Finding your inner child is useful in personal growth and empowerment. The part many of us are missing is a connection with spontaneity, freedom of spirit, and pure joy at discovering new things. I recently saw a news shot of a business which offers to adults a chance to be in pre-school! They can lighten up and reduce stress by playing, creating, coloring, singing and very importantly laughing. We all benefit from feeling joy!

shared from : kineticforgiveness.blogspot.com

Reconnecting to the joyful child you once were is beneficial if as a child you felt pushed to be something you were not ready to be or was not you at all. If over time it created a somber you, unable to let loose and have fun when the situation calls for it, your inner child may be in hiding. Your inner child may also have been bombarded with limiting beliefs or left to question self- worth. Whether or not you feel a need to rediscover or heal him or her, is up to you. But it presents the question, “Am I doing the same thing to my child?”

Children do need encouragement and support to grow and move past fear, but too often it isn’t their choice but what parents want them to do, or because “everybody is doing it”.   Pushing kids to do what is expected of them by comparison to other kids, standards of schools, what you did as a kid, what your parents expect, puts a lot of pressure on your children, as it did to you. Too often it doesn’t help them grow but diminishes the sense of self, increasing a feeling of lack, increase a feeling there is something wrong with them. Isn’t that how previous generations lost their inner child?

As I write about My Loving Self and Me I am reminded, that the True Self, the Loving Self can be diminished by siblings, other children in school or the neighborhood, and parents. The book speaks to the child, encouraging them to find their Loving Self and live from their heart. But it is necessary to remind adults that they too must do the same thing in interacting with children. Ask yourself as you read, if it is your Loving Self that your children see. Model the way you wish your child to be. Louise Hay in “Love your Inner Child”, encourages people to use the following affirmation to heal their inner child: “I am perfect, whole, and complete, just as I am. The more you repeat this statement of truth about yourself, the quicker you will release the past.” Say it with your children when their self-worth is in jeopardy. Encourage them to expand their horizons with love and communication, listening to their fears and concerns. Keep your Loving Self present as you parent. Let them retain their inner child as they grow into caring, responsibility, and integrity with love.