Why it’s Important to Engage Your Inner Child

Go back to a simpler time

By: Raquel Van Ry  

Do you ever miss how simple childhood could be? When your biggest worry was picking out the perfect outfit for your first day of school, your self esteem was sky-high because no one had had the chance to make you feel lesser, and your imagination ran wild without restraints. While adulthood certainly has its charms, there truly is nothing like being a kid. I found a great definition of one’s inner child from Merriam-Webster. It says that your inner child is responsible for the part of yourself that is playful, spontaneous and creative, in addition to feelings of hurt and fear that you might experience which stem from your childhood. What we experienced and learned as children have turned us into the people we are now, that’s why it’s so important to read a little deeper into your feelings because a lot of them may be a result of significant childhood experiences. 

If you’re interested in connecting with your inner child, then you should take some time for yourself to reflect and think about how you’re feeling at this point in your life and to address any internal challenges you may not have overcome or acknowledged yet. When I moved away from my childhood home, I was so horribly sad, but for my parent’s sake, I put on a smile and did my best to look forward to the coming change. Fast-forward to just 2 years ago when my young-adult self thought that she had gotten over this trauma: I was driving home from work when Amanda Lambert’s song ‘The House that Built me’ came on the radio, and I started weeping out of nowhere. Hard. I cried for what I left behind in the move, living with my siblings on our acreage, grooming my horses and enjoying various family celebrations. After I wiped my not-so-appealing, tear stained face, I felt so much better. Looking back, I now realize that I had connected to my inner child and the hurt that I was still feeling. I had purged those pent-up emotions in such a cathartic way and by acknowledging them, I could finally move forward.

Mandarin essential oil is known as the oil of the inner child because its scent connects us to the feeling of purity. Try adding a few drops of this oil to your diffuser as you engage in creative play. The thing about your inner child is that you don’t lose anything by embracing it, you just gain an extra channel through which you can really see yourself. You don’t have to do any specific thing to connect with it; you can tap into your inner child by writing about what you’re feeling or talking aloud to yourself and allow yourself to relive moments of your childhood, and let whatever deep seated emotions come to the surface.

By opening up this side of yourself, you’ll learn to be able to accept all of yourself and be okay with who you are, even if you do just feel like a kid making your way through an adult world. Your inner child is pretty darn brilliant, and it needs to be taken seriously, so acknowledge it, nourish it, and love it.

For more information about what your inner child is and how you could connect to it, here is a great resource to check out.