Ground yourself in knowing that you are attending the exclusive Earth School, home to some of the best, as well as some of the worst, and that during your time there you are tasked with certain things, to not only be productive and purposeful but to find meaning in everyday life so that your spirit may grow, flourish, and evolve. Each day turn your attention to the question: How might I grow today? Say it upon waking and let it settle into your mind: How might I grow today?
As Kahlil Gibran taught us, the child’s soul dwells in the house of tomorrow, which we cannot visit, not even in our dreams.
The child within us is our evolutionary spirit, which is childlike in its innocence, yet ventures beyond the known, fully adult self.
The notion of an inner child who never grows up, requiring the enduring parenting of the adult ego, is a recipe for stunted growth and entitlement. The ultimate goal of all parenting is to launch the child into their own house of tomorrow, as we obey the rite of passage to release their arrow.
The inner child’s role in the adult personality is to follow its bliss with curiosity and innocence. These are the treasures mirrored by young children at play, fully alive to the creative imagination, open to interaction with the subtle energies present in the world, unsullied by the constricting veils of the real world.
Of course, there is the work of resolving traumatic psychological complexes, unprocessed fragments of self that split off in childhood, that require the adult ego to discover and reintegrate into the wholeness of the adult personality.
Ultimately, this inner work restores true innocence to the adult self, the work that Jesus Christ suggested was essential to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
In psychological terms, one must fully recapitulate all of one’s life experiences to achieve full individuation, the wholeness and fulfillment of one’s life.
Fragments of experience that remain triggers, or unneutralized emotional experiences overshadow the open road of innocence and instead become one’s fate, or necessary next stop in this life.
Of course, all children require the support and boundaries of adults on their road to maturity. But the goal is always to prepare them for their independent launch, not to keep them forever children, however well adjusted. So is it with working with our inner child.
The inner child’s gift to adulthood is its insistence on taking the road less travelled, because Spirit is intent upon infinite exploration beyond the nursery.
Let’s not confuse the childlike behaviors, or excesses, we engage in with the inner child. The ego must assume responsibility for all its choices, whatever their etiology.
For the ego to mature into its own innocence, it must be willing to take the hero’s journey to retrieve its soul, all of its parts that were lost in its trials of Earthly life.
A journey of recapitulation transmutes one’s life energy into that of a magical being, fully alive, fully in awe, ever-loving, ever-venturing. That’s the true role of the inner child in the human personality: innocence restored.
Balance in mind and body, in physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of self, as well as between inner and outer worlds, is key if you are to seamlessly navigate life. To navigate life seamlessly is to accept and work with all that comes to greet you each day, whether good or bad. For all that comes into your life guides you and shows you where to go next and how to handle it. Maturity comes in learning that you are not special, that taking responsibility for yourself is your job, and that as much as you need and want, so should you also give. That too is balance.
May you find peace within yourself and in your own life so that opportunities to advance upon your greater journey may manifest. It is often a desire to manifest in material ways, but how about in spiritual ways as well? For life upon the Earth, though seen as material, is really a journey of the Soul, a spiritual, evolutionary journey. What have you done for your Soul lately? Give it some attention today, even in little ways, and see what happens.
Your wholeness awaits. As you pull from within yourself that which holds you back from life and expose it to the light with the intention of learning about yourself and why you do the things you do, or don’t do, know that the process of self-exposure and self-examination has the potential to set you free. It is not selfish to want to know yourself more fully but the utmost unselfish thing you can do. For it will free your energy from its tangled web of fear, worry, envy, jealously, sadness and anger so that you may be free to fully engage in the heart-centered practices of loving kindness and compassion at last.
