In this month’s article I am examining how to truly love and accept yourself at the deepest levels through your inner child. We live in society where many people have been brought up to believe that loving themselves is somehow selfish or wrong. This programming can make it quite challenging later in life when learning to really love yourself.
Really loving, caring and valuing yourself is so important, if you don’t then you can find yourself searching for happiness and love outside of yourself through food, overspending, addictions and relationships that don’t work. Once you start to really love and appreciate all that you are, with gentleness and compassion, without judgement, then, you begin to feel more whole and complete, fulfilled and secure. How can you expect to find someone who truly loves you for who you are, if you don’t first love yourself.
Because many people can find this direct approach to loving themselves quite difficult, approaching it through your inner child can be a wonderful way to start this process. It also has many other benefits such as feeling more safe and secure than ever before and allowing great healing to take place. It also empowers you in all areas of your life as you begin to take responsibility for your own healing and become stronger and more self-reliant. You have the power to give yourself, through your inner child, all the love, support, nurturing and understanding you could ever need or want; what an amazing power! It always seems easier to give love and compassion to a child than it does to yourself and this is why it works so well.
Follow this exercise to connect with your inner child:
•Sit down comfortably where you won’t be disturbed
•Take a few deep breaths in and close your eyes
•Imagine sitting your inner child on your lap
•Notice what age they are and how they are feeling
•Imagine giving them a great big hug
•Let them know you are always here for them, you will never judge them and you love them very much
•Notice how your inner child responds to this
•Make a commitment to always be there for them, no matter what
•Wrap them in a golden blanket of light and tell them it a magical blanket that will wrap them in love and safety.
•Hug them close to your heart
•Then come back and open your eyes
•Notice how you feel in your body and in your energy
It can be a good idea to write down any insights you have after this exercise.
Once you have made this connection and commitment to be there for your inner child, it is important that your honour that agreement by regularly checking in with and reassuring your inner child. One way to achieve this is to have a photograph of yourself as a child and place it somewhere you will see it every day. Now imagine that you have that child staying with you and that you want to help them feel safe and build their confidence. Every time you pass the photo, in your mind, send love and light and say reassuring things to the child in the photo. Do this at least a few times a day.
The effect is that you feel the benefits of the love and light and reassurance, because you are the child in the photo. In this way you are allowing that child to feel safe and loved enough to grow and flourish without being reliant on others outside yourself for these things. Try this exercise for yourself and see what results you get.
