Over time, you become your own best friend

Julie McIntyre in Sex and the Intelligence of the Heart:

Over time, you become your own best friend advocating for your needs, wants, and happiness. You learn to craft a life of joy so that all you do, how you make your home and life, brings you a sense of wholeness. The child parts of you begin to relax and trust you to take care of them. You speak on their behalf so their needs and wants get tended to in the open. The old and familiar habits of behavior begin to break down as you chose to do something different.

Healing our relationship with our own inner child is one of the most important things we can do. As long as we're separate from that inner child, the inner child is going to run our lives, and children suck at that job - and they hate it, too. But we need that child, because our child is the source of joy and playfulness and creativity and a vibrant life. Without the child, we're walking dead.

My first intense experience with my own inner child was not that long ago - about 8 months. Before then, we were completely estranged. When I first met him, he was disguised as a statue made of plaster. He was hidden in there, completely frozen, waiting for someone he could trust, someone who was conscious and with an open heart. It took some work to get him to trust me again.

It's a fascinating process. It always amazes me the difference these deep inner processes can make. I have no idea how they do it, but they do. All it takes is willingness. The energy or spirit or the god force or the unconscious mind or whatever it is, does the rest.