Inner Child Healing
Healing the inner child (or inner teenager, toddler, baby, etc.) is a crucial aspect of overall healing. In our developmental years (age newborn - 7), we are sponges. We absorb our caregivers’ behavior and the world around us. Our surroundings and the beliefs of who we interact with become imprinted upon us. As we get older, we often recognize that some of the stories we have been told are not our own. Perhaps we begin to question our religion or the ways our parents’ disciplined us.
Even if we begin to question these beliefs on a cognitive level, there is often a younger, wounded part of us that is crying out for a new kind of love, acknowledgement, or holding. Comforting our inner child is how we begin to move toward an inner ecology of unconditional love and acceptance. When we recognize that these parts of us have needs, we can begin to fulfill them. Otherwise, our inner children can unconsciously run the show, showing up in all kinds of ways: as shutting ourselves down from relationships, not taking that amazing opportunity to talk on a podcast because we’re too scared, or self-abandoning through behaviors like binging or avoidance.
This 16-minute meditation will lead you into your own body, and into relationship with your inner child, however they show up today. Return to this one as often as you like, as a form of deep self-care.