Healing Your Foundation: Inner Child & Forgiveness A Meditative Healing for Your Inner Child

Healing Your Foundation: Inner Child & Forgiveness  A Meditative Healing for Your Inner Child

By Kateb Nuri-Alim Shunnar

Somewhere within the soul of every grown person is a small child, still curled in corners of memory, still waiting to be seen, heard, and healed. That child is not lost just quiet. Waiting behind the walls we built when the world taught us it wasn’t safe to feel. Waiting behind the anger we used to shield our softness. Behind the laughter that masked our sadness. Behind the independence we learned too early. The inner child remembers. But healing begins when we remember them too.

My childhood wasn’t the best. My father left my mother, and we were never stable. We lived from pillar to post, never knowing where we’d land next. Some of the places we called home were crumbling walls and cold rooms, with disconnect notices on the door like unwelcome decorations lights, water, gas pick a utility, we lost it at some point. Yes, there were evictions. Yes, there were nights in the car, and yes, there were wash-offs at the Shell gas station with paper towels and hope. And still, through all of it, that child in me kept hoping. Wondering why.

To heal our foundation is to travel inward to sit beside the tender, curious child we once were. This isn’t easy. It takes courage to revisit what hurt us and humility to listen to the tears of a child long ignored. But in this sacred returning, we find not only forgiveness but freedom.

We were not born in brokenness. We were born in brilliance, in divine light, with eyes wide open to wonder before the shame, before the silence, before the yelling, before the disappointment. The inner child remembers what it feels like to trust. To laugh with no agenda. To love without needing to earn it.

But life teaches us to armor up. To replace softness with strength. To stop asking “Why?” and start surviving. We build our adult selves on shaky foundations without ever questioning them. But a shaky foundation cannot hold a high structure. That’s why healing isn’t optional it’s necessary.

Forgiveness is the path that leads the adult back to the child. Not always to say “it’s okay” for what happened, but to say “I’m no longer willing to carry this pain forward.” Forgiveness isn’t weakness. It’s wisdom. The spiritual maturity to say, “What hurt me will not define me. What broke me will not own me. I choose to love what I once hated even if that hate was turned inward.”

In meditation, when the world’s noise fades, you can hear your inner child call. And in that silence, the Creator begins the sacred surgery. No tools needed just truth. Just breath. Just trust. You may see your younger self sitting under a tree, hiding under covers, drawing peace in crayon, or crying quietly in corners. And if your heart is open, you’ll whisper: “I’m here now. I didn’t forget you. I’m sorry I left you unprotected.”

The Creator is present in this healing. Spirit never abandoned you not when you were five, not when you were broken at fifteen, and not now. The Divine Mother and Father hold your inner child in eternal grace. There is a higher frequency a love that vibrates beyond trauma and speaks directly to the part of you that never stopped hoping. That is where restoration begins.

Sometimes we must forgive people who never said “sorry.” The grown-ups who didn’t protect us. The ones who saw our light and tried to dim it. And maybe hardest of all, we must forgive ourselves for what we didn’t know, for what we did to survive, for how long we stayed in the dark. But forgiveness isn’t forgetting. It’s releasing. A spiritual cleanse. A letting-go ceremony between the soul and the sky.

There’s a reason sacred traditions speak of becoming like a child again not childish, but childlike. To reclaim the joy of innocence. The trust in something greater. The wonder of discovery. The inner child doesn’t need perfection they need presence. Not answers they need acknowledgment.

So sit in stillness. Breathe deeply, as if you're filling your chest with sunlight. Visualize your inner child standing in a field of light. Walk toward them. Hug them. Say: “You are safe now. I’m not leaving you again.” Then listen. What do they say? What do they need? What do they remember that you’ve tried to forget?

Cry if you must. But cry from release, not weakness. That is the river of healing. Those tears water the dry places in your soul. And what blooms after that is nothing short of rebirth.

Let your heart become a home for your inner child. Let your life reflect their dreams. Let your Creator walk with you adult and child as one.

INNER CHILD WRITING EXERCISE

Part 1: What Brought You Joy

Revisit what made you feel alive as a child. Write a list. Let the memories flood in. Here are a few to spark your heart:

• Exploring outside

• Picking flowers and pretending they were potions

• Running barefoot in the grass

• Climbing trees and becoming king or queen of the world

• Dancing in the rain like the sky was applauding

• Drawing, coloring, building universes with crayons

• Talking to your toys like they were advisors

• Laughing until your belly hurt at nonsense

• Singing off-key like you were on stage

• Collecting bottle caps, shiny rocks, or bugs and calling it treasure

These memories aren’t silly. They are sacred.

Part 2: Childhood Hurts, Disappointments, and Letdowns

Now shift to the wounds not to relive pain, but to release it. Write them down, even the ones you think you’ve forgotten.

• Times you felt unloved or ignored

• Moments of embarrassment

• People who abandoned or betrayed you

• Situations where you felt unsafe or unheard

• Words you needed to hear but never did

• Any experience that made you feel small or invisible

Say to your inner child, “I see you. I believe you. I’m here now.” You are not writing to dwell. You are writing to release. You are no longer the frightened child you are their protector, their healer, their spiritual warrior.

Close your eyes. Visualize walking hand in hand with your inner child toward the Creator. Hear Spirit whisper: “You were never alone. My grace covered you in the silence. My love held you when your body had no rest. My mercy healed what others couldn’t see.”

Don't seek comfort in vices sex, drugs, food, gossip. Those are leaky shelters. Instead, find refuge in Spirit. Even if you see nothing or feel nothing, trust that something sacred is happening beneath the surface. The Creator works in silence, in realms too holy for human explanation.

We can't let childhood trauma keep coloring our spirit. And let me be honest I’ve been guilty. Still am, some days. I’ve dipped my paintbrush in those messy emotional palettes. It’s easy to replay birthdays nobody remembered or the “I’m proud of you” that never came.

But here’s the therapy truth: acknowledging it is step one. Healing doesn’t erase your past it rewrites your present. You’re the author now. So cry it out. Laugh at the ridiculous stuff (like blaming your imaginary friend). And remember: healing isn’t about perfection it’s about intention.

The Creator is the ultimate therapist. Sessions are 24/7. Grace is the co-pay. Mercy is the medicine. And joy? That’s the side effect.

And please don’t hurt others because you were hurt. That cycle ends with you. Healing not only restores you, it protects others from bleeding on the same glass. Be the soft place you never had. Be the kindness that could’ve changed everything.

I’m not perfect. I’ve got setbacks, shortcomings, struggles and probably a zip code full of faults. I’m not judging or preaching. I’m walking beside you, with scuffed-up shoes, tear-stained prayers, and a heart still under construction. We’re learning how to carry both pain and purpose without dropping either. And that’s okay.

Let the giggles and grief share space. You’re not just healing for you you’re healing for every younger version of you who prayed for this moment.

Because to heal the child within is to restore the foundation of your soul. To forgive the past is to unlock the power of the present. And to meditate with purpose is to give yourself back the gift of being whole.

You are not broken. You are becoming.

You are not wounded. You are waking up.

Your foundation is not ruined.

It is being rebuilt by love, by truth, by Spirit.

Welcome home.

Love  ❤️ Baba Kateb