Welcome back to my series of Simple Self Care–invest five minutes in feeling way better. I’m also writing posts about inner child healing (both of those links send you to the tag for those series)!
We teach what we most need to learn and when I started teaching Fat Kid Dance Party aerobics it was healing my bullied left out middle school inner child. It’s now a modality that I’ve designed to connect to whoever of your inner child roster needs your attention!
This time last year I was anticipating a season of extreme grief. My only pet, my familiar, my Feline Overlord: Biscuit Reynolds was shifting towards his transition. I’ve read The Body Keeps the Score, I know we hold onto feelings we don’t make space for.
Our hips are big landing spots for feelings, so I figured a before bed hip opener would be good. My friend and ganja yoga instructor Tamara suggested I do a long supported child’s pose. It’s so easy for me to just do it on the bed before I hit the hay.
Typically I turn on my Gentle Hours playlist on shuffle, go outside and between 30 seconds and 5 minutes of stargazing and prayer, then head to bed and whatever song is playing is what I do child’s pose.
My friend Manduh lead an inner child meditation at a Goddess Sisterhood virtual retreat that brought us into a room to visit our inner child, I saw it as a room inside a tree trunk, so I tend to go into the tree for this visualization.
At every aerobics class I lead a visualization where we become a tree and invite our inner child to play by the tree. There really isn’t a wrong way to do it other than choosing not to do it and ignore our inner little one.
I’m looking for 1. How old is my inner child presenting today? 2. What is she wearing? 3. What is she doing or what does she need from me? I might ask “What do you need from me, little one?” in my most compassionate tone.
WOW HOW MUCH WORK I HAVE DONE AROUND MY INNER VOICE IN 15 YEARS.
My first life coach tried to get me to talk to my inner child with compassion and I truly could NOT speak to myself with compassion. Healing takes way longer than I expect and it’s better to just start, I’m so glad I started messy and inconsistent. And now I check in with my inner child many times a week. And give her what she needs!
Last week when I was first off Instagram, my inner child was around 2-3 years old and she needed “Attention.” Attention is a human need and kids really need a lot of it! And when you’re raised in poverty with a single mom there’s not a lot of adult attention available. As a result we have this wound that needs tending later in life when we reparent our little ones.
My inner child’s ask for attention caused me to make extra sure with my time no longer on Instagram Stories (an addiction I’m recovering from) to meet my need for attention. I’ve found outlets! I love my interactive Discord communities and I have a couple friends who read, react and comment in my Discord diary which is really scratching the itch I was getting from IG stories and DMs. Join my Patreon and get into our self care supportive Discord community!
Anyway, you don’t need to do a hip opener to do an inner child check in at bedtime, but I find the two in one habit has a lot of benefits. And habit stacking it with my bedtime wind down has been really helpful!
I talk more about my daily routines to bring me back to my peace in episode 190 of my podcast!
Stay tuned to this space for more inner child healing resources–I have a list I’m excited to share!
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