Inner Child Exercises --- Everyone contribute!

Hi everyone! Just sharing a thought :) I will use "her" because I am a she, in my language our pronouns have no gender and typing he/her, him/her, he/she is so tiring lol! >.<

Childhood is a crucial part of our lives. I would like to think that this is our transition from being spirit to becoming human. Our ideas of "who we are" are replaced by other people's ideas, our "imaginations" slowly get weaker, and we stop seeing Angels, "imaginary friends", etc.

If children are verbally abused, they may start to think that the abuser was right. Verbal abuse can be from classmates, or other adults. If they are physically/sexually abused, they can start having trust issues, severe hatred, and worse if they report the incident and the adult blames them for the abuse, they might no longer report any bad incident --- bullying for instance, or any future forms of abuse.

And sometimes, consciously or unconsciously, they carry those scars with them far into adulthood.

Everybody has an inner child. Some of our inner children need healing, some need recognition or attention, but every inner child needs love.

Based on my own experience, and a bit of research, I find the following exercises to be effective in nurturing/healing your inner child. I suggest you calm and relax yourself, make sure nobody disturbs you, before you do any of these, as it may require great focus to find the root cause of your issues, some of them may be buried underneath piles of memory:

1. Write your inner child a love letter.

This is going to be from you -- the Adult, to your inner child. Take a moment to think of the issues that are still affecting your current life. Do you feel unpretty because the other kids told you so? Do you feel that you will never be a teacher/architect/doctor, etc. because your parents wanted you to become something else, or they never thought you could ever match up? Were you always told that you were a disappointment? Did a parent leave you in a divorce? Are you still traumatized by a specific childhood memory?

Then in your letter, write with all your love, that these words are untrue, that she is beautiful, smart, and that you are proud of her. Tell her that the pain is no more, the hurting is over, nobody is around to hurt him/her anymore. Just... express all your love. All of it, do not hold back, this is your LOVE letter.

Read it to yourself when you feel down, or if insecurity/sadness strikes you.

2. Talk to your inner child.
This is basically the same step as above, but use a mirror. Look into the child's eyes, and try to really figure out her biggest issues. Then when you feel them, let her cry, grieve, and comfort them as you would have wanted to be comforted by an adult.

Hug a plushie if you wish, and imagine it's your inner child. Clearly no blaming should be done here. When the child feels a little bit better, talk to her and tell her your views, as an adult, about the situation, and of course assure her that it's not because she she was not loved.

3. Celebrate your inner child!
Being child-like is not being childish, and being a kid at heart is not being a kid in mind.

When you feel like the world is just collapsing on you, you have been doing the same boring routine for the last 5 years, the whole company/family/group is depending on you ----- maybe you just need to celebrate your inner child. There is nothing wrong with some harmless fun every once in a while --- get yourself a big colorful lollipop or a cotton candy, take a trip to the park/beach and run around with your dog like crazy, tickle your partner and roll around in bed as he tickles you all over like you did with your siblings/playmates as a child. Never had anybody to play with? Have one now! Go out and have fun, play a sport, etc. JUST BE A KID. :) You still have the responsible adult with you, so you should still have control of the situation.

Who says it's too late? Change your perception, and with it you change history. Re-raise your inner child...

Whew! That was a lot...
Share your own personal inner child exercises! I am sure someone can benefit from it! :))

[psychoslice]

My inner child needs a good smacking l0l.

i had my fair share thank goodness :P

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Sybilline

i had my fair share thank goodness :P

Great... another talk on the inner child.

And why not :)

And Play,,,Play with the Children in your life..Nephews, Neices, Grand Children, Children,,because they really are the reali article like you were once and can bridge that gap you created between the grown up you and the child you once were,

It works for me ,

I miss my inner child. I even miss my inner teenager. Life gets so heavy the older we get, at least mine has.

I can't really get on with other children though, I've never been a fan.

[Seawolf]

I'm a big fan of working with the inner child, although I don't know how to do it very well. I noticed it does make a big difference though. Anything that helps the unconscious mind is very useful. Thanks for sharing your methods, I'm excited to hear more!

btw, do you know any good books about the inner child? the ones I see seem to be kind of old. it's not a fad anymore in the psychology world like it used to be, but I believe it's still very relevant.

[Seawolf]

Originally Posted by Gem

Great... another talk on the inner child.

I've seen very little talk about it and wished there was more so I can understand it.

Originally Posted by Seawolf

I've seen very little talk about it and wished there was more so I can understand it.

Yeah I'm quite interested too