How do you switch from repressing to expressing?

If you want to start trying to express your emotions instead of repressing them, I can give some tips.  First, you'll want to go somewhere private, where you won't be disturbed. Next, sit or lay down and close your eyes.  Third, try to feel the place where your emotions reside.  I can usually feel them in the middle of my torso, an inch or two below my sternum.  But I don't think everyone will feel them in the same place.  And you may have to try this multiple times to even be able to feel where they are.  When you can reliably locate where the emotions are, you need to "go there".  By that, I mean center your attention on the spot where the emotions are.  Once you can do that, you'll probably find that nothing really happens.  But if you do it for a while, or if you stop and come back another day, you'll eventually find that you feel something going on there.  What you're feeling is your emotions.  More specifically, your backed-up emotions that would like to come out.  So, while focusing your attention on your emotions, if you can consciously accept these emotions, they will release their energy and you will express.  This takes practice.  You'll probably say, "this is stupid" or "I can't do this" about a hundred times when you first start.  But you can.  Anyone can.  It just takes practice.  So, to accept your emotions, you need to realize that it's okay to have emotions.  That there's nothing wrong with you for having emotions.  That all humans have emotions.  That expressing these emotions makes you strong, because you are doing something that is hard to do.  If you can recognize these truths, you'll slowly accept your emotions and then they will come out.  Once they do, your job is to practice frequently enough that you learn how to express any time you want to.  I can now express my emotions any time, any place.  I cried a little the very second I typed that last sentence.  Sounds a little silly, huh?  But guess what?  The more you work with your emotions, the less they own you.  So I choose to work with them as much as I can.  And I hope you will too.