We are at all times expressing ourselves. There is no "not-expressing" ourselves. We - all beings - express ourselves, that is, strive to articulate underlying desires and needs. There is no block to this - even when we are struggling, we express ourselves. We can only struggle as ourselves.
And even in thinking, we express ourselves. Thinking is an activity, an expressive activity, like any other.
The real conflict we face in life is not between expressing ourselves and not being able to express ourselves, but rather between our sense of power and our sense of powerlessness. Such a "sense of power" has to do with our ability to interpret our situation clearly or not. How clear is our sense, our perception, of our ability to express ourselves with respect to a certain situation or environment?
The internal conflict we face in life, therefore, is a matter of imagination - not expression.