then “I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today, and feel the richness held within me.” I can feel it is an amazing reflection for me to accept, surrender to and appreciate thank you.

304. I have held back expressing a lot of things in my life, the words would be there waiting but I was always worried about saying the ‘wrong’ thing, which would then be followed by total humiliating embarrassment, so next time there was no way I would open my mouth. I have also talked too much as well at times, sharing a lot of inconsequential information simply to be recognised, or in some cases to fill the silences which I obviously found awkward. These days I am much more connected to body and to my voice, and as a result I can feel so acutely what starts to happen in my body when I don’t express what is needed, so it doesn’t take long for the waiting words to be acknowledged and spoken, with and from love.

305. Christine, I love how simple and practical your article is, it is very beautiful to read. I can so relate to this, ‘trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.’ I am becoming aware that what I have to say is important and that I am actually pretty amazing, this is after years of being very hard and critical about myself – it feels like a complete turnaround and I cannot believe how harsh I have been on myself in the past and I see that this is a ‘common’ way for people to feel about themselves, it is more usual for people to be critical rather than confident and loving about themselves.

306. I have for most of my life I have been a paid member of the silent majority. I had excepted the fact that I had nothing worth adding to a conversation so I just stopped trying. Now, if I have something to say and feel it is needed that thing below my nose opens and words come out. The words are not from my head where I think; they come from all of me and just feel right. I may not be right at times, but even that is a learning for everyone.

307. Accepting the ill-choices and the impact they have had on others can still feel somewhat challenging but it serves no-one holding onto them. I am learning and will always be learning without ‘trying’ to get it ‘right’ and without thinking I have to make decisions on my own.

308. Amazing shift you are here expressing this. I can so relate to your words. Thank You.

309. “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.” That was my experience too, before I met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. It is still very much a work in progress for me, but I am learning to say what I feel about things, and especially taking responsibility for myself now, speaking the truth without fear of losing a partner or a friendship or of actually being attacked. I was brought up to not be able to say what I thought, it was the time of ‘the child being seen and not heard’ which unfortunately held so many people back from being able to express how they feel about things in later life. That has led so many to have lack of self worth as adults. But time to really let all that go now, we have learned of another way to live our lives.

310. “Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be. It was a barrier that I believed was real and that kept me from expressing outwardly but also stopped others from expressing their truth to me.” That feels so similar to my experience also, Christine, we hold each other back so much when we do not express our truth to others. When we express our truth, then we give permission to others to also do so. The key is how we express our truth. It needs to come from our hearts, in a loving, sometimes even playful way. How beautiful it can be when we have a conversation in this way, how evolutionary it can be for both/all of us.

311. Such a lovely sharing, Christine, wonderful the realisation you have had. I too have lived in a controlling way, not willing to say what I really thought, so careful not to rock the boat, or upset the other person. And I have spent so much time on working out what I was going to say in various situations, sometimes practising it in my mind, trying to get it right. Similar to what you shared, “Of course this is one of the harsh judgments I have held of myself for such a long time, spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.” I have spent so much time in judging myself as not being able to express myself. It is time for me to let all that go, and just be with myself and say what is needed to be said. How freeing it is when we do that.

312. We are responsible to prepare our bodies in a way that they are able to express lovingly. Each person that sees us, talks to us, walks past us… gets a reflection of that love. Isn’t that worth it?

313. Bringing our ‘tender unfolding to the world. This is the way forward. So beautiful to feel how you were able to find your own words Christine. This is inspirational for me and many others, no doubt. Standing forth and expressing the amazingness that we truly are needs to be celebrated and encouraged.

314. When we are being nice or good, rather than being true to ourselves it doesn’t carry the true quality of love.
     I was discussing behaviours with a friend the other day and the repercussions to our health and well being when any of our expressions are not honest.

315. It is a healthy choice for us when we let our natural expression flow, and we all learn or are inspired by each other. I totally agree with your words here Christine.
     “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.”

316. Thanks for sharing and not holding back, we all have so much to share and inspire each other with.

317. Thank you Christine for a great article, what freedom to be able to express from our inner self all that is our truth. “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me” I know these word only too well.

318. We can choose at any moment to be this love, rather than live by our hurts. I can relate to waiting to be met by others. I still do this today but when I allow ‘the richness’ that is there to be expressed, wow, it does really feel amazing and joyful.

319. The fear of what people will think when you express has been a crippling issue for me and even though this has start to shift the more I express it I can see how it still has a hold. I love this blog and the insights it offers, Thankyou.

320. Being “good, nice and caring” is a straightjacket that completely restricts expression. Growing up, I was so sold out to it, I completely lost any sense of myself, what I had to say or offer. I realise now that nothing changes in the world or in our relationships when we do this. Although they be appear to be ‘safe’ they become lifeless and stale. “The moment I started to claim this truth within myself was the moment the relationships around me started to blossom”. I am finding this to be true also. I need to give life to me and what is inside to allow relationships and life to grow.

321. I had never considered why we like greeting cards instead of coming up with our own words before. It may be apathy from having given up on our own expression being enough or being right. So many people have experiences at school where their expression is judged (in red pen) as not good enough or not what the teacher wanted to hear. As you have said, if someone else says it, we can feel validated and able to hide behind their words. It may also be part of our societal habit of not showing people how we really feel about them, keeping it superficial and only expressing in a way we consider safe and acceptable.

322. Self-judgment or the fear of judgment by others can keep us so caught up in this issue that expression is killed off before we even begin. Expression needs to flow and have its own course rather than being bottled up and constrained.

323. This has been my experience too… relying on others to express for me, and the one thing that causes constant frustration, and dare I say, envy of those who eloquently go through life flowing with words and always appearing to say the right thing at the right time. I came to the painful realisation that my lack of expression was a choice… and that the only way to fully live my full expression was to re-connect to my innate wisdom through opening my heart, connecting to my body and allowing and trusting that the words will come. And the deeper I go with the connection to my true self the deeper the quality of my expression will become. All I need to do now is to cultivate patience!

324. There is so much communicated just by our posture, way of moving, looking etc, not just by words. Words can lie or pretend or even have the best intention but they are not necessarily true. To be seen tall in the face of this is a stance for truth with the whole body and being.

325. Niceness – there should be a listing for this disease in the medical diagnostic handbook. So many of us suffer from and with it, and as a result of it. It is surely the enemy of expression!

     1. So true Victoria – niceness is a dis-ease!

326. trying to get it ‘right’ already says we are nowhere near our hearts. When we are in our hearts we can do no ‘wrong’, there is a natural grace and flow from what we share and express with others.

327. Getting to the true depth of our feeling and being able to express it at will has in my experience begun with just simply noticing my feeling and being more grounded and connected in my body to feel. Even expressing to ourselves our feelings and event whether we are noticing what we feel in the present moment, or not, is a start. It may begin with a trickle and then become a flow and then ultimately an ocean that is deep and vast and then, try to stop expressing!

328. “Of course this is one of the harsh judgments I have held of myself for such a long time, spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.” I can really relate to this Christine, its a game i still play with myself, holding back because i might not get it right or because the words might not translate how i actually feel. Perfectionism creates the complication this then becomes my justification.

329. What an amazing blog offering the truth and exposing so simply the holding back and lack of expression prison and control so many of us live in and i can really relate to this.”Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth” the freedom and love felt from this is amazing and a beautiful way to live and the only way in truth and expression for the world to be.

330. “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.”
     It is such a warmth which I feel when I choose to tell the truth no matter what comes out of it.

331. Finding the words or finding the right words is always hard to a certain degree as when we find ourselves in a situation where we are seeking we are already in anticipation of what could come back in return, so we are trying to measure or control the reply or reaction. No wonder that it is hard to then simply feel and express what is there to be expressed.

332. After some time convalescing with a very sore lower back – I re- entered my work and daily routine, and quickly felt tired and a tightness in my hamstrings, I had to look at how I was draining myself. In reflecting on my week there were several times where I had felt strongly about something and held back being nice. This was happening at great expense to my body. Not being nice doesn’t mean I am going to be nasty but I will not holdback sharing all that I feel in that moment.

333. I had found that when I had something to say that is needed and hold back as you have said and done, of trying to make what a say right, time moves on and the moment is lost. This apprehension leads to not speaking at all over time. When we are talking from the truth, there is always a stand-alone clarity that resonates with the words.

334. ‘The Words are within us’ – Absolutely so. Whether we allow this true expression or suppress it is entirely up to us. When we speak the Truth we know, the World can’t but be blessed and inspired.

335. Expression truly is everything, the deepening of expression changes the whole feeling I have with myself, it deepens this relationship in more intimacy and strength, it reveals what is my natural value.

336. I would like to share a similar experience with you Christine. For so many years I could feel the words are there but they cannot find a way to be expressed out through speaking. There is an ease in being expressed through the hands and fingers, but through the throat and voice, it just feels there is a lagging behind. Then I just decided if I could practice expressing what is felt by writing, I could also start practising that with speaking. From not being able to speak in my mother tongue without blocks a year ago, I started speaking in all the opportunities I had, instead of sending what’s up messages I recorded audio messages, I initiated projects with friends where we interview each other in Cantonese, I started posting on social media in Chinese, just as an experiment on how this would affect or not affect my ability to express with my voice. This is still ongoing but what it has offered me is the opportunity to expand — there are so many things that I find I am learning for the first time, and I see this world like a baby again.

337. “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me” . . . True Christine, this also means that the world misses out on us when we hold back.

338. I can relate to what you have written here Christine. ‘I came to realise that condemning myself for the choices I have made in my life serves no purpose for the life I am living now’. This was so liberating it was like a weight being lifted off me like letting down an invisible barrier that I had hidden behind for fear of rejection. I find life much simpler and easier since choosing to express openly and honestly and the more I do this the easier it becomes and what’s more the more open I am with other people the safer they feel to openly express back, knowing there is no judgement.

339. Hello Christine and these are 3 big words and even bigger when in action, “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.” We often fight what is being said to us, but are we truly fighting another or are we fighting ourselves. When something is said to us no matter how it comes or from where we can choose to ‘accept, surrender and appreciate what is there or we can choose to throw it aside. This ‘throw aside’ is us closing off to whatever is there as a reflection and the next step in the relationship with ourselves. Much wiser to ‘accept’ what was said, ‘surrender’ to what ever you feel from it and ‘appreciate’ all that is there.

