Speak up!

When you have something on your mind do you speak out about it or do you bury it and constantly fret? If you find yourself with no one to talk to or you just can't bring yourself to get something off your chest, you are not alone.

Everyone has their secrets and their own individual worries. They may range from the minor to the serious, but we all have them and we are all affected by them differently. However, what we all seem to have in common is a propensity to keep our true feelings bottled up.

When someone asks how you're feeling, how often do you just say, 'fine' when you're actually feeling vulnerable, upset, sad, or even the opposite end of the scale; fantastic, great, happy. How often do we say what is really on our minds?

What's going on?

Part of the problem may be our nomadic society. In days gone by you may have confided in a family member or even confessed in church, but so many of us today live hundreds of miles away from our families and the sense of community in many towns and cities is dwindling. Maybe you move around a lot so you don't set down roots, maybe your life revolves around work or maybe you just don't have the time? Whatever the reason, we have somehow stopped connecting with each other.

Even those of us who are seemingly outgoing and sociable have trouble saying what is really going in their heads as Jenny Hyatt (pictured above), founder of the emotional support network, bigwhitewall.com discovered.