“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” T.S. Elliot
Although each person’s soul journey is unique, our soul’s developmental growth process is the same. Our soul’s path is a spiral, not a straight line. We continually come back to things we thought we processed, healed and understood so we can experience deeper truths and transformation. Our soul growth requires that we heal our “our inner child.”
Most people choose to remain developmentally stuck rather than embrace their inner child. Their emotional paralysis stems from their fear of experiencing emotional pain. When we avoid working through such loss, trauma, and/or emotional wounds; however, they continue to repeat unless healed at deeper levels. Healing the inner child, takes making a commitment to one’s soul evolution, and is a challenging, yet, life-altering venture.
As lightkeepers, we have even more motivation to heal our inner child so that we can facilitate the healing of others and our world. I know when I’m called to assist others, I need to to do my own healing work. This means diving deep into what’s been “awakened” in me to heal so I can hold the space and support the healing process for those I serve.
Although I began my own healing journey in my mid-twenties, I find myself continually circling back around to heal even deeper layers when I’m shifting into a higher level of consciousness. Knowing this, helps me welcome these transformative moments with open arms and heart. That’s when the divine messages start showing up to guide my healing path.
The first message I received was an overwhelmingly feeling of sadness that was triggered by a phone call with my dad. His health has declined and we have recently moved him into an independent/assisted living community. As soon as I hung up the phone, I felt a heavy weight on my chest, like an anvil pushing down on my heart. I could barely breathe and wanted to push the feelings down.
I took some quiet time, got out my journal, and sat with these feelings. I became aware of a deep sense of loss that was just below the surface. I dropped into the well of my heart and asked my soul, “What am I being guided to heal and release?”
My prayer was answered when the divine gave me another way to access what was going on within me. On the way home from dinner, my friend asked me if she could play a song for me in the car. I said, “Sure,” so she put in a CD and played the song, “I Made it Through the Rain,” by Barry Manilow. Although I hadn’t heard the song in years, listening to it immediately brought me to tears. My heart was flung wide open and with it, the floodgates of grief.
I borrowed the CD and found myself playing the song again and again. I knew it was awakening the impenetrable recesses of loss within me. As I tapped into these feelings, I realized it wasn’t the loss of something I had once had, but rather the loss of what never was. Holding my little girl in love, I let her cry uncontrollably and release her cleansing tears.
The song, “I Made It Through the Rain,” has become my anthem for my healing journey. It speaks to the strength of blessing and releasing, the despair and disappointment of a childhood that never was. Looking at my life from a higher soul perspective, I realized my parents’ chose difficult lives for their own soul growth. They were not emotionally mature enough for the challenging experience of parenting. Yet, they chose to be here on earth at this particular time so that I could be born.
The epiphany that came through the rain was that this was enough. It was the ultimate gift.
Until you allow yourself time alone to release your pain, you may not even realize that your body, especially your autonomic nervous system, holds on to pain and creates energy blocks. For example, you may experience pain in parts of your body, hold your breath, or have a nervous system in a constant state of anxiety. Healing your inner child, brings your wounds into the love of your heart where they can be exposed to the light and released.
Sometimes a crisis such as a serious illness, trauma, or loss compels you to lean into your vulnerable inner child and opens you to profound soul growth. But for many of us, daily life isn’t enough to awaken that kind of growth. Instead, the pain is left to build up for years, even decades, because it’s easier to ignore it than to sit with it and embrace it. Without release, however, these past wounds create chronic distress that can manifest as depression, anxiety, or physical illness. Only when our vulnerable pain is released can we bring about self-healing.
Here are 4 Sacred Practices for Healing Your Inner Child:
1.Have a Sacred Chat with Your Inner Child: Create a safe space where you will be safe and uninterrupted. Close your eyes, drop down into your heart, and imagine yourself as a young child (you can choose any age). Invite your inner child to come into your present awareness. Open your heart to her so you can see the wisdom she holds for you.
Begin a dialogue with her by asking her how she is feeling and if there is anything she would like to share with you. Engage in a sacred chat by asking her the following questions: “What wounds do you need me to heal? How do you want to be loved? What do you need to feel safe?” Be still and allow the answers to come into your awareness in whatever form they come through. Then write them down in your journal. Listen to what they may have to say to you in response.
2.Practice Reparenting Your Inner Child: Through reparenting, you can give yourself the love, care, and nurturing you may not have received in the way you needed it as a child. This healing process helps to release the emotional trauma and pain that comes from not having your needs met as a child. It assures your inner child that while you may have been in situations that weren’t safe then, you are a loving parent who will keep your inner child safe. In other words, you got her!
Here are a few ways to do this: Write a letter to your inner child and allow her to respond by writing back to you. Say nurturing things to your inner child such as I love you, I appreciate you, I value you, I’m proud of you, I see you, and I hear you. Look at photos of yourself as a child and tell her everything she needed to hear then; allow her to receive it now. Reflect on what you loved doing when you were a child and make time to do those things now. Engage in meditation and creative visualization with your inner child.
3.Practice a Forgiveness Visualization: Visualize yourself, your mother, your father, or any other figures from your childhood you need to forgive as beautiful souls of light. Picturing them in this state makes it easier to forgive them and their human frailties. Surround their souls in white light energy. Then, imagine pink light energy around their human patterns and choices they made. The vibration of pink light governs the physical universe and seals the negative energy and transmutes it into positive energy. The more you forgive yourself and your caregivers, the more you eliminate the negative energy. This creates new space for positive energy to return to you and opens more space in your heart for you to love yourself.
4.Create a Ritual of Release. A useful tool that can help release our pain from unresolved losses is a self-designed ritual of release. Rituals of release include making a picture scrapbook, using old photos in a collage about the past, journaling, or simply lighting a candle. You can use photos from your childhood, textured papers, and inspiring quotes to create a visual journal that depicts self-healing. This ritual of release transforms any emotional wound into a positive, creative force. Such rituals transform energy that is stuck from unresolved loss and trauma into positive healing experiences.
The strength, courage, and perseverance it takes to heal your inner child is a testimony to the resiliency of your human spirit. It shows how committed you are to serving others and the world at this time of intense personal and global transformation. Your desire for your soul to evolve can be the catalyst for beginning this healing journey. It was for me.
