Discover more about inner child work in this episode. What is your inner child? Or... who is it? ;-)
What does inner child work actually mean? And why should you give it a try? How can it assist you, and how can you see in your life that it is working? I will also provide three ways to connect with your inner child. Listen to Under The Baobab Tree here.
You can read the transcriptions of Episode 2 of Under The Baobab Tree here:
In this episode, I want to talk about connecting to your inner child. It is part of the work that I do with people in sessions. But it is especially something that helped me change big patterns I had in my life, and it helped me reduce triggers that I had.
What is an inner child?
And so what is an inner child? Like, what is that child that lives within us? Well, we still have access to the child that we were, our bodies grew, we became adults. But sometimes, there's still that hurt child within us, that didn't grow up. Because it had certain needs, and those needs weren't met. And also, by the way, we also still have access to that genius child within us with all the talents and with its purpose and that sometimes has way more wisdom than we have at this point.
But so when people talk about inner child work, we're actually working with an energy within us. It's an energy of you, when you were a child. And actually, the past, the future, or the present don't really exist, because it's an energy that is going through time and space. Even if that sounds a bit abstract, it's actually what it is.
Why does inner child healing work?
So that child lives within you. And often the child is in the child's phase between when you were born until you were 12. So why would you be working with your inner child to remove blocks, to live your potential, to live in harmony? Why? Why would that even help?
But that hurt child lives within you. And you get triggered in situations in your life right now. Which is very annoying, of course, because it is happening now. What happens is that the child actually takes over. It is that hurt child that takes over, right? So at that moment, it's not really the adult you who is running the show, but it is your hurt child that is taking over. And so your behavior, your words are coming from that hurt inner child. And the result is that you're angry, or sad or scared, or you're not feeling loved. You're feeling rejected, insecure, what happens is that you...
1. see the world through the glasses of your inner child, because of the trigger, because of that inner child not being healed.
2. you even attract the same situations again, because that inner child is hurt, and want to be held. So it's actually a scream of healing. It's almost as if that inner child is bringing up these pains again, because it's not healed yet. And these moments when we are triggered, or when we feel that pain or sadness, or fear, are perfect moments for healing.
So connecting with your inner child, giving it attention, will strangely enough help you in your present life. The more you care for your inner child, the less it will pop up and scream in current situations, the more you give it attention, and the more you work with it, the more it feels heard. And so the more you can be an adult and behave and react in that way too.
Examples of inner child healing
So for example, I want to give some examples here because it's all like maybe abstract words. But for example, if you were a child that didn't have its father present. Your father wasn't there for you. Maybe in your current life, you're attracting men who aren't there for you, who are emotional unreliable, or are not really there when you need them. And your inner child is so hurt by that. You experience fear of rejection, fear of abandonment again and again. And when you give that inner child that is hurt space when you let that inner child feel what it feels, things start to change.
And so another example, may be as a child, you weren't allowed to express yourself and to express what you wanted. Because of your parents or maybe because of other people around you. And so now as an adult, you're scared to speak your truth. It is just literally blocking you. So again, if you give space to that inner child in you that wasn't allowed to speak, or to express yourself in the way you wanted to a healing process has happened or has started.
Another example is that maybe you were bullied as a child by other children. And maybe that makes you as an adult right now still feel very insecure, or very distressing towards other people. You know, there are so many different situations that you can think of like, it's actually really limitless.
How does inner working with your inner child remove blocks?
So how does working with your inner child remove those blocks? Well, it's actually a very energetic thing that happens, I also don't know the specifics, like, why this is working, because a lot of times, it's like visualization things that we're doing. I'm going to go into that a bit deeper in a bit. But there is just an energetic thing that happens when you connect with that energy of the inner child that lives within you, give it space, you give it love, you connect with it, you meet it, there is a beautiful healing that happens. And when that healing happens, things change in your life, because in a way, it also heals your adult you. In a way, you're not that triggered anymore. In a way, things will start to feel differently. That's just how it works.
And so there are three ways I want to share with you how you can also connect with your inner child, how you can try it out and see what it does with you.
So the first way is super simple. And if you've never connected with your inner child, or even if you have connected with your inner child, this is a perfect thing to do. But it would be that you just go and sit somewhere. And if that feels good to you, close your eyes. You can even put your hand on your heart. And you just ask what your inner child needs. And often they do know. So you just sit, you breathe and you ask, what do you need. And maybe it will say I need a hug, I want to play, I want to paint, I want to scream, I want to dance, I want you to be close to me, whatever comes up. And so there are different ways to work with it be creative here, what you could do is like if your inner child needs a hug, you could...if you're like a visual person, you could really see your inner child and hug it like as an adult, hug your inner child. But maybe, if your inner child wants ice cream, or wants to dance, it helps when you eat some ice cream or go for a dance together with your inner child. So there are different ways to play with it here.
