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In this episode, I discuss:

• Understanding how to heal your inner child as an empath
• Identifying signs of disconnect based on your empath archetype
• The connection between your inner child and divine truth
• A special inner child guided meditation created by Sarah

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Episode Transcript:

Hello friends. Have you noticed that you can get caught up in consuming content or maybe you noticed you are hyper hyper-focused on the doing? Empaths we often consume. And I know because that was me too; soaking up information from all my favorite teachers and mentors. But it wasn’t until I started focusing more on the being and embodiment work that the door to massive clarity was finally unlocked and I no longer got confused about what was my energy versus everybody else’s. I was able to become a more clear channel for creation and as a result, transform my life, business, and health. In fact, my meditation and embodiment practice is what helped me have a nearly $40,000 month this past January, see the highest downloaded month of the podcast, and finally release a lot of unnecessary stress. And my clients felt it and saw it in their lives too.

It wasn’t reading more articles; it wasn’t doing more busywork. So I’m inviting you to graduate from the spongy empath consumer into the self-activated sovereign healer. You can take your podcast listening experience from, ooh, I feel seen, heard, and inspired to holy shit, I actually feel different. My being has shifted. I am the embodiment of the woman I desire to be. The Third Eye Collective is a simple way to upgrade your experience and commit, not only to a meditation practice that compliments your healing but also receive personalized coaching so you can be clear on what direct actions to implement into your highest goals. There are two simple ways to get involved at 11 or $22 a month with no commitment. So if this is calling your name, click the link in the show notes to join this amazing and growing community.

Welcome to The Uncensored Empath, a place for us to discuss highly sensitives’ energy, illness, healing, and transformation. My name is Sarah Small and I’m a life and success coach for empaths who want to create a thriving body, business, and life. Think of this podcast as your no-BS guide to navigating life, health, and entrepreneurship. You’ll get straight-to-the-point, totally holistic tips from me in real time as I navigate this healing and growth journey right beside you. This is a Soulfire production.

Understanding how to heal your inner child as an empath

Welcome, welcome, welcome. I am super excited to be chatting about inner child healing today. This is something that I implement a lot into the work I do and has been such a huge component of my own healing process, being able to reconcile and open up communication pathways to these younger versions of myself in order to reintegrate, in order to become more whole, in order to learn from the past and heal old wounds. And a lot of that has also been looking back and seeing along my life journey, what borrowed and limiting beliefs I’ve picked up along the way from specific events or moments at specific ages that don’t serve me today. So I want to talk a little bit about what the inner child is and some of the struggles, challenges that we may experience depending on which empath pattern we most embody. And then I’m going to be sharing with you a guided inner child journey as a meditation today.

So our inner child is the part of our inner psyche, our subconscious that has been with us since day one. It retains that beautiful innocence and creativity and wonder towards the world. Your inner child is not separate from you. Although often times I have my clients visualize a younger version of them as being in front of them in order to communicate with that version of themselves. But ultimately all the ages of you, all the stages and phases of you are all within you right now. And within your subconscious, all of this information is stored. It is the first you that entered this world. And our inner child also carries tremendous wisdom. However, our inner child, depending on many, many factors, like what environment we were raised in, what situations we experienced when we were just a little one, the things that we heard, places we’ve been, the relationships we’ve had, the friendships we’ve had, all of this can potentially impact us in really big, big, deep ways. So reconciling our inner child and healing our inner child is a beautiful and big step along our healing path so that we can feel more whole and experience joy and freedom in our life.

Oftentimes I talk to empaths who feel like they’ve blocked out parts of their childhood and most of the time that is just a defense mechanism. It’s a way of our brain, our subconscious mind protecting us from something that we may not feel ready to confront or integrate. Now, no one’s expected to remember every single detail of their childhood and I’m not going to be asking you to revisit any of your past memories today. Because if you are going to do that work, it should be in a really safe container in a safe environment so as not to bring things back up to the surface that would be retraumatizing. So we’re going to talk about it at a high level today. But what I’ve also found is that many empath clients have developed this extrasensory ability to feel so deeply in this world often because of their childhood. So the codependent empath—And if you guys haven’t already taken the quiz, go take the quiz. We’ll link it in the show notes as well. This is on the five empath patterns.

So the first pattern is a codependent empath. And the inner child of the codependent empath may struggle still today, most, with feeling like they won’t be approved of or loved, like that’s going to be taken away from them. There’s a sense of scarcity and lack there. The numb empath’s inner child may struggle most with feeling connected in the sense of truly belonging in the world whereas the overstimulated empath’s inner child may struggle most with feeling like the world is too much and it’s just so overwhelming. They may reflect back on their childhood if it does feel safe and see a lot of chaos. The supernatural empath’s inner child may struggle most with feeling accepted and able to express themselves. And the sacrificing empath’s inner child may struggle most with boundaries and maintaining energy levels. They may feel like they’ve been chronically depleted for years. But the common thread that’s woven through all five of these empath patterns, and you may find that you relate to more than one, but what is threaded between all five of them is they’re rooted back in safety. And many of our inner child didn’t feel safe, which is one reason why you may have developed such sensitivity and attunement to the world in the first place.

