An open expression of your feelings, can aide you with the healing process in your life.  This was part of an answer that Deepak Chopra, provided to a reader who was asking him about advice regarding his failure to get past the grieving process in the loss of his father.  This was a good example of how unresolved feelings can fester and create a place in your life that is left hollow or unfulfilled.  The issue of opening up and expressing feelings, can be such a complicated one for some people.  Among the biggest items to tackle in those situations, is having the courage to be vulnerable, in that expressing your feelings can possibly lead you to feel hurt or other negative emotions that you were unwilling to bare.  There is also the voice in the head, that you sometimes battle that provides you with examples of how you may have failed in the past and how this could be another one of those situations.  Nobody is better at talking down to you about your life's short comings, than yourself.  We are our own worst critics and we can be so hard on ourselves about where we lack or how we could be better.  As we grow older it becomes rare when we give ourselves praise for a job well done.  We usually expect someone else to recognize us or point out something that we did well.  However, when you lack that type of feedback or your inner circle of support is not as acknowledging as you would like them to be, then you have to action into your own hands.  There is a reason that self affirmations became famous years ago, in that it created an avenue for a sense of fulfillment.  If you have ever kept a journal where you wrote about your life and your experiences, you would be amazed to go back over some of those pages to see what you were feeling and how much you have grown since then.  This is why it is a recommended action that if you can allow yourself a few minutes at the beginning or the end of the day, you should practice jotting things down.  Having a written chronology about how you felt on certain days or what types of things you had to face is part of the formula to your own success.  Sometimes people are not there to congratulate you to tell you how well you did, yet , if you had a journal to go back and review, you would see the mountains that you have been able to climb.  Learn to get better at expressing your feelings, it is great if you can do it in person, however, if you struggle with that aspect then practice writing them down.   Not only will your own words be the medicine that your body and spirit may need, you will create a written reference to how to get past a particular issue.  In the process, you will continue to heal if you needed it and your personal growth will serve as a road map for others to come.