Chakras and Shotguns

E116: Self-Parenting 101: How to Nurture Your Inner Child and Thrive

• Mik & Jenn • Episode 116

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In this follow-up to our episode on inner child work, we’re diving into the powerful practice of self-parenting. Learn how to nurture your inner child and become the loving, supportive parent that you’ve always needed. This episode includes a special visualization exercise to help you connect with and show compassion to your younger self. Whether you’re healing old wounds or strengthening your emotional foundation, this practice will guide you toward deeper self-love and care.

Some things that we talked about in this episode:

  • If you haven't already heard our episode on Inner Child work go back and listen (or watch!) episode 101 here (Apple, Spotify, Youtube)
  • Want to listen to us talk about time? You can listen to episode 55 here (Apple, Spotify)

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Mik:

You are now listening to

Jenn:

Chakras and Shotguns. Welcome to Chakras and Shotguns, the podcast that guides you on a journey of spiritual development and personal preparedness. I'm Jenn, a former lawyer, now yoga instructor, and wellness entrepreneur.

Mik:

And I'm Mik, a marketer, energy healer, and prepper. So back in episode 101, we talked all about Inner child work and how we can basically go back and look at some things that have happened in our past and really deal with those in the present. And one of the techniques that you can use to kind of help you process some of that inner child work is self parenting. So today we're going to talk about how parenting ourselves can really help us. To find peace and harmony in our lives.

Jenn:

But before we get into that, are you subscribed to our YouTube channel? Because we live in color. We're not just audio anymore. We haven't been since the beginning of the year. You can see what we're wearing. You can see. the myriad of facial expressions that, uh, I'm known for. But no, it's a really good time. If you're not already subscribed, definitely go check us out. You can just search Chakras and Shotguns in the YouTube search bar figamajig and yeah, add a little video to your favorite podcast. Right.

Mik:

See how fine Jenn is.

Jenn:

Oh,

Mik:

All right. Uh, let's begin as we always do with a breathwork meditation to put us into a mindful place.

Jenn:

Okay. So for today, we're here for a good time, not a long time because we have a little treat at the end of this episode. So let's get into it. We're just going to connect with our breath, do a quick little body scan. All right. So go ahead, close your eyes, place your hands somewhere face down on your body. I like my belly and my heart, but dealer's choice. You do what you like. You, this is your journey. So go ahead and take a deep breath in. Filling up your belly and exhale that breath out through your mouth. Let's do that one more time. Take a deep breath, hold at the top, and gently sigh that breath back out through your mouth. Let's do one more together. Inhale, hold, and this time seal your lips closed and exhale your breath back out through your nose. Allow yourself to breathe normally, bringing your attention to the crown of your head, Allow your attention to slowly go down your body to your forehead, your neck, your shoulders, your chest, your stomach, your hips, your thighs, your knees, your calves, your ankles, your feet, all the way down to your toes. Notice anywhere where you could relax more, release tension, take another deep breath in through your nose, exhale out through your mouth, let something go. Flicker your eyes open and let's get on with the show.

Mik:

All right. Appreciate that. Getting us into a good place. Jenn. Thank you. Let's get into the main topic. So if you guys have not listened to that inner child work episode, uh, reminder, it is episode one on one. Go back in, check that one out for sure. But to summarize inner child work is basically just uncovering kind of the thoughts and emotions from our childhood and seeing how they may present themselves and affect us in adulthood. Uh, so today we're going to focus specifically on a tool of inner child work, which is self parenting or re parenting yourself.

Jenn:

Yeah. So we definitely talked a lot in that episode and we'll get into that a little bit more about just where our, Past self, our, our, the child in us may have been neglected or may have not maybe didn't get certain needs met. And that's where this episode steps in, right? And so if you listened to that episode and you felt read for filth, then this episode is for you. And even if you don't feel like you have inner child work to do, this tool is still Really valuable because it teaches us how to nurture and accept ourselves in a very interesting way that I think I think you'll see as we get into the episode more, but I think there's, there's a real beauty in telling people, how would you speak to this person as like a third person? And it's much easier, I think, for us to see how we treat others versus how we treat ourselves. And so it's a, I think it's a really handy technique for that.

