3 Ways to Heal Your Inner Child
Healing your inner child is vital to let go of resentment, anger, and fear and live a life full of courage, happiness, and gratitude! Inner child work can be rough but with helpful tips and tools, the experience can be taken as an awakening; Affirmations, guided meditation, and simply giving in to your childish urges are effortless ways to overcome unhealthy inner child patterns. In this post, discover three EASY yet POWERFUL ways to heal your inner child!
What is Your Inner Child?
Your inner child is a part of your subconscious that has experienced fear, trauma, neglect, and/or significant loss during your childhood. This part of yourself is carried throughout your life and heavily influences how you respond and react to major and daily life situations. Your inner child is you from the day you were born all the way up to the end of your teenage years. Your inner child is who lived through traumatic, agonizing, and prominent experiences that molded who you are today. The way you respond to good news or bad news is a direct correlation to how you responded when you were in your childhood years as your mind was easily influenced and sculpted your adult brain.
The state of your inner child has a big impact on your decisions and how you function as your subconscious plays a HUGE part in your consciousness because it is the first reaction in any given situation. If your inner child is in a place of despair, anger, distrust, anguish, sadness, bitterness, and hurt, you can expect to be short-tempered, anxious, angry, depressed, and paranoid. A healthy inner child is able to process all situations in a positive and mature way so that you feel happy, calm, peaceful, and balanced; this is the goal!
3 Ways to Heal Your Inner Child
We all deserve to be happy and live life to the fullest but if your inner child is hurting then it can be difficult to fall in love with life. Healing your inner child is vital to let go of resentment, anger, and fear and live a life full of courage, happiness, and gratitude! Here are three EASY yet POWERFUL ways to heal your inner child!
Affirmations
What are Affirmations?
Simply, affirmations are phrases you say out loud or think to yourself. In detail, affirmation defined means the act of affirming. Hence, when you say or think a phrase repeatedly, you are affirming that it is true. These phrases can be positive or negative. Obviously, negative affirmations make you feel shitty whereas positive affirmations make you feel amazing. For example, repeating “I am dumb” will make you feel sad whereas repeating “I am smart” will make you feel happy. To make it more specific to this topic, repeating “Everything bad that happened to me when I was a child was my fault and I blame myself” makes you feel sad, alone, and guilty; however, repeating “I do not take fault or blame myself for my childhood traumas” will make you feel empowered, peaceful, and relieved!
Why And How Do Affirmations Work?
We are about to get real scientific in this explanation of why and how affirmations work so put your thinking cap on! First and foremost, you must understand the bundle of neurons in your brain that carries important subconscious thoughts to your conscious mind. These neurons are your Reticular Activating System (RAS). This system filters out unnecessary information so that only the essentials make it to your conscious mind. Basically, your RAS delivers subconscious thoughts to your conscious mind. Therefore, the repetition of positive affirmations will train your RAS to filter through positivity as essential information.
Not only does the Reticular Activating System (RAS) filter essential information, but it also seeks proof to validate that information. In other words, when you repeat a phrase, your RAS seeks out supporting evidence to connect to the original thought. For example, if you’re repeating “There are no obstacles that I can not overcome.”, your RAS will recognize proof to validate that statement such as solving a problem rather than putting it off or letting the problem win. Your mind will begin to highlight positive situations while dimming negative ones and because your mind will be so focused on the positive, MORE positivity will come – LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE!
Affirmations for Inner Child Healing
Affirmations target the subconscious mind which is where your inner child resides. Affirmations are a very easy way to target the source which is what makes them so POWERFUL! Affirmations are a great way to heal your inner child as you are shifting your mindset and rewiring your brain to think more positively when it comes to how you feel about your past trauma. Practicing positive inner child healing affirmations promotes forgiveness, peace, and growth.