From a really young age society has often told us to just grow up, to not be so innocent or playful or free or wild; to toughen up, to just do it. And then this expectation or this load that we carry of just helping other people, disregarding ourselves. Fix me, heal me, help me, serve me. And so, so much of that then carries with us, especially if you’ve had these experiences from a very young age that is imprinted into the subconscious mind. Remember the inner child is the first you that entered this world, that sweet baby who first opened her eyes when she came earthside. And she is the truest expression of your authentic essence. She is the you before all the labels, before all the borrowed beliefs, before all those things that society told her, before she put this weight and this burden on her shoulders to help and heal and fix everybody; before she could even comprehend all the layers of identity that she had been born into and would eventually live through. Your inner child holds immense wisdom and she may also hold great pain.

Identifying signs of disconnect based on your empath archetype

All of our childhood experiences are unique, but again, speaking high-level, big picture today, our inner child is deeply connected to our needs and our truth and our mission on the planet as a leader and as a healer. And all those unique stories, experiences, past events, memories that we have lived through, we may have felt like we needed to disconnect to her, to our inner child. And when you live disconnected to her, we forget our truth. We stray away from our mission and we get distracted. We can even live in a state of anger, resentment, or this insatiable desire for more, more, more, more, never feeling like we really belong anywhere, or let’s go back to safety, never really feeling safe. And when our nervous system doesn’t feel safe, it’s always upregulated. It’s living in survival mode. And we need to downregulate. We need to get into a parasympathetic state within our being in order to heal illness, in order to feel safe to invite in change and transformation in our life that I know so many of you are seeking. So, so much of this goes back to that little you, that little version of you.

If we don’t realize this, if we’re not conscious of this, which many people are not, because who’s talking about this, where would you learn this, right? So if we’re not conscious of it, or before we become conscious of it, we try to fill that void with other things like food, like wine, like retail therapy, clothes, like investing impulsively into program after program after program, after book after book after book after book, to fill this void. But underneath all those behaviors, all those surface-level things is still a void. Because none of those things fix you and make you feel that true sense of belonging or that true sense of safety. It might feel really good to go buy a cute outfit; I used to do this a lot in my 20s. But it doesn’t actually bring safety into my life and you never needed fixing. Instead of filling and fixing or attempting to fix the void, we instead need to come home to our inner child, to sit with that raw innocence that may have felt tainted at some point, to cozy up with her in silence and just listen to her, to sit in ceremony with her and our heart. Not to relive painful experiences or to retraumatize our gentle hearts but instead to just listen. Listen to her.

The connection between your inner child and divine truth

Stop trying to cover her up, push her out and drown her out. Not bury her in story after story and excuse after excuse and instead allow yourself to come home, to reintegrate, and to reconcile all aspects of yourself so that you can, in your completeness, your wholeness, live from the place of divine truth within you. Reactivate the healing; the healing codes that you were born with, that you brought onto this planet the second you entered but forgot, all the wisdom you carry but may have forgotten. And when we come back home to and reconcile all these aspects of ourselves and just be with them, this is one of the most intimate things that we can ultimately do. It’s extremely intimate in the most beautiful, powerful way. Many people resist this work because it feels big. I’m here to tell you it’s okay if it feels big. When the work feels big, there’s often breakthrough on the other side. Signs that your inner child is craving, aching, desiring to be seen, heard, felt, understood, witnessed, validated, expressed are the fears that are showing up in our life. Like the fear of not being liked or the fear of being judged, or the fear of being seen, or the fear of being wrong or the fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of messing up, the fear of something is going to be taken away from us. And then all of the layers of limiting and borrowed beliefs that dictate our daily behaviors, actions, and the way that we be, the way we are being on the planet. So if this sounds like you, and this is resonating, you are not alone in this.

I would argue that most adults on this planet, regardless of their age, are living disconnected from their inner child, severed from their true essence. And when we are disconnected from our true essence, that can lead us to embody these shadow archetypes that are not truly us, that are masked, burdened, cloaked versions of us, but are not the true essence that lives within our heart, within our being. And so, the meditation I’m going to share with you today is actually from several years ago, and it was first published and shared live inside of a program called The Lightworker’s Library, which is still available. There are over 40 different activations inside of that library that are really powerful. And it’s one that I wanted to bring out of the vault and bring back to you today because it’s also one that I brought out of the vault to share inside of The Third Eye Collective; this brand new community, where they receive at least two of these meditations every single month. This past month, they received four because I threw in a bunch of bonus. We doubled it, all the bonuses, but at least two every month. And I want you to be able to experience this as well and I want you to feel this in your body.

