This post contains inner child journal prompts that will help you reparent yourself and heal your inner child.
What Is Your ‘Inner Child’?
Your inner child is the part of your subconscious mind that has been absorbing events and emotions from childhood.
Our inner child also represents the part of us that is creative, mischievous, expresses joy, and feel hope for the future.
When we go through traumatic stress during childhood, the inner child becomes wounded. This affects who you are as an adult and can cause self-sabotaging behaviors.
By re-parenting yourself, you get to heal your inner child’s wounds and stop self-sabotage.
Related: Inner Child Wounds Test (+4 Attachment Imagery Exercises To Heal Inner Child Wounds)
Inner Child Journal Prompts
1. What was your childhood like? Was it generally happy? Stressful? Sad?
2. What is your first memory?
3. What did you do for fun as a child?
4. What did you want to be when you grew up? Have you fulfilled that? Did your dream change?
5. Who was your childhood hero? What did you like about them?
6. Who were your favorite teachers? What did you like about them? As an adult, do you possess these qualities now?
7. What always fascinated you as a child?
8. What activities did you enjoy as a child?
9. Did you have an imaginary friend as a child? Write about them.
10. Did you have a ‘safe space’ as a child? If so, what was it like and what did it make you feel?
11. When you were a child, how did you imagine your life would be when you as a grown up?
12. Describe a time when someone hurt your feelings as a child.
13. How do you feel when you’re around children?
14. What do the terms “childish” or “childlike” mean to you?
Related: Inner Teenager Healing: 14 Proven Exercises to Heal Your Inner Teenager
15. What was your relationship with your parents like as a child? What’s it like now? How do you feel about this?
16. Other than your parents, who were you close to as a child? Are you still close? What happened?
17. What traits did you have as a child that you still have? Which traits did you have but ‘grew out’ of? Why was this?
18. Did anyone shame you growing up? If so, what did they shame you about?
19. Were you ever told to hide certain parts of you that others deemed ‘inappropriate’? How does this make you feel now?
20. What is your negative self-talk about?
Related: Top 10 Signs Of Toxic Shame In A Person (+Best 20 Healing Shame Exercises)
21. Did your caregivers encourage you to express difficult emotions, like hurt or anger? Were you taught to suppress these emotions?
22. How do you usually soothe your inner child or deal with emotional discomfort?
23. What makes you feel anxious? What triggers these feelings? Where do these feelings stem from?
24. Do you prioritize yourself? If not, why?
25. How do you sabotage your life?
26. What negative beliefs do you have about yourself? Where did they come from?
27. What makes it hard some days to know you are loved?
28. What sort of situation or person feels good to you? Why?
29. What sort of situation or person does not feel good to you? Why?
30. Whose voice is inside your head?
31. From whom, where, or how did you acquire the belief that you are less-than?
32. Imagine yourself sitting in front of your child-self right now. What would you say to them?
Related: Best 15 Inner Child Exercises: How To Connect With Your Inner Child (& Heal Your Childhood Wounds)
Inner Child Healing Exercises PDF
References
- Inner child – Wikipedia
- 8 Tips for Healing Your Inner Child (healthline.com)
- Inner Child: Healing Your Inner Child | BetterHelp
- What Is Inner Child Work? A Guide To Healing Your Inner Child | mindbodygreen
- Health throughout the lifespan: The phenomenon of the inner child reflected in events during childhood experienced by older persons – PMC (nih.gov)
- The Wounded Inner Child | CPTSDfoundation.org
