At least two-thirds of Americans are looking for personal growth at this point. Achieving it can help people better understand themselves, improve their relationships with others, and live more fulfilling lives, along with many other benefits. Of course, most people aren’t quite sure of where to begin such a journey. Quite a few experts insist that the first step here should be healing their inner child.
Though that concept may be a bit confusing, it essentially revolves around nurturing the part of us that holds onto the feelings, experiences, and needs of our younger years. This type of healing is important for everyone, but it’s particularly crucial for those who experienced trauma in childhood or have unresolved issues from the past. Author Arelis Calkins and certain other authorities on the subject point out that taking care of this part of ourselves is one of the most powerful steps toward achieving true emotional freedom.
What Is the Inner Child, and Why Is It Important?
As pointed out, the inner child is the part of us that carries childhood memories. Some are joyful, while others are painful. Certain memories seem fairly neutral, but they still have profound influences on who we are and how we see the world. They often remain hidden, but they can sometimes work their way to the surface, especially if they’re tied to experiences we didn’t fully understand at the time or that were never really addressed the way they should’ve been.
Unresolved feelings from our younger years can unexpectedly emerge later in life. When they do, they can cause self-doubt, trust issues, and seemingly unfounded fears. They can affect our lives in many ways, all of which can prevent us from achieving personal growth and experiencing emotional freedom.
Healing the inner child means addressing those long-suppressed memories and the emotions that come along with them. It needs to be a gentle process, and it’s often a slow one. Still, it’s the key to replacing pain and confusion from the past with a renewed sense of understanding and acceptance.
Exploring the Steps to Healing
Healing requires several steps, and the journey isn’t the same for everyone. In general, the first and most important measure here is recognizing connections to the past. For example, many negative feelings that seem to come out of nowhere may be more closely tied to your past than what’s happening in the present. Delving into the past and trying to determine where those feelings might be coming from can help you understand how to address them.
From there, you need to be willing to experience the raw emotions from past experiences. As children, we’re often taught to hold back the tears and suppress our feelings. We’re told that we need to be strong and calm. Unfortunately, those feelings don’t just disappear. Instead, they get buried and grow over time. At some point, they’re bound to burst forth. As such, they have to be acknowledged and dealt with accordingly.
Finding Your Way to Emotional Freedom
Everyone has an inner child. Our past experiences helped shape us even if they didn’t seem overly profound at the time. Until we give them the attention they need, we may not be able to move past them. Healing the inner child isn’t about placing blame on anyone for the experiences we’ve had or blaming ourselves for how we dealt with them; it’s about bringing them to the surface so we can let them go. Only then can we experience true emotional freedom and allow ourselves to grow.