Feel this in your physical body, your emotional body, your energy body, and your spiritual body today, and consider is this something…is this work, is this time that I’m dedicating to being here and to my meditation, my healing, my transformation, my evolution, is this something I want more of in my life? The invitation is there to join us inside The Third Eye Collective and to commit more to these practices that are very, very tailored to the empath experience. I don’t think there are many places where you can find that especially tailored to you. And there’s always an opportunity to make personal requests as well. So without further ado, I want to invite you to experience this today. So if it’s not safe for you to go into meditation, you’re welcome to just listen. I believe there’s still power in that. But at some point, if that is the case right now, I invite you to definitely come back where you can be fully present. Fully, fully present with eyes closed in whatever comfortable position to experience this reconciliation of all parts of you today. It’s under 20 minutes. But at the end of that, there’s an opportunity for you to rebirth, for you to return back home, and for you to rediscover that true essence that does guide you, that will guide you as you open yourself back up to it. And there’s so much power in that. So, so much power in that. All right, here we go.

A special inner child guided meditation created by Sarah

Just find a comfortable shape, position in your body for your meditation today. As I mentioned, we’re going to do a little healing, a little journey into the inner child. So to prepare ourselves, find that place of comfort. Where can you really settle into your body? Even if that means you move a little bit around first and then just allow yourself to drop your grounding cord. Deepen your breath. And keeping your eyes closed, just take your internal gaze up and in towards your third eye center, the space between your eyebrows. And we’re going to journey into the more subconscious mind this evening. A good place to start is the third eye, the seed of intuition, where we receive all of our intuitive downloads and messages. And kind of like there’s a movie projector playing out of your third eye, we’re going to take a journey in deeper and let this movie screen start to play out. And just notice any first thoughts that come up, any first images that might play out without attachment to them, just kind of noticing.

And then we’re going to allow ourselves to travel to a sacred place, your sacred place. And if you have never defined a sacred spot for you, that’s okay. I want you to think of a place that is going to be your sacred spot for this meditation tonight. That might mean a place you visited many years ago. It could be your childhood bedroom; it could be right where you are in your room. It could be a outside landscape; the forest, the ocean. So just allow yourself to start to visualize yourself, your physical body, traveling to that sacred spot. And just start to see the things that are around you in this place; the temperature, what things surround you in your physical environment, what the sky looks like, if you’re inside or outside, the weather is like on this day, at this place. And just imagine yourself taking a seat in this sacred spot. You can just imagine what it is you’re sitting down on and what that feels like; what’s that sensation of you sitting down. And we declare to all energetic beings that, in this sacred spot this evening for this meditation, that we only allow in that which is of the highest good for each and every one of us.

We allow our collective energy to amplify the experience that we go through and we repel any sort of negative beings, anything that is not of service to us. And instead, this place is sacred. It is only for healing. It is only for the highest good. So let yourself ease into this place of deep, deep safety, deep, deep comfort. You are so protected; you are so supported in this spot right now. I want you to call in yourself as an infant, as you as an infant appears in front of you, and you just ask her to step to the side for a moment. We’re going to build a circle. And then you call in yourself at 1-year-old and you just kindly ask her to stand next to you as an infant. And you call in yourself at 2 years old and then you thank her for coming and you ask her to just take a step over to stand by you at 1. Then you call in 3-year-old self and she stands by the 2-year-old. Then you call in the 4 and she stands next to the 3 and you’re starting to build a little bit of a half-circle now. Calling in yourself at 5, 6, 7, building this big circle around you. Each of our circles will look different depending on our age.

Calling in age 8, 9, then 10 and they all take a stand next to each other. Calling in 11 then 12, 13, 14, 15, allowing them to create this circle. Calling in ages 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, adding to the circle. And then just on your own for a moment, continue to call in all of the other ages until you get to your current age, each time calling in a specific age and just asking them to join the circle. And the circle starts to form around you. So now you are the center of the circle. Keep calling in all ages of you. Now all ages of you completely encompass and surround you and all at once they link hands. The 1 and the 2-year-old, the infant on her other side. The 15-year-old you links arm with the 16 and the 17. All of the hands are linked and united as you at your current age, in this time, space, reality, stand in the middle. And you go over to you as an infant and you give her a hug. You squeeze her tight with a deep compassion and appreciation for the little baby that you once were.

