Every time you catch yourself doing something silly, like perhaps chasing after your roommate or stealing your sibling’s chocolate from the fridge when you are fully capable of buying your own or jumping into the pool with clothes on and dragging a friend along, you are channeling your inner child.
But then there are also times when you find yourself being over-reactive, or getting hurt by something trivial, or perhaps when you refuse to accept help even though you know you need it, you are also channeling your inner child.
But why these two sides of your inner child are so different from each other and how can we balance the two? Let’s find out in this article.
Everything About Your Inner Child
What is your inner child?
There is a little voice inside each of us, our childhood from different age groups, that never grew up. Our natural enthusiasm, our curiosity, our creativity, these things are still connected to that inner child.
But there were times in our childhood when we were hurt, our emotions were wounded, we went through trauma or something else happened. But at that time, we never received the emotional support from our caregivers that we needed to process our emotional problems and in turn, we never healed from them, we just grew up.
Therefore, sometimes when we are being creative, or silly, we are connected to the happy parts of our childhood but when we are unreasonably furious or depressed, we are connected to the wounded part of our inner child.
But you’d ask, how do I get to know if my inner child is wounded or healed? And if wounded, what steps can I take to help them heal?
Well, written below are some signs to help you look for your wounded self, and some suggestions to guide you on your journey of inner child healing. So read on!
Signs that Your Inner Child Is Wounded
Different symptoms tell you whether your inner child needs healing or not. These are:
- Being highly reactive to something small can be counted as one of the symptoms that show you still need to heal. If you are too bothered by something as small as someone not picking up your call one time or a friend not responding to your ‘hi’, then perhaps it’s the sign that your inner child needs healing.
- If you have a habit of doing something obsessively when you are anxious, such as perhaps eating too much, lying, cheating, consuming alcohol, or taking drugs, then once again, you need to dig deeper when you visit your therapist this time.
- If you have a habit of over-burdening yourself by never accepting help when you need it, then it can be an indication of a wounded inner child.
- Sometimes the reasons for your declining physical health and poor mental health are not very obvious. Such as having severe mood swings, feeling depressed often for apparently no reason, losing or gaining weight all of sudden, being insomniac, etc. if any of this happens to you, perhaps you need to take a peek at your childhood and the troubles you faced at that time.
Why Must You Heal Your Inner Child
Wounds are wounds, whether overt or covert, emotional or physical. When we walk around carrying the wounds from our past, or even the past we think is long-gone, i.e., our childhood, we may bleed on the people that never hurt us. In our society, we often come across this type of bleeding when we see people being racist, rude, unjust, or alcoholic.
That is why it is so important to heal our inner child, to save ourselves and others from unnecessary harm. We need to give our inner child the protection, support, love, and secure environment we never had as a child. When we work on healing an inner child, we save generations from getting emotionally wounded and going insane. To do so, we can always take experts’ help such as taking Jacqueline Kane’s private coaching services, who’s a professional therapist.
Healing Your Inner Child
And now the question we have been posing in this article over and over is how to heal your inner child. To begin this journey of healing and getting healed, you must begin by connecting your inner child. Some of the activities that can help include:
- Practice mindfulness and deep breathing. Put your senses to work while you meditate. For example, focus on one thing you see while meditating, one thing you smell, one thing you taste, and one thing you hear.
- What creative things did you enjoy doing as a child? Perhaps it’s time to go back to trying drawing, cooking, swimming, or something as simple as doodling again. Let your inner child rejoice while your elder rests.
- If you like writing, grab a diary and a pen and just start. Make your diary or journal a safe space for your thoughts and let the words pour out.
- Oh, how did you like collecting stuff as a child? But do you know you could do that as an adult too? Collect anything you like, be it pencils, coins, currency, chalk sticks, books, or even rocks.
When you finally succeed in connecting with your inner child, it’s high time you start taking a step forward in your healing journey. Begin with getting in touch with a therapist. You also need a few reminders to give yourself as often as you can to assist you on your healing journey. Some of them are:
- Whatever happened, was not your fault.
- You are valued and important as you are.
- You are loved.
- You made the best out of the worst situation you went through. You did all you could at the time.
- I’m here for you, I see you and I love you. You are safe. It’s OK to feel happy, you deserve happiness.
Final Thoughts
When your inner child hurts and doesn’t know how to deal with it, you need to help it by helping yourself. Let go of your feelings of insecurity, loss, and loneliness and get help from an expert like Jacqueline Kane, who’s an expert therapist. She’ll hold your hand and guide you through your journey of healing. You can join a free community healing circle or just book a call to get her services.
