Table of Contents
Introduction
Healing Your Inner Child: A Journey Through Pain, Growth, and Self-Discovery takes you on a roller-coaster ride of healing. Life throws stones at us without giving us buckets to hold them, or bandages to tend to our wounds.
We were thrown into storms we really didn’t fathom. Our hearts were fragile.
The tiny little kid in us was thrown into scary dens, robbing us of our innocence, by devils who were waiting to eat us alive. Then the devil left, but never really left imprints on us.
We looked and looked hard to find the devil. We tried to find the source of our horrors. We wanted them to leave us. But did they ever really leave?
Please tell me where I am
Tell me, where am I right now? Am I in myself, in my body, or am I gone far away, like always?
Tell me, where am I if not in the mess in my head, in the mess that this life gave me?
Tell me, where am I if not in the anguish and pain that my mind created for me?
A reminder of my strength
Tell me, how many wars have I won? How many battles have I walked out straight and came winning out of them, as my hands and veins bled with pain?
How many rivers have I crossed with crocs trying to pull me, ready to tear me into pieces? Tell me, how many such paths have I crossed, as a tiny ligament drained of blood?
In how many mornings have I been buried, only to die again at night?
Tell me, how many wars have I fought where I did not believe in my powers to relinquish each and every stone that came at me?
Tell me, how many such devils have I pulled and rotated them like a boomerang, those who came to burn the little innocent kid in me?
I have fallen, haven’t I?
I have been wronged, haven’t I?
I have been naive. I have made mistakes.
I’ve had my castles burned by my own people in their naivety. Tell me, should I reminisce on those broken pieces?
Should I rub those ashes on my skin?
Should I relive all those horrors?
When should I win? When do I win?
When I let go of all the revenge and isolation I promised myself. When I become strong enough to let go of all the pain.
As I’ll tell you, there will be rough paths to walk. The more you walk and think as if you’re coming to the finish line, the more roads will open up, and sadly or happily, you’ll have to walk them.
Finding out what the kid did to protect himself
Then, you will have to go deeper within you to find out what was lost in those storms, what died in you in those scary moments.
What did that tiny, scared and alone child do to protect himself?
Did it embody distance or silence? Did it marry overthinking as a recluse?
That racing heart in you, that rush as if it’s all an emergency- that child, tell me, what did he embody for all?
Go deeper in you. Find that tiny kid you abandoned.
Find him as he harbours and shields himself from all the pain that comes rushing down to him, like a mountain from above.
Find what he stored as he held his hands above to save himself. What did he store in him to prevent the kid from falling?
What promises did he make to protect himself?
How many storms began in him, never to end?
How many storms did he hug to safeguard himself from all the noise and quarrel of the world? Find that little kid.
Hold the sword in your hand and be the warrior that you are
As you go around with that fear in you. As you go around with the remnants in you.
As your body is still laced with those speckles of ash in you.
Go deeper and deeper within you. Take a sword in your hand. As you’ve buried those tough emotions deep in you.
This time, be the warrior that you are. Let that sword be the attention that you place on those emotions as they continue to burn you, as they bleed you.
Keep it in your grasp, as they swamp you over. Drop the sword as they lose their grip on you. As you become what you are, as this world stops to feel heavy.
As that mountain that you held in your veins, you can finally see it,
As it loses your sword’s grasp,
As you see all the weight you had been carrying.
As that little kid expected a monster out of everything. As he found every tiny task like a shark coming to eat him alive.
As he couldn’t find a single shore without sharks or crocs. As he went on and on.
Spreading our arms wide on the cliff with the wide ocean below and the grand sky above
There was the beautiful night sky with its glimmering moon.
There was the beautiful blue on the cliff. There were beautiful colours of the sky right above him. As the birds flew in their beautiful symphony.
There was it all, and he felt it all.
He felt this peace, like a rush of a comet that comes once in many years.
He knew how grand the world was. He had felt it in his veins. How wonderful the entire universe was! The Creator built a great world for us – with its beautiful animals and mountains to go and fall in love with its ecstasy.
We had it all in us to be complete and whole. But we chose to shed our happiness, piece by piece, with every drop of blood.
Waking up from the dreamy illusions
We run and hide. We survive. We work really hard.
But when do we really live?
Do we drop all our weapons to be happy? Do we stop racing?
Some undeniable and inescapable laws of the Universe. Then, this bickering functioning of society. All the commandments to be memorised.
All the sweat to be shed for success. Ultimately, to realise that the real success was in us.
The real thing was not supposed to be chased at all. What we had been thinking were merely dreams, illusions rather, and we had to wake up.
The sooner you did, the better.