Mik:

Yeah. Yeah. Quick side note. I just want to say, we do recommend that if, you know, You have some really kind of deep childhood trauma or neglect. We definitely recommend you working with a therapist. Uh, but if you feel like, you know, you've already done the work or if your trauma isn't something that is as deep, um, then, you know, this is a tool that you can definitely use to help you.

Jenn:

Yeah. We definitely want to make sure people are using all of their resources and getting all of the help that they need. So, let's get into it. I want to spend a little bit of time talking about how we think about our childhood. And we often think about this as something that's happening in the past. Like, When I was five, this happened, or when I was 10, this happened. And now I'm 20 something, 30 something, 40 something, 50 something. And to take a step out of that and get into the stuff that we like to talk about, the science, the quantum physics of it all, and how we think about time. 55 if you want a deeper dive, but in the 3d humans, we experience time, In a linear fashion, right? This happens and then this happens, then this happens. But if you've ever seen the movie, everything, everywhere, all at once or arrival, arrival, that's what it was. Ooh, look at me. Good job. Uh, you ever seen that movie? Other beings experience time as stacked on top of each other or even like circular. So. And we know this too about like space time, like Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about it a lot, right? The thing, like, I was born at the same moment as I'm talking to you, as I'm, same moment as I'm dying. Like everything is happening all at the same time. We just experience it. In a linear fashion. Yes. So when it comes to inner child work, while we'll think, Oh, that happened so long ago, that's behind me. We can move on from that. It's still currently happening and we can still in the present, parent ourselves in the past, heal ourselves from the past as we're also working together to heal ourselves in the future. Right? Like we're, we're all. Working as one. When I say we, I'm saying like, baby Jenn, this Jenn, old lady Jenn.

Mik:

Yeah.

Jenn:

We're all, we all should be working together for the betterment of like, this experience, which also gets into like, higher self and like all that. It's like

Mik:

Yeah. I'm thinking about the Oracle from the Matrix. She's like, what'll really bake your noodle? What'll really bake your noodle here is that you can also heal, uh, Past generations or what we perceive as past generations, but that's a little off topic. I just was going down that that path

Jenn:

so in light of recent political news and there's been a lot of conversations about certain things and like this Something came up about slavery.

Mik:

Mm hmm,

Jenn:

and there was a comment about like You know, it's a, it's a common saying by certain people that black people should get over slavery

Mik:

and we're

Jenn:

not going to get over it because it's happening right now.

Mik:

Yeah, fair. No, you're right. Like, yeah, that's a different argument.

Jenn:

I'm only being a little facetious. If it's all happening and we haven't healed from it, we're not doing something in the present to move on from that. Anyway, back to the inner child work. So when we're thinking about our childhood and inner child, I think sometimes people think of that as, Oh, something bad happened to you or your parents neglected you, or you had an abandonment issue or, you know, Tiara Marie, you ain't had no daddy around when you was growing up, but it's the good and the bad of inner child work that comes into play. So it's. The child that wants to pout or the child that feels sad or the child that feels neglected, but it's also the child that wants to play. So you can see both sides of that, of maybe, maybe nothing monumentally bad happened to you, but you've moved on from, from just play. And so inner child work comes into that as well. And so this also plays into our relationships. Like you really can't, even if you put aside the whole quantum physics, space time of it all. You can't really compartmentalize everything in your past because it's going to have some type of effect on your relationships, particularly if it's unhealed. So that's why this work is so important and it kind of feels like a buzzword. of like, Oh, I'm working on my inner child, but it, it's so important.

