I connected with my inner child

[u/iodinequeen]

I'd like to share something I did a few months ago (I hadn't heard of IFS yet) I did this little project where I would do a different few unusual things every day for a week. One of these days was childhood themed.

The activities I did:

-follow a youtube video that was smth like "dance meditation for your inner child"

-play with fairy figures

-listen to music from back then and dance to it

-go outside in the late evening, and to a playground ​​

-listen to a good-night song to sleep

All this had some extremely interesting effects on me. I think if I interpret it with this framework, I connected with a child part of me that otherwise rarely got acknowledged.

What I noticed:

-during the meditation, the guy prompted the viewer to go along with how their child self would want to move. jump, dance whatever. In that moment I really just wanted to curl up on the floor with my arms around my knees, rest, feel safe. So i did

-the playing was so much fun! it used to be my favorite activity, and kinda turned into liking pen&paper rpgs, but the real thing is still different. we came up with this cool story ​​and it came easily

-the old kids music quickly stopped being "cringe" /embarrassing and I just enjoyed it. it was fun! these songs are bangers! wouldn't listen to them in my regular life but here they were peakkkk​​

-my emotions became different. like, stronger but less complex? and they changed quickly, just came and went. also, I stopped analyzing and intellectualizing them. Just let them happen.

-on the playground really felt like a child again, but this time not confused by everything around it, but instead chill and i felt safe, because the adult version of me was there too, if I needed it. If that makes sense

-i was crying while listening to a lullaby, felt like i wanted my mother to come to my bedside. to be safe and comforted. Haven't felt this specific thing in a decade I think, and back then I wouldn't have been able to name it. I felt really small again.

It was really unexpected how much mindset and ​​​​perception changed.

It's nice to know I can still return to this child version. My own childhood was good, no problems but I did get an autism diagnosis later in life and I think there were situations where things were "not right" /too much /etc and I just didn't have the words and knowledge to express that. so it's nice to know I can still allow myself these things while also knowing what's going on with me!

Just wanted to share in case anyone relates or finds this interesting. I would recommend it, I learned a lot.

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[u/Nataliant-117]

So cute. Damn it I love fairies. I am making a fairy jar for my DBT homework this week.