Thich Nhat Hanh on How to Heal Your Inner Child

After we have considered the ways children get or don't get loving care, we will consider adults whose lives lacked or lack healthy care and what they can do to heal themselves. Perhaps the child in you needs extra care and support.

The third way to deal with the afflictions that have been with us since childhood is to deliberately invite them up into our mind consciousness. We invite the sadness, despair, regrets, longings that in the past have been difficult for us to touch, and we sit down and talk with them like old friends. But before we invite them up, we must be sure th

We suffer because we have not been touched by compassion and understanding. If we generate the energy of mindfulness, understanding, and compassion for our wounded child, we will suffer much less. When we generate mindfulness, compassion and understanding become possible, and we can allow people to love us. Before, we may have been suspicious of ev