Mik:

Yeah. Yeah. So just to kind of go over a couple of things, there's kind of one concept that was developed as a part of inner child work that talks about these four needs that we all need to kind of address, um, as, as children, uh, or need to feel as children. And so I'll just kind of quickly go through those. Um, the first one is secure attachment to your parents. So it's like kind Feeling welcome just being you and not necessarily like What you do or like what you look like or the things you accomplish, like it's just like, I feel secure just for existing. Then there's this ability to rest, like this need for rest and not having to like work on your relationships with your parents or your siblings. Like it's just like you are allowed this space to Be at rest and not have to do this emotional labor. Um, then also the the freedom to feel your full range of emotions We talk a lot about how a lot of times our emotions can be stifled in childhood, right? You know you're doing too much or like you're showing out you're showing out exactly Um, and then the last need is just like play. So similar, which was what you were just talking about this, this, um, ability to just allow yourself to play. Right. Yeah. So, yeah.

Jenn:

So let's go through some examples of how those unmet needs can pop up in adulthood and in the unhealthy reactions that we may have. So we're going to go ahead and put the first two together, the secure attachment and the ability to rest. So the reason why. I like to think of these two things together is because if you have emotionally immature parents, that's usually where your attachment is a little Rocky and I feel like we need to do an episode on attachment, but like you might feel a little Rocky there, right. Where you don't feel like you can just be you. And. Also, you may feel like you have to work for your parents love. So for instance, if you had to be hypersensitive about your parents moods, you didn't know what kind of mood they were going to come in. And that dictated how the rest of the day was going to go. So. That child was not able to rest. They weren't able to just be like, I'm just going to kick it and watch cartoons. They were hypervigilant. And so an adult who had that type of background may have a fear of abandonment or rejection, or they're people pleasing, right? They're over anticipating friends needs. Romantic partner's needs work, like your boss, you're over anticipating everything that they need, or, Oh, they didn't say good morning to me. Well, what does that mean? And, Oh, they must be mad at me and I have to do more. So they're not upset with me because of old patterns that you developed in childhood. So. You may also push people away. You might be like, I don't want to get close to people because I might be rejected. They might not want to be around me because of what I look like, or I'm not doing enough or et cetera, et cetera. So you may push people away. Like, it's just better for me to abandon this. to experience the pain of being abandoned. Um, you may also be very like jealous or very clingy. It's this feeling of like, I don't feel like I have a solid foundation on which I'm standing with this other person, no matter what the relationship is. And so it just kind of can create this cycle of seeking the approval and the love of others, or being kind of close hearted because you're so afraid of the pain of being vulnerable. Poor boundaries can come up a lot with this. So that's why if you're saying like, Oh no, no, no. Yeah. My childhood was kind of shitty, but that's not me now. And then you're like, Oh wait, my relationships are kind of falling apart. Like they're not, they're not separate.

Mik:

Yeah. So to build a little bit more on the need for feeling the full range of emotions, I think we. Touched a little bit on this back when we had our conversation around like divine masculinity and kind of toxic masculinity and everything A lot of times men feel like they don't have the ability to like experience the full range of emotions right a lot of times anger is like the one more dense emotion that they can be expressed and it's like Either that or like you can be kind of happy, but not too happy. Like that's where a lot of, a lot of men feel that. And I think it doesn't only show up in men. We see it in some women as well. And basically how it shows up is like, someone may feel like hurt or betrayed. And. Their immediate kind of reaction instead of kind of feeling the nuance of that emotion that goes straight to like anger or like rage, right? Mm-Hmm.. Uh, and then on kind of on the flip side, they're not able to fully experience like acceler exhilaration or like, um, excitement. Um, you know, when it comes to like joy coming into their lives. You know what I mean? That

