Everything for Every Adventure: Healing with the Inner Child
- Oct 7
- 5 min read
"Everything for every adventure."
This is the title of Amazon’s children's Christmas wishlist book. And it keeps running on over and over in my head.
Everything for every adventure.
Everything for every adventure.
Everything for every adventure.
So I asked myself why?
I love the vibe of adventure and feel that it is the key to maneuvering through whatever times we’re all maneuvering through right now. T
Tune into the adventure of never knowing what awaits around the corner, and also tune into what a fun and beautiful surprise it will be.
Be certain that it is a surprise and that it will bring you joy.
Just like the children looking through that Christmas catalog.
The Inner Child’s Natural State
I am reminded that this morning, when I was listening to someone talk about the Scandinavian secrets to a happy life. In it, she talked about a psychologist who advised that we all try to capture that inner child energy within us all. The one whose natural state of being was one of contentment, peace, and joy.
Children are outside of that state only when something isn’t right - when they have a pain or are hungry or tired. Otherwise, they fall back into this state of being blissfully and happily in the moment.
Discontent as a Messenger
As I write this, I am realizing that the feeling of discontentment is a sign for us that something is off and out of balance.
We are being irritated, angry, frustrated, and exhausted because we are out of alignment and are being asked to address the issue to bring us back to our natural state of joy and peace.
For many of us, we are so used to being in misalignment and are so disconnected from our peaceful, joyous, content state, we don’t even remember what that feels like. We have bought into the illusion that the balanced state belongs only in childhood or requires removing yourself completely from the world, like hermits or monks.
We believe that being an adult means facing “reality” and the "real world" along with all of these negative states of being. We believe we need to dig deep and persevere despite feeling off and unhappy.
Our lives are based on work, sacrifice, struggle, and self-denial. We don't pause to ask why we feel this way, how we could feel better, and what we need to do in order to do so.
Inner child work is getting back in touch, moment by moment, with the innocent, spontaneous peace and joy that we lived in then. It is purging ourselves, even if for a short time at first, of the need to put up with our imbalanced state of being (that we seem to magnify and keep expanding day after day).
It reminds us of another way of being, one we have forgotten, but that still lies at the heart of who we are and what we wish for and, in fact, need in our lives.
The Adult’s Role: Becoming the Nurturer
Our inner child knew that if it expressed its discontent when they felt out of balance, then someone would help them set it right. That they would receive nurturing was a given truth to them and their reality.
This, too, is part of our inner child re-connection, knowing that access to nurturing is a constant truth in our lives. Now, though, we are the nurturing adult figure in our lives. We are the ones who care for ourselves and are responsible for making sure our needs are being met.
Once again, we confront a conditioning telling us that adults are meant to deny their needs and that self-nurturing is not something we have time for. Adults don't need nurturing is the truth we hold.
Here is where a lot of emotional wounds arise in us - when we neglect our needs. When children are neglected, they suffer wounding. This is a human truth, not only a “child truth.”
We, as adults, as humans, suffer wounding when we are neglected.
Now, in adulthood, we are responsible for our own nurturing and caretaking. No one else.
Healing Through Integration
The question is not only how we get in touch with our inner child and their state of being, but also how we integrate them into our adult lives.
Being an adult is not a punishment.
It is a phase of life that we, too, need to honor, thrive in, and enjoy.
Adulthood holds its own joys and gifts for us.
It brings us to a closer connection with the people and world around us through our understanding, intellect, or mature, healthy ego.
We can engage with our inner child to explore what it means to be a conscious creator as an adult.
With our inner child, we are capable of expressing our authentic selves, living out our purpose, and our soul-aligned work.
Yet, all of this has been skewed and malformed by our collective adherence and acceptance of conditioned beliefs that tell us to deny our inner child and to believe that they are a part of our past rather than an active and necesssary part of our present.
Remembering Who You Were
Now is the time to rediscover our Selves.
Reconnecting with the Inner Child is the first step to this healing journey of rediscovery.
We first need to bring balance to our wounded adult through our conscious integration with our inner child.
Then we can move forward to unwind the binding of conditioned beliefs and identity we have unconsciously accepted as adults.
This kind of inner child work entails remembering:
✨ who we were as children,
✨ what we enjoyed doing,
✨ how we spent our time,
✨ what brought us joy,
✨ how we expressed ourselves and
✨ how we identified ourselves in the secret places within each of us.
By remembering these things about ourselves, we can then actively integrate our inner child into our daily lives again, one action at a time.
Time, Rest, and De-Conditioning
It is also remembering how we as children related to time and rest. This begins the deconditioning. It offers us one key to restoring balance in our adult lives.
We build awareness that time drives us relentlessly, and we deny ourselves true rest.
Begin incorporating both timelessness and rest into your life.
Closing Affirmation
We bring you back now to how we began with the statement - "Everything you need for every adventure."
You have everything you need for every adventure.
It is all within you, waiting to be accessed and accepted.
It is waiting for you to bring your inner child back to your awareness and honor, and integrate their nature and way of being once again into your life.
They are just as much a part of you today as they were decades ago.
Now is the time to embrace them once again and allow them space and expression within your life.
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