As time flies like the sand, soon we shall turn all grey, and our smiles will be without teeth.
Appreciating our loved ones
The people we are holding unreasonable resentment against won’t be there in the reflection of the same mirror. You might have a lot of lovely new people.
But those hearts and the womb that carried you shall be gone.
Does it fill your heart with overwhelm? When all your mistakes and failures tell you that your life is doomed, you have nothing, you are capable of nothing?
Does this not fill you up with the ultimate of all in this nothingness?
When all you feel is emptiness in your heart
When life seems meaningless, when it seems as if there’s so much in you that you won’t be able to wake up, when that loneliness takes you to places you’d never want to step on, as if so much has died within you.
As if you will not be able to bring happiness into you. As if all those flowers have died. You try and try so hard but can’t find in you anything but that gloominess.
As if all the doors to light have been closed in your life. As if they have been destroyed.
This fear in you refuses to let you go. It hugs you tight as you try to shush it away. But the harder you try, its grasp on you becomes stronger.
You try to scream. You try to run.
You try your best to feel the light in you, but it’s too dark for the light to enter.
It’s too damp in you. The saddest part is that you try to feel different, but you have been buried deep. You try to come out and feel the rush of happiness and light.
But you’re pulled back into those burrows. No rabbit comes with its warmth and food like they show in their cartoons.
Where is the kid now?
Maybe because I am too scared to be found. My heart is too heavy to find warmth in others.
Maybe I have already created a home for myself in me. I am in awe of its safety – hidden away from even a touch of anything but authentic.
I am a deep soul. I swim in deep waters. I was not made for this world’s shallow waters.
I was born to create my own stage. As I clap there for myself – having stood through all the storms as my hair brushed past the wind,
And I look around with a smile on my face.
Why? As the kid who was lost in the noise of the world, finally found himself.
Who validated it?
Who said that he was successful?
No one but himself!
Conclusion – What does this life demand from us?
We have been trying to fight our demons, haven’t we? Every time we conquer one, the other one comes off, stronger and scarier. What choice do we have?
Do we run and hide? Do we expect a smooth road? Do we live in illusions of having no challenges roaring at us in life?
What do we do? Sit back and relax and do nothing?
Do we stand up and rise? Do we take them all onto our bodies as they pour into us; do we let them burn us?
Do we stay there firmly amidst the storm, as the rain gets heavier, as the thunder gets louder? Do we just stay there firmly with deep belief in our hearts that, like the other storms, we shall handle them all?
No matter how drenched we get in the waters, we shall learn to swim in deep waters. As we have been chosen to swim deep, in the deeper unexplored regions of the ocean.
As we swim in those deep waters and let fear leave our bodies, and as we watch it leave us, we go swimming deeper and deeper.
Always keeping a smile on our face. Never to fall to the hardships that life gives us. But to use them to become stronger. As this is what life demands of us.
Nothing but a strong warrior.
Read How to Find Meaning in Difficult Times: A Spiritual Journey
Quotes on Healing Your Inner Child
Here are some original Quotes on Healing Your Inner Child from the reflection:
- How many storms began in him, never to end?
- He felt this peace, like a rush of a comet that comes once in many years.
- This fear in you refuses to let you go. It hugs you tight as you try to shush it away. But the harder you try, its grasp on you becomes stronger.
- Does this not fill you up with the ultimate of all in this nothingness?
- We had it all in us to be complete and whole. But we chose to shed our happiness, piece by piece, with every drop of blood.
FAQs
What does healing your inner child mean?
Healing your inner child means learning to understand and care for the younger part of you that may still carry old pain, fear, or unmet needs. It is not about changing the past. It is about giving yourself the kindness, safety, and understanding you may have needed back then.
What are the signs of inner child wounds?
They can show up in many ways. You may struggle with feeling good enough, fear rejection, find it hard to trust others, or feel deeply hurt by things that seem small. Sometimes, it simply feels like a part of you is still carrying something from the past.
How do I start healing my inner child?
You can start by listening to yourself without judging what you feel. Notice the emotions that keep returning and try to understand where they come from. Be patient with yourself. Healing often begins with giving yourself the compassion you once needed from others.
Do emotional wounds ever fully heal?
Healing does not always mean that you forget what happened or never feel the pain again. Some wounds become softer with time, understanding, and self-compassion. You may still remember what hurt you, but it no longer has to control who you are or who you become.
What are the five emotional wounds?
One popular framework, developed by author Lise Bourbeau, describes five emotional wounds: rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal, and injustice. These ideas are often used as a way of reflecting on childhood experiences and how they may affect us later in life. They are a framework for self-reflection, rather than a clinical diagnosis.
