In this powerful book, John Bradshaw shows how we can learn to nurture that inner child, in essence offering ourselves the good parenting we needed and longed for. Through a step-by-step process of exploring the unfinished business of each developmental stage, we can break away from destructive family rules and roles and free ourselves to live responsibly in the present. Then, says Bradshaw, the healed inner child becomes a source of vitality, enabling us to find new joy and energy in living.
The audiocassette has been transferred to Audible and presents an enlightening deep-dive into our early years from birth to early school to help us try to figure out where our negative conditioning comes from. This could be around money, love, business, etc, but these formational beliefs we pick up and become conditioned by often limit our potential, even if some of them were “given” to us out of love.
The audio mixes presentation and insight with meditation (regression) exercises to help you figure out for yourself where some of your inner demons come from. If you have identified that you may not have had the ideal framework growing up (which applies to most of us), add this to your toolbox and start reconditioning your limiting beliefs. At just over 3 hours it’s an excellent (and often humorous) way to get to the heart of yourself quickly. The original materials ran at about 10 hours, taken from live seminars, but this audio is an abridged version containing the key parts of that seminar.
Personally, I uncovered blocks from my infant years about money – limiting beliefs which were subconsciously wired into my brain. Having worked through other materials about abundance and attraction (e.g. The Secret, et al), this ‘hidden’ mindest explained why I never seemed able to attract the abundance these other materials suggested was at my fingertips.
My toddler years seemed to be mostly happy, but showed conditioning towards a need for approval. This seems to be where I got my “people pleaser” or “nice guy” personality from.
My pre/early-school years seemed to add an emotional lock-down on top of all that. Home never felt like it was a place where we could be open, to express our needs, wants and feelings. My pent-up expression came out later in a more archetypal rebellious teenager (though I wouldn’t say I was particularly rebellious) which led to further shame. These inadvertent emotional locks create a conflicting inner-dialogue which results in errors in judgement and prevents me truly achieving. This relates well with the ‘personality gap’ discussed in Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.
One important thing that is emphasised in this recording, as well as many other sources, is that our early conditioning is not done out of malice, but was our parents and environment’s (school, friends) way of trying to help or protect us. Much of this conditioning comes from a place of love but writes the wrong subconscious programs that stop us growing and flourishing in later years.
