Start Now: Healing Your Inner Child Journal Prompts

Have you been suppressing your inner child? Are there things you need to work on in order to help with healing your inner child? If you have… do you ever wonder why is it important to heal that part of you or how you would go about it? By using these healing your inner child journal prompts. We are going to answer those questions today. If you haven’t please read the next paragraph carefully.

Do you ever find yourself reminiscing about your childhood A LOT? Do you think of things that make you happy and A LOT of them are things from your childhood? (favorite music, movies, clothing style)Have you ever felt weirded out after you had an outburst of emotion that left you feeling like you were acting like a child? Those could be triggers that stem from things that are unresolved or things you felt you were deprived of as a child. Check down below for these healing your inner child journal prompts.

What does healing your inner child mean

When we refer to inner child we don’t mean that you are a child or acting like a child. It refers to all those repressed memories and feelings from childhood that resurface from time to time. It’s you recognizing and accepting things that caused you pain in childhood. It is us addressing our needs that haven’t been met as children. Sometimes it is the painful things that you blocked out, but it is also fulfilling those things you did not get as a child.

How to start the healing process?

That is a loaded question. Healing can mean many different things to everybody. I find it important to take the time to answer these journal prompts down below. Taking your time will help you find the correct course of action. The whole point to for you to figure out what you need to fulfill what you needed in childhood. It is not something that happens overnight. Some of these journal prompts you may need to think about for a while, because you may not know the answer right away.

We have spent so many years suppressing these things that have caused us pain, resentment, or heartache. We forgot what it was that truly bothered us to begin with. Growing up we were all told to let it go… to move on. That it wasn’t that important. But if it meant something to you then it WAS important.

What happens when you heal your inner child?

All those feelings that you have about your childhood resentment, anger, sadness, and confusion find a way of figuring themselves out. You basically become the parent or adult figure in your life that you needed as a child.

Being the adult figure you needed when you were a child gives you the power to rectify the situations you were given. You heard in math class that Timmy’s Mom let them have dessert for breakfast once a week. That was something you wanted to do. But your parents thought that was stupid and irresponsible. You just wanted to do something “fun” with your parents. Helping your inner child gives you the power to say… You know what it wasn’t a STUPID idea. It was a great idea. So you decide that Saturday morning on your day off. You are going to eat ice cream in bed watching your favorite cartoon.

Why is this type of healing important?

You are allowing yourself to live out a childhood dream that may seem stupid to others. But it made you SO HAPPY right? Even being an adult. It made you so fucking happy. Even if you got a stomach ache and asked yourself “why did you think this was a good idea?” Something inside of you checks this off a bucket list you didn’t even know you had. Something inside yourself marks this as completed and gives you a sense of relief. Also, gives you a boost of serotonin… even if it didn’t turn out how you thought it was going to.

This type of healing is so important because a lot of things happened or didn’t happen as a child. That can represent themselves in things we do as an adult. A lot of the trauma, abuse, or abandonment surfaces that hold us back in our current everyday life.

If you don’t work on your inner child you could unconsciously choose memories from the past. Ultimately choose things based on what your inner self would need to feel safe. It is okay to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

How do I journal my inner child?

Journaling to help heal your inner child can go about 2 ways. You can do scenarios or you can use the healing your inner child journal prompts to take a deep dive into what childhood was like for you. I recommend doing both but you can start off small working on the easy basic questions to just get your footing. But as time goes on definitely work on some scenarios.

Scenarios

If you choose scenarios you can follow along with this outline I created to help with the flow of communicating with your inner child.

1. Envision your inner child at whatever age you feel they needed the most support.
   What age did you choose? _____
2. Now envision your inner child when they experienced something that was tough for them.
3. What event or situation pops in your mind when you think of your inner child at the age you chose?
4. Describe in detail what happened.
5. Close your eyes and play the scenario in your head.
6. What happened when you told an adult what happened?
7. How did you expect this event or situation to go when you told the adult?
8. What was the ONE thing you needed from said adult?
9. Reread the description of the event again, but this time write how it would have gone if you were the adult that this child came to. Write in as much detail as possible.
10. How did you rectify the situation with your inner child?
11. Did you validate their feelings?
12. Did you let them know you see them and hear them?
13. Let them know you understand and apologize for the struggles they have been living with.
14. Tell them that they are safe and you are here to protect them?

Role-playing scenarios

Write a letter to your mother and father separately a letter that lays out everything you have always wanted to say to them. Write as if these are the last things you will EVER say to them.

Make a list of all the things you don’t like in your life right now. Re-write that list with “I Love” in front of each statement. Read each one out loud with positive thoughts in your mind. That you actually believe each one of these statements. I love {something you don’t like about yourself}!

You can use this outline for multiple scenarios from your childhood that you need help navigating. I have also made this a printable you can download and use on your own time.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION

Healing your inner child journal prompts

If you use these questions you must be willing to be open and honest with yourself.

1. When you think of the words “immature”, “childish”, and “childlike” mean to you? What connotations do they hold?
2. What is the earliest age I feel my needs weren’t met?
3. When looking back what do I remember about this time in my life?
4. What were my hopes, dreams, or fears at this age?
5. How did this time of my life change me?
6. What characteristics or traits did you have as a child that you still have?
7. What’s one thing you wish you could change about your childhood?
8. What was your relationship with your parents like as a child?
9. List five activities that you loved taking part in as a child.
10. List three activities you enjoyed as a child that you can incorporate into your adult life.
11. Write a letter to your inner self.
12. Take a whole page of your journal to just be creative. Whatever you want on this page.
13. Who did you look up to as a child? Did you have an idol? What made you look up to them? What characteristics of theirs do you wish you possessed as a child? As an adult, do you possess them now?

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION

Helping your inner child

It is not an easy or quick process to heal your inner child. But a lot of who we are and why we do what we do are intertwined with who we were as children. A lot of times we are never given the apology or closure we needed as a child because we are always taught to just let it go.

As much as it sucks that we have to be the ones who have to do this roleplaying with ourselves to heal what damage was done to us as children. I think it is something that we need to do to heal and for real move on from the shitty situations we were put in. It should be our responsibility, but somehow it is.

When you first start it may sound stupid to re-enact or answer these questions by yourself, but in the end, I think it takes some of the weight off of our shoulders. How mental health is dealt with today needs a major change. It first starts with us dealing with our bullshit so we can treat our kids or future nieces and nephews with the care and respect we deserved. So they don’t have to do this shit when they are adults. Time to end the trauma with us, take one for our team, so we can be the change we want to see in the world.

Healing your inner child journal prompts

I have a bunch of journal related content that you might be interested in like:
The Beginners Guide to Journaling
25 simple questions you never ask yourself, but should
Life Audit Questions
How to Start Today – Manifesting the life you want
10 interesting October journal prompts for Self-discovery
World Mental Health Day – Checking In With Yourself
Vacation Journaling
Shadow Work

Until Next Time, Have a good day! Remember you are a badass!