340. The fear of rejection has too often been the seed for me in holding back. Since working and developing my own self-care and self-love I have been finding it much easier to express and share what is inside of me as with a foundation of love, there is not the need for seeking confirmation from outside of myself.

341. Being willing to see the truth, and expose evil in every part of our life and take responsibility for our choices and willingness to change is what supports us to find the words that are needed to express in full. Not being able to connect to our feelings and express is a way that we have held back from going to truth.

342. A very powerful sharing Christine and one that we can all relate to on some level. Lack of self worth and not feeling that what we have to share is worthy of expressing or will be ‘good enough’, is like wearing a straight jacket in terms of holding us back from sharing our beautiful expression with those around us.
     “The moment I started to claim this truth within myself was the moment the relationships around me started to blossom.”
     How liberating and expansive it feels to reconnect to and express from my inner truth.

343. How many times I felt like choking when trying to spill out the words that I didn’t dare to say but wanted to be expressed so urgently, all because of fear to be judged, rejected, attacked, criticised or ridiculed. Interesting enough that I can not recall any situation in my life that would justify such fear but still it held me captive. Every time now when I choose to express the spell is broken by me no longer giving myself over to it but claiming my value, that I have a right to say what I want to say even when it may be not perfect or even stupid, so what, I still will learn and grow from the experience.

344. Thank you Christine, I can very much relate to your experience as I’m sure many will. The not having the words and need for control, two big ones for me to work with, but after a while the words did start to flow and with many realisations the control much reduced. What a profound difference it makes not having to be nice to cover up the unexpressed feelings, and how much appreciation supports this.

345. this is so powerful and freeing, it is an all too common pattern to gauge and measure everything that we say in anticipation of the reaction or retaliation if we do express what we feel. yet when we let go of any investment in external recognition or others getting what we say, but instead nurture our own true feeling and expression, it is deeply liberating and the whole world benefits.

346. Lack of self-worth is huge in so many of us; for me, feeling like I was not worthy of a place on this earth, pretty much keeping myself hidden, out of sight out of mind, isolated in my own little world of false security and self-doubt. The teachings of Universal Medicine have empowered me to lift the veil on truth opening up a whole new world by re-connecting with my true self and opening my up to the possibility of true expression.

347. As I become increasingly comfortable with myself, and thus expressing things out loud to others, I am also finding that I am more at ease when I don’t feel to speak.

348. When we are connected to our self, we are connected to God, the Universe and everyone else. From here all that needs to be said is given from the great well of truth that cannot be owned but lives deep within us all. When we live in disconnection to this we dry up and become a barren landscape, thirsty for the truth that we have denied ourselves.

349. It is indeed revelation that we hide behind a veneer of ‘nice’ in order to not live what is true. Thank you Christine.

350. I love this last line, Christine, describing what Serge Benhayon and his family have offered us – “an open, loving and solid template on which to bring our tender unfolding to the world.” There is indeed so much joy in this unfolding, and I know that it will only continue to deepen and expand.

351. We use control as a form of protection, only to find that it doesn’t work at all. All it does is keep us separated from others, and exhausted, as trying to control our external environment is totally futile and draining. Dropping the control and allowing ourselves to express everything that is there to be said, without holding it back, is liberating. The tension in our bodies caused by holding onto and holding back our expression is replaced with spaciousness, and there’s a flow to our lives again.

352. Being good nice and caring. Those are all things I have done in an attempt to be liked, but those qualities I often used to mask the truth of what I was really feeling. It was also about fear of being judged, but looking back I can see that I was my worst judge.

353. To freely express with out holding back in fear of getting it wrong or self judgment is so liberating. When we get our self out of the way and allow the hierarchy to come through us and express exactly what is needed for the other this to me is true expression as there is no me in it.

354. While expressing freely and in full is something we all crave for we tend to keep ourselves away from that with habits like you share Christine as in being nice, being good and being caring. We develop[ strategies to not express that what so naturally lives within but that we keep in like a pressure cooker. The pressure that this put on our bodies must be impressive and does cost us a lot of energy and makes us exhausted, an exhaustion that most men and women are living with day after day without knowing where this exhaustion comes from.

355. Often we think we need to annihilate any pauses in a conversation especially if you’re being interviewed or meeting someone for the first time. Often words come from giving ourselves space to really consider what to say instead of rolling out words we think the over person wants to hear.

356. Children are an amazing reflection, especially for expressing what is needed with no holding back at the time. And they do it with their beautiful innocence.

357. ‘Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be. It was a barrier that I believed was real’. This is the great illusion – one, we put the barriers up to stop ourself feeling our loveliness, beauty and know our deep self worth and two, the great lie of us believing it is real and who we are. The magic is though that our beauty did and always will lay within until we connect and allow it to be there in full.

358. “…The words are within us but we often don’t know that…”This i have found to be very true. Its just that often there’s an expectation when writing, the words, or perhaps the right word will come instantly, and if it doesn’t, then it can be easy to give up. If you give yourself a moment, some space, its like the words surface up and out of you. Its all there if we just give it a moment and not push.

359. What i have found is that the words are there whereby I calculate what I say – rather than coming out with the feeling in the raw and maybe messy honesty. I want to pick and choose words to make it right, but that doesn’t really express what is needed to be said – honesty and a trusting in what I feel is the key.

360. I like the point you make about trying to find the right card to say the words for us instead of giving that same focus and attention to expressing ourselves and sharing the love that we really feel with another instead of holding it back for fear of it being rejected.

361. When we choose to hide and hold back our wisdom and love for ourselves and others the whole world misses out.

362. ‘…It was the moment that the lid came off the jar…’ Lifting the lid off the jar is like opening the window to a room that has never seen the light of day.

363. Words and everthing there is to express are all within. The source of our expression lies within our connection with our inner heart. No need to outwardly look for anything, when we connect it is all right there inside of us waiting to burst out for all to see.

364. Feeling and claiming the truth held inside us Christine means we express from what we know and what we have lived, not something made up in our minds. We knew it years ago as children before we were told to behave and stay quiet, we simply have to reconnect to that. It is very powerful to let go of being nice and good, and let the real person emerge.

365. ‘Little did I know then that I could choose at any moment to be that Love. I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today, and feel the richness held within me.’ Wow Christine ,.. it is so simple isn’t it!

366. “…spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.” I understand this feeling Christine. The more I connect to and express truth in every form the more I realise that I do have something amazing to offer in every expression. The amazingness I have to offer is me.

367. Hello Christine and I’m sure this is not the first time this has been highlighted, “Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be. It was a barrier that I believed was real and that kept me from expressing outwardly but also stopped others from expressing their truth to me.” We think we are only affecting ourselves with how we are at times, when it’s truly greater than that. We get caught in our own world that reduces how we see things, when in fact we share the world with everyone all the time no matter even if it’s behind closed doors.

368. This is a lovely blog, I have been quite critical when it comes to writing on anything official, birthday cards are a breeze and I have always done poems and had plenty to say but a form will stop me dead in my tracks. What I realised reading this blog is some of the reasons I have these heavy blocks around certain types of written expression. I was dyslexic growing up and still struggle to write without the help of a computers ability to predict spelling and grammar, so when a pen and paper present I feel as if I am back in school, palm sweating and humiliation rising. The freedom you have begun to experience in allowing what comes out to just come out is an inspiration.

369. This is a very powerful and inspiring statement…’I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see.’
     We do everything we can to put us into protection so that we are not exposed and in that we limit and control ourselves. Allowing ourselves to be open and not in protection is actually like leaving a sense of imprisonment as expressing from us is volumes, what we actually are within.

370. Christine your story and unfoldment could have been my story, I could relate to it very closely. How we set ourselves up to protect ourselves yet every part of us just wants to be who we are, what we feel and wants to express that. Building love, appreciation and value for who we are is the fuel for us to bring us out for all. To share with others our expression, our fragrance to life.

371. Every one of us has the divine right to be all of ourselves in our uniqueness. We don’t belong in a template of pictures and beliefs we are multi dimensional beings and offering ourselves permission to radiate all of this from within is an amazing magical gift and blessing for us all.

372. “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth…” I love how you express this Christine, it makes it sound to simple, and indeed it is. How many of us, including myself, have held back our expression for fear of ridicule or upsetting the apple cart and consequently buried those unspoken feelings in our body. I am just beginning to open up to people, which comes from my ever deepening relationship with myself and my willingness to express honestly and openly when I feel to. It is ongoing work in progress for me, like it is for many of us, but at least it is the beginning of living in our full expression which at the moment I have no idea what that looks like, but I am willing to give it a go!

373. It is a real wake up call when we realise how much we rely on other people to do or say things for us, even to the extent of greeting cards. Learning to take back the reins, to be fully accountable for me has definitely un-locked a huge realm of expression that I never knew was inside me and nowadays, I love writing my own messages of appreciation to all those people who bring such joy to my life.

374. Throughout my life I have been extremely shy with people I did not know unless the conversation was concerning something I had knowledge about and I could hide behind that knowledge. I would have extreme difficult starting a conversation. Since studying with Universal Medicine I cannot say that that has all changed but it has greatly improved and I no longer have the feeling of wanting to fall through the floor and disappear. .

     1. Thank you jstewart. I fully connect to what you say, for me it was a way of controlling a conversation using knowledge.

375. What is clear from your blog Christine, is that our relationship with ourselves is crucial in how we express. The more we love ourselves, the less we judge, criticise, hold back and condemn our own expression and hence, accept it and allow it to be. This is the key I have found to truly expressing what we feel.

     1. Perfectly said – I totally agree. The relationship with ourself is fundamental.

376. The more I am honest about what I am feeling and the more I develop a self nurturing way, the more I feel able to express the truth of what I am feeling to others who may not like what I am saying. I have found that far from being slated, my words have been appreciated. Not only is this the result, but I feel that my body is free of any tension, and space in my body is created by the expression. This supports me in my relationship to myself and in my sense of self appreciation, which further supports my outward expression.

