“The most sophisticated people I know inside are all children” – Jim Henson
Everyone has an inner child who is mending, healed, or traumatized. However, there are those people who are completely unconcerned about their inner child. But why?
The inner child is a notion that refers to the portion of our personality that is influenced by our childhood experiences, memories, and emotions. It can have an impact on our conduct, creativity, and overall well-being as adults. According to some experts, the inner child can be viewed as a subpersonality that is subordinate to our conscious mind or as a representation of our prior selves at various life stages.
Why do we suppress our inner child?
Adulthood is a complicated and demanding stage of human development that encompasses a wide range of concepts, including reason, equality, goal-setting, initiative, responsibility, and self-care. While some people may experience stress, worry, loneliness, or discontent in their adult lives, others may find them meaningful and satisfying. This profoundly affects our inner child. The majority of individuals blame their behavioral shifts, life’s ups and downs, and stress on society, but the true cause is the suppression of our inner child by abandoning or pushing them to the shadowy corners of our minds. We acknowledge that while healing may occasionally be a challenging process, it is not impossible but may take time. Have you noticed a group of kids playing together and a single child playing with her own toys? Applying this to our daily lives, the child playing with her toys represents our inner child, who is all alone but happy because that toy represents love, but when you forcefully take it away, she will feel lonely, always longing for the warmth. If you look closely at the situation, you will see that even though she is all alone, she isn’t longing for anyone to play with her because she had toys to play with where her emotions were attached, which made her happy.
The fact that adulthood always assumes the form of childhood is so amazing. There will always be children who dream of owning a home or purchasing automobiles and fulfilling those dreams, but there will also always be other children who have similar dreams but are unable to accomplish them. As everyone knows, achieving anything in life requires discipline, devotion, and most importantly, motivation—all of which may vary over time. A child’s drive to succeed might not be the same as an adult’s as we mature and our perspective on life shifts as a result of the inevitable consequences of life. It is our responsibility to take care of our inner child because, as we grow, it grows with us. We have witnessed children who were once playful and outrageous growing up to become quiet ones, as well as quiet and timid children becoming courageous ones. These transformations can only occur through nurturing our inner child. People who grow by suppressing their inner child attempt to protect themselves from their feelings by projecting an image of strength to the outer world. If they fail to express these emotions and thoughts, they may suffer throughout their entire lives. An individual’s harsh behavior is a mirror of the unfavorable circumstances in which he was raised, traumatizing and haunting his inner child, which manifests itself in his aggressive tendencies. Conversely, there is a kind-hearted individual who was raised in an unfavorable atmosphere as well, but he has managed to repair his inner child, which has made him more aware of his surroundings.
Final Thoughts:
The degree of accountability is equivalent to the requirement for evolution. Let your inner kid speak softly in your ear and just listen to it. Your inner kid is awaiting an honest, sincere apology. You will resemble your parents more if you want to be different from them. Your inner child really benefits from talking with a trusted person, such as a friend or therapist. Many of us have never spoken the challenging events we went through as kids. Speaking with a trustworthy individual about these events can help ease the dread and anxiety associated with them, as some of us may not have even acknowledged that they were unpleasant. If we have not done the work to heal our inner child, we might struggle with trusting others, constant worry or anxiety, low self-esteem, or fear of new things, which can all lead to struggles navigating the world as adults. Becoming the parent we needed as children and acknowledging the experiences we had can be challenging and painful, but it can also help us develop life skills we may be lacking, help us with emotional regulation, strengthen and improve our relationships, and nurture creativity and levity.
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