Carl Jung’s “Inner Child”
The concept of the “inner child” began with Carl Jung when he broke up with his partner, Sigmund Freud, to form his own practice. In his self-study, Jung realized that he had lost interest in creativity, which came from his intimate childhood love of ‘building things.’ Jung was able to tune into this inner child psyche through writing, transforming his emotions and visual imagination into a legacy of divine creativity— revealing an astonishing visual facet of a man so influential in the realm of thought and words.
“What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to what you should be doing in your worldly pursuits.”
Carl Jung
Remembering Our Inner Child
Writing is an invitation to connect back to the true nature that is always available to us. It is an invitation to remember and reconnect with who we are. Since we are an accumulation of the stories we tell ourselves — writing takes us back to confront our past. Healing is simply a change in perspective. If we can reconnect with our history, then we have the power to ‘rewrite’ (change our perspective in) our past, and therefore we have the power to change our future.
Today I encourage you to take a few minutes to remember your child.
Inner Child Healing Work
When I was a child, what did I love to do for fun?
Who was my ‘hero’ as a child and why?
Who did I want to grow up to be and why?
What was my favorite subject in school and why?
How are the things that I am doing now pulling me away from these values or moving me closer to my inner child?
How are you creating the space for your inner child to play?