Welcome to 3-2-1 Tuesdays with Better Wellness Naturally- Nurturing Your Inner Child for Emotional Healing
- Admin
- Aug 5
- 4 min read
Thank you for joining us for 3-2-1 Tuesdays!
Quick bits of therapeutic info and learning, ideas, concepts, and quotes.
Brought to you by Better Wellness Naturally
3: Keys
2: Concepts
1: Quick Article
“It is never too late to have a happy childhood.”— Tom Robbins
3 Keys
The Inner Child Holds Emotional Truths: Your inner child is the emotional part of you that was formed during your early development—and still is a very big part of who you are today. This part of you still holds raw feelings, unmet needs, and forgotten memories—both joyful and painful.
When unacknowledged, your inner child might lead you to repeat emotional patterns like self-sabotage, chronic guilt, or abandonment wounds. When lovingly acknowledged, however, this part of you becomes a doorway to emotional clarity, deeper self-understanding, and lasting healing.
Play Isn’t Just for Kids—It’s Healing: Play reconnects you with your natural sense of curiosity, presence, and joy. Whether it’s painting, singing, dancing barefoot in the grass, or journaling stories, play allows your nervous system to relax and express freely.
Research in positive psychology and expressive arts therapy shows that play activates reward circuits in the brain, reduces stress, and fosters emotional resilience. So go ahead—get silly, messy, or creative. Your inner child will thank you.
Self-Nurturing Builds Safety and Trust: When you treat yourself with the tenderness you once longed for, healing begins. Self-nurturing might look like creating morning rituals, affirming your worth in small yet important ways, or holding yourself during moments of emotional overwhelm.
This kind of reparenting teaches your nervous system that it’s safe to feel, rest, and receive love. Over time, these consistent acts of self-care rebuild internal trust and offer your inner child a sense of stability it may never have had.
A Couple of Concepts
Reparenting: Reparenting is the process of becoming the supportive, loving, and protective caregiver you needed— yet perhaps never had— growing up. It involves setting boundaries, meeting your needs with compassion, and soothing your inner child’s fears rather than ignoring or judging them.
It doesn’t mean rejecting your family—it means stepping into your own power as the adult who gets to choose healing over perpetuating old wounds. Studies in inner child and trauma therapy show that reparenting helps reshape self-identity and improves emotional regulation.
Emotional Permission: Many of us were taught to suppress certain emotions to be "good" or "acceptable." But emotions, when not acknowledged, don’t disappear—they show up as stress, anxiety, or even physical illness.
Giving yourself full permission to feel what arises, even the messy or uncomfortable parts, restores emotional flow and prevents emotional stagnation. This conscious permission supports authenticity, resilience, and mental health by helping you respond rather than react to life.
A Quick Overview: Healing Begins When You Listen to the Child Within…
Psychologists agree that many of our adult behaviors are influenced by childhood experiences, especially the unmet needs, traumas, or emotional voids we carry silently. The "inner child" is not a metaphor—it's a real psychological imprint stored in your subconscious, influencing how you think, feel, and behave.
According to inner child work pioneered by John Bradshaw and further explored by clinical psychologists like Dr. Margaret Paul and Dr. Gabor Maté, acknowledging this inner child is key to healing emotional wounds.
By connecting with your inner child, you're giving voice to feelings and needs that may have been ignored or invalidated. This can shift your emotional patterns in adulthood—like constant self-criticism, low self-worth, or difficulty forming secure relationships. Play, creativity, and nurturing self-talk are tools to access and heal that part of you.
Science backs this up: trauma research by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk shows that healing is not just about talking—it’s about embodying new experiences that teach the brain and body what safety, joy, and trust feel like. That's why seemingly simple practices like dancing, creating, affirming yourself, or holding space for your tears are actually profound acts of emotional rewiring.
Nurturing your inner child isn't about dwelling on the past. It’s about embracing your wholeness, choosing compassion over judgment, and gently becoming the safe space you’ve always needed. And when you do? You unlock new levels of emotional freedom, peace, and joy—starting from the inside out.
References:
Bradshaw, J. (1990). Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child.
Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.
LePera, N. (2021). How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self.
Capacchione, L. (1991). Recovery of Your Inner Child: The Highly Acclaimed Method for Liberating Your Inner Self.
Paul, M. (2001). Healing Your Aloneness: Finding Love and Wholeness Through Your Inner Child.
Maté, G. (2003). When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress.
American Psychological Association. (2022). Play as a Therapeutic Process in Children and Adults.
Siegel, D. (2012). The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are.
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