Listen to your inner child

Over the last few years, I have made a lot of realisations about my lifestyle, my diet and my awareness. I learnt the word mindfulness anew and understood that only I am responsible for my own life.

It is a fantastic practice to see negative emotions, physical complaints or illnesses as a wake-up call. An impulse that tells us that something is not quite right inside us. That we are not in balance. The better we listen, the more open we are, the better we know ourselves, the easier it is for us to recognise the actual reason for our complaints.

When we feel anger, jealousy or disappointment, we automatically look for a problem on the outside, for someone to blame for the situation. We can pause and ask ourselves why this situation/person is throwing us off course. Why do we let it get to us like this? Why do we often react so irrationally? In all likelihood, it is a belief that we have stored since our earliest childhood in order to protect ourselves.

However, our inner child has now grown up. We no longer need this protection. We can become aware of our fears and question and resolve them.

Let me take you to one of my eye-opener moments not so long ago...

We had decided to expand our family of 4 with another family member. Namely with a sugar-sweet, still tiny little giant schnauzer puppy. I had resolved to do everything right. To prepare myself so well that I would be ready for any surprise. I bought only the best toys & leads, thought about the diet, read thousands of guides & books on raising dogs beforehand. And to be on the safe side, we also hired a dog trainer. However, this term is not quite right. She doesn't just train the dog, but also the person. As a behavioural consultant, she helps to establish a healthy relationship between humans and animals.

Anyway ... to cut a long story short ...

Although I thought I had done everything I could to train our Anouk wonderfully, I was incredibly annoyed during our walks when she didn't listen, pulled on the lead or barked "at the wrong moment"..

After a while, however, a thought occurred to me. What if there was a strange conviction behind it?

And indeed ... I listened to myself, asked myself what experiences I had had with dogs in my life & what I actually felt when Anouk "didn't listen"..

When I really started to deal with this, my problem, I realised that my parents let their first dog get away with everything, that he always barked when someone walked past the fence, bumped into everyone and obviously didn't know what his name was.

At this point, I would like to say that I love my parents immensely.

Back then, when I was in my early 20s, I decided that I was going to bring up my dog very differently. That nobody would say "Oh, she can't control her dog at all, how embarrassing" ... And that's how firmly this conviction became ingrained. I wanted to do everything right so that nobody could point the finger at me.

And how funny my subconscious brought this conviction to light. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about me. Nor does it matter that I have to do everything right or be perfect. What matters is that I am the best possible version of myself.

And that's why I'm on this path.

On the path of my actual soul plan.

Anything is possible.

Alicja