Understanding Inner Selves

Student question:

“I am working more and more with inner energies. I am confused here. For example, I had contact with the inner child who was feeling upset because of the belief systems of others. Well, I am pretty sure, these beliefs are in myself too. Is it possible to make contact in a healing with just a belief system? Working with feelings is easier. Often I’m just working with a feeling, but sometimes there seems to be more behind it, like an inner child, but I know when this is the case because ‘she’ appears or I just ‘know’.

With which types of inner energies can you make contact? And how do you recognize them? What is the difference between an inner child and an inner self? Or if I discover hidden potentials….is there some ‘self’ or ‘inner child’ behind it? I had a few occasions now, where I can feel something more than just an emotion, but no inner child appears. Is it possible to ‘feel’ a part of my adult self? Sorry, for being a bit confusing here, but i am lost…:)”

My reply:

That’s an awful lot of questions! Give me a moment to get my bearings, and to break this down into parts. I think we’ll need sections with headings for my reply.

What is an inner self?

I think what might help you make sense of all of this, is to give you a few different ways of looking at inner selves:

*An inner self is a small part of your personality. Your personality is highly complex, made up of many facets, aspects or parts. Each one is an ‘inner self’.

*An inner self is a personification of a personality trait, emotion, value and/or belief system. I don’t think it’s always possible to separate these things neatly into boxes; emotions are linked with beliefs, values, and personality traits. Turning these abstract ideas into a character we can observe and interact with, can make it easier to understand this part of ourselves. Same goes for ‘hidden potentials’; these can be easier to own and embrace if when you personify them. But you could just as easily represent hidden potentials with symbols like boxes of treasure or crystals etc. I once found a stethoscope around someone neck (not literally: just the psychic or imagined image of a stethoscope) and when I asked them about this they said they had a secret desire to study medicine but they were scared to take the plunge.

*Essentially, an inner self is just an ‘idea’, albeit a very useful idea that can assist the healing process. There are no set rules about how many inner selves there are, what form they take etc. Like most elements of psychic healing, the idea of inner selves is subjective, or personal to each individual. There are many common or popular models/archetypes for inner selves, like the higher self, the wise inner self, the wounded inner child, the teenage self, etc. The possibilities are endless and only limited by your imagination.

What is the difference between an inner child and an inner self? Is it possible to feel a part of my adult self?

Of course you can have adult inner selves! Today I worked with a mermaid during a healing. This character was representing the blossoming softness and femininity of my client and her heart chakra as she explored safe ways to fall in love. I also worked with a selkie (a seal who can turn into a woman)- as with the mermaid, this character was as much inner self as it was spirit guide: this is a personification of the part of her personality drawn to experiences of tragic love; a part of her who wants to break the pattern and rediscover her independence and freedom.

An inner child is simply one of your many inner selves. How is it different from the adult inner selves? It’s child-like. It is a personification of a memory, a stage, a time in your childhood. You can have more than one inner child. For example, I might heal my wounded 8 year old, reclaim the sassy rebelliousness of my 14 year old and rediscover the awe and wonder of my magical 4 year old self. Some inner children need rescuing, love and healing. Other inner children have gifts, advice and healing to give to the adult/whole self. We heal inner children, but we also work with them in order to recapture lost qualities like innocence and playfulness.

Is it possible to make contact in a healing with just a belief system?

Of course! But it can still be personified as an inner self. And it can still be linked with emotion. If you want to take the personality and emotion out of a belief system and keep it simpler and more pure, you can set an intention (make a decision) to ‘see’ beliefs as shapes or patterns in the aura during healing. Here are some examples from my own healing work:

*The CD, disc drive, ‘alien implant’ etc: for me this represents a ‘program’. A program is a conditioned set of beliefs. By removing the disc/implant, I remove the belief.

*The number/button panel: also represents programming/beliefs. Rather than remove these, I just enter in a new pin-code!

*The control panel of a space ship: some concept as above, but I’m often climbing underneath the panel with my pretend screwdriver and doing repairs, or re-wiring the wires.

*An old fashioned scroll, or a book: The scroll usually has an unhelpful, obsolete belief written on it that the psyche would like to re-write or release. Use creative visualisation to do this. Same concept with the book.

*A splinter of glass in the heart chakra: represent an unhelpful belief about love. Reach in and remove it.

*A prickle in the auric field: a belief that can make us a bit spiky/irritable. Simply remove it.