My counselor and I talk a lot about my inner child, mostly because she still needs healing. I often think back to my inner child and think about what I would do differently for her. I came from a super loving home that definitely had rocky times. I’ve spent most of my life being a chronic people pleaser, and funnily enough, that never applied to me. And unfortunately, this runs in my family.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to work on being intentional about reminding myself that I’m a person too and I deserve love. I took a vacation with my cousins. Growing up, my cousins and I were people-pleasers that specialized in ignoring ourselves. So we decided that this was the year we were going to claim back lost time and make some big moves to heal and love our past little selves. (Working on boundaries is also a big help too.)
And man, it was the best decision! When you take time to do things you love, it really allows you to fill that cup that you can then pour into others. We left that trip with a promise that we would do more for our inner children. When we did that, we learned that there was enough love for us to share with our loved ones and ourselves.