What is the Inner Child?
The inner child is an aspect of one’s childhood that lives forever tucked away inside your psyche. The idea of the inner child was first developed by psychologist Carl Jung. This archetype was known as his divine child archetype. Jung linked this internal child to past experiences and memories of innocence, playfulness, and creativity, as well as hope for the future. This brings on the idea that you have an innermost part of you that is child-like and innocent and can be activated when dealing with trauma.
The inner child is like a sponge and is with you throughout all life stages. It can pick up both positive and negative experiences. This can affect how you interact with others later on in life as the world throws different situations at you. You have been picking up messages since you were in the womb and that shapes how you handle life.
The inner child is meant to be playful and loving. It is a part of you that is meant to keep your soul light and happy. Your inner child is filled with healing capabilities that can help you get through your trauma if you work with it and re-wire yourself physically and mentally. Below are just some questions you can ask yourself about the inner child and how to work with it.
Can You Heal Your Inner Child?
Is it possible to undo years and years of damage done to your inner child? The answer is yes. If you are willing to put it in the work you can heal yourself from the inside out. Like anything connected to you, the inner child is a lot like a limb or physical part of your body that you need to work out in order to get it working properly. Sometimes it needs love and attention, other times it needs rest and relaxation.
Healing the inner child is important because carrying traumas from one’s childhood can cause a plethora of mental and physical health issues. Certain stresses are tied to an inner child that needs healing that can lead you to getting sick faster. It can also lead to certain types of depression if your brain chemistry or genetic lineage leads to that.
By doing the work of healing your inner child you are doing yourself a major service. You can remove stress and depression. If you want to boost your immunity, you can try making yourself less concerned about things that don’t really matter. You will promote a presence of grace and beauty with your inner child. Your friends may ask if there’s a new serum in your beauty regimen.
What are the signs of a wounded Inner Child?
There are many signs that will let you know you have a wounded inner child. A lot of the time these are things we brush off as being temporary but they do add up and part of the same problem. Over time you can create a toxic environment and hurt yourself health wise if you do not address the issues of a wounded inner-child:
- Restlessness can be a sign that something is off in your soul. It could mean that your inner child has unfinished business and has created a void in its place. Feeling lost creates a sadness of needing and wanting and can lead to bad life decisions.
- Being irritable can be a sign that you were abused as a child and that you impart that on others. Irritability can be a trigger when something reminds you of something in your past that caused you great pain. This can be because your inner child is wounded and can only connect with punishment or abuse.
- Being discontent can impart a negative attitude on yourself and others. You can become a thunderstorm and set a very sad tone wherever you go because your inner child experienced loneliness and pain from when you were a child yourself.
- Phantom pain, or physical pain that is just in your imagination can be a sign of trauma from your childhood that leads to a damaged inner child. This can happen especially if you are/were a victim of abuse as a child. Certain things might trigger that pain bringing you back to that awful moment in your life.
How do you know you Need to Heal Your Inner Child?
Here are some ways to let you know you need to heal your inner child:
Having depression is a major sign you may need to reach into yourself and heal your inner child. Depression can stem from physical factors or from years of sadness and abuse. It could be that you have always been depressed and need to work extra hard to find the shiny bright side of yourself looking for fun, love, and light.
Childhood trauma can be a major indicator that you need to work on your inner child. Since the inner child picks up memories from when you are young, you will associate it with pain and trauma. This is something that will require re-wiring those experiences so you can reach the happy and loved inner child within you.
The traumas of your past life can follow you into your next. Perhaps you were a child when you died in a former and need to do some karmic healing in order to help your current inner child now.
Lashing out or being abusive toward others can also be part of trauma but I bring this up separately because abuse itself can cause so many issues and needs a lot of love and patience in order to heal. This could take lifetimes to heal on its own but it is worth it.
Fear from when you were young that carries over into adulthood is something that happens a lot with people as they get older. Your fear of heights may stem from riding a rollercoaster that traumatized you and therefore wounded your inner child. This would keep you from performing a simple task such as replacing a ceiling light bulb.
How do I work with my inner child?
Working with the inner child can vary depending on who you are. The great thing is that you have options. Those options can help bring variety to your everyday life. What is great about the solutions below is that you can integrate some or all if you want. Whatever you end up doing be sure this is the right first step into working with your inner child.
Conventional talk therapy with a therapist or psychologist is probably the most common. It can help you talk through your childhood trauma and help reset your inner child so you can make the best of the connection between yourself and it. The best thing about therapy is that you can add one of the other suggestions below in order to supplement its effects.
Meditation can assist you with looking deep within yourself and finding that spot where the inner child lives. You can access conversation and emotional healing from that place. Working with meditation can also help you with manifesting and creating a beautiful relationship with your inner child. This happens when you create a place in your mind where both you and your inner child can converse and live as one.
You can make a mini altar to your inner child or dedicate part of your altar to it. By creating a space with flowers, candy, toys, and pictures from your childhood you can have a dedicated physical space where you can reach out to your inner child.
Playing video games from your youth or perhaps roller skating can help you work with your inner child. I only suggest these because working with fun activities from one’s past can help heal and bring out the best of your inner child.
Candle work is an excellent way to honor your inner child. By lighting a candle you are lighting a spark to help you guide yourself inward toward it. It also helps in healing the inner child if it is something you need.
Working with a spiritual healer or guide to help reach the depths of your soul is also a viable and incredible solution. Perhaps the tarot can bring on a solution. Reiki or other spiritual work can also help you bring on working with your inner child. The great thing about working with an advisor is that they can help you get a more clear perspective on your situation.
What Does it mean to Connect With Your Inner Child?
Connecting with one’s inner child means you get to rewrite your story. You get to heal yourself from the inside out. You have an ability to re-create moments in your life that have kept you from being your best positive self. When you connect with your inner child, you are able to manifest your dreams better.
To connect to your inner child means that you are willing to heal from past traumatic experiences of your life. You also heal the relationships you have with others. When you connect with your inner child, you will have a better way of communicating with others. Forgiving yourself and forgiving those who have hurt you in the past will also come easier to you.
You will want to impart a positive vibe wherever you are and you will be more interested in the well-being of others and drawing them towards also building relationships with their inner children as well.
When you connect with your inner child and heal it, it means less work in your future lives. Healing your inner child also means undoing years of generational trauma that cause blockages for both you and your family.
Heal Your Inner Child Wounds
You learned today what the inner child is and we investigated what happens when it is wounded. We showed you different signs on how you know need to heal it. We also showed you all the different ways you can work with healing and connecting it. Remember that your inner child is just another extension of yourself you can work with in order to manifest goodness into your life. The energy you tap into when working with your inner child can change your life forever and in your after lives too.
You have the power to begin healing today! Let us help you start on your path to healing today. Reach out to one of our advisors here on Keen to get the clarity you need.
