Becoming the adult your inner child needed

 Healing your Inner Child

As children, we rarely have the words to articulate what we truly need. For many of us, the void we feel remains nameless, unspoken, and unresolved, until we have the courage as adults to look back and confront the truth.

I’ve realized recently that as a child, what I needed most was love—not the practical kind that puts food on the table and a roof over your head, but the deep, affirming love that makes you feel seen, cherished, and championed. I longed for someone to celebrate my essence, to recognize the spark in me, and to say, “You matter. I see you.”

Instead, I grew up navigating a world where strength was my survival skill. I wore it like armor, believing that being tough, independent, and self-sufficient was the only way forward. And while it served me for many years, it also masked the truth of my deeper needs: to be held, to be vulnerable, and to know that someone would be there to catch me if I fell.

It takes courage to face this as an adult, to sit with the unmet needs of your childhood and the ways they shaped you. It’s uncomfortable to admit that perhaps what you wanted most wasn’t provided or even possible at the time. But it’s also deeply healing.

When we allow ourselves to tell the truth, we give our inner child the love and validation they craved. We create a bridge between the past and present, and in doing so, we begin to heal. I’ve found that healing doesn’t mean erasing the pain but rather embracing it with compassion and understanding.

Now, as I reflect on my childhood, I’m learning to be the champion I once needed. I’m telling myself the words I longed to hear: You are loved. You are worthy. You are enough. And in doing so, I’m rewriting my story—not by changing the past but by honoring the strength it took to survive and the courage it takes to heal.

If you’ve ever felt unseen or unloved as a child, know this: It’s never too late to give yourself the love you needed. Start by telling yourself the truth, however hard it may feel. The truth has a way of softening the jagged edges of our pain and opening a pathway to wholeness.

Because at the heart of it, what we needed as children wasn’t just love—it was the profound recognition of our worth, the sense that our very existence mattered. And though we may not have received it then, the healing begins when we realize we can offer it to ourselves now. In seeing and loving ourselves, we become the champions we always needed.

~Shanti Freedom Das