All of us have a suffering inner child. As children, we all have all had times of difficulty as children and many of us have experienced trauma. When we are in our childhood, we just do not know what to do and so, to protect and defend ourselves against future suffering, we somehow try to forget those painful times. The fact is, every time we’re in touch with the experience of suffering, we think we cannot bear it and just ignore it. We run away from such memories thinking that by not thinking about them, we are handling them. The wounded child asks for care and love, but we do the opposite. The block of pain and sorrow in us feels overwhelming. Even if we have time, we don’t come home to ourselves. We only have to look deeply and we can be in touch with our inner self. The suffering of that wounded child is lying inside us right now in the present moment. Jamuna, in the weekly column, tells us how to confront the wounded child within us, exclusively in Different Truths.

Manju (name changed) is a good friend of mine, who had a difficult childhood and several health challenges, all left unresolved as she just did not want to face any of them in life. She pretended everything was fine unless something drastic took place in her health. When that did happen, she would get into a sheltered cocoon, talking to everyone about everything except her health issue and/or her emotional issues still left untreated.

I have seen a lot of others too, who do have inner child issues, but refuse to accept these and, therefore, do not heal. The fact is, all of us have a suffering inner child. As children, we all have all had times of difficulty as children and many of us have experienced trauma. When we are in our childhood, we just do not know what to do and so, to protect and defend ourselves against future suffering, we somehow try to forget those painful times.

The fact is, every time we’re in touch with the experience of suffering, we think we cannot bear it and just ignore it. We run away from such memories thinking that by not thinking about them, we are handling them. The wounded child asks for care and love, but we do the opposite. The block of pain and sorrow in us feels overwhelming. Even if we have time, we don’t come home to ourselves. We only have to look deeply and we can be in touch with our inner self. The suffering of that wounded child is lying inside us right now in the present moment.

Just as the suffering is present in every cell of our body, so are the seeds of awakened understanding and happiness.

We just have to use them. We have a lamp inside us, the lamp of understanding, which we can light anytime. The oil of that lamp is our breathing, our steps, and our peaceful smile. We have to light up that lamp so the light will shine out and the darkness will dissipate and cease.

All we need to do is to light up the lamp within us!

©Jamuna Rangachari

Photos from the internet.

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Jamuna Rangachari

Jamuna Rangachari is a software professional who manages the websites of Life Positive magazine. She is also a writer and author. She has authored three books for children, two of which were published by Rupa and one by Life Positive. She has also compiled and interpreted Teaching Stories-I and II for Life Positive and has authored Dancing with Life: Living with Multiple Sclerosis published by HayHouse in 2015.

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