MessyJessyCreatesArt

The Inner Child Project- The Infant Self The first part of the infant self can be found in my previous blog post  https://messyjessycreates.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-inner-child-project-infant-self_28.html This painting is of me as an infant.  After working through the exercises for this developmental stage of my inner child, I could paint myself as a happy infant. According to Cathryn Taylor in The Inner Child Workbook, There are several steps involved in dealing with childhood pain which are used at each level of child development AKA with each of your inner children. Identify the pain Researching your pain Regressing to the feelings of your self at that level of child inner self Objectifying your pain Grieving your inner child's pain Healing your pain and reclaiming your joy Each of these steps is accompanied by numerous exercises to help you through this journey.  If you are really interested in healing, many of our adult issues come from n...

The Inner Child- The Infant Self The painting of the child in the crib represents needs not being met.  For me, this was mostly related to trust.  The painting is mostly watercolor mediums and pastels. The degree of nurturing, safety, and trust you feel toward others is a clue to the degree of nurturing, safety, and trust you felt when you were an infant.  From birth to about 18 months, the developmental task you needed to master was bonding with your caretaker and learning about nurturing and trust.  If this did not occur, you may grow up to fear closeness or remain  forever dependent on others to meet your needs.   One of the exercises in the book asks questions and then you can see how you fare in each of the categories of safety, nurturance, and trust.  I failed trust and did not do too well in safety.  Nurturance was ok.   Potential issues from this developmental stage include: Fear of intimacy because it cou...