Then you go to the 1-year-old and you give her a big hug. And then the 2-year-old, you thank her and the 3-year old, you give her love. To the 4-year-old, a big squeeze, and continue to make your way around the circle, giving each one, each version of you, a big hug. I want you to notice as you go around this circle, if there’s any age that’s hard to love, any version of you that is hard to truly embrace and hug and accept with unconditional love, forgiveness, acceptance. Some might feel easy; some might feel more challenging. Asking you to simply notice. Giving each version of you a hug. Continue to make your way around the circle… Until eventually you’ve given every age, every version of you, a big embrace. Then you go back to the center of the circle and you just declare to all these versions of you from the past that you love them, that you are grateful for them, and you thank them for showing up here in this circle, for uniting and coming together, regardless of what any of their old thoughts or beliefs or habits were. And you thank them for everything they’ve taught you because you would not be who you are today at this age and present time without each and every single one of them.

So you send this gratitude from your heart (heart chakra) to each of theirs. And you can see this as a beam of light just filling the circle; theirs to yours and yours to theirs. This energy, this light starting to fill the entire circle up of just deep understanding, embracing, and accepting each other, knowing that as they come together, they make you and who you are today. Just taking a moment to feel into this deep sense of appreciation, this gratitude for your tribe, your circle, all these past versions of you and who you are. And I want you to bring to mind which version of you was the hardest to hug today. If that’s a hard question, you could also think of it as which one of you needed the hug the most, that you really just wanted to grip onto her and not let go or which one was the hardest? And I want you to just walk back up to that age of you. It could be any age, there’s not a right or wrong. And with all of this energy that you created of all of your heart centers just turned on and starting to connect from one to the other, all of this energy as we’ve learned in our physics class, can be created but not destroyed.

And so, we’re going to utilize all the energy of all the love from every single age of you. And as you walk over to this version of you that you chose, I want you to take all of this healing light, all of this healing energy that you’ve all cultivated together as a team, I want you to just give it all to this one version of you so she can feel it. So she can feel this unconditional love, this forgiveness, this deep acceptance, and any healing that this version of you might need. Any healing she needs it is granted. The energy that you’ve created between all versions of you is powerful. And you give it to her. And you let her feel it, you let her embody it, you let it swirl around her and heal her wounds from the past, letting go, shedding what is no longer needed from that age or what then needs healing from that age. Or the message is the lesson that needs to be gleaned from that age. And because energy can be created but not destroyed, that energy is recyclable. All the energy you just put into her could then be passed along and continued to use for every other age of you as well. So see it from her hand going out to her left and out to her right into her neighbor’s hand until the whole circle is now full with this electric energy of healing light.

And then you go over to the infant you and the year before your current age and you join the circle as your age now. And in this unison, in this connection, this uniting, you’re all holding hands and feeling this energy pulse through your hands from one to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next, uniting you all. Starting the deep healing that every age needs too, every one of those appropriate ages, knowing that this healing is possible. Then we can go back into that version of you and tell her that she is safe, that she is powerful, that she is smart, that she is beautiful, that she is protected, that everything is going to turn out okay, and that you all have each other’s back and you always have, and you always will. And next year and the next year, and then the next year, the circle is going to grow. And as it grows, it expands, it gets stronger, it gets mightier. And that healing energy only increases with each age that gets added to your circle so you also have that to look forward to. And just take a moment to really feel into this moment. What’s happening in this moment? What is that electricity flowing through your body?

You can let it hover at any other age that might need that extra love, that extra attention, that extra healing. And once she’s received her healing, let it flow again so that you can all experience it. You can all feel this deep bliss, this deep peace within you. And then slowly, you just let go of your neighbor’s hands knowing the circle could come back together like a coven any time…anytime you need. But for now, you just release and you say, thank you, bowing to each other, giving gratitude to each other for coming together today, maybe for the first time ever. Then you just let them all float off into their respective places in the universe. All the energy back into you; who you are today, who you are now. Then you just bring your awareness back into that sacred place, the environment that you all came together in. And then let yourself zoom out of that sacred space and back into the movie screen of your third eye, from your third eye back into your physical body. And then bring your left hand to your heart and your right hand on top of your left hand to just feel your heartbeat…knowing that that heartbeat is in every single version of you, every single part of your inner child, your inner teenager, all versions of you. They share the same heart, the same love, the same healing power and healing energy. It is there in all of them and that is what unites you. And just let your hands down and your eyes flutter open. Deep breath in and a full breath out.

Such, such powerful work. I want to honor and acknowledge you for allowing yourself this space today. And as you are slowly reawakening and coming back, I just want to invite you into The Third Eye Collective. This is an amazing, growing community, where we get to share these experiences. We get to reflect and digest afterwards. And if you upgrade into The Expansion, you also get the opportunity for personalized coaching and ask-me-anything threads inside of the group. This community is truly becoming one of my favorite places to show up and to share the medicine that I feel I have to share with the world. So I invite you to join us. Link is in the show notes, and I’ll see you next time.

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