Jenn:

made me think about this video that I saw recently. If you're watching Love Island, USA , I feel like this is the second time we've talked about this in three episodes. Mm-Hmm.. Everything on TikTok for me right now is either Love Island USA or Kamala Harris, but this is particular to Love Island USA. And there was a really interesting conversation that came up about white women tears. And It being used either as like a tool. It's really what it is is it's a lack of emotional regulation and a learned behavior that when I cry, everything stops, I'm uncomfortable, or I don't know how to deal with this emotion. So I'm going to cry and everything stops. Everybody comes to comfort me because either I don't know how to sit in the discomfort. Or I know it's a way that I can get out of whatever situation I'm feeling. And so I think sometimes it's really interesting, like as you were talking about it, when we're talking about this full range of emotions, and I think people think of, Oh, this person doesn't know how to regulate their emotions. We think about it as. They're feeling everything, and they don't know how to control it, but even like, I'm feeling pain, and I don't know how to deal with that, so I'm gonna lash out. That's also like a lack of emotional regulation, right? It's like not learning the proper tools to like sit in their discomfort or sit in accountability and like be like, Ah, you know, I really kind of fucked this up, or, I can also like manage this on my own to a certain extent. It's like we have this, I'm bringing this up because I guess it's another example of a learned behavior from childhood that like if you talk, if you worked with your inner child, it'd be like, it's actually inappropriate for me to not be able to sit in my own discomfort and try and grab for this attention. For

Mik:

sure.

Jenn:

And so how do I, how do I fix that? So people can have deeper, more vulnerable relationships with me.

Mik:

Yeah, yeah, that's deep.

Jenn:

The last right or space that children can be neglected in these four rights is free creative play. I feel like younger generations are a lot better than this. I think millennials too. We're starting to get better. Yeah. I think I'm a lump millennials into it as well. Um, we're seeing like this love for Legos or I just saw a tweet before we sat down where someone was like, Oh, you know, you're too old for a birthday party. And this person had a table with like Spider Man. And He had like the banners we got for our daughter from her Spider Man party and like a blow up Spider Man balloon in like 32 balloon. And it would be like, that's silly, but like that brought him joy. So it's this ability to do something just for the fun of it. And I think in. And taking out what fun has to be, because I think, you know, as I've gotten older, it'd be like, oh, fun is like going to a bar or a club or, but it's like something childlike that doesn't have to have like illicit

Mik:

substances. When you were eight, you weren't trying to get drunk. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I hope not. But what were you interested in back there? Do you feel me? So, yeah.

Jenn:

Yeah. And so this. feeling of adults can have this feeling of just like, I need to be serious. It's time to be serious. I have a 401k and a Roth IRA and it's not about that. I remember in like, because when I started working at the law firm, you know, it was a young millennial and the older people I was working with that I was working with were Gen Xers. And I remember, Well, yeah, but I mean like the younger, like the senior associates were Gen Xers. And I remember looking at him like, baby, you ain't got no drip. Like, you don't have no swag. These shoes are whack. And like, I'm their age now. I'm probably younger than they were actually. And I was like, wow, is this what adulting is? Now adulting is, you know, talking about what brand of refrigerator and, you know, the interest rate on your home. I understand that. Yeah. Yeah. But it doesn't have to always be that. For sure. And so I think it's beautiful when I see people being like, Hey, I'm really into cosplay and I'm 47 years old and I'm going to Comic Con and I'm getting these comic books. And I think it helps us with our future children if you so choose to have them. Right. Because now it's like, Oh, this thing brings me joy and I can show it to my kid and they have this too. It's a childlike wonder and like, now we can both explore this that I think our parents didn't always have that with us because they were trying to pay these bills. But I think, you know, the world's on fire. The bills are still going to be due. So you might as well build this Lego replica of the Avengers tower. Right.

Mik:

We were just talking about how millennials, we've been living in unprecedented time so much to where it's like, you know what? We got to cling to something for just the pure joy.

Jenn:

Something.

Mik:

Something for the love.

Jenn:

Avocado toes, they try to get rid of that. Try to get us out of the pain for avocado toes.

Mik:

Can't afford no house cause you got this avocado toes.

Jenn:

If I can't afford a house, I'm gonna get an Easy Bake Oven.

