Do you have a voice that is inside of you that reminds you of when you were younger? No matter how old you get, you will always have your inner child with you. This is your younger self. If your younger self was hurt or misunderstood in your life, chances are that you are carrying this pain with you.
Inner Child Work
Inner child work is a way of healing and a way of dealing with past hurts and attachment wounds that you have developed over time. Everyone has an inner child, and this is usually an inner child that didn’t have the love that was needed for it to be healthy.
Inner child work is an inner work that means that you create a place where your inner child can start healing. You look at the feelings that you have, and you research why you feel rejected and why you feel that you are not able to move forward or to get over past hurt.
Inner Child Therapy
Inner child healing can be done with different kinds of therapy. This can be trauma therapy such as Internal Family Systems, sensorimotor psychotherapy, Gestalt work, art therapy and more.
The special thing about doing inner child healing is that it will help you to understand a language that is based on emotions and is expressed through thoughts and actions.
What Does it Mean by Inner Child?
A person has an inner child which really represents parts of your childhood that you have had. This can be a child at any age, one where you were curious and one where you experienced different things.
When you find your inner child, you can connect with these memories and these experiences that you have had. Children are people that are easy to impress, and they absorb what is going on around them. They have people that teach them how to act and how others should treat them, this is where things such as attachment wounds can happen. This can be traumatic for a child and can be hard to repair.
A child that has past hurts will cry out for help and will often experience caretakers that were not there for them or that were emotionally unviable to them. This happens throughout their life and into their childhood.
The way that you internalize things as an adult tells a lot as to what you went through as a child. As an adult, you can heal your inner child, and this can help you to feel secure in your life.
What Is Important About Inner Child Healing?
When you become an adult, you still carry with you things that happened when you were a child. If you went through trauma or if you were neglected or abused, you will still feel these hurt feelings later in life. Some adults are still hurt and have terrible feelings and they are not able to deal with this because they were told as a child to move on and don’t worry about it.
Inner child healing is very important because it can help you to realize that you were not to blame, and you were not a bad person. It helps us to realize that we all have feelings.
When you heal your inner child, you can feel safe, and you can get the love that you needed as a child. This allows your past to shine and allows you to find your natural gifts and your abilities to love.
When you choose not to address hurts from your past, you will always feel them. These things will cause you to pick up bad behaviors and habits such as being a racist, using drugs or alcohol or other habits such as overworking.
When you let your inner child be healed, it changes your world and how you treat others.
Signs You Need to Have Your Inner Child Healed
Here are some signs that you need to have your inner child healed:
Being Reactive
When your inner child is wounded, it affects you in every situation. Maybe you will get mad fast, and you will react to situations in an uncomfortable way.
Independence
Some people that need healing will say that they don’t need anyone, and they will not ask others for help.
Bad Behaviors
These behaviors can be drugs or alcohol, food addictions, gambling, being late, shopping too much or being unfaithful to your partner.
Bad Emotional and Mental Health
This can come in the form of:
- Depression
- Lack of motivation
- Wanting to be alone
- Not wanting to connect with others
- Sleeping problems
- Weight gain
- Weight loss
- Not able to focus
- Anxiety
Repeating Relationships
People that have attachment wounds often go in relationships that are unhealthy. They seem to form a repeating pattern of the childhood trauma that they experienced.
An attachment pattern can look differently such as:
- Hiding emotions.
- Avoiding conflict.
- Not listening to your own needs.
- Not meeting the needs of your partner.
- Gaslighting yourself.
- Being fearful of relationships.
- Pleasing your partner over everyone.
- Feeling abandoned or rejected by your partner.
Connecting with Your Inner Child
If you want to understand your inner child, you have to learn to listen to what your language of your inner child is.
Think of a time when you were a child and you spoke in good sentences. Look at your body language and your intuition.
Reconnecting with your inner child will work by doing activities that you can do to activate your childhood senses. Look at a place beyond where you are now and to a place that is not familiar to you. Create a relationship with your inner child.
You can do this by listening to the language that you speak and your critical thinking. Here are some ways to connect with your inner child:
Be Mindful and do Breathwork
Use deep breathing and physical techniques to get rid of stress in your life. Use all of your senses to see what you are feeling in your mind and body.
Notice things you smell, hear, taste, and feel.
Be Creative
Let yourself be creative. Do something artsy or cook something new.
Collecting Things
Remember collecting things such as stickers or rocks as a child? Begin to collect things to reach your inner child.
Visualization
Use visualization to connect with your inner child. This is your imagination and what you are feeling and sensing. When you first start doing this, you need to start slow.
Journaling
Take time to journal your feelings. This is a safe way that you can express yourself and be honest with who you are.
When you want to reach your inner child, look at things the way a child looks at them. Journal your feelings and then go deeper. Let your inner child heal.