377. Christine, this has been really true for me, ‘The words are within us but we often don’t know that. Until there comes a time when the ability to express is realised’, I am finding that if I stay present and feeling my beauty and loveliness then the words are there – very simple and very powerful, it feels very natural and amazing to express in this way, and very different to how I have expressed in the past, which was being very critical about what I said and being anxious about expressing.

378. ‘Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth.’
     Our true expression is medicine – equally for ourselves and others.

379. Wow, such are the strengths of acceptance, surrender and appreciation that they are life changing. What more can be said, “The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles.”

380. It is actually amazing how much effort we can put into controlling situations, life, ourselves etc. etc. all in avoidance to simply feeling and addressing what is there for us to feel when we truly stop.

381. ‘The words are within us but we often don’t know that’ – there is something about this first sentence of your blog is so insightful, we don’t think we have the words but often it is because we don’t practise expressing it.

382. Life is filled with moments that we try and control, because we have learned to safeguard and protect things from ‘going wrong’. By recognising what was actually felt and giving ourselves space, there is no pressure – and the connection of one thing to another is realised.

383. Beautiful line “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.” You are only missing yourself when you hold back. Very cool Christine how you are exposing your Joy to the harsh realities we have allowed by not expressing what we feel. “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.” Here here !

384. It is so true that when we edit or censor what we say we hold back expressing the truth of what we have felt.

385. Once we learn how to express, the words just tumble out in great volume whenever needed.

386. Reading about how you opened up feels so full of joy for you, it comes through your words and is a real inspiration to those still trying to find their voice.

387. “I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see.” This is a striking statement Christine. There is a beauty in this that is inspiring.

388. Lack of expressing ourselves keeps the words, feelings and truth locked away within our body – a pressure cooker of expression awaiting it’s release.

389. “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me” Wow Christine thank you for highlighting how we put being polite and ‘kind’ over truth. Everyone wins when we express truth, express politeness when it’s not coming from honesty is actually poisonous.

390. Christine this is super inspiring and the constant battle that I have felt wth expressing is summed up in this blog. So beautiful how you have expressed it as well. What we are missing when we hold back and calibrate what to be said is way to Grand to be missing out on. Thankyou for sharing.

391. On a surface level, there is nothing ‘wrong’ with being a nice, considerate person, but what you’ve exposed in this blog is that we can actually use these traits as a means to avoid truly connecting with other people and being who we truly are… We use a comfortable persona to fall back on rather than express all that we feel regardless of society’s reaction to it.

392. Control was a huge thing for me, I realised that I was trying to control everything and in a sense, control had control over me…..it was like prison, when things messed up or came out of my control, it brought great hurt and frustration into my life. We can not control anything, I am learning and practicing to ‘be’ not control and it feels amazing to let go of this habit.

393. Measuring how far we go with expression is precious to expose. I know I have and still do measure how far I am willing to let go of protection and express myself fully. It is not something I am with all of the time but I can feel how being committed to supporting myself in how I live, naturally supports how I express. It still at times feel like the flood gates have opened for me concerning expression rather than it being a natural flow of life. I appreciate that I am having a go, and also understand that I have held back for long time, so times it will feel like a the dam has opened up.

394. You have certainly claimed your power with words as you wrote your beautiful blog Christine and the particular words that jumped out the page for me were ‘Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me’ and as I feel back to the time when that was the way I lived life I can feel how limited and unfulfilled I felt. I would often rehearse and repeat over and over again in my head what I was bursting to say – and then hold back and bring more force to the dam that eventually would burst in a tirade. To have found a way to live where I am now more able to express is joy indeed, although there are moments when I realise I am being less than truthful as I continue to let go and express.

395. “This was my life, living with a focus on getting it right and living by standards not set up by me but by the world as it was around me. ” I can so relate to this, focus on getting it right and therefore not expressing my truth. I have been working breaking this barrier down and knowing as i express my truth there is no need to be right, just to express and appreciate.

396. As I release the dam of holding back, my words can tumble out sometimes clumsily, but I don’t ever want to return to the stranglehold of self imposed silence and controlled communication. There was no honesty or relationship with the world in that.

397. ‘ Of course this is one of the harsh judgments I have held of myself for such a long time, spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer’. This captures exactly how I used to live and express. After a conversation with some-one, so many times I would come away feeling agitated for not fulling expressing what was there to express, as it just sat there in my body.

398. ” I came to realise that condemning myself for the choices I have made in my life serves no purpose for the life I am living now.” So true. Regret is a useless feeling that keeps us trapped in the past and doesn’t allow for any evolution in our current life.

399. I can very much relate to this statement, Christine – “being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others. A story created to stop me from being all that I am.” It is such a relief in the body to be real and say what you feel rather than carry on the pretense and falsity, for fear of rocking the boat.

400. Hello Christine, and thank you for the reminder to keep expressing and not holding back the words, the singing, the movement, the blink of the eye nor even the in-breath and the out-breath. Expression is everything and it is so important for us to always share how we feel and keep the awareness and the openness unfolding. In the past, I know that too many times I have choked on my words, held back my expression and so today I find myself finally letting it all out. Yet even in this, I find it a process to keep letting out more, for there is always more to let out once the first ‘more’ has been let out. And more to a depth that I know deep within is there but have yet to allow myself to feel the encompassing grandness of.

401. “Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be.” I feel pains in my stomach and under my ribs when I go into low self worth, I feel a heaviness when I have made the choice, that i have held back the words that are here to be spoken. There was a time when I wold not talk in a group without mumbling, if I did speak. I am becoming more aware that I bring me everywhere I go and it does not really matter if it is 1 or 100 hundred people. What is reflected to me if I freak out is that I have not been living in a way that supports me, if I cannot speak to the many rather than the 1.

402. I have lived most of my life measuring and calculating what I wanted to say, based on who I was with and the situation I was in. This led to controlling what I would allow into my life, and what people could say to me. The more I have learnt to be honest with myself and express from my truth the simpler life is becoming as I am no longer trying to say the ‘right’ thing or want to be perfect.

403. The times in my past that I have chosen to re-channel my abusive behaviors only to chose one that is less or is some cases more abusive, has only changed the colour of the horse I was riding toward the cliff. When we feel how we are moving from our choices is when the magic begins.

404. Letting go of being nice and polite also allows us to express exactly how we feel, and this can open up an more authentic connection with others.

405. Christine I used to spend ages trying to find the perfect birthday card, something that captured how I felt. However I never thought that I could write and express exactly how I felt, somehow when I wrote I tried to convince the other and myself of what I was saying. I was not at ease with my words. What I’ve learnt over the last decade is to be confident to express in words, in voice and in movement how I feel. Not being afraid that it is not “good enough”. The result is a completely different quality in how I express and far more at ease than ever before.

406. When I write a birthday- or ‘thank you’-card I can’t do it in a rush. I have to sit down and open my heart, feel the connection to this person and then the words do come through me. When I do not have words – I am missing a connection and commitment, missing the willingness to express what wants to be expressed.

407. Let the words come through Christine! What a gift everyone is to the world who claimed their expression again.

408. Beautiful Christine… your words… “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express ” sum up the journey we all have to eventually take… accepting who we really are, surrendering to that, appreciating it to the hilt and expressing what we find in full. Always a work in progress of course… thanks so much for sharing yours.

409. I do my babysteps in expressing my love in full and I have to say it harmonises my whole surrounding. What rhichness will be there when I do not hold back any more at all ?
     Also hoding back is measuring the love I allow to pour out. It is a choice to hold back or not and this choice is felt on a very early moment, when I already can feel my expression in full could bring up disturbances in another and make life uncomfortable and unsafe. But the steps towards opening up in full are worth it.

     1. Yes Kerstin, it is a choice to hold back or not, and I did; ‘ when I already can feel my expression in full could bring up disturbances in another and make life uncomfortable and unsafe’. I took on the belief that my expression in full was too much for others, and so I might hurt them, but actually I hurt myself because all that unspoken expression accumulated in my body with no-where to go which results in much stress and tension in my body.

410. I know these moments that I was invited to show more of me and to share my thoughts a bout a subject but because I was holding back my natural expression, also at these moments I had difficulties to express that what naturally lives in me. I have found that I have so much to tell but always had the idea that it will not be of any interest of anybody, this all because of my lack of self worth. Now I have chosen to express more of myself, I experience that all that I share is so beautiful, not only because it is such a joy to express myself freely, but also in the appreciation of that what I bring to the world with this expression as it is my unique view I share.

411. Being exposed and seen makes me naked and vulnerable. To actually enjoy a state of vulnerability and being tender is something that Serge Benhayon has encouraged by way of living the example. I have seen and experienced that it is safe to be vulnerable in our world, because I am connected to something stronger than the hardness that currently rules this world.

412. “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.”- I am finding that the more I open up honestly with love and no judgement, this provides a space for the other person to do so also, and together there is a deepening in our relationship.

413. Many times I have found myself a little crippled in my expression of what I want to say. It is in these moments that I know I have to just slow down and connect to my breath. Breathing in and out gently and then trust myself, that the words are there and that the discombobulation of my speech is just a nervous energy I have let take over, when in fact there is a much more lucid and clearly expressing version of me waiting to burst out. Christine, I admire your willingness to be exposed, be out there, for I must admit there is a fear I still have of being seen and of getting things wrong.

414. “…Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me….” Profoundly true!

415. A lesson in honesty: My friend gave me her honesty about something I didn’t want to hear yesertday and for a short time I was processsing and a bit defensive and grumpy. Then we talked some more, and it occurred to me that she was speaking her truth, she was actually telling me exactly what was going on for her in a situation with me. Then I immediately came out of my centralisation, I thought oh my goodness, she is being honest rather than being nice, she is speaking her truth and this is to be encouraged and valued. I then went into my honesty about why I had reacted, it was awesome because we shared so much more in honesty and the love and understanding between us deepened.
     I took total responsibility and said its always ok to be honest, even if it is hard to hear. I suggested she be aware of the need for understanding about others, and why people react sometimes to honesty, an example I had just demonstrated, which she got instantly.
     What a beautiful evolution between us, and so much more to come.

