Excerpt from

The Inner Child:

Learning to act from your core
through your inner child

What is the inner child?

When we see pictures or illustrations of saints, we often see them surrounded by children or animals. Have you ever wondered why? It is not because they are good or bad, deserving or undeserving. What children and nature all have in common is their openness to receiving what is offered.

Children tend to be more open to life and to experiencing the fullness of each moment. That very openness and willingness to be alive can be very captivating, as witnessed by any group of adults that are near an infant or young child.

Often, as we grow up and adapt to the world around us, that innocence, purity of being and openness seems to vanish. In reality, it is still there, but for most people, it is hiding within them. That part that for many is hiding is often referred to as ‘the inner child.’

Various traditions warn us about the actions that take us out of that experience of innocence and openness that comes when we maintain that connection to our hearts and to being centered in our own joy. The results of these actions are often referred to as the ‘sins,’ the ‘thieves,’ the ‘traps,’ the ‘bad company,’ and the ‘pitfalls.’ Through fear, pride, or entrenched emotions and patterns, we end up seeking an outward definition of who we are.

The trap is that this outer identification separates us from who we need to be, from how we need to act, to feel, to love and to be centered in our hearts  .  .  .