You have probably heard of healing the inner child but you have no idea where to start. There are just so many things to stay on top of! You want to grow, become a better person, and ENJOY life. But there are so many self-care activities, so many healing modalities, it’s easy to get lost sometimes.
Instead of struggling to keep up with what is new and trendy in the wellness community, why not keep it simple? Why not focus on the root of many of our problems. Something that feels so good, so right, like a final puzzle piece is being placed.
Inner child work is that final puzzle piece.
If you were drawn to this article, you are probably someone who works on yourself in some way. You go to therapy, get reiki done, work with crystals, or anything of the sort. If you are, then you want to keep reading to find out how to create this vision board. This is one of the best ways to boost your spiritual growth.
We won’t be going into huge detail today about what exactly is inner child work. But you will definitely learn:
- What is inner child work? – The basics
- How vision boards can help with inner child work
- What are some crystals that can help with inner child work
- What are some essential oils that can help with inner child work
- Meditation for the inner child
So let’s get started.
What is inner child work?
Inner child work includes techniques or processes that you do by yourself or with a qualified practitioner like a therapist. The goal of inner child work is to work on issues that involve your inner child or originated from when you were a child. The inner child is just that – the part of you inside that is still, in many ways, a child.
Do you ever notice that when certain things happen, you feel yourself reverting back to an earlier mindstate – like you are a child all over again? It happens for many people when they visit their families over the holidays. Suddenly you feel like a 6-year-old again. Your family member talks down to you the way that they did when you were a child. This can trigger your subconscious mind to react the same way you did when you were a child.
Many of our emotional and mental habits are formed before we are adults. When something triggers you what you are feeling is a pulling back or reversion to these times when these habits were formed or when traumas were experienced.
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Children process events differently than adults. A minor inconvenience may seem like the literal end of the world to a child. Something that may not be traumatic to an adult may be traumatic to a child. Children are less logical and more emotional. Because of this, you need to keep an open mind with inner child work and not dismiss things because they don’t seem important or serious enough. It is also important to know that some things may seem silly, but if your inner child is showing it to you then it may be important.
The benefits of inner child work include being able to move forward in life when you feel stuck in the past, a better relationship with yourself and your family, you can learn how to set boundaries (especially with people close to you), and learn how to take good care of yourself.
So in summary:
- Inner child work is a healing process where you acknowledge the child part of you that still exists.
- Children experience things differently than adults so care and understanding are required with inner child work.
- Events in the present moment can trigger trauma responses we learned in the past
- Inner child work can help with emotional numbness, boundary issues, unresolved trauma, abandonment or attachment type issues, and childhood abuse
How to get to know the inner child
There are many ways to start getting to know the inner child. Today you are going to learn how to use meditation for this but other ways include:
- Working with a therapist or counselor
- Hypnotherapy
- Working with a psychic
- Energy healing
- Painting or drawing
- Making crafts like dolls that represent your inner child
- I have a service that I offer – an Inner Child Connection Reading
Meditation for inner child connection
Before you get started with your vision board, you need to find out what to put on it! Your inner child is different from everyone else’s. You need to take some time to get to know the needs of your own inner child. Meditation is one way to do this. Here are some instructions for an easy meditation to get to know your inner child:
- Get comfortable. Sit or lie down, If you want, turn on some light music. Make sure you take care of things you need to take care of before you sit down to meditate so that you won’t be distracted.
- Take some deep breaths and relax.
- Ask to connect with your inner child. Take a few more deep breaths and wait for your inner child to communicate with you.
- Here are some questions to ask and things to keep in mind. You can write these questions down before the meditation and keep some extra space on a paper ready to write down messages from your inner child.
- What does this version of your inner child look like? What age are they?
- Ask your inner child if they have a message for you
- Ask to see if your inner child needs help with anything
- Ask if there is something that your inner child really needs you to do
- After asking your inner child whichever extra questions you feel are appropriate to ask, now is the time to find out what to put on your vision board. Tell your inner child that you are creating a vision board dedicated to healing them and ask what should go on it. Wait and listen for answers!
- When you are finished, thank your inner child and come out of the meditation whenever you are ready.