416. I have in the past found it difficult to find words to express how I am feeling. What has supported me in this process is a deepening of my connection with my body and developing conscious presence. The more I can be with my body, then there is an ease in which words come. I now no longer try to express, but offer myself the opportunity to deepen my connection with me and allow the expression to naturally flow from there.

417. ‘…it was the moment the lid came off the jar…’ Lifting the lid off the jar is like opening a window to a room that has never seen the light of day,

418. There can be so many self-judgements that come in around the choices we have made and this can then limit our expression as you have shared Christine. I have been working on expressing what I feel and this has supported an acceptance of the choices that I have made and in turn further supported my expression. This is a lovely expanding cycle of reciprocal support.

419. I feel a lot of people have had their expression shut down in childhood especially with the education system the way it is currently. The shutting down that occurs can easily last a life time.

420. Hello Christine and I can relate to what you say, “This has been my life, relying on others to say what I wanted to say!” I have often found so many things swimming around in my head when met by a point of needing to say something. This had usually lead to me not saying anything. I would go over and over a situation trying to come up with better ways to say things. I would replay incidents to get better at speaking, which in turn would lead me again to not say anything. It would have looked almost comical if you could see my thoughts. All these thoughts and then no action beyond that. I would stand behind what others said as a ‘close enough’ to what I want to say. As you are saying when it came to cards I would just choose the closest thing to what I was wanting to say. Never really thinking of actually writing myself. Looking beyond the ‘trying to get it right’ to see why the thoughts would leave me almost mute was a big exercise. What I have found is the constant thinking and carrying of situations for years was the catalyst for me not being about to speak. In other words the way I was living wasn’t supporting me to speak. So instead of trying to perfect the speaking part, I just supported myself with how I was living and moving. Being aware of how I was feeling and then just following the feelings. It’s like baby steps at first but the more steps you put together in the end you are walking. Thank you Christine.

421. Being good and nice festers resentment and bitterness with in because eventually we get to feel how we have put others before our self, we feel the consequence of this in practical ways and how this has effected our well-being.

     1. So very true Mary-Louise, and has been my past experience. These days I am expressing more and more.

422. “I was waiting for the love deep inside me to be met and recognised by others around me.” I can so relate to this and if truth to be told, I think most of humanity could related to this. We can be so desperate to be met by others but the actual truth is that we can meet ourselves first – we can (re) learn to take great care of ourselves, to be fully present with ourselves, to listen to our own needs and wants and from this foundation, set about and meet others. None of this done with perfection but just with a commitment to meet ourselves first.

423. The preciousness of words that come from that true place within each and every one of us is beyond measure.

424. When the words don’t tumble through us then it is for us to look at what barriers we have erected within us to prevent them from coming through. That’s not to say that we all express in the same way but to say that Heaven pours through us all equally.

425. keeping ourselves in an ‘airtight seal’ as your describe Christine, is keeping all the grandness we are squeezed in. It’s akin to suffocating, blocking the power, the flow — and unfortunately many of us walk around and live our lives like this every day.

426. Amongst the many wise and inspiring points you make, these words really speak to me today Christine: “I came to realise that condemning myself for the choices I have made in my life serves no purpose for the life I am living now.” I will take these with me into my day and allow my wisdom to gracefully flow despite the choices I’ve made and the uncomfortableness of my current situation. You have reminded me that uncomfortable situations do not define us for deep within us all is an equal grace, wisdom and love no matter what we do.

427. Thank you for sharing this Christine, we completely lose ourselves in lack of self worth. Afraid to say anything that will bring up a disagreement or reaction we only say what is safe or what we feel will be accepted, there is no truth, no reality no commitment and no love in this, it just reinforces our lack of self worth. Standing up for what you feel and saying so despite what others may say is empowering and builds confidence.

428. Thank you Christine for sharing how the fear to say what is within can give an airtight seal to the life. With out air there is no life. What you share is very known to me and I deeply appreciate you writing this and sharing it. This illuminates and exposes all the limitations that staying silent impose and for no true reason or purpose. We are all so worthy of the breath of life that flows in and out with our true expression, re-connecting us to the love we innately are and sharing this openly and freely with our own inner confidence.

429. An inspiring call to say it as it is, in spite of our fears about comeback, for the rewards are truly great and far-reaching – not just for ourselves but for everyone.

430. Reading the beautiful words from this blog reminds me of a phone call yesterday with 2 dear friends. I allowed myself to feel how much they loved me, that is, the true me. That brought a lot of tears to my eyes. Allowing myself to let the love in and be loved is something huge. This is only possible due to the choices I’ve made and the teachings I’ve been receiving by Serge Benhayon. I can still be judgemental that I couldn’t do it myself, but when I let that go, the appreciation is huge. These words are no longer more ‘just words’, but a lived piece of life, words that are lived and contain a fullness and richness beyond words. This is very, very dear to me. Thank you for the choices you’ve made to re-connect to the joy and love you are and sharing this with us, Christine.

431. So true that we create our own barriers – and allow them to be as big as we want them to be! I love how you show that to start to let out and express yourself meant the space inside of you could be filled with the love and joy that is in and around you.

432. I am beginning to choose myself again. I have spent my life afraid I would not get it right. I am trusting that I do not have to do anything, I just have to be myself. With deep appreciation for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

433. “Choosing the ‘right’ Birthday card, Mother’s Day card, Sympathy card – one that reflects what you want to say, the truth that you hold within but can’t get the words out.” This pressure to get the right card or gift for someone I know well. It is like I felt not able to express or enough just by being me and therefor found it was so hard to find something. Yet when I would trust myself and go with my first idea it would flow and be an amazing gift even if it would be uncommon, it is so important to express ourselves and be like everyone else as all our expressions are equally needed.

434. ‘Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.’ I experience that too Christine when I am myself there is such a joy coming from within and it feels natural and vitalising to let it all out.

435. Thank you Christine for expressing yourself! I too spent most of my life waiting for it to begin. I shut down at some point when I entered teenage years and from then on was waiting for someone to recognize me and give me the permission to bring who I am into expression. Of course this was never going to happen, as nobody can save us from our self-chosen confinement of shutting up and holding back however through our lived way and reflection we can inspire each other to make a different choice, as you made, and actually open up again, unlock the doors and allow the world to see who we are. What I found is that it is never too late!

436. ‘Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me:’ Even the highest ideals we attempt to live up to as a human being are a limitation and impede on the love we are and the qualities within awaiting to be expressed.

437. I have long been working on expressing what I feel, and how i feel in situations. I have found actually expressing what I feel to be awesome, its well worth working on.

438. If the words are inside us, all that is required is a movement to take them out. Finding and expressing ‘the words’ is part of how we move in life.

439. ‘I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see.’ – Me too. There was a time where I would constantly look for a deep hole to jump into every time I was exposed, seeing it as very shameful and something I had done ‘wrong’. Today I know this came from spiritual pride and not wanting to take responsibility for my life and the chocies I had made up until that point. Being exposed comes from truth and love, it offers an opportunity to grow and evolve.

440. This is a timely reminder that expression is better out than in and it is not as scary as we make it out to be.

441. Thank you Christine for expressing so beautifully how we falsely believe that what we feel within is meaningless when in fact, as you have so magnificently shown us, it is our connection to inner-knowing within, that when expressed magnifies the truth of who we are in all that we do. This is a never-ending, unfolding journey and the willingness to remain open to learning is what allows us to explore the opportunities that are always present, to deepen our connection to our love within, to where the truth is always known through our universal intelligence.

442. When we live led by the paradigms of the world around us, by what society purports, we relinquish being guided by a far greater and truer inner quality the reflects who we are in essence and the richness that we can live whenever we are led by our connection to our Soul.

443. This is truly gorgeous Christine. I love this line “It was the moment that the lid came off the jar that being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others”. So many times I thought being ‘nice’ was the best way to care for others when it was actually holding them back and cheapening out precious connection.

444. I so agree we call in lack of self worth as an excuse to not take responsibility for expressing our self. We say things like ‘I am not worthy so there for I cannot express what I feel as, who will listen to me?’ we come up with these nonsense thoughts that we allow to hold us back from expressing. As well, we make others feel sorry for us or be scared of our reaction, so they do not express truthfully what we need to hear. It is all a game we play to not have to be accountable and responsible for life.

445. How much do we feel to say but hold back? I recently experienced being with someone in a situation and feeling to say something – to ask them if they wanted something. I held back and felt self conscious about expressing, but eventually I plucked up the courage to ask and it turned out they where thinking to themselves exactly what I said. If I had held back and not said anything it would have sat in my body and become something to beat myself up about if someone else had decided to express. I am learning slowly that what I feel can be trusted.

446. Christine, in my experience being able to express is both a choice and practice and a reflection of how I live. It is now infinitely easier for me to express, so I express a lot more :).

447. I nodded my way through this blog, it felt you were writing about me! As someone who has spent ages looking for the right cards with the right words, it has been amazing to know I can walk into a shop now knowing the card is there and if it is blank, my words will appear magically on the paper! Loved it Christine.

448. ‘The moment I started to claim this truth within myself was the moment the relationships around me started to blossom.’ – This is magic.

449. ‘Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be’ – So true Christine. We put ourselves in a box when we see self-worth as something to ‘overcome’ instead of a choice we can choose to make or not make in every moment. The thoughts we allow in that are self abusive and loathsome are just that; allowed in, and it’s very empowering to know that there is the option to choose something different, and our constant conscious awareness of this choice can be developed through building a supportive and loving relationship with our bodies.

450. Everything we have ever wanted is within us. Great message, one that never gets old.

451. Holding back my expression is something I know only too well. I would judge myself quite harshly in how I spoke and how I wrote. I still choose this at times now, but I am chipping away at expressing more and coming to realise that my expression is mine and no one expresses as I do. As a result I do know now that everyone’s expression matters and is needed, including my own.

452. The moment I don’t find the words I know I have been dismissive of my beauty beforehand. I can then turn back to myself and restart the movement of taking care of my body.

453. When we allow ourselves to just ‘be’ by stopping and feeling how we are from our bodies, it is incredible what can come through us via our expression whether that is speaking or writing. From my own experience, I can go back and read something I have written previously, whether it is the day before or even a year and be amazed at what I have written as at times it has been deeply profound. This is not always the case, but it highlights the responsibility we have for how we speak and what we do and don’t say, in the same way that we write.

