I think onstage it was more me trying to show people my pain, and offstage it was just feeling it, period.

Being that vulnerable is so necessary; putting words to those feelings is difficult, and it take a while to write the songs because I want to get them right. It can be excruciating, but it’s worth it, it feels like you actually got to the bottom of something, and the hope is that people can easily relate to it.

Pain is pain. Speak up. Tell your story. (Author's Note)

just as healing physical pain requires describing it, talking about it, and sometimes getting professional help, we need to do the same thing with emotional pain.

I want to make sure that the world knows what we’ve been through, the suffering we’ve been through, and how we overcame.

I kind of wanted to open it up a little bit more this time and kind of expose a little bit more of my vulnerable side. The most important thing for me was to share exactly how I felt because I'm sure there are thousands and thousands of people who can relate.

If I want to understand what moves me, what confuses me, what pains me — everything that makes me react, in short — I have to put it into words.

In these times when, to express ourselves, we must speak in a way others do not.

It's quite beyond my powers at my age, and yet I want to succeed in expressing what I feel.

To function successfully in our complex world it is necessary for us to possess the capacity not only to express our anger but also not to express it. Moreover, we must possess the capacity to express our anger in different ways. At times, for instance, it is necessary to express it only after much deliberation and self-evaluation. At other times it is more to our benefit to express it immediately and spontaneously. Sometimes it is best to express it coldly and calmly; at other times loudly and hotly.

We often think we express negative emotions, not because we cannot help it, but because we should express them.

I can't really articulate what I feel,

When we open up about our emotional challenges, admitting we are not perfect, we give others permission to share their struggles. Together we realize there is hope and we do not have to suffer alone.

What we don't let out traps us. We think, "No one else feels this way, I must be crazy." So we don't say anything. And we become enveloped by a deep loneliness, not knowing where our feelings come from or what to do with them. "Why do I feel this way? Last week, I was on top of the world and now my feelings don't make sense." Voicing it, getting it out and letting it other people hear it, helps to dissipate it. The fears and self-criticisms begin to leak. And we begin to heal.