{"id":22775,"date":"2025-12-11T13:21:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/?p=22775"},"modified":"2025-12-11T13:21:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:21:21","slug":"how-im-healing-my-inner-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2025\/12\/11\/how-im-healing-my-inner-child\/","title":{"rendered":"How I’m Healing My Inner Child"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Since I\u2019ve started my senior year of high school, I\u2019ve adopted a very special personal project. Unfortunately it\u2019s not a YouTube channel, a new sketchbook, or a novel (yet!). I\u2019ve started a journey to heal my inner child! When I began, I didn\u2019t intend for this to be a fully structured journey. It was more so a way of living that I wanted to establish for myself. I simply decided: I\u2019m going to start doing things for little me rather than anyone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s heard the term \u201chealing your inner child,\u201d maybe even too much. But as a 17-soon-turning-18-year-old, I think it\u2019s a really important journey for everyone to go on regardless of age. In teenagers, it directs you on a path that might help limit the stress of graduating, college-searching, and the incoming terror of officially being an adult. And if you\u2019re not a teenager, maybe an adult, I think healing your inner child is still a worthy journey to go on. Your childhood years are even further from your moment in life so I can see it being even more gratifying. <\/span><\/p>\n

I think an idea I see a lot is that you can get to a point where your inner child is healed and you\u2019re done forever. I don\u2019t really see it that way, I believe it\u2019s a constant practice. You can\u2019t go back into time and actually change the way that things happened in your childhood. Even if you think your inner child is \u201chealed\u201d, you wouldn\u2019t be the same if your childhood was never hurt (as sad as it is to admit). So why stop there?<\/span><\/p>\n

While healing my inner child, I’ve learned that it gets worse before it gets better, but that can be said for a lot of things in life. There’ve been many dips in my journey and I honestly think those are very necessary in doing it effectively. (Note: I thought about saying “right” rather than “effectively” and I want to use this as an opportunity to say there\u2019s no right way to heal your inner child. My description of my own journey is no way a series of instructions. It\u2019s more of a preparatory description of this kind of project and what I\u2019ve been experiencing.)<\/span><\/p>\n

When retracing your steps to your most formative years, you\u2019ll probably be reminded of unpleasant moments. You might also become depressed thinking about childhood. It sounds terrible to say that it\u2019s normal but in this context, I\u2019m sure it is. Starting your journey is difficult when you have to go back in time to the reason why your childhood doesn\u2019t feel fulfilled. Also nostalgia is a sickening feeling and you\u2019ll have it constantly in your journey, just adding to that depression.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve realized that healing your inner child is also extremely embarrassing! I\u2019m humiliated to admit that I watch My Little Pony, Aphmau\u2019s MyStreet series, and 10-year-old LDShadowlady and Vixella videos. But that\u2019s literally what it\u2019s about. It\u2019s embarrassing and that\u2019s perfectly fine. If it makes you happy deep down in your soul, where the little you resides, that is all that matters. <\/span><\/p>\n

After it gets better, though, it’s unbelievably rewarding. You feel free and your life becomes yours again. It\u2019s fun when you live for that little kid you used to be. There\u2019s still some major dips but I think that just comes with high school. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you think you\u2019re done, when your inner child feels healed enough to move on, it\u2019s important to keep catering to that little you so your progress doesn\u2019t get rewritten as you enter a new stage in your life. Keep watching that childhood favorite show when things in college get hard, keep pursuing that childhood dream as a hobby when your job feels like it\u2019s asking too much of you, keep doing things the younger you loved when you feel lost. <\/span><\/p>\n

The reason I think things like this are so important is because I believe our child selves are the truest versions of us. That’s us before any wrong doings from older generations, before the terrifying experience of growing up, before the stresses of society and adult life. Those things change us for the worse. They make us angry, scared, and small minded. Live as if the little you is controlling the organic machine of your brain. You\u2019ll take more risks, say no to things you actually wanted to say no to and yes to things you wanted to say yes to, you\u2019ll laugh more, play more, generally do more<\/em> things that give you an archive of experiences that change you for the better.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I feel silly being not even 18 talking about the horrors of being an adult. I haven\u2019t even gotten there yet, but I\u2019ll admit that I am terrified. Imagine it\u2019s not even that bad for me when I get there (I highly doubt it). Maybe it won\u2019t be if I\u2019m already preparing like this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This was partially an excuse to be able to talk about how proud I\u2019ve made my younger self. I\u2019m pursuing her dreams of being an author and I\u2019m working on fulfilling her dream of having a YouTube channel. I\u2019m dyeing my hair the way she\u2019s always wanted, and I\u2019ve never been happier with how it looks. And I\u2019m being extremely cringe like she always was. That\u2019s really what this post is about, I just didn\u2019t know how to gracefully fit it in here.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I\u2019ve started my senior year of high school, I\u2019ve adopted a very special personal project. Unfortunately it\u2019s not a YouTube channel, a new sketchbook, or a novel (yet!). I\u2019ve started a journey to heal my inner child! When I began, I didn\u2019t intend for this to be a fully structured journey. It was more … Continue reading “How I’m Healing My Inner Child”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22783,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22775\/revisions\/22783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}