Inner Child Healing for Self-Love
The terms ‘self-love’ and ‘self-care’ are used so often in the modern wellness world that they’ve almost started to lose their meaning. While self-love certainly includes going to yoga or taking a bubble bath, there’s also so much more to it when it comes to allowing in our own love.
At times, self-love can actually require us to feel more uncomfortable in the moment in order to “do the work” for our own healing and growth. For instance, we may not feel like going into a meditation practice, but by doing so we show love for ourselves and our future self. Every little step adds up to help us become more grateful and accepting of who we are.
Lately, the most impactful tool I’ve found for real self-love is inner child healing work. Whether in a Yoga Nidra or breathwork practice, with a facilitator, or in a self-guided meditation, inner child healing is a technique that allows us to heal and reclaim the parts of ourselves that have been fractured, frozen in time, essentially stuck in a moment of trauma.
When we repetitively feel an emotion like anger, fear, shame, or guilt, it means a part of us — our younger self — is trying to get our attention. We can take the following steps to hear the messages from our younger self, ultimately healing past experiences and resolving these fractured pieces of our psyche:
Ask yourself, “when did I first experience this feeling in my life?” Without overthinking, what is the first memory that arises for you?
Visualize yourself in that moment from your past. See your younger self in all their emotion, and be with them. Tell them you are there for them now.
How does your younger self feel now that you’re here with them?
Ask your younger self what they need from you.
Visualize bringing your younger self to a place where they can feel whatever it is they need from you. (For example, if your younger self asks you to find joy, take them to a park where they can play in the trees.)
Give love to your younger self. Give them a long embrace, and allow them to integrate back into wholeness with you.
When we experience this kind of healing, it ripples out into all areas of our lives. We feel more safe, whole and grounded in ourselves. We release those negative emotional patterns that have kept us from the feelings we really want to experience. We start to treat others with more love and less resistance, opening ourselves up for more flow in our relationships. And, perhaps most importantly, we start to truly feel love for ourselves.
We recommend working with a coach (contact us!) or starting with guided Yoga Nidra practices on the Humaya app to ease into this kind of work. May we all experience our own love on these deep and profound levels.
by Marina Harmon