impRAWvise 

There is something magic ( as in a shift in perception ), that happens when one goes to therapy and does the work. It’s not about perfection, or perfecting ourselves, but, for me personally, personal development and working with a therapist is about being open to get to know ourselves better and understand ourselves better. And I know that for some people and even for myself sometimes, even though I am pretty good at this, I still fall of the path from time to time, it might seem like an act of egoism to put ourselves first, but the thing is that only by taking care of ourselves and our own unique needs, wants and desires, we are then able to show up as our true selves and do the work our there in the world as well. So, yes, I do believe it is a wonderful act of self care and self love to be able to learn to put ourselves first, to make sure that we are ok, and even when we are not, to just make sure that we are attending to our needs, both on an emotional level as well as on a physical level. That being said, I would like to bring into conversation today, a topic that’s very near and dear to my heart, and that is inner child work. I must admit that I do my best at times to avoid it, but it is such a wonderful concept that can actually bring great fulfilment and joy back into our lives.

The truth is that there is no perfect childhood, and there is also lots of pressure being put on parents nowadays, even though we do have access to better practices and better tools for raising children and making them wonderful and respectul citizens of the world, at the same time there is also lots of shaming and blaming and confusion as well. I personally did not have a perfect childhood, and there were a lot of things that I am grateful for, but there were also lots of things that I was mad at, things that I’ve had to and still, moving forwards, will have to address in therapy and make amends, learn better coping strategies, listen to my inner child, heal my inner child and so on and so forth. Yesterday, as I went out with an old friend, we’ve been to a coffee and matcha first and them we kept wondering for a while through some stores at the local mall, looking for all kinds of winter holiday goodies. I went, of course to my favorite place on Earth, the local bookstore and there I found a wonderful book, which I would have normally bypassed, if I have never read and studied about the “reparenting ourselves” strategies or about the “inner child work”. Therefore, I feel in love with this book instantaneously, even though it is a “parenting” book so to speak, it provides amazing tools and resources for inner child work as well, and for that I am deeply grateful.

I got the book, I went home, and I must admit, I just felt that sense of awe and wonder once more. I haven’t felt that connection to a book in a while now, so I am deeply and truly and fully grateful for simply allowing my intuition, so to speak, guide me to this book, to the book that I most probably need the most at this time and space right here, right now. My inner child is also grateful and open for more exploration and healing to come. I think the timing is also a key element here, as we are approaching almost, already tapping into the winter holiday season, there is a lot of noise and crowdedness out there, but there is also a wonderful time, right here right now, to just get back to ourselves and reconnect with our inner truth and inner guidance. So many times we might be reacting impulsively, or even overreacting, and all of those strategies and coping mechanisms, that were at some point in our development adaptive and useful, might simply not be serving us anymore, and maybe, perhaps, just maybe, if we do get to address our inner child and do the work we might end up feeling better, more connected with ourselves and in sync with our unique needs, desires and above all with our inner guidance, that is always available for, us at all times.