Namaste, Boomers,
“The divine in me recognizes the divine in you.” Namaste
I was passing a picture on my bookcase of my parents the other day and it a strange feeling came over me. I wanted to talk to my mother. I wanted to hear my father’s laugh. And they were not around. My mother died in December of 2009. I missed her very much. My father died nine years ago.
I felt my inner child coming into my consciousness.
I wanted to tell my mother what was going on in my life; I wanted to talk about the publication of my book and I wanted to tell her that I was single and happy and not to worry about me. At that moment my grown up/adult woman met my inner child. It was a lovely moment, a moment without conflict or drama. It was just a moment of inner contentment.
I talked to a friend of my family today and he told me how proud my mother would be that I had arrived at this state in my life where joy met contentment.
I don’t have to be at war with my inner child. My inner child is no threat to me even though I am an adult. It’s okay to want to be near and close to my mother and father and to have them by my side again even though I am all grown up and taking good care of myself. I am well aware that any serious attempt to grow psychologically and spiritually involves some pain and sadness. As one of my tango friends wrote to me, “that’s when stuff surfaces.”
It’s probably therapeutic to have some discourse with our inner child. The inner child can come out to play in the most unexpected moments, like dancing tango or practicing yoga or even in meditation when the mind is clear and allows emotions to rise to the surface. Of course, sometimes it can be frightening to experience my inner child take over my adult mind for several minutes. It can be disconcerting to our adult state. ‘What are you doing to me, inner brat. I want to say, “Leave me alone. I’m find. I don’t need you mucking up my present moment.”
But my deep breath brings me peace and I let that inner child be and I find that I am no longer afraid of the emotional connection. I know it’s okay to feel like I want to go back into the womb or to retreat to age of five when my mother was always there to help and comfort me. I let spontaneity reign free! I allow the inner child take over go with the emotional flow. I laugh and play and love freely.
I think my inner child helps me better understand my adult spontaneity and my creative impulses and allows me to rediscover the past clearly in terms of love rather than fear.
I was dancing tango the other night at a Wednesday milonga and my partner of the moment was telling me that my nose was cold, like a cat. I thought the remark was so playful and childlike and I made a meow sound during the tango. He laughed and I laughed. After the dance was over, he told me how nice it was to hear the meow sound and I put my hands over my face like a child would do in embarrassment and I thought how childlike I felt. The moment felt new and old at the same time. It reunited the child with the adult and my emotion, my joy, felt pure.
I often feel this kind of childlike freedom when I dance tango. It’s reminds me of how I felt in therapy when my therapist told me that he wanted me to keep my inner child alive – he called it my inner pony – because that childlike energy was a part of my adult energy.
When I’m practicing yoga, I often feel like I’m flying high on a trapeze above the ground with pure joy without one iota of fear in my body and, without any mental resistance.
Tango and yoga are fearless experiences and effortless constructs for me. They somehow get near my inner child and touch the deepest part of my soul.
That’s where my mother and father reside, too, in those deepest parts of my unconscious. When I bring that love and need into my conscious being it is a divine moment.
Namaste,
Joan