We've all heard the term "Inner child" and most people accept the underlying principle encapsulated in the name. It's roots in psychology and philosophy vary, it seems to be a basic truth that isn't difficult to grasp. It's rarely included in a serious psychological analysis but it is a commonly used and widely accepted reference. The concept is somewhat abstract and perhaps for that reason it stays safely on the fringes of our culture where it will less likely be scrutinized. luckily, I spend a lot of time on the fringes and I happen to be in a perfect position to provide the scrutiny our inner children deserve. Lets begin with a metaphor, shall we?
We all know that when you cut down a tree and count the rings you can tell how old the tree is, or was, before you killed it. So look at this cross section of a tree and its' many rings and you can't help but to be drawn towards the center, like an organic bullseye. Imagine that tiny sapling less than one year old just taking root and beginning to nourish itself from the rich soil and rain. Just one year later, one summer later that sapling has a new layer, but inside that layer is still the same sapling, still nourishing itself from the environment. With each new layer the tree grows everything that comes from the ground is delivered via that sapling in the center, like a major artery for precious resources.
Our inner children are like that sapling, they are still very much alive and present in our lives. In fact many if not most of our compulsions and responses begin in their raw form with our inner infant. Truly everything we speak begins as a babys' first cry out into the world, and each layer, each year acts as a filter to refine that raw data into something more appropriate based on learned knowledge. As we get older we like to think we have left our childish tactics behind the way we left the blocks and puzzles we used to play with. But we rarely succeed in putting down the habits we form as children, instead we refine them, and re-refine them. We fine tune them and sometimes perfect them but we still manipulate our environment and the people in it in much the same way we did as children, as babies.
Though we pride ourselves on our increasingly refined behavior in our social context, our inner children are a lifeline to us at every age, at every point in our lives, every moment. But in a way, we're also acting as a parent or guardian to these unruly brats and may at times feel burdened by the task. Sometimes it seems that our bodies are the children and our minds are the adult, the child needs to be monitored to be kept from harm and self destructive behavior. And when our outer adults can't handle our inner children then somebody else is burdened with reigning you in. Somewhere in these layers we began to accumulate what we call our inhibitions, they are part of this layered filtration system that doesn't allow your inner child to be glimpsed in most situations. But when our walls of inhibition come down, our inner children are let out to play.
So be kind to children, because you're still one yourself.
