The Inner Child
We are born whole. Our soul embodies this vessel to experience this journey. This experience is unique for every individual, every living being, every thing. When we come into this world, we embark on an adventure of experience, growth, connection, contribution, and transformation. From our very first moments in our mother’s womb, till our last day on this planet in this form, we are exploring, feeling, learning, sharing, and evolving.
The inner child is the part of us that is our childlike sense of wonder, awe, play, faith, curiosity, and openness. It is our lighthearted nature, where our relationship to the world and others is formed, as well as sense of safety. It is simply the version of you that comes to mind when you imagine yourself as a child. The intuitive creation of your imagination is spot on. Building a relationship with our inner child can reconnect us with our natural sense of joy, adventure, and creativity. It allows us to live open to the beauty and wonder of life.
In early childhood as we witness and experience the environment, the perspective of the world is created. Through this observation and absorption, in a state of hyper-receptivity, core beliefs are formed that serve as the scaffolding that guides our behavior, perception, and personality. These core beliefs come to be rooted in the unconscious and become the lens through which we see the world as we grow and evolve. This is where our values, our morals, and our integrity springs forth from. Part of the magic of life is the process of creating this perception as conscious beings. Exploring the relationship to the inner child gives us insight into understanding our experience more fully, embodying our truest expression, and providing our best contribution through our unique gifts.
Childhood can include traumatic experiences, in some cases severe trauma, that if left unresolved impacts our life through unconscious paradigms with faulty structures and false beliefs. The energy of the traumatic experience will continue to arise in our life, perpetuated through unconscious core beliefs, until it is expressed and healed. For example, a traumatic relationship in childhood can give rise to a core belief that “all relationships will be traumatic”, yet the core belief will not be known consciously and will become an experience of distance in relationships that seems to come from nowhere. The unconscious belief can only be healed when it is made conscious through processing the energy of the experience that lead to its creation.
Sometimes the inner child will run away, hide, or fight back, all of which are learned defenses when a threat is perceived. With grace, kindness, honesty, apology, and forgiveness, we can embrace our inner child and rekindle our childlike nature. Together, with our inner child, we embark on a process of healing, forgiving, releasing, and transcending the stories that have left us lost or in pain as we take our power back. Think of it as the you now and your inner child on the same end of the rope, rather than in a tug of war.
If you would like to begin a dialogue with your inner child, simply ask your inner child “how are you?” and listen. Allow for the organic unfolding. The occasional question “and why is that?” can continue the conversation within as you move towards core beliefs awaiting reconciliation. Remember, this is a process and a relationship. Given conscious effort, space, and time, your relationship with your inner child will deepen and grow.
Parts of ourselves can grow distant from our true nature as we are met with the experiences of life. Healing is a process of release and reintegration. We can unwind core beliefs that no longer serve us and give rise to a more beautiful experience of life. In the building of a relationship with the inner child, we create resourceful paradigms for navigating the world.
When we begin to heal our relationship with our inner child, making the unconscious conscious, we are given the opportunity to work together in reforming the core beliefs that we initially set up in our early days. Our inner child is receptive to reconnection with our true nature. It is waiting to be welcomed into a loving relationship with the you that wants to walk in the world now, embodied with personal power and purpose.
Photo Courtesy of http://www.sutrajournal.com/why-believe-in-rebirth-by-jeffery-long