Below are 5 powerful affirmations for inner child healing – add in any others that are specific to your particular trauma in order to have a successful healing journey! The key to using affirmations is to repeat them as much as possible! Set a time every day to practice your chosen affirmations; set an alarm on your phone so you don’t forget and/or practice them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. In addition to incorporating them into your regular routine, use them to replace any negative thoughts you may have during the day. This isn’t easy at first so don’t beat yourself up or give up, just try to be mindful and aware of your thoughts so you can catch yourself and correct them. Repeat affirmations as much as you can to change your mindset, feeling, and relationship with your inner child!
- I do not blame myself for my childhood experiences/trauma
- Boundary setting helps me to create safety within my life.
- My mind, body, and spirit belong to me.
- Love and tranquility surround my interactions and my decisions today.
- I release the feeling of guilt, hurt, and shame.
Meditation
What is Meditation?
Simply, meditation is a mental exercise that strengthens your awareness, mindfulness, and higher consciousness. Typically, meditation is practiced to help deepen the understanding of life and its transcendent forces. First and foremost, it is important to understand that meditation is NOT meant to clear your thoughts. In fact, it is the opposite. In order to meditate, you must focus and ponder on something. Think of the word meditation as a synonym for the word concentration. For example, in order to use mediation to reduce anxiety, you have to concentrate on calming down and relaxing. Secondly, there is no right or wrong way to meditate. A “good” meditation is different for everyone; no two people have the same experience. DO NOT make the mistake of comparing your experience with another person’s. Stay focused on your journey and compare it to your own previous experiences. CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MEDITATION!
How to Meditate
First, find a peaceful environment without distractions and sit or lay in a comfortable position…but not SO comfortable that you will fall asleep. Next, close your eyes and take a few minutes to focus on your breath…follow your breathing pattern from the moment you begin to breathe in until the very last millisecond that you breathe out, immediately repeat. Lastly, meditate. Let the thoughts of your chosen topic roll in and simply be aware; intend your topic before you start and trust that your mind will follow, that’s the trick. Remember to stay focused on your breathing and let your mind do its thing. If you find your mind wandering, don’t panic…just refocus your thinking back to the chosen topic. The only effort you are inputting is the following of your breath; your mind will do the rest.
Meditation for Inner Child Healing
Take yourself to a breathtaking forest…envision all the big lush green trees, vibrant colored flowers, a gorgeous waterfall, and flowing river…listen to the beautiful songs of the birds, smell the fresh air and water, and gaze upon the extraordinary and kind animals such as rabbits, deers, and squirrels…take a walk a feel the fresh grass beneath your feet and connect with the earth, she’s got you. Take your time walking through the forest as you need to really feel as if you are physically there.
After a nice walk, you come across a younger you and you are crying…this is your inner child, go to yourself…talk to your inner child and tell yourself all things you would have liked and needed to hear at that age…reassure yourself that whatever happened was not in any way, shape, or form your fault…give yourself the love you needed at that time. Use the wisdom and knowledge that you have been building to give yourself the nurturing that your younger self needed. Spend as much time with yourself as you need to – there is no rush.
Once you feel at a place of peace with your inner child, tell your younger self ‘I love you and I will come back soon, you are strong’. As you walk away, let the background fade out and come back too.
Practice this meditation as often as you need.
Give In
Sometimes you have to just give in to your childish urges…to an extent, let’s not get crazy. When experiencing childhood trauma, it is likely that you were not able to enjoy positive experiences to their fullest potential at that time. Sometimes, it is helpful to your inner child to re-experience moments and events that you couldn’t fully appreciate at the time and, in a sense, fix your memories.
Go to Disneyland and get excited to meet the character and go on rides. Get into arts and crafts and use it as an outlet. Rewatch childhood movies. Join a sport or group hobby. The list goes on and on but the point is to do things that you would have liked to do as a child and/or fix the memories that you aren’t happy with…there is only so far you can go with this so be realistic with the memories you are wanting to ‘fix’.
Final Thoughts
Remember to be patient with yourself because healing takes time and LOTS of patience and effort! Nothing bad lasts forever and it is up to YOU to change the narrative in your head. You have to put in the work to heal – it is all up to you, no one else can go on your healing journey but YOU!