Inner child work is about digging up those deep feelings and facing them. When we have a wounded inner child living within us, it affects our emotions, the decisions we make, the people we choose to spend time with, and many other aspects of our lives. Until we face and cope with our wounded inner child, they will continue to play a role in our overall mental well-being. Our inner child wants to feel heard, understood, and supported. Inner child work invites our inner child to the surface, so they can receive the love they’ve always deserved.
Signs Your Inner Child is Healing
As mentioned above, it’s easy to become discouraged when we’re coping with pain. We suppressed those emotions for a reason at the time, and facing them years later isn’t an easy process. However, it’s essential to remember that your inner child deserves a chance to cope and heal.
Below are signs that your inner child is healing. Increased Confidence: Low self-esteem is incredibly common in adults who experienced traumatic events, neglect, or abuse in their childhood. That low self-esteem comes from a place of feeling unworthy or undeserving of love, kindness, or compassion. When we start to heal our inner child, we’re able to gain a sense of confidence by validating our experiences. Decrease in Shame/Guilt: On a similar topic, shame and guilt are also incredibly common in adults who have wounded inner children. As children, we’re unable to cope and process the bad things that other people do to us. Since we can’t hold them accountable, we turn that shame and guilt inwards. When we start healing, we can feel that shame and guilt slip away, as it was never ours to hold. Decreased Need for External Validation: When we have a wounded inner child, many of us rely on others for validation. We lack confidence in ourselves and can struggle to think highly of ourselves. When we start healing our inner child, we begin finding validation within ourselves. Setting Boundaries: A wounded inner child typically struggles with putting themselves first. This can occur due to parental figures neglecting or abusing a child, invalidating their feelings, or expecting children to carry too much weight within the household. The result is an adult who struggles to say no. If you’ve recently started setting boundaries and putting yourself first, that’s a great sign that your inner child is healing. Awareness of Triggers: Wounded children have triggers. When we’re unaware of those triggers, we can unknowingly put ourselves in situations or relationships that trigger our pain. When we begin to heal, we can begin to identify what our triggers are and take steps to cope with them appropriately Ability to Cope: Our inner child doesn’t know how to cope with emotions such as sadness, anger, fear, etc. When we’re adults, and something triggers those deep-rooted emotions, it can be challenging to cope with those emotions. Once we begin healing our inner child, we learn how to cope.