Mik:

I don't know, that food was kinda trash. I don't know, we should maybe get the girls a little Easy Bake so you can bake. They

Jenn:

bake for

Mik:

real! With me! They can do it on their own though. I don't know, I like to sit down and have a little brownie. What I have to do in the world. A little single

Jenn:

serve brammy. Sure.

Mik:

Alright, so let's talk about, uh, self parenting and what that can help us to do, right? So self parenting really goes beyond kind of the typical advice that you hear, right? It's like, have more boundaries or, you know, speak to yourself more positively. Instead, what it does is it helps you to kind of get into this role of, of the parent and nurture your younger self. So I think what we can do though, is like go through those four needs that we talked about already and kind of walk through some examples of how You know, like from a child's perspective, how self parenting could work.

Jenn:

Yeah, so, and I think how this comes in for our own self practice is viewing our inner child almost as separate from ourselves. Yes. So, you know, we're gonna go back through those same For rights. So imagine a child that does not have a secure attachment to their parent. They don't feel like their parent loves them for them. You know, they're wondering if they should do more, if they should be more perfect, if they should not get in trouble, you know, be more silent, be more. Pleasant, mild mannered, ace all of their classes or, you know, be this superstar or stick with this, this hot, this activity that they don't really like anymore. And it's like, how can I make them love me? How can I make them love me? So if you, if a child came up to you and was like, I don't feel like my parents love me for me. And I, and I feel like I'm working so hard. You would tell that child you shouldn't have to work for that parent to love you. You don't have to work. They should already love you. And you're already lovable just for who you are, just for being here. Look at you. You're beautiful. You know, relationships take work, but not at all. The expense of yourself and honestly, you shouldn't be working anyway, because you are a child. And so maybe you would give that child affirmations to do. You would tell them that they're worthy and pour all of your love into them. And, and, Give them tools of self love and self acceptance and tell them, you know, you'd probably say, well, what do you want to do and what interests you and explore that and, you know, love that for yourself. So you're not looking to others to love it in you. And so you would be doing your hardest to keep them out of those types of patterns. That's how self parenting works in, in this construct.

Mik:

Yeah. So then looking at kind of this. this need that children have for filling their full range of emotions. I think, you know, think about a child when they are, you know, experiencing really big negative emotions. They're like having a, almost a temper tantrum, right? And, and how you will work with that child to help them to breathe, help them to, um, just kind of bring their, their nervous system back down. And, and be able to process those negative emotions. And we tell our girls all the time, it's, it's not about whether or not you have a negative emotion, but it's more so how you like deal with and process and what you do with that negative emotion that really matters. And so I think, again, in that self parenting context, that's, that's really what we're trying to do. Uh, and then in thinking about positive emotions, it's about again, celebrating with the child and allowing them to feel that excitement and enthusiasm they may have when they have a big moment. So,

Jenn:

yeah, for sure. And I think that one can be a little tricky with self parenting because I think the trick is that you're trying to gentle parent your inner child. And so, I feel like there can be a lot more conditioning around that when it comes to, Like I'm feeling a negative emotion and my knee jerk reaction is this and like being able to recognize that this is your inner child That's maybe having a tantrum or like not feeling the best and you having to be very very aware of like What's going on in your body? Emotion wheels are really good for that too. So you can actually like name your emotion. Yeah, and Pinpoint it and be like, oh, I'm actually disappointed. I'm not You I'm angry. Sure. I'm betrayed. Like, and being able to really name that. Sure. So, I feel like that one takes a ton of, it can take a ton of work. For sure. It can take a ton of work. And finally, free creative play. So, a child comes up to you, they want to read, they want to draw, they want to paint, they want to know if you got games on your phone. It's something about whatever brings them joy. And maybe the child is saying, well, I can't get to that, I can't, I don't get to do that thing. You know what I mean? That I really love to do because I have this, this, this, this, this, and this to do. And it's the understanding of you telling the inner child, you're always going to have other shit to do. So why don't you take some time? Why don't we put boundaries around it? Maybe it's 30 minutes. Maybe it's an hour. Maybe you take a day off. And we'll do this thing that you really like to do. Maybe it's also taking yourself on playdates. Yeah. I'm reading a book called The Artist's Way, which is fantastic. It's about creativity, but about taking your inner artist on a date, but also thinking about it like when our kids are out of school, we kind of divide and conquer depending on how long they're out of school. We'll be like, Hey, you take them on a date. In the morning, I'll take them somewhere in the afternoon and they get this special time. But they also get something that's like fun and they get to be free and, you know, experience like joy and what lights them up. So can you commit one day a month, an afternoon a month even, to being, to saying, I'm going to take myself seriously. To do something fun that lights me up. And even sometimes the exercise of figuring out what that is can be a lot. And maybe it's dancing. Maybe you are in a club and you just dancing and that's okay. Yeah.

