Inner Child Guided Meditation
September 6, 2008
I’ve had more requests for an inner child meditation than anything else. I haven’t done inner child work in any formal way as part of my path, and can’t be sure exactly what people were asking for when they made these requests. Nevertheless, the concept of the inner child speaks to me and I really enjoyed exploring it as I created this latest podcast.
The term “inner child” has different meanings to different people. Not everyone relates to this concept, but for those who do it can be a very useful concept for growth and healing. If you’re interested in the history of this term and how it’s been used in the past, check out Wikipedia. When I use the term, it relates purely to how it resonates with me and my experience.
As I’ve said before, when I record a guided meditation I am meditating with you. I go into a meditative space and a meditation happens which is just as much for me as for you. In creating the inner child meditation, I discovered a bit about what the inner child means to me.
As I meditated with you, I experienced some feelings which are very familiar, but most of the time are lingering under the surface. My adult becomes very busy with her life and often ignores these feelings which are inconvenient. To pay attention to what may seem like childish needs and hurts, and even the wish to express the unbridled joy which is also there under the surface, would take time away from all the things which seem so important in my day. And yet what is more important than attending to our deepest needs and feelings or allowing ourselves to cry those unshed tears that have been waiting for expression for years? What is more important than expressing childlike exuberance? I love to pretend I have on my tapping shoes and dance around just for fun. We don’t just find our unmet needs and past hurts when we connect with the inner child, we also find the source of our joy.
I have done lots of inner work, through meditation, therapy, and various healing modalities, yet the ethic of productivity and achievement have a strong momentum. I am not always as attentive as I’d like to be to my needs. Our culture prods us on to do, but doesn’t honor our need to be. Our culture doesn’t place a priority on nourishing the inner life. I’m thankful to all of you who requested this meditation. It caused me to take time to connect with some of the longings of my deeper self.
Whether you are already working with the inner child as part of recovery or healing or simply want to explore your inner life, I hope this meditation supports you. I would love to hear about your experiences with this meditation or any other work you’ve done with the inner child. What does the inner child mean to you? What experiences have you had with him or her?
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NOTE: We’re so sorry — we originally uploaded our Inner Child Meditation with outtakes. If you are among the 12,000 people who have downloaded the first version, please check back for the correct version which is now available here and on iTunes.
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21 Responses to “Inner Child Guided Meditation”
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I LOVE MARY MADDUX! your voice in the guided meditation podcasts I listen to every day, and it really helps! Thank you so much!
I’ve been wondering if you would created a guided meditation on fear, and how to handle big fears or small fears…everyday ones or life-changing ones….
I often am in a place where i could use some soothing thoughts/energies to help through fearful situations and would love to see a meditation on that!
Thank you so much for your work!
sincerely,
keith
You are welcome, Keith. A meditation on fear is a real possibility. I’ll let that idea percolate and see what comes up. In the meantime, I’m wondering if the Emotional Ease meditation might help. Let me know!
Dear Mary,
I attempted to complete the Inner Child guided imagery and found it difficult to complete. It brought up a lot of difficult and confronting emotions for me from my childhood.
And even though I found it difficult, I think it’s going to allow me to address some of the stuff that I suppressed in therapy.
Hopefully, this will help me to deal with some things that I might have overlooked.
Thank you for podcasting these meditations that will assist me to help some of my deeper wounds and eventually enrich the quality of my life.
You are welcome, Mel. It takes courage to the inner work you are doing and I congratulate you. Sometimes we feel we’re finished with certain issues, and then we get to a deeper layer of things. We suppress things until there’s a readiness to deal with them. Sounds like you’re opening up to a deeper layer.
Perhaps using the Emotional Ease meditation would help support this process.
Wishing you the very best, Mary
I just wanted to let you know that your inner child meditation was very powerful for me. I cried for the little boy that didn’t get what he needed at the time, and that lack has followed me through my adult years. Your meditation allowed me to begin the process of providing what my inner child needed – then – and it’s my feeling that this will ultimately heal what this adult now needs. Thanks for a healing experience.!!!!!
How inspiring to hear this, Craig. You are so welcome, and thank you for sharing this experience. Wishing you more and more healing!
Dear Mary,
Your inner child guided meditation was powerful, moving and incredibly valuable to me at this point in my journey. I was overcome with emotion as I looked at my inner child and yet finished with a wonderful sense of peace and a new perspective. Thank you so much for your gift. ~Stacie
You are very welcome, Stacie. The description of your experience is moving. Thank you for being so open to the meditation and taking time to let us know about your experience.
I started doing one of the other meditations this morning, but after starting, felt I wanted to listen to the inner child one. I realized that, as my BodyTalk practitioner told me, both my husband and I weren’t encouraged to express our feelings as children and it is time to open up. The first image was that my inner child was not allowed to show tears and sadness. The photos we have are of me smiling, but not being sad. I imagined being held by both of my parents as if I really mattered, I was important to them, and beyond that to be embraced by Heavenly Father/Mother on all sides, safe and secure and loved, able to let go and cry.
