Your inner child is a part of your subconscious that carries the hurt and trauma that one goes through during their childhood. Although it has been practiced by many for years, the practice of healing your inner child has been getting a lot of awareness recently. The practice of healing your inner child entails recognizing the pain caused during your childhood as well as validating the emotions you feel and have felt. Coming face to face with this can be difficult and should be faced when you are ready, but the journey of healing your inner child can bring closure, improve mental health, lead to a better sense of self, improve motivation, etc. 

Some can feel lost when beginning this journey so here are a few ways to care for your inner child. 

Practice Visualisation 

Practicing visualization is when an individual envisions themselves with their younger self. Many like to picture themselves speaking words of affirmation and reassurance to their younger self. This practice can also be as simple as just picturing yourself now hugging and comforting your younger self. Close your eyes and picture your younger self and envision yourself comforting, playing, drawing, etc. with your inner child. 

Journaling 

Using journaling to connect with your inner child is very open-ended as there is a wide variety of inner child healing prompts. An easy one, to begin with, is the, “To My Inner Child.” Starting the page with, “To My Inner Child”, is an open door for the individual to write words of reassurance your inner child needs, an apology if there is one to say, validation for the emotions your inner child is filled with, etc. Another easy prompt, to begin with, is to write questions to your inner child let yourself become vulnerable, and answer the questions with a clear mind. This allows one to physically see what they are carrying within themselves. Because of a wide variety of prompts, here is 20 journal prompts to try during healing, https://spirithandbook.com/20-journal-prompts-for-inner-child-deep-healing/.

Media

Many parents restrict their children from watching kid movies, shows, and even from reading books that they believe contain inappropriate content. Having these restrictions may not seem like anything to children at the time, but as they grow up they realize that they have missed shared memories that their peers have. Consuming the media that your inner child was restricted from but wanted to experience is a way to let yourself enjoy the simple pleasures you may have thought you were not allowed to have.

Physical Affection 

A common lack that inner children have is the physical affection that  deprived of hroughout their childhood. To sit, lay, or stand with your arms around yourself or hands caressing your cheek while letting your younger self express their pain is a very vulnerable way of connecting and comforting your inner child. As scary as vulnerability is, it is important to let yourself be in that state of mind with yourself to be able to be open to growing into your better self. 

To be in the journey of healing your inner child is important for one’s sense of self. Reflecting on your younger self and seeing how painful events have impacted you allows you to discover why they may tend to overreact, why they get attached to others so quickly, or why they can’t get themselves to trust others easily. Knowing yourself is key to becoming your better self and healing your inner child can be a start.