We all grow up listening, “Keep the child in you alive, for it is the source of your true joy and happiness.” Nothing can be truer than this. The child within you is your forever companion and your emotional bank. In simple terms, your inner child is the emotional aspect of your personality, which is in the past. From the time we come into existence in our mother’s womb, we carry this inner child within us. It is a part of our subconscious that reads the messages for you even before you can understand the difference between right and wrong.

This child registers everything that you go through in life, good, bad, and ugly and these experiences, in turn, shape your life depending on how the inner child was able to cope with the situation. While the good events strengthen the inner child, the bad incidents can leave it traumatised and scarred for a long time.

Visualise a perfectly beautiful porcelain round dish and consider that as your inner child. As time passes, the dish starts chipping from the edges due to wear and tear as a result of normal use. Similarly, aspects of our core personality start chipping away and get separated from us due to various traumatic incidents that happen as part of life.

Now, imagine bringing back those chipped parts of the dish and putting them together using golden glue. Sounds even more appealing, right? It looks pretty, once again whole. That’s exactly what happens in inner child healing; we bring back those separated parts of you that you lost or numbed out and integrate them into your body with golden glue called love. You become whole again, the way you were always meant to be.

Your absolute happiness is within you. Therefore, it is essential to love, nurture and heal your wounded inner child.

Many people question how to give love to their inner child? Well, there are numerous ways you can do it. You can have a conversation with it, write a letter, buy something you always wanted to have, or pamper it but what is highly recommended is to let your inner child tell you what it wants, what will make it happy and joyful.

You can also do this small exercise. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and imagine a past version of yourself entering your room. Ask him/her – “What can I do for you today?” The version that will show up is the one that requires your attention at the moment, so don’t question and simply listen. This inner being of yours will tell you what it needs to feel secure and loved. For all you know, all that this child might need at that moment is a hug. Whatever it tells you, do it with a pure intention and see the changes.

Text by Supriya Aggarwal