 Hi, Psych2Goers. Have you ever paid attention to your inner voice? You know that little voice inside of you that reminds you of your younger self? No matter how old you are, you carry a younger version of yourself within you, which is also known as your inner child. Your inner child is an extremely important and large part of who you are, how you deal with emotions and your own programming and beliefs as an adult. The things that have affected you as a child may manifest themselves in adulthood. If you were taught that love was something to be earned, then you may stay in an unhealthy relationship or environment as an adult because you don't believe that you deserve healthy and nurturing love. So, to help you heal from some of the wounds you may have had as a child, here are five things your inner child needs to hear right now. Number one, it's okay to have feelings and to express them. As a child, you may not have had authority figures that placed importance on your emotions and feelings. The only thing that may have mattered was that you were fed, clothed, and had a roof over your head. Therefore, any kind of honest emotional display may have been seen as a challenge to their rule, which could result in getting your feelings hurt. Growing up in this kind of environment can create a belief that your emotions are irrelevant, that they should not be expressed, and that it will only inspire anger in others. This cycle of shame may continue into adulthood where you become unable to express your own anger and sadness and fear of being ridiculed. For this reason, it's important to you now create a safe space for yourself where you can express, acknowledge, and accept how you feel. Two, you are safe. Did you move around a lot as a kid? If so, you may have experienced a lot of anxiety and worry about going to new places or about not knowing when or why you were moving. Even if you were around your family or guardians, you may have still felt alone, unsafe, and unprotected because of the uncertainty of where you were going to stay. While not all of your issues regarding safety may come from the physical, the main focus is that your inner child needs to feel safe. Having a place that won't change or where you have a say on where you're going to go provides stability and a sense of security. Sometimes because of the lack of defense from the outside, you may find yourself needing to find safety in routines, hobbies, health practices, and your own emotions. When you tell yourself that you're safe, you're also reminding yourself that you're worthy of protection. Number three, it's not your fault when other people are in a bad mood. Children don't really have the cognitive ability to self-regulate or be aware of emotional boundaries. When something happens to you as a child, you may internalize it. So if someone, especially any authority figure, was mean or lashed out, you may have believed that it was your fault for being bad. This belief is harmful because it leads to a type of thinking that other people's emotions are your responsibility and that you must tread lightly around them because of it. And when you form a habit of walking on eggshells around people's feelings, it leads to people pleasing tendencies. You go along to get along because you're afraid to be known as someone who hurts people's feelings, but it can also lead to a lack of identity and sense of self. As you heal your inner child, learning about emotional boundaries and when responsibility starts and ends is a great tool for self-confidence and self-validation. Number four, I hear you and I see you. Did you feel invisible as a child? If your childhood involved conditional love, emotional manipulation tactics, and a disregard for the individual, then you may have been taught that you must prove that you're worthy of love by performing in a certain way. Feeling invisible to the people who love you and who are supposed to love you can be heartbreaking, especially when you were a child. You may not understand why it's happening and believe that it's because there's something wrong with you. So, to heal from feeling unseen and unheard, you must acknowledge and accept how certain memories affected and still affect you and learn to value your own opinions and thoughts and be more encouraging to your younger self. And number five, I love you. Did your loved ones tell you that they loved you when you were young? You might have never heard that phrase directed at you before as a child or you might have, but it came with some condition or favor. Perhaps they'd say things like, you know I love you, right? So can you please go and do this for me? Not having been told that you're loved unconditionally by your guardians or parents or having been raised in an environment where emotions were seen as weakness can make any child feel like they aren't lovable or worthy of love. This is why it's important to show that inner child love and to say it out loud. It may, it might, it probably will feel uncomfortable and silly at first. It may seem like you're lying to yourself at first, but over time you may start to feel a little more comfortable about it and become more okay with the concept of loving yourself unconditionally. Your inner child needs and deserves to be reminded of your love. Did you find this video helpful? Let us know in the comments below. Also be sure to like, subscribe and share this video with those who might benefit from it. Don't forget to hit the notification bell icon to get notified whenever a site to go post a new video. The references and studies used in this video are added in the description below. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one.