454. I understand what you are saying here very well having spent my whole life in this state of being and am now just coming out of it – ” spending too much time trying to get it right, phrasing what I have to say, trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.”. When we feel that we cannot voice what we know within us it is one of the worse forms of prison we can be in.

455. “I would not even consider putting it down on paper!” One of the best ways to support you understanding and being more clear about things is to write it down. It has been the backbone of my service I bring in IT and has been the foundation of my relationships. We all have something to say and by writing it, if it is read or not, it has been said for all to hear.

456. “This has been my life, relying on others to say what I wanted to say!” My experience when I do not express what is there, and acknowledge and confirm to myself what it is I feel, I create an immediate tension with myself. That tension then becomes my expression or soon enough becomes my hurt when all along my expression was all that was needed to begin with.
     Expression cannot be taken lightly or held back because of one incident no matter how shocking it is. It is simple when once expressed. Why be in a prison (the worst prison) when it is innately that we feel, and because we feel there is an expression that is a part of what we feel. We do not own it. It only becomes owned, and then complex, when we hold onto it. Glorious science that Serge Benhayon has been presenting since 1999 “Expression is Everything” SB. That’s the whole reason I read this blog again just so I could express what is there to express .. because when you do gee it feels glorious!

457. Christine a great blog with one sentence really standing out for me this morning “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.” it confirms that we all have a voice, we all know and we don’t have to get the answers from some magazine, book or TV show but instead appreciate and surrender to ourself and all that is needed is there to be shared.

458. The education system fosters this idea of there being only one right answer, so many students will not contribute in class for fear of getting it wrong. This then carries itself out into the world where the worry about saying the wrong thing makes us hold back rather than simply sharing how we feel.

459. Don’t hold back any more Christine you have a beautiful way of writing with much to express and I look forward to more. “Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express. The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles.” So true and beautifully said Christine.

460. When I reflect upon the past thirty years or so of my life, I see that learning to express myself has been an absolutely central part of my evolution. My experience has been that self-expression is fundamentally linked to how I feel. This is so much so that it is truly more powerful than so many if not all of the other ways we try to change how we feel – like alcohol, sex, sports, work, money, holidays etc etc. It has taken me a long time to open up and start to express – but it has been worth it. Expressing who we are is part of who we are and letting it out is a joy-full experience. Thank you for sharing your story here Christine – an inspiration for many.

461. I have become very good at an internal dialogue where I will find the words but only express them to myself. I have always kept a diary and love getting my feelings down on paper. When it came to expressing on a blog like this, it caused me great angst, and I remember the first time I tried, it took ages because I kept changing the sentence structure, then I would give up, come back to it, try again, worry what people might think. It’s fascinating looking back at how nervous I was about ‘being seen.’ People were going to finally get to know what I really felt. It’s been a liberating journey. I now love to share how I feel on blogs and articles and it has helped me become comfortable expressing out loud.

462. I must say that for me it is still work in progress, but when I do express in truth what needs to be expressed it feels amazing.

463. The fear of rejection can be such a big contributor in us holding back – what if the person doesn’t receive what it is that I am telling them? This has been a big one for me and found myself pretzeling to be what I thought another wanted me to be – to be liked, to be loved. However I discovered that this is very hard work and taxing on the body, to try and be something that we are not. It is far more simple and loving to express and show the world who we are albeit a little scary at first but well worth going there.

464. Wow Christina every word you share here is gold as finding the words to express all we know and feel inside is the greatest gift and conformation we can give ourselves. Letting go of the fear of rejection and simply surrendering to all we are and expressing this is amazing and really does change our lives and that of others around us like a magical wave with us on it. A beautiful inspiration and a real joy inside is felt reading this.

465. It is amazing how much of my life I have spent trying to do the right thing to please others – but all of this is false and extremely draining and exhausting on the body. The more I simply am myself the more ease and joy I live with and this is then felt by everyone else – without any trying or anything like that. Naturally we are all amazing we just have to let ourselves be.

466. I have found that finding and expressing words to others has become much easier as I have deepened my relationship with myself. From making myself less and wrong I would make everyone else more and right. I used to accept that whenever there was a problem it had to be my fault and that there had to be something wrong with me. (This is a most exhausting way to live). By feeling my equality and building my worth I have been developing my ability to read challenging situations and not roll over in this 1st nano second.

467. “Lack of self-worth felt like a huge barrier to overcome, but only as huge as I allowed it to be.” So often what feels like our greatest obstacles in life are self-induced. When we perceive these from the perspective of truly appreciating the suffering that so many people are enduring worldwide our suffering pales in insignificance and in truth is a self-indulgence.

468. I can completely understand your journey Christine. As a teenager I found it extremely difficult to express myself, never knowing what to say or how to join in with conversations. I felt awkward and clumsy and very shy and still felt like that at 40 years old. 10 years of studying with Universal Medicine has completely altered my expression and today the ease with which I find myself communicating with people amazes me every single day. Whereas I used to confine myself to talking about the weather with strangers, today I find myself asking all sorts of questions about them from a geniune interest to know more about them and their lives. It is a miracle, one that has arisen from the tender Esoteric Healing Modalities and the wisdom that Serge Benhayon lives and presents. We are living miracles of what can be achieved when we begin to re-connect and cherish who we truly are.

469. Christine, this is great for me to ponder on ‘The words are within us but we often don’t know that’, I can feel the truth in this and have have experienced this, if I’m feeling connected and am simply being my lovely self then words flow and I express with ease, if I’m stuck in my head, over thinking, in judgment or caught up in an issue then I’m critical of what I say, in doubt and the words don’t flow but also feel judgmental and not true. I am learning that what I have to say is important and that I bring my own flavour to the world, and that for me it’s simply about expressing what I am feeling from my body and not changing it or manipulating in my head before I express.

470. This article has inspired a very physical response in my body. The capping sensation of not saying all there is to be said is a rumbling restriction throughout my abdomen and then the ignition, liberation and warmth of knowing what connecting to people openly, honestly and freely feels like. Two styles of living, miles apart, the former being our common habit and the latter being our evolution and future…

471. The age-old fear of rejection is so disempowering and compromises the truth of our expression in holding back our speech, being tongue tied or even silent and often shows as a lack of ease in our movements.
     “Little did I know that all I had to do was to start to say what I felt inside to others, to let out the words and to not allow the fear of being rejected, losing loved ones or being attacked hold me back from expressing my truth”.

472. Great blog Christine – very relatable and also inspiring to know the true words are always within – we simply have to let them out!

473. I got caught into trying to control a family situation this weekend, and realised I got myself in to a reaction and left my body tensed and angry. As soon as I expressed to my husband what I was feeling, my body lightened up and I was able to let go and then need for control disappeared.

474. Lack of self-worth allows us to sit hunkered down in our muddy trench hiding from the world to the point it becomes our normal life and refuse to even pop our heads above the parapet to not be a target. Surrendering and appreciating ourselves allows us to discover the only place the war was raging was within us.

475. I never had trouble finding words to speak but always struggled with essays and written expression. Looking back I can see that was because, unlike written words that are there in front of you for a time, spoken words are out and we think they are gone, but their impact can be huge on the person listening. Can you remember something a teacher or older relative said years ago that you carried all your life? I know I have done. So now I’m learning to feel before I speak, and I too am finding I have difficulty with words. I am so used to speaking from my head, freely channelling whatever appeared in my mind, I am finding it a whole different experience expressing what I feel in my body. I’m taking more care with words than I have ever done before.

476. I love what you write here Christine, I really admire your willingness to be exposed as that is such a great way to learn and develop in your life. I must admit to a certain arrogance about not wanting to get things wrong and I can feel how this holds me back from really expressing how I feel on many occasions. As you say it is rarely a regret when we put ourselves out there and open up to what is going on.

477. Wow this is amazing; going from holding back because what is said may not be exactly right to loving being exposed is huge. I know breaking free from my shell of perfection has felt uncomfortable and exposing at times, but allowing myself to rediscover who I truly am is so wonderful. And I’m realising a big part if it is the willingness to makes mistakes and be exposed because what is being exposed is all the ill ways that have kept me a prisoner in my own body unable to communicate or be in the world.

478. By not expressing my truth, I’m perpetuating the charade of life where we all pretend that things are fine, good in fact, while ignoring the hurts and abuse that continues to play out. It’s a horrible dance that just goes around and around until it’s cut by someone being honest and sharing the truth. We convince ourselves that it’s safer to ‘let things be’, we won’t hurt anyone and we won’t get attacked. What a lie that is. We are hurting ourselves and everyone else every time we’re not being honest, when we choose to hold back on how we’re feeling and we are being attacked as we’re giving in to an energy that is not the love that we all innately are. We’re allowing another energy to take over when we choose to dismiss our selves, when we choose to play the game and keep quiet, we are stifling the opportunity to be our gorgeous loving selves and inspiring others to be the same.

479. Understanding myself as a vehicle of expression, and nothing that I express belongs to me has been instrumental for me to let go of attachment and also anxiousness of not being right (still a long way to go). It feels amazing when expression comes effortlessly and naturally, and there is a sense of completion.

480. I have known for a while now that doing or not doing something is one thing but condemning ourselves for doing or not doing it is far worse, it’s like the scorpion’s sting coming over the back to really demoralise and attack ourselves.

     1. Love how you have shared how condemnation played a huge role in not allowing the joy we are, to be fully expressed. As a child I was condemned for expressing and it has affected me until this day – like a tail coming around to bite me with my own stinger. Now I have a deeper understanding of how powerful words and expressions are in my life, and how what happened when I was 13 years old can still bring a poison into how I relate to others. Many thanks to Anne (my wife) Gabriele, Christine and Serge Benhayon for bringing so much to my life so my expression can now begin to expand!

481. Thank you for your awesome blog, Christine. ‘Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me’. I can totally relate to this and it’s only now that I can appreciate how harmful it has been to live in this way. In being ‘nice’ we are choosing not to be open and honest, rather, we’re acting in a way we have ‘presumed’ we should be, which, if it isn’t true, is false. The other person gets to feel this ‘falseness’ not the love that we are.

