@doodledwellness

Who is the inner child? ⁣ ⁣ The inner child is your past self, who may have endured chaos, stress, pain, and suffering in the past. ⁣ ⁣ But instead of giving yourself what your inner child needs - such as self validation, self reassurance, self love - we often rely on other people to give us these needs (aka our parents). ⁣ ⁣ However, if our parents were not able to provide us with the safety, love, and validation that we needed, we end up abandon our inner child by adopting roles in society/our families that allow us to get validation, love, and safety. These roles can look like: ⁣ ⁣  ✨suppressing our own feelings because other people did not know how to handle them, invalidated them, or shamed us for having them ⁣ ⁣  ✨ being extra helpful/a people pleaser/hyper independent while ignoring our own needs because we learned that other people may not be able to meet our needs. As a result, we become hyper independent/helpful to get validation/priase/security from others ⁣ ⁣  ✨asking others for help with decision making or for reassurance because we have learned to doubt ourselves since we were always told what we were doing/thinking/feeling was wrong ⁣ ⁣  ✨ being an overachiever to get praise from others ⁣ ⁣  ✨ not setting limits and enmeshing with others to gain acceptance/approval/love⁣ ⁣ It is also common for us to speak/treat ourselves the way our parents did - which can be critical, invalidating, and rejecting.⁣ ⁣ A part of healing = meeting the inner child who still has those unmet needs and learning to meet those needs yourself (this is reparenting). You take the role of a warm, concerned, and loving parent and treat yourself the way you would have wanted a parent to treat you. ⁣ ⁣ Reparenting is a process that takes time and may feel unnatural, unauthentic, and even uncomfortable at first. This is because you are not used to it. Be patient and trust that with time, it will feel more natural, authentic, and comfortable 💜 ⁣ Treat yourself the way you would have wanted an adult to treat you  💜 You deserve it. ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #innerchild #innerchildhealing #innerchildwork #innerwork #innerguidance #therapy