Mik:

You might want to, you know, get home at 10 instead of like, you know, instead of shutting things down at 2am, you know, we older now. So I like to get my, my eight hours.

Jenn:

Yeah, depending on what you got to do in the morning.

Mik:

We went to that club a couple weeks ago. We was there for like three songs and a drink and then we dipped.

Jenn:

I completely blanked that out. And we did. We were like, you ready to go?

Mik:

That's all we needed. No, but I think just on a serious note this is one that I think i've had to really work on and like I can always find something else to add to my to do list before I allow myself to play. Like I grew up in a household that was very much like homework before being able to like watch TV or being able to like play on the video game and so I kind of have that ingrained in my mentality where if I have something I need to get done like it precedes and like prioritizes my Over spending time playing. Yeah. Um, I, I went, uh, this was a few months ago now, but I, I had a, a little afternoon at the museum, uh, out here in L. A. I put it on, on social and like, that was an example of me, like sitting down and saying, okay, I'm going to prioritize just, you know, unadulterated fun. Like I'm just going to go do something that I want to do. Walk around, no set agenda, really just kind of explore. Right. Yeah. Um, so that was great for me. Uh, didn't

Jenn:

we have a hater in the comments?

Mik:

Yeah, we did have a hater in the comments.

Jenn:

Well, did you go on the date if you documented it all? And I'm going to show people. Yeah. I thought it was beautiful.

Mik:

It was good. So let's talk about what comes from. Some of this, this self parenting work that you can do, how you might be feeling afterwards. So some things you might notice or feel, you may have better self talk, right? You can feel yourself, you know, in that internal voice, just being nicer to yourself. You may experience more self acceptance. More self confidence and you may just have a different picture of of who you are and what you you can or can't do and that last one for me is something that's that's really important, right? Like I think this was I've talked about this a couple of times before my last last year's birthday. I got my friends together and we went to Magic Mountain. I used to love going on roller coasters when I was young, like from ages like. 8 to 13. I had a season pass to Astroworld from Houston, you know, you know, and I would ride roller coasters all the time. And so part of me was like, I'm in my thirties. Like, do I really want to like, is this something that is really appropriate for me to do? You know what I can and can't do. Right. Speaking to that, that language and like, and I loved it. Right. Like I had a blast. And so, and

Jenn:

I remember you were like, are people going to want to come and do Yes.

Mik:

And I had like seven or eight dudes roll. So It was a good time. It was a good time.

Jenn:

Real quick on that self talk.

Mik:

Mm hmm.

Jenn:

In the context of like, you're having these conversations with your inner child.

Mik:

Mm hmm.

Jenn:

I think a lot of times we talk about self talk like, It, would you be friends with your inner voice? Like would you allow your inner voice to talk to you like that? If that was like your friend. Yeah. But also when you think about the things that you say to yourself, would you say those things to a child? Would you say those things to like a five or seven year old kid? Yeah. You're so stupid. Yeah. You're always messing up. Like pretty wild to say. Oh my gosh. Like that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Well, not crazy. That's not the right word, but I just mean like in this, that's, that's wild to think of, like imagining five or seven year old you and the things like, ah, I messed this up again. You always do that. And like, you're saying that to like a little kid.