482. I can really relate to that airtight seal – it may look neat and tidy from outside, but it’s just waiting to explode. The tension inside keeps building up on itself. Taking small baby steps with building self-love and appreciation has been allowing me to slowly let that go.

483. I can very rarely find a card that expresses all that is there to say to the person I’m giving it to…. which shows we do know what feels true and what does not in the written word and what is being expressed.

484. Thank you Christine for opening up the topic that is so needed in this world today – I for one have lived in self-destruction because of reading and writing feeling that was the key to my expression. So then that shuts down my expression and not being able to feel the words to express them out not knowing the true meaning of the words as I couldn’t feel them in my body. Now making quality choices in my life today and unsealing the airtight jar “as you have so loving put in your article” has released my expression.
     Since attending workshops presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine it has set a new and loving foundation in my life today that I have so much wisdom to share – Phew space in the body……… to live life with love -light –expression.

485. love how you have brought up here, trying to control events and situations and how that never works – we attach to the event rather than realising it is us that makes it joyful by what we bring to it.

486. ‘Finding and expressing the words’ – is such a super title Christine and makes you stop because it’s not just simply what those words actually read, especially pertinent whenever i might blurt out words, but more that ‘the finding’ [of the words] is from the re-finding of my true self, and then feeling steady in this expressing from here. Whenever i blurt out something it may well be what i feel in the moment, but when i stop or reflect find it’s not from the true me, but more an emotional or reactionary me ; ) So ‘finding and expressing the words’ – is about finding us.. and then no need to worry about the words/wording as when it’s from this place, whatever is delivered is exactly what’s needed or required.

487. simply amazing blog. Why wait for something to come which will give us validation, life all starts to connect and make sense when we start to do this for ourselves and accept the amazing being we are right now!

     1. And once we start expressing we get better and better at it, especially when we realise in any given moment what is holding us back. It is a process but a wonderful one.

        1. Absolutely agree Christoph! Very wise words!

     2. Every-thing is in us and we are in every-thing.

488. “Choosing the ‘right’ Birthday card, Mother’s Day card, Sympathy card” – Christine when i read this i went back to my younger days and very first job where i worked for a greeting cards manufacturer. I remember already having a complete dislike for greeting cards that already had words inside them (preferring to write my own), so when i worked for this number one greeting card company, seeing and having to as part of my job analyse the actual sales for such cards littered with glittery words or paragraphs, i was always astonished to find they were by far the best seller greeting cards and made the most profit for the company over ‘blank’ cards. It seems that for the vast populous we’ve become ‘lost for words’, and relied on others ‘to speak for us’.. the greeting card itself perhaps an industry that banked and cashed in on this, and also compounded (false) expression.

489. Simply gorgeous Christine. “The moment I started to claim this truth within myself was the moment the relationships around me started to blossom.” I too have felt this and feel that it is the transparency and sharing of our full expression that allows our relationships to bloom and prosper in oh so magical ways. Thank you.

490. What a freedom when we allow our unique expression to flow out, thank you for sharing Christine. I totally agree that when we appreciate and accept ourselves for who we are and what we bring to the world, every part of our expression expands. Our words, our interaction with others, the way we move, speak act and feel. Expression covers everything.

491. Absolutely beautiful Christine, how when we decide to come out and share what is in us, we free ourselves and others and have true connections with ourselves and those around us. It really is the only way to live.

492. Christine, your article is the most beautiful antidote to lack of self worth. Whilst I lived with out worth for myself, what I had to say always came with a judgemental edge. For me my worth is now vibrantly present in my body, much of this has come since choosing to speak from my essence, my deepest knowing, for when I do, there is no judgement and my worth is felt. The whole world needs this honesty delivered from the wisdom of those who live it. It physically hurts to now not express in this way.

493. An inspiring blog Christine, and one many will relate to. Something that stood out for me was… “I came to realise that condemning myself for the choices I have made in my life serves no purpose for the life I am living now.” Condemnation serves no purpose – life is about living the joy of every new moment, and the more we express, the more joyful life becomes.

494. All the love that we are waiting to find is right there within us waiting to simply be expressed, we all hold the key in unlocking the treasure which is us.

495. The best form of security is not knowing where my next step will be, but knowing every step is walked with the company of my body and heart.

496. I have a similar story that went a bit like yours Christine, but the barriers have come down since I have built a relationship and a trust within myself, now I don’t go through the agony of going over my jumbled words, what I should have said etc. I live with the fullness and my expression is there, and it has been a joy and a freedom I have claimed.

497. Letting go of control and surrendering to life, what we are saying yes to is showing me the truth of who I am.

498. I can relate to holding back also, and holding back to be nice or not say the wrong thing. This is such a disempowering practice, and stops everyone from hearing what truly needs to be shared.

499. Hello Christine and great for you, well written. I often feel this as well, the feeling of more to say and if you don’t say it or write it where does it go? It’s great to see people going to this and opening up for us all to speak. After all the thoughts of not good enough, is it right, how will I look, what will others say etc are just thoughts and most of the time aren’t real.

500. “This has been my life, relying on others to say what I wanted to say!” I can so relate to this Christine. Up until quite recently this had been my default too, for the same fear of getting a reaction that I could not deal with. I let others speak for me all through my life, even though I would find it really dishonouring of me and what I really felt. I had been brought up to be a nice polite young girl and to basically go along with whatever was being said, regardless of how I felt about something. But I realised I had allowed it, and I was not willing to take responsibilty for what I had to say, because it may be of value to another. Thanks to Serge Benhayon and Simone Benhayon this is now changing, and I find myself saying what I am feeling more and more, rather than burying it deep within my body.

501. I love this, it is in expression that we unfold our love. Holding this back is holding ourself and others around us short of this amazing quality that is within us all.

502. “The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles.” Wow! This is the big IT that we spend our lives seeking in the outside world and waiting for others to give it to us and boom, its inside us all along, just waiting to be connected to and expressed. I too know this feeling, the Miracles keep grace-fully unfolding everyday the more I open up and express from my heart. A journey initiated by meeting Serge Benhayon and supported year in and year out by Universal Medicine, a graceful journey that is open and available to all who choose to walk this path.

503. Beautifully expressed Christine. Your words are inspiring and supportive as I further develop my written expression, being open and transparent with no fear of reaction to that which I express.

504. Christine, thank you for your honest sharing. I too can relate to holding back my expression for fear of getting a reaction, rejection or needing it to sound perfect/ intelligent. But I would be constantly judging me and in doing so allow frustration, lack of self worth and self loathing in. And the need to be good, nice was instilled into me from a small child, with my catholic upbringing. Thanks to Serge and Simone Benhayon I am now trusting to surrender and allow my body to speak from my inner connection, not my head, which I am learning is so much more empowering and expansive.

505. This is a great sharing Christine. I can so relate as in the past I would hold back and hold back and then have a glass of champagne or two and everything would come out. Not the way to win friends I can tell you.The thing about being caught in right and wrong is just that you can think you are right for a while but it is not long before you are very wrong. Right and wrong is so unforgiving whereas truth cannot be argued with.

506. ‘It was the moment that the lid came off the jar that being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretense and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others.’ I also am feeling how being ‘good’/’nice’ are barriers that I have put up for protection, but in truth prevented me from truly connecting with others.

507. This is great Christine, go you for expressing yourself so beautifully in this way.
     I had also been in this position much of my life, clipping off what I truly wanted to say, burying it in the name of being nice and good and then becoming deeply frustrated and disappointed with myself because I could feel the dishonouring, not only of myself but also those who missed out on the real me. I am also very thankful to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon for their support to open the flood gates!

508. You are inspiring me to be more expressive, Christine, as holding back serves no-one . It is so easy to go into comparison and feel that we are not enough or do not have the ability to express but it is really all there inside , just waiting to be expressed.

509. It is gorgeous that you have come to a place where you have realised that you have something amazing to offer and have taken the steps to embrace, embody and express it – this is something that all of us can learn from.

510. Self-condemnation and judgement really do put a big block in the way of us truly expressing what we’re feeling and observing, but as you say Christine the block is only as big as we make it to be and starts to crumble as soon as we stop feeding it!

511. Brilliant Christine, it is absolutely like we have a deck of cards that we flick though, to choose how to be or how to express. When we settle on the one that suits us best like a multiple choice test, we put that out to the world hoping it is ‘the right answer’. How different is this to writing and speaking from our heart, how unique is the way you might say something? How super extra special is the flavour you provide? Wow, how robbed we all are from this when we choose to hide.

512. Christine, so many of us do hold back in expressing what is deep within us to express. I suppose my experience has been to do this in stages and gradually let go of the control and the niceness and politeness too! It has been a gradual process of learning to speak up, to choose to do things in a way I really feel is ‘right’ for me at that moment in time (be this the way I dress, to the car I drive, to the way I walk to the work I do)…Much of this that has freed me up, has for me has also come through writing such as writing these comments. In the process of writing and expressing through writing it has been a process for me to truly let out that which lies within ready to be ‘unleashed’. And hence why these comments have been and are so important for me as it gives me the initial permission to express and to keep doing this throughout my day.

513. I recognize those patterns of keeping back from living our amazingness so well. We tend to adopt these behaviours hoping to avoid hurts and aiming to cushion ourself in comfort. I certainly have done. Yet when we eventually start to drop those patterns we it becomes clear that for all those years we were actually stopping ourself from a vital, joyful and open expression of who we are.

514. Thank you Christine for putting into words what probably many feel inside, there is so much to express but is kept back out of fear of standing out. But then the world is missing out on all the things that we need to hear and see. So to allow ourselves to start to express that what is welling forth within us and especially the beauty that we see in each other and the love we have for another, is very much worth putting our focus on.

515. “The moment I started to claim this truth within myself was the moment the relationships around me started to blossom.” This has been my experience also. I can relate to so much of what you share. A particular favourite of mine too is being exposed. I still find it excruciating at times to speak the truth and not hold back, but what stopped me in the past was a fear of being exposed as being wrong. Now I welcome this as every time I have the opportunity to uncover more patterns of behaviour that do not serve me or anyone. And the love I feel from those who are willing to expose me is humbling beyond words.