How to create an amazingly simple vision board for inner child healing
There are a lot of different items or experiences your inner child may want depicted on a vision board. For example:
- Stuffed animals
- Toys
- Certain colors
- Angels, gods, or divine beings
- Family members
- A photo of yourself as a child
- People you currently look up to or people you looked up to as a child
- Superheroes
- Tv, video games, or movie characters
- Musicians and celebrities
- Favorite foods
- Photos of places you spent a lot of time i
- Photos of real places or fantasy places you wanted to visit
- Photos of a place where you felt safe as a child
- Pieces of things that feel good – like a piece of soft cloth or fabric
- Words that are important to your inner child like : play, support, love, comfort, friends, family, safety, and security
Make a list of things that your inner child wants on your vision board. If you did not get any information from the meditation – that is okay! Just write down a list of things that you think your inner child may benefit from. Here is a list of things on my own personal inner child healing vision board:
- Photos of the beautiful spots in nature that I loved to visit as a child
- Photos that remind me and my inner child of health – I had a lot of health issues as a child that I am still working with because I didn’t get the care I needed
- A photo of a divine being who is important to me
- A lot of green and purple
- A proustite crystal and black tourmaline crystal
Once you have a list of what your inner child needs, its time to get started on your vision board. There are a few different types of vision boards you can make. First, choose physical or digital. Nowadays it is a lot easier to create digital vision boards with programs like Canva or sites like Pinterest.
If you want a physical vision board there are a few options. You can use a basic piece of paper and glue photos on top of it. You could use a poster board or a canvas. You can even use fabric and sew the photos onto the fabric. So many options! Be creative and let your inner child express themselves through the activity of creating the board.
Creating the board can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. You can meditate beforehand and ask your inner child to take the lead while you create the board if you would like. Add photos to the board in an order and way that makes sense to you – be intuitive!
Other ways to facilitate inner child healing – create an altar for your inner child
Once you have your vision board set up, you may be wondering where to put it. You can create an altar (a special sacred space) to put your vision board on along with other relevant objects. Altars are useful because they signify a physical place to perform certain sacred actions or self-care routines. An inner child healing altar would be a great place for you to:
- Do shadow work
- Have calls with your therapist
- Meditate
- & anything that feels like it involves your inner child
Creating an altar for your inner child can be as simple or as complex as you would like it to be. You can simply set the vision board on top of a surface and call it a day, or you can place the vision board along with special herbs, crystals, and objects which are sacred to you and important to your healing process. Either choice is wonderful. Below are some more detailed recommendations if you would like to go the extra step with creating an inner child healing altar.
How to create an inner child healing altar
- Find a good space. Find a space that will be safe and undisturbed. If there are pets and small children around, make sure it is in an area that they cannot get to if you choose to have herbs or crystals there. You want everyone to be safe!
- Dedicate the space. You can simply set an intention for this area to be used for your inner child healing work. You can also cleanse the space before you place your altar items there.
- Place your items and vision board on the altar. Some people place certain things in certain directions, lideppending on which elements the object resonates with. For example, if you have a candle on your inner child altar some you could place it in the north area of your altar to correspond with the air element.
- That’s it! You can visit your altar on a regular basis, meditate there, do whatever you want!
If you want to add items to your altar other than your vision board you can add childhood toys, sacred texts, or other items. You can also incorporate crystal healing and essential oils.
Crystals good for inner child healing:
- Rose quartz – This is one of my favorite crystals for inner child healing. Rose quartz is compassionate and gentle yet truthful. Rose quartz exposes childhood traumas and helps to release them in a manageable way.
- Blue calcite – This crystal is very calming and protective. This would be a good crystal to include if you had boundary issues as a child
- Black tourmaline – This is an incredibly protective crystal. It would be good to include if you had issues feeling safe as a child
- Lepidolite – Lepidolite is incredibly calming and will be a wonderful crystal to include if you experienced childhood anxiety or insecurity
Essential oils like lavender, ylang-ylang, and sweet orange are great to incorporate because of their calming and uplifting properties. You could also use candles made from these scents if they’re natural.
That is all! I hope you have a wonderful time working with your inner child and creating a healing altar. <3