Mik:

Yeah. And imagine what that's doing to that kid. Yeah.

Jenn:

In reshaping, like how you speak to yourself.

Mik:

Um, the last thing I'll add is just, I think this work, you know, In the context of the chakras, right, is important to think about, you know, we're talking about self talk and self acceptance and self confidence and security, right? Like these are, these are all themes that we see particularly in the lower chakras. So the root chakra, it is where we feel safe and secure. Um, uh, Uh, The sacral chakra, that's where we can often feel guilt. Uh, and then, you know, that self acceptance piece coming in, it's kind of helping with that guilt. And then the solar plexus is really all about our feelings of self worth and self confidence. Right. And so if you are, are participating in this self parenting, you know, you're really strengthening and kind of helping to balance the energies in those lower chakras.

Jenn:

Yeah. And those chakras per Eastern body, Western mind, one of my favorite books, those are the chakras we're developing in those very crucial years from like womb to seven. Yep. Exactly. Which ties into directly like the age that healers pinpoint when you're talking about doing inner child work. Absolutely. All right. So, you know, we've kind of talked about it throughout the episode, like how you can better parent yourself. So that's why I sped through that little mini birth work and did real, it was kind of quick and dirty, not dirty. I don't want to say that. It was quick and effective. Quick and effective. Yeah. It was efficient. Yeah. So we're going to finish this episode with another visualization, but we're going to specifically walk through the inner child. So if you can. I would love it if you could grab a journal to write down your thoughts when we're done. So I'll give you a little bit of time. You can pause it real quick. All right, go ahead and find a comfortable seat. You can always lie down, place your hands somewhere on your body, face down. I love one hand on my belly, one hand on my heart. Take a deep breath in through your nose, hold it at the top, and exhale your breath back out through your mouth. Inhale through your nose, exhale back out through your mouth, let something go. One more time together, inhale through your nose, seal your lips closed, exhale back out through your nose. Allow yourself to breathe normally, bringing all of your awareness into your body, grounding yourself. In your mind's eye, picture yourself. As a five to seven year old child, maybe you see yourself with this child. Don't overthink it. Whatever naturally comes up for you. What is the child doing? Are they smiling? Are they crying? How does that child in front of you feel? Ask the inner child, what do they need? Ask your inner child, where do they feel judgment or blame or shame? What can you say to support your inner child? Is there a gift, encouragement, a hug? Is there something that you could give that inner child, that if you were that child's parent? You would give them to express your love of them just for being them. If there's anything else that you would like for your inner child to know in this moment, please tell them now. Allow your body to feel feelings of gratitude, joy, of excitement, of encouragement, of happiness. for joining us. As you wish your inner child well, as you say bye for now, as you maybe commit to continuing to parent yourself in a smaller version of you, this beautiful version of you, take a deep inhale, allowing yourself to fill up with all of that gratitude and joy and happiness Exhaling back out through your mouth. Let something go. Start to wiggle your fingers, your toes, finally flickering your eyes back open, returning back into the room. Encourage you to journal through this experience, the things that you've learned from that smaller version of you, knowing that they're never far, They are existing and experiencing this all at the same time and your inner child cries out in those moments that you feel pain or rejection, any type of emotional discomfort and that this is an opportunity for you to be the parent that maybe you wanted or that maybe you needed through no one's fault necessarily, but. Being the parent that that inner child needs in that moment. Thank you for doing this visualization It was very brave of you and it can be Exposing in some ways so be gentle with yourself

Mik:

So hopefully you guys enjoyed that as much as I did. That was beautiful, Jan Thank you. Yeah, I saw myself as a little boy It's mostly happy. I think he was looking for more freedom. So yeah, I appreciate that. All right, guys, that's the show. Friendly reminder to please subscribe to our YouTube channel. So you can see us in living color.

Jenn:

And finally, if you're loving the show, please subscribe and give us five stars wherever you listen or watch. If you're watching this on YouTube.