516. Learning to express how I really feel as opposed to saying what people have wanted to hear has been a work in progress, but I have learned that when I express with love I can have a lot to share and to offer.

517. What I have found through expressing, be it in the written form, through the way I move or the way I speak that the more I express my truth and what is there to be said in that moment, the more confident I am coming within myself and that feels awesome.

518. When I am with myself and trust what is needed will be expressed the words flow naturally. When I get caught in my head and try to plan what is needed I complicate the situation and make it so much bigger than it ever needed to be.

519. ‘Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.’ Appreciation is so powerful, as I appreciate my body naturally starts to surrender, I drop the fight with life and accept that I am where I am as a result of the choices I have made. I can feel my movements start to change which in turn supports the process of appreciation and it feels a whole lot better than the self critique dialogue.

520. There was a truth within me that I did not express. I discovered that I held this huge fear of what might happen if I said what I thought. I didn’t know why this fear came up – It felt very old. I need to acknowledge other students of The Way of The Livingness for their amazing support because there were times when I needed to say things that were true but not particularly pleasant and they heard me. There were no tantrums and no retaliatory reactions -There was no aftermath of emotion or any emotional undercurrent – There was no bringing up any old hurts to use against me. There was just acceptance, understanding and discussion. I had braced myself for the cold and the cold didn’t come.

521. I remember as a child being made to write thank you letters for stuff (presents/visits/meals) that I wasn’t necessarily thankful for. Over and over I wrote these letters and so I begun to believe that this was how we were meant to behave, express, communicate. But now, when I receive a letter like that from someone else it is so easy and clear and obvious to feel the falsity within the words. And thus the imposition both upon the sender and receiver. It’s lies. And lies hurt us.

522. ‘…trying to get it ‘just right’ and not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.’ Wow, I love this sentence – it offers something for all of us to deeply reflect on. How many of us have lived or do still live under this regime? I certainly used to myself – today I am forever learning to develop my expression and understanding the importance of not holding back my own unique expression.

523. Thank you, Christine, I can absolutely feel the truth of the following words in your whole blog – “The unfolding Grace that I am now experiencing and living every day is the substance of Miracles.” It is an absolute miracle when we move out of the hole that lack of self-worth creates within us and start to see who we are in essence.

524. Thank you Christine for putting onto paper exactly how I am feeling. Too scared to express in case I get it wrong, offend somebody, cause harm or destroy relationships but living in this way severely retards the evolution in relationships and prevents others seeing who I truly am. I find what you’ve written very inspiring and feel encouraged to express my truth without the judging or editing what is there to be said.

525. There is a tremendous freedom on offer when one chooses to drop the expectations of society and oneself and live simply from unrestrained joy.

526. Thank you Christine for this inspiring sharing and as you and many others have shared, I too have lived very much with the lid on and have allowed it to be opened gradually but not quite fully yet! I know with such a revealing story that I totally relate to as well, that this is the only way to be all I can be, by sharing the truth not hiding in fear of reprisal. Thank you for your courage in speaking the truth.

527. Beautiful blog Christine. My ability to express myself changes everyday and knowing that how I live determines how clear my expression is inspires me continuously.

528. This is very inspiring Christine “I love being exposed, I love being out there for all to see.”.

529. This is very timely for me to read Christine as I’ve been feeling how I’ve been holding back my expression for fear of getting it wrong, and how this feels in my body. There is no wrong, there is only expression, and if it isn’t quite right, I’ll have another go.

530. It is so lovely to read how you write Christine, there is a quality to your expression that can ONLY come from you. I really enjoyed reading your blog and it reminded me of how much poorer the world is for each of us who holds back and how much richer it is now that you have chosen to express.

     1. Actually we are always expressing because even what we call not expressing is an expression. It always comes down to what are we expressing? Something that heals and evolves or everything but that.

531. Looking outside ourselves for confirmation of the endless love we are never works, it leaves me with a feeling of emptiness. Being connected to myself, to my Soul feels certain, solid, warm, content, still and full of joy.

532. I can relate to looking for the love I am, ‘to be recognised by others’. But doing this keeps you away from your Soul and stillness, a constant chasing something that’s outside ourselves, a picture, an ideal. People can come and people can go, but when we are connected to our Soul, the bigger picture is that life is constantly in a flow, it’s about letting go, and allowing ourselves and people to make their own choices for we will all return home in the end.

533. Being good, nice and caring is such an effective barrier to connecting with others and one I have hidden behind for so long. The frustration of never feeling like I was expressing who I really was festered away but is now being exposed and the more I appreciate and accept myself as a Son of God the more I finally feel that I am truly living my life and can express this joyfully.

534. Thank you this blog really resonates with me as I have held back from expressing for so many years and tied myself in knots trying to find the perfect way to express something which usually means it doesn’t happen. It is inspiring to feel your joy in expressing and I look forward to reading more of your words.

535. Beautiful Christine an enjoyable read – I understand. I did not so much need help on what I needed to say I just held back from saying it. Because it was held back for so long it came out not flowing. Why I held back? Because almost everything I felt was not inline with what everyone wanted to hear – it still is not.
     To be honest I still hold back. I am precious and that is just it – who acts in a way that they are precious especially being a man. Precious tenderly physical and delicate with authority in expression. It is looked down upon or jealously is in your line of fire because others are not choosing it. As you say Christine we each have something to offer and it is amazing – if we are feeling it it should be shared for ourselves or for another.

536. Oh yes “Finding and Expressing The Words” is something I have struggled with and although I can see that I have come a long way since becoming a student of Universal Medicine I know I have only scratched the surface and will continue to unfold until one day I will discover my true expression in full.

537. Wow Christine, I feel such similar feelings that you have expressed. I used to get so anxious that when I did attempt to express, the words would come out with the complete opposite of my intention. So that would continue the constant judgement to myself. I remember the indoctrination as a child; be good, be nice, do as you’re told. So these two points are interlinked to my choices to hide and hold back. But it is never too late to come out of the closet and start expressing what we are feeling, it feels tough initially but we can find it gets easier the more we open up.

538. Trust to be myself, letting go of the fear of getting it wrong, just sharing with another what is there to be shared…all are wonderful learning experiences which I have a go at every day.

539. ‘Being good, being nice, and being caring was nothing but an airtight seal that allowed things to fester inside me…’ What a powerful metaphor Christine – an airtight seal allows not exchange, nothing in and out and is like holding one’s breath – suffocating. How liberating to now have broken the seal to allow true expression to flow!

540. Beautiful ‘I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today, and feel the richness held within me.’
     It’s all about us feeling our amazing richness within, that is always there and just bursting to be lived through our body.

541. Thank you Christine. What a beautiful and real blog. I can relate to the feeling of needing to get something right before expressing – today I now feel the connection to my body and trust what needs to come out. Sometimes it may come out in a way that could have been more loving but I have realised that I can always go back and re express or say sorry or clarify. It is better to express as best we can rather than hold it in. All that is not expressed is a poison in our bodies.

542. Wow Christine, this expression has been worth waiting for! I could feel the depth of your understanding of your true self articulated in every word. Well worth celebrating and sharing. Inspirational!

543. wow Christine, what you say here resonates with me deeply. You mentioned you felt like you were waiting for people to recognise the love you had inside – well I did this too!
     Not speaking up, being nice, hiding away. And like you – I have seen the immense difference around me when I express. And it is simple really – express in full and deliver it without investment, and wow what a change in me, in how people respond and then what they share back.

544. This is absolute gold Christine and is especially inspiring and hugely beneficial for so many as holding back is a condition that affects nearly every single person in this world.

545. Thank you for sharing this Christine. I am sure it is something we can all relate to in one way or another and to feel the joy in you as you have come out of your shell, so to speak, is awesome.

546. I have also been going though the process of realising that not only do I have something to say, but it is worth expressing – my view of the world, how I feel, the way I see life and people and my experiences are of value and I have a voice that needs to be given air time. Learning to trust that expression is a big one for me, but overtime the more I express the more that trust begins to develop.

547. Christine, you have shared what is true for so many. The facade we wear to face and deal with the world is one that is built out of fear. And we get locked inside unable to express freely. What a prison we build for ourselves.

548. The point is that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ thing to say. And I like you have vexed for many, many hours about how or what to express. It is so much simpler than that. Just say your truth.

549. Such a great blog Christine and something I can so relate to. Keeping up the nice, good and everything is fine to me curtain has had its impacts on myself as I feel so exhausted because of this. It is a work in progress but I love feeling that actually I can express what I truly feel and that with that my relationships become more full and real. That is really a joy to feel.

550. I am someone who wasn’t shy in sharing things and just stating how they are, at times this would cause a backlash from others. One of the things I did hold back though was the amount of love I feel for others. I am learning now to be more open with this and express it outwardly.

551. Christine you’re certainly not alone here, I used to think I was the only one that calculated and held back, overthought every word I said. Yet the more people I speak with the fact is many people I understand do the same. The greatest gift to myself has been expressing what I feel and not holding it back, the more I do this, the greater freedom and at ease I feel in myself. So I fully agree with all you’ve shared.

552. A beautiful sharing – thankyou Christine. “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me. Accepting, surrendering and appreciating me have changed my world, my words and the way I express.”I love these sentences – and can so relate to them both.

553. Christine I can relate to what you shared,up until recently I held back expressing what was inside of me, in the fear or being rejected,not loved and losing relationships. This stopped others from expressing truth with me but more so stopped me from expressing my truth. With the support of Serge Benhayon,Simone Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I have began to start expressing, and to my surprise by life has changed so much, my body feels lighter and life feels joyful and full love.

554. Christine, I so love reading what you express.
     Just today I openly expressed on a birthday card to my niece and in a text message to my grandparents, and can relate to the beauty and grace in allowing these words to bubble out of us and the joy in letting go of the control to keep things in a neat and tidy formal presentation.
     So much to take away from this blog that is immediately relevant to all relationships and opportunities to express me in my life, thank you.

555. I often say when telling someone how much i love and appreciate them that I don’t have the words to describe it – and for me this is a marker that I need to bring that love into my every day more and live it and though living it I will find the words and actions needed to communicate it to another.

