We all want to meet 2025 with new strength and even a new “I”. What is needed for this? Find out how to heal your inner child. Psychologists often talk about this process, and you have probably heard about it on social networks. But what is it and how to do it?
ContentWhat is healing your inner childHow to heal your inner childBenefits of healing your inner child
WomanEL has prepared some tips for you and will share all the necessary information to improve your mental state.
What is healing your inner child
“Inner Child Work” is the process of acknowledging, understanding, and healing the wounds of your inner child. This ongoing process requires undoing past behavior patterns and replacing them with new ones that reinforce positive coping skills and current beliefs about who you are as a person.
Healing your inner child transforms you because it reveals the deep reasons why you are who you are as an adult. By the age of seven to ten, our emotional and psychological foundations—how we see the world, how we give and receive love—are already in place. It is believed that during these years, we develop attachment styles based on how our caregivers respond to our needs. These styles—secure, anxious, avoidant, or disorganized—determine our emotional responses, self-esteem, and relationships throughout our adult lives.
In adulthood, we often unconsciously replay these early attachment patterns and traumas. Whether it’s low self-esteem, anxiety, relationship problems, or money problems, these problems often stem from childhood experiences. Healing the inner child addresses these underlying wounds, enabling us to heal what manifests as emotional and psychological problems in our adult lives.
The awareness this practice brings is liberating because it reveals two powerful truths: each person operates from their inner child – whether wounded, healed, or healing; and the experiences and people that cause us anxiety are often a reflection of our inner child, begging to be seen, heard, and loved.
How to Heal Your Inner Child
Healing the inner child is about reconnecting with, caring for, and understanding the child within us who may have experienced trauma, neglect, or unmet needs. This process typically involves:
- Validation. Acknowledge your inner child’s experiences, accepting them as a real and valid part of you. Treat yourself with the same love and care you would show a child, acknowledging and validating their feelings.
- Curiosity. To truly understand who you are today, it is important to examine your early years. Reflect on how the experiences of the first seven to ten years of your life shaped who you are today. This exploration can be done through meditation, visualization, or journaling, which can help create a safe space for you to connect with your inner child. You can reconnect with yourself by engaging in activities that you enjoyed as a child and embracing the joy, creativity, and playfulness they bring, such as through creative pursuits like writing or art. Consider hanging a picture of your younger self in a place you see every day as a constant reminder to give your child love and care.
- Expression. It is important to feel and acknowledge your emotions without judgment. Accept that all your feelings – whether joyful or painful – are valid and deserve to be acknowledged. Don’t be afraid, ashamed or guilty. While our parents or caregivers did their best, there were times when their efforts didn’t fully meet our needs. It’s okay to acknowledge this and honor your own truth. Your feelings matter, and it’s important to give them the recognition and respect they deserve.
Do you think you need to break up with your boyfriend? Ask yourself these questions before you make a decision.
Benefits of Healing Your Inner Child
If you process your old wounds, you can free yourself and become happier, Source: freepik.com
At its core, every person craves to be seen, heard, and loved. When these fundamental needs are not met, met inconsistently, or overly met in childhood, the resulting wounds often haunt us into adulthood.
Without understanding the origins of these problems, we tend to resort to temporary solutions and wonder why we keep encountering the same problems in different situations. Addressing these root causes is essential to freeing ourselves from repeating old patterns of behavior.
- Emotional Healing. Healing our inner child helps release and process repressed emotions, leading to a healthier emotional state.
- By disentangling and integrating these buried feelings, you can heal from within. Healing takes time, but each step helps you reconnect with your true self—the realization that your worth is not determined by the actions of other people. That burden is theirs, not yours.
- Improved relationships. Overcoming past wounds allows us to build healthier and more fulfilling relationships. When we heal our inner child, we move beyond insecurity and codependency, which allows us to connect with others in a state of emotional safety and genuine intimacy.
- This helps create more supportive and enriching relationships. Increased self-esteem. Nurturing our inner child helps us develop self-love, self-acceptance, and a stable sense of self-worth. When we learn to value and care for our inner child, we increase our self-esteem and develop a stronger and more resilient personality.
- Improved coping mechanisms. We develop better ways to use the tools we already have to cope with stress and life’s challenges. It's about learning how to use these tools to your advantage.
- Personal growth. This journey promotes introspection and personal understanding, allowing us to become more authentic and in tune with our true selves.
If you're feeling lonely during the holidays, learn how to get rid of that feeling. It's not as difficult as it seems.
