You know that little voice in your head that pops up during certain moments, like when your friend doesn’t answer your text or when you weren’t invited out? Well, according to psychologist Carl Jung, that voice would be our inner child. As kids, we hold on to every memory and experience we go through, good or bad, and these experiences later influence our lives well into adulthood.
Maybe you feel as if you weren’t loved the right way, or maybe you felt like you were too loud as a child. All of these wounds stay with you throughout your life, but there are ways to mend them. This is where the term inner child work comes into play: addressing our unmet needs and working on tools to heal our wounds. By doing this, we create a space to let our true potential shine through. We allow ourselves to give us the space and security we have always needed as a child. There are many different ways to heal your inner child, which can vary by person. So how do we know how to heal our own?
Here, I’ll share with you various answers people have brought to me about how they heal their own inner child. For anonymous reasons, every answer is gonna be tied to a number.
One:
“As a kid, I never really had the opportunity to get into sports or dance, and I always felt like I missed out on having those core experiences. Now as an adult, I have given myself the space and liberty to take up ballet lessons. It’s been a little over a year since I started, and I can physically feel how giddy and happy little me would have been to see all of my progress. My younger self feels safer than she has ever felt.”
Two:
“Honestly, anything Disney heals my inner child. Watching a Disney movie or listening to a Disney playlist. Even looking at pictures from my trip there helps.”
Three:
“I act like a kid whenever I can and, for now, I buy small things that my parents wouldn’t get me for X and Y reasons. For example, when I was little, my parents wouldn’t buy me certain kinds of candies because according to them, I wouldn’t like them. Now, I see those candies at the gas stations, and I get one, just to let that little boy know what the candy tasted like.”
Four:
“Let me think…I guess my dog. I never had any dogs when I was little because I wasn’t allowed. I remember specifically wanting the dog from Cotonelle.”
Five:
“Hanging out with my friends. I’m an only child and have always wanted siblings. My friends gave me that sibling dynamic that I was looking for. Being with them heals that.”
Still not sure how to start healing your inner child? Start simple. Start with doing things you used to enjoy as a kid, like coloring a book, having a pillow fight; anything that would make your inner child happy. Look back at your childhood memories. Is there something you miss, something you wish you had done? This is the time to do those things. Remember to be patient and gentle with yourself throughout all of this process. Healing your inner child isn’t something that happens from one day to another.
Life will be so much more worth living as an adult when you start inner child work. Regain that sense of wonder and amazement you had as a child, and take the time to heal past wounds. You won’t regret it.