556. Christine, I really love this, and the timing of reading it is spot on for me. Lack of expression of what I am feeling inside has probably been the biggest hindrance of my life, like you from fear of being rejected and condemned, when really that was what I was doing to myself. To let go, to trust and value what is there in the body to be shared feels huge and absolutely amazing.

557. Such a gorgeous sharing Christine and one that I know many will be able to relate to. It is not surprising to me that as adults we more often than not struggle to truly express what we feel, for as children this definitely was not encouraged, as sometimes the honesty of a child is way too exposing for adults to hear and with the discouragement our naturally expressive child’s voice began the process of shutting down. To reconnect to our beautiful voice, and to develop an ease of expression, serves to remind us of how joyful it was to share with the honesty that we all innately had as a child.

558. This is beautiful Christine and is a real joy to read .The clarity of our choices and the love we are you offer here so simply is an inspiration. ” I could choose to recognise the amazing being I was and am today, and feel the richness held within me.” Sharing this is something not to be missed and held back.Thank you

559. There is something very sweet about rediscovering your voice once again, and doing so without self judgement for having buried it in the first place.

560. Great post. I can definitely relate. I too was once very shy and acted as a ‘people pleaser’. All that did for me was erode any self-worth I did have. It’s great to hear that you have changed your ways and have come full circle. It really is a joyous occasion when you have personally developed enough to realize who you are and can sit comfortably with that and be your true self. All the best 🙂

561. “Chewing away at life in bite-size pieces in the days when my children were small, was what kept the door open while I waited for my life to begin.” In my life before meeting Serge Benhayon I can really relate to this feeling of waiting for my life to begin, thinking that with each big moment, like moving house, changing job or being in a new relationship that this would be the new beginning I had been searching for. Yet as you say Christine, little did I know that the beginning, or the end if you like, was simply returning to the truth of everything I already am and shedding the cap of expectations and ideals that so muffled my natural colours.

562. Interesting to consider how we do this “Chewing away at life in bite-size pieces in the days when my children were small,” We do measure how much we are willing to look at and work on or express, I can feel this in the way I have approached my willingness to express myself.

563. I have spent most of my life wordless in the written form. I was always inept at spelling. I had found it hard when I was young and chose to find other ways to get around my poor spelling ability, by talking teachers into allowing me to do something other than the dreaded written paper. I would do photographic studies and artwork in the form of paintings that depicted something relative to the subject. I managed to graduate school almost literate, reading was never a problem, but spelling was diabolical. When I did have to write, it was once described as a spider on speed that had walked through ink. It was like my doctors handwriting that even I could not read – how I had tried to hide my poor spelling by making it undecipherable. The age of computers helped me come out from behind the wall I had built to just function in a grammatically speaking sense. I have hidden my real self for most of my life and have now found my voice through the written word. I am no longer embarrassed about my written shortcomings; the rules don’t matter as long as what is written is understood by the reader. I have held myself back from so many things in this life time by not expressing myself in words from writing that has spilt over into not speaking either. Quantity and speed are not always bedfellows… When expressing quality, less is always more no matter how long it takes.

564. “Chewing away at life in bits-size pieces”. This is such an accurate metaphor for who I was living my life. And I can say that Serge Benhayon has inspired me to grab the absolute whole of life – every last morsel on the plate.

565. This is gorgeous, there are many ways that we choose to hold back and hide who we are, reasons for not connecting with others. I am realising that all of it comes down to fear of hurt and then reluctance to take that full step into responsibility and let go of the I and ME. I am picking these behaviours apart and letting them go. I feel that the appreciation you express in this article is the key to allowing us to let go of these habits. Appreciation builds a foundation of love from which to express and make choices from.

566. Awesome blog Christine and one that is very timely for me. I can feel the sealed door of blocked expression also and have just started to pry this door open some more and it feels great. We are fed so many things from the world about being nice, good and getting it right. But these are all different from love, the love we all feel inside of us and is designed to be expressed outwards all around us.

567. How many of us hold back what we are feeling for the sake of being nice, polite or to not upset someone? The problem is with this holding back is that it cannot be contained and eventually when we do say something what was once a small situation gets blown out of proportion. We make mountains out of molehills by holding back what we feel. Thank you for this blog Christine as it reminds me to appreciate that when I say what I am feeling it brings much more understanding in relationships with others and with myself. And when I understand life I am less resistant to what occurs in life because I am not blind to what is going on underneath the surface that predates what is experienced.

568. “Being good, being nice and being caring” I can really feel the emptiness of these words and the unnatural picture they paint, its beautiful to hear how expressing your truth without perfection has opened you up to richness within and without.

569. Christine, that is great. It is amazing how much of the time is spent trying to get it right. But right for who?! If we are not considering the whole then surely we cannot be doing something with love and so what energy are we doing it with?! The more we honour what we are feeling and just be the more we will realise we do not need to get it right, as we have no box to tick. After all right comes loaded with a picture and ideal whereas love just simply is and allows everybody to be where they are.

570. Trying to get it right and trying to be perfect is a crushing, exhausting way to live that keeps us small and stuck. Fearing getting it wrong, and then being hard on ourselves when we do get it wrong, actually stops us from evolving. Being okay with making mistakes, allowing ourselves the grace and loving understanding of why we go into particular behaviours, why we feel the need to be good for example, allows us to start changing them.

571. I’ve never been wildly comfortable with writing.. but I’m enjoying it now. Before I had always associated it with my poor results in English (in particular) when younger, and a lack of confidence in just sharing myself with no trace of embarrassment or reservation. Following a programme of writing and expressing for the last two years I actually enjoy it. To the point where I have started to hand write personal letters again. They are so deeply personal and I get to express all my love for another… its been beautiful.

572. I hadn’t thought of being good, nice or caring as a pretence and a barrier to connecting with who we truly are, and others, but it’s true: when we’re good/nice/caring because we want to get recognition from another, there’s a falseness in that which is quite horrible to feel – we’re manipulating another to feel good about ourselves.

     1. Definitely! Because good, nice and caring are three virtues that society holds up on high.

        Could it also be that we’re making a judgement about what another can take – that if I truly express how I feel about something I might offend them?

573. Finding the right words which express how we feel falls so short of what we have to say from inside of us, and when we give in and say ‘that will do’ we are not only short changing others but ourselves also. How refreshing would it be to not let our heads get in the way and worry about what we have written and how it would be perceived by others, and what if the words we use to express ourselves are exactly what that person needed at that time, regardless of grammar and spelling.

     1. In other words, Julie, what if we spoke the way young children do – no holding back because they only know what their bodies tell them? Pretty cool. Now it’s up to me to work on this.

574. Christine , I love how you have expressed in this blog-you certainly have found “the words”. Like a rose opening up you are now in full bloom. So gorgeous.

575. Christine, I loved reading this, I can so relate to what you have written, I used to be so scared to simply say what I was feeling, I had a huge lack of self worth and as you say here, ‘not even entertaining the possibility that I might have something amazing to offer.’ That is changing now and I am realising that actually I can express myself and that what I have to say is important and that I do not need to judge and be hard on myself. It feels lovely to be developing a loving rather than critical relationship with myself.

576. Bringing our ‘tender unfolding to the world.’ This is the way forward. So beautiful to feel how you were able to find your own words Christine. This is inspirational for me and many others, no doubt. Standing forth and expressing the amazingness that we truly are needs to be celebrated and encouraged.

     1. I love those words too, Irene. Beautifully expressed and felt as much as read. Looks like Christine did find the words after all – maybe she should start a card company 😜

577. I’ve lived being nice and good and what I’ve noticed since dropping these, to a large extent, is that people don’t open up with you as they know they are only going to get a water down and held back expression. It feels awful in the body to hold back, especially when most the time what needs to be expressed is not for us but for another to hear.

578. The cool thing is that if we connect to our self and the other, wether that be a person or a group of people, express what is there to be expressed, what comes out is exactly what the other/s need to hear.

579. Loved your blog Christine it was a bit like reading my life I could relate to everything you wrote. Letting everyone else express what I felt because I didn’t have the courage to say it for myself, being nice and not making waves, fearing getting it wrong, and hiding behind myself worth issues. It has taken me a long time to see the picture I had created and run with so that I didn’t have to stand out or accept myself. Not living in my fullness was what led me to feel the misery in my life rather than the joy that you have expressed here, “Choosing to hide and hold back had meant missing out on the amazing love and joy that is in, and around, me.”

580. Christine this line has an oh so familiar ring to it ‘I was waiting for the love deep inside me to be met and recognised by others around me’, even though I have realised in the past that I have the absolute freedom and ability to be amazing love right now, I still get caught waiting for others to go first. Such a stagnant state to be in, I do know that if I go first then others are much more likely to follow suit and that even if they didn’t then it wouldn’t matter because I would already be the love that I wanted.

581. “It was the moment that the lid came off the jar that being good, being nice and being caring could be seen for what they were – a pretence and a barrier to truly connecting with myself and with others.” A great description of the exposure of the fallacy of endeavouring to fit in to the ideals of what we ‘think are right’. How different we experience the world once we drop that way of living and instead live from our truth, as you describe Christine.

582. “trying to get it right” I know this one and it is always wrong because it gets in the way of being and expressing the truth of who you are.

583. Christine, this is a lovely blog and very touching how you started to unfold your leaves and started to blossom in allowing to express yourself in truth.

584. Christine what you have shared is truly the ‘proof of the pudding’. A woman who has held back her expression for most of her life, who chose to start to express to those around her and is now expressing with a naturally rich flourish and a wonderful ability to convey wisdom from her body. More please.

585. Christine I love you blog in as much as I can relate to what you share. I have spent my life holding back my expression and then judging myself for what either comes out or for holding back, which leads to further frustration. It is consistently a self loving choice and with patience, that I am working on it, as I have felt the times that I have expressed openly, an expansion and joy in my body that surpasses any feelings of frustration and resentment at not expressing in full. And I too thank Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for showing me the way to re-connect to my full expression and that it is only me who can choose to go there or not, no one else can do it for me.

586. One expression leads to the next and the next. When we connect to the Truth we know and express what is naturally there to bring, we cannot go wrong and our body will thank us for it.

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