“The [Inner] Child represents the most natural, vulnerable, and spontaneous part of our personality, keeper of our creative vitality and our most unalloyed capacity for pleasure…” Eric Byrne, Author of The Games People Play and Sex in Human Loving
Who knows how many decades we have criticized the limiting influence of the Wounded Inner Child as the culprit of many of our pathologies and aberrant behaviors? And, all this writing of the influence of our wounded inner child dialogue has indeed been helpful in determining our core emotional issues.
The Joyful Inner Child
However, the is another side to the inner child. A side that brings about spontaneity and creativity and a hungering search for intimacy in relationships. Unfortunately, this “other side” rarely makes the headlines. It seems we are, after all, more interested in a search for ways that we can remove obstacles while often neglecting the natural power of our own historical personalities.
Byrne writes…
Once the [inner] Child is free of Adult caution and Parental criticism, he has a sense of elation and awareness. He begins to see and hear and feel the way he really wants to, the way he originally did before he was corrupted by his living parents. He is free to respond directly and spontaneously to what he sees and hears and feels.
The Gift of Naïveté
Perhaps there is something to the naïveté of the child within that can bring out unbridled joy and surprise in ordinary circumstances because this child knows no logic or rules. It knows only those occasions of surprise, excitement, love, and spontaneous joy and happiness.
But, too often, before we can apprehend that delightful naïveté of the Child, the other influential aspects of our personness (the Parent and the Adult) seek to abandon impulsive joy in lieu of “wisdom and rules” of social behavior, thereby dulling potentially ecstatic experiences.
Surprised by Joy
I wonder… is it possible that my most memorable and enjoyable experiences have come as a surprise rather than from a plan? Have they come because these experiences happened so quickly that they bypassed the limitations of the Adult and the Parent? Did these experiences go directly through the filter of the Child?
Sometimes, yes sometimes, the gut (often the Inner Child) feeds us better than logic and caution.
It’s plenty okay to be wild at times! Let your innate inner child guide you to the pleasure of life.
Don’t be So Cautious
Absorb and Enjoy the Surprise
Photo courtesy of Liderina at istockphoto