Then I thought of my husband. When I pictured the one photo we have of him as a little boy, and how sad he was, then I really tapped into something strong and started crying out loud for him. I put him in my lap and let him cry. I am picturing that we will both be able to cry and be held by each other whenever the need comes and be able to embrace that experience. And our children will be able to come to us and share their feelings also, so we give them something more healthy.
Thank you for sharing this very moving experience, Tiffany. What a gift to be able to be present to our own feelings and those of our loved ones. We wish you and your family well.
First of all, may i take this opportunity to thank you sincerely for all your meditation podcasts.
I have just tried the Inner Child meditation for the first time and, whilst i could easily find and embrace my inner child, i found real difficulty at the point where you ask us to embrace both the child and the adult. I intend to work at the meditation in order to – hopefully – allow this to happen, but i found this interesting and wondered if this spoke to you and what your thoughts are…
You are welcome, Mark. This is a really interesting question. It challenges me to define what that element — embracing both the child and adult — might mean.
Before I comment on that, though, I want to clarify that it is never necessary or important in any of my meditations to follow all the instructions. If something I suggest isn’t easy and natural for you to do, or doesn’t make particular sense to you, feel free to ignore it! The words I say are just gentle prompts to help you dive into your own experience. You may drift in and out of what I say and you can just pick up on what’s useful to you. So you don’t need to work on “doing” everything in the meditations.
What embracing the child and adult means to me may differ from what it might mean to you. And it’s what it means to you that matters. Even how we experience our inner child and our “adult” may be quite different. For me, embracing both the child and adult opens things up to a greater sense of support, so that the adult also is being supported in his/her efforts to support the child. For me, it expands my perspective in some way.
Thank you, Mary. Your comments led me on to a realisation that, for me, to embrace both adult and child together is to accept that both are very real elements of who we are.
Beautiful, Mark!
Thank you for this. I am doing an inner child workshop on August 8th in Nyack NY and needed to get more in touch with my own inner child as I do this incredible work.
Thanks again,
Stephanie
You are welcome, Stephanie. Good luck with your workshop and ongoing healing journey.
Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families has it’s very first fellowship text, the new 2006 “Big Book”
The Inner Child is a major focus in ACA, perhaps many may benefit from more Inner Child meditations here. I learned of your Inner Child meditation by an ACA member. I will be sure to direct others interested to this site. As They Say Pass It On!
Thanks!
“ACA COMES OF AGE”
http://www.nacoa.net/Newsletter-%20PDFs/Summer05.pdf
Congratulations to all, Sparky, on the “Big Book”.
We’d love to do more Inner Child meditations. We’ll see when that can happen — we’re working on so many projects right now. Best wishes from us!
have done or had inner child workshop before theres a woman in booragoon who does them she also offers reiki attunements /healing it brought me closer (if thats possible) to my children when i had them later also worked through some of my own childhood issues that i had with my father abandoning me at a young age 6-7
I just listened to the Inner Child meditation. To be honest, I only chose that one because if its length; I wanted something I could really get into, more than ten or fiftenn minutes.
Having regarded Inner Child concepts as trite and self-indulgent over the years, I was beautifully surprised at what I experienced during and immediately after this meditation.
Very recently, I held my six-year-old daughter while listening to your meditation (it was the Just Being one, though I cannot reacll the exact name). I have looked for chidren’s meditations, but what I found was too stimulating, too fast, and just not what I thought she could use. She responded so well to this meditation, and she was able to work through her feelings of frustration and sadness. As I held her, she seemed to melt into me, soaking up Mother Love, and with each moment, the calmness grew; it was one of the most memorable moments in ALL of my mothering experiences.
So when I listened to the Inner Child meditation myself, I easily pictured myself holding the little girl I was, exactly as I had held my daughter last week. I saw myself holding me, loving abd comforting that little girl I once was.
And I also listened as my own child within told me why she is hurt. It is almost impossible to describe. Yes, those hurts from so long ago are still there, and I was able to mother my own inner child just as I had mothered my daughter last week. That I am able to mother my children this way is, I’m sure, a result of knowing first hand what they need: unconditional love, trust, acceptance, and a safe person in whom to confide, to get that comfort.
I found that I was able to love this little girl inside myself, to give her what she did not get enough of then. It came almost effortlessly, I guess because I have experience doing this for my “real” children.
And now, I have reason to do this for myself. I still believe that many people are very misguided about what belongs in the past and what belongs to now. My reason to do this for myself is that I know I deserve the same love, trust, acceptance, comfort, and encouragement that I give to my children.
This meditation was extremely powerful for me. I was almost overwhelmed at the little me, how she needed to tell me what hurts, why, and what she needs. I intend to keep at this, to keep mothering the little me, and I thank you for giving me the experience. If my real children benefit so much from the loving acceptance and absolute trust they can place in me, surely I can benefit as well.
With much gratitude,
Meg
Hi Meg, I can’t thank you enough for sharing these experiences. This is so moving to read! It reminds me of a time when someone commented that I needed to learn to let the love that comes through me to others come to me as well. It’s taken me some time to learn to let that happen. It’s wonderful that you have had this profound experience and insight. I am happy for you, and happy for your children as well. Do keep at it and let us know how it goes!