Be Childish

Disclaimer ~ Mentions of Trauma

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐈𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝?

We tend to hear about the inner child in therapy or in shadow work, but who really is the inner child? Frankly, the inner child is a aspect of yourself who lies in your subconscious. The inner child is made up of memories from your childhood and is a very tender space in your mind, everything you learned comes back to the inner child and they remember trauma, fears, loss and if not healed the inner child remains stuck in that memory and never grows up.

The inner child is also considered an expression of the self and is determined by factors in your childhood. Having experiences will determine about who your inner child is and how it’ll affect you later in life as you grow up, every person’s inner child will be different as people’s experiences differ. These experiences can affect what your inner child fears or is scared of, or what they desire and love. The environment you grow up in truly decides about who your inner child is in your subconscious mind.

𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭

The purpose of the inner child is it holds all of your emotions and the way you interact to different situations in your life, it takes in information that may be similar to past events in your childhood and decides how to cope when processing information. The inner child aspect holds all the repressed feelings from when you were a child and their purpose is to help you feel your emotions and what you’re scared of so you can learn how to handle it in a healthier way. If the inner child is triggered by something they see as a threat their emotions will bottle up and they’ll lash out as that’s the only thing they know how to do, they don’t understand ways of coping and if they do they usually cope in unhealthy ways.

ex; if you’ve been abandoned in your childhood by people and there comes a situation that reminds your subconscious mind of the past event in your childhood, your inner child may panic and lash out causing you to push others away in perceived imaginary abandonment to avoid feeling the pain from real abandonment.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥

So how do you heal the inner child? Well it can take a very long time as it’s not easy to change your ways of coping and change your perspective on how you view situations.

Mantras Repeating to yourself words of reassurance and love towards your inner child can help build up their belief in your words.

Examples: • i am safe • i am loved • my fears are real • my feelings are valid • my trauma doesn’t define me • it’s okay to be scared • it’s okay to be sad • i love myself

Journaling Journaling about childhood memories and events can help you relive the moment and walk your inner child through the situations, comforting them as their feelings reappear and learning to accept them and handle them differently can help.

prompts:

• 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦?

• 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘬𝘪𝘥?

• 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴?

• 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥?

• 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘬?

• 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘬𝘪𝘥?

• 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴?

Meditation Sometimes following a guided meditation or sitting in a safe place focusing on your inner child and having mindfulness towards what your physical body is feeling. For most people, when thinking of their inner child they get a sensation in their body, where do you feel their presence? Is it in your gut, your chest, your eyes? Write down where you felt them in your body. Focus on your feelings, when you think of your inner child, a child version of yourself, what do you feel? Do you feel happiness, sadness, regret? Write down your feelings on imagining your inner child. If you feel your inner child present, ask them a few questions and see if they answer! what do they need to hear? what do they want to say? what do they need you to do for them.

𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝

This is completely suggestive, but I found it helpful to create a altar space for my inner child for when I call upon them to meet with me, I will show you a picture of my altar and give you examples on what you can put on your altar to honor your inner child! Remember, you don’t have to do this but I've found it helpful personally to have a space for them.

Ideas for An Altar: • childhood toys • rose quartz for self love • red & pink candles • soothing colors (pastels) • divination to communicate • offering bowl for snacks • sensory items like fidgets • rose petals for self love • pink Himalayan salt for purification • amethyst for the subconscious • drawings from when you were a kid

As always, thanks for reading. Fair winds.

KB