Bop Lic Blog

The notion that you grow out of being a child is a misunderstanding. A healthy individual does not “grow out of” their childhood, but instead everything that comes after childhood is an addition to themself that they must integrate as one. One collectively adds onto themself, rather than changing throughout the years.

“Change” is natural, but the change we go through is misunderstood. What one might define as change is our constant attempt to integrate all of ourselves. As time passes, we have a lot to integrate and balance. Healthy growth is balancing and merging the 5 year old, the 21 year old, and the 40 year old versions of one into a single being. This is often hard, and requires lots of work.

A lot of times it is easier to repress your past. Integrating your past and your childhood also means accepting the parts that we attempt to repress. An unhealthy individual fails to integrate, and instead represses their past. People with trauma naturally and reasonably repress their past. However, that child within them still exists, and that child hurts.

No matter how much running one does, there is no health without turning toward that inner child, listening to them, and allow them to walk with you everyday. It’s hard work, but it needs to be done.

Written in my notes app on my Uber home from work. I know it sounds simple, but being friends with my inner child is the coolest thing ever.