How to Heal your Inner Child and Embrace Self-Growth
Everyone has an inner child - a part of you that is shaped by the experiences, values, and memories from your early years. Your inner child carries both joyful and painful moments and can influence how you perceive love, safety, and connection in adulthood. Your inner child can also affect how you see yourself and how you interact with your surroundings.
Healing your inner child is crucial for self-development and self-growth. This blog shares some strategies to nurture and care for this part of yourself.
Ways to Look After Your Inner Child:
Practice self-awareness
Your inner child may still cling to old values and beliefs that no longer serve you. For example, if you were taught to always put others before yourself, you might continue this pattern even if it no longer benefits your well-being. Self-awareness helps you recognize these childhood influences and allows you to question if they align with who you are today. Reflecting on your values through tools like journaling, meditation, or mindfulness can enable you to make choices that feel more authentic and aligned with your current self.Make choices that empower you
When you were younger, you may have had less control of your outcomes. Things may have happened to you that should not have. To honor your inner child, make decisions for yourself. Make decisions that you wish you could have made when you were a child. Spend time with the people who lift you up, set boundaries when needed, and create environments that allow you to thrive. Nurturing this sense of agency you now have can be so healing.Add playfulness to your routine.
As a child, you may have been more carefree and less scared of external judgment. Somewhere along the line, this may have changed. Try and connect with your happiest younger self. What’s something that you used to do that provided you with joy? This could be dancing, singing, painting, playing games, or exploring the outdoors. Find ways to bring this sense of playfulness back into your life. Let yourself feel the sense of joy and lightness that these activities once brought you.Practice Self-Compassion
When your inner child is wounded, it can be hard to separate your past experiences from your present self. In challenging moments, you might find yourself feeling as vulnerable as you did as a child. Healing these wounds requires ongoing compassion and kindness to yourself. Even when it’s hard, speak lovingly and gently to yourself. Hug yourself. Remind yourself that you are okay now, and continue to introduce behaviors and self-care patterns that allow you to feel grounded in the moment.
Healing your inner child is definitely a process and can take time. By embracing self-awareness, making empowering choices, adding playfulness to your life, and practicing self compassion, you can start to build strength and develop resilience.
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