Reflections on Inner Child and Play

I have been working on a course for peeling back our layers of healing and doing some shadow work. Inner Child healing is a part of that. Releasing our relationship to shame is another.

This evening I was contemplating the relationship to shame that I have with Inner Child play. I recall times where I was with friends and there was a playful atmosphere. Almost always there was also alcohol involved. Many of my morning-after- drinking shame spirals revolved around feeling shame around the play. Now I’m not saying that I didn’t take it too far. Yet I’m realizing my relationship to alcohol also resolved around a need to play and let loose. More specifically, my inner child’s need to play and let loose, albeit unconsciously.

One of my own pieces to healing is connecting to my desire to play. Sober. I still feel somewhat halting with it almost as though I’m hiding my desire to play. Almost as though I shouldn’t be allowed to play as adult if I’m sober. Alcohol is so often used as a means to escape uncomfortable feelings. I feel like one of those feelings is the desire to play in a society that wants us to grow up faster than we’re emotionally prepared for.

I do not yet have words of wisdom around this as I am peeling back the layers myself. I do have some reflection questions for you to contemplate for your own relationship to play:

- Where have I denied my inner child its desire to play?
- When did I use alcohol as a permission slip to play?
- What would happen if I allowed myself to play without using alcohol as an excuse?
- Where do I carry shame around my desire to play?