A second way how you can connect with your inner child is to feel a recent trigger of a situation that was difficult for you. And ask your inner child if he or she has felt this before. And if they can show you what happened or what if or what was happening. And then just feel what comes up. And also ask what your inner child needs. And try to meet those needs. It is important that a child feels held and that it is allowed to feel what it feels that's the most important thing that a child really gets space to feel what it feels. And often you may need to cry or you also feel things in your body. But whatever comes up for you, that's also allowed at that moment, and that's where the healing lies.
A third way to connect with your inner child is to write a letter and don't think too much about it. You know, just go with it. Trust it. It's actually a very good way to train your intuition. So but it's just important to give attention to the inner child and to feed that connection with your inner child, often it's becoming a relationship in a way. So writing a letter is a way to do it. So you can write whatever you want, just a letter to your inner child, just whatever comes and whatever flows out of you. But it can also be a kind of like, interview or something where you are asking questions, and you let your inner child answer. And you know, your inner child is not only your hurt inner child, as I said before, so it's not only negative things, you can also consult your inner child to get to know more about talents, gifts, purpose, or things you've forgotten about yourself. Right? So yeah, when you interview your inner child, it's like a journey of talking, answering, show me what you love to do. And it could even be visual, if you are someone who likes to draw or likes to take pictures, or, you know, there is no limit here, do what feels good to you. And it's just very much following your intuition. What comes up is what you work with, what comes up is what you trust, this is very important. So it's not really rational thinking here. It's not like, "oh, where is it coming from", we're not trying to analyze it here. Just feel with your heart, and let your inner child talk.
And then there's one other thing I want to share just in general, if it's difficult for you to even recognize what your triggers are in life, or where your pain is, maybe you can make a list and write down things in your life that make you sad, that make you scared, that make you angry, that make you insecure. And I'm sure all of us, we have these types of situations. So, maybe always, when you feel it, you can add it to the list, maybe you can just sit for it and write things down. Because it really helps if you become aware of these different things and situations and triggers. It's perfect material to work with your inner child. The things you've written down are actually where healing is needed, and your inner child might be able to help.
So yeah, now I also guide people in their inner child journeys. And often when they've done it with me, they also know how to continue that journey. You can find more here if you're interested in working with me in that way. Often, when we do an inner child journey, we also can connect the dots in a way that we didn't see before, like, suddenly you can make connections between the adult you and your inner child or between different things that happened to you as a child or things that are happening to you now. And sometimes your inner child is super happy. Sometimes it is scared. Sometimes it's not reacting. Sometimes it feels disconnected when it sees you. And this can especially happen in the beginning when you didn't really connect with your inner child yet. So just understand that whatever comes up is okay, you are building a relationship here. Respect your inner child, but also ask what it needs.
Can you do inner child work for everything?
And you can maybe wonder if it's possible to do this inner child's work for everything. And yes, I mean, in my opinion, yes. Even if you feel something around money if you have blocks there, for example, because often there's an emotional charge that needs space, often it originates in our childhood. Often our nervous system still reacts as if it's in danger, because it is connected to a certain pain in our childhood. And so working with our inner child can also help us remove those blocks, and that actually helps you change how you relate to money, to start, make, attract, keep, and enjoy more money.
Become your own healer with Inner Child Work
So for me, it has been the key that opened up a whole new world in healing and in understanding myself. And by the way, it is also super empowering to become your own healer in this way. I mean, to heal your own inner child is amazing. And I mean, we live in a world right now that kind of pushes us, and there's so much happening in the world. But there's also a lot of people working with their inner child and also doing great things in the world. It's a world that needs healing, right? So even if you're skeptical, even if you're like, "Oh, that's a little bit woo-woo," just be open, try things out, you know, you can start with the simple exercise I've given before, maybe you try that out. And it might give you a lot of insights. And it might even change things for you.
So yeah, that was what I wanted to share with you today. I hope you found it interesting. And I hope you're motivated now to maybe go and try something out and see what it does for you. And maybe you even want to share your experiences with me, I would love to hear them. And maybe we even do another episode on that. I'm open to everything.
So thank you so much for listening today. And until next time.
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