Nurturing Your Inner Child: Welcoming Joy and Play This Spring
Spring has always felt like a season of possibility. Something in the air softens. Buds bloom, and with them, so does the quiet reminder: life can feel lighter.
As a therapist, I often speak with women who carry heavy expectations—of productivity, of being everything for everyone, of needing to earn their worth. But I want to offer a different invitation this season: let your inner child breathe.
Do you remember the last time you felt truly carefree?
Not productive. Not praised. Just joyful. Like when you were a little girl, spinning in circles until you got dizzy, or laying in the grass, naming shapes in the clouds. That part of you—she’s still here. She’s just buried under adulting, responsibilities, and the cultural pressure to always be “on.”
Many women I work with have lost touch with that part of themselves. Somewhere along the line, being silly got labeled as immature. Rest was rebranded as laziness. Even joy started needing a purpose.
But your inner child isn’t interested in achievement. She wants to eat ice cream just because it’s sunny. She wants to laugh so hard she snorts. She wants to be loved—not for being productive—but for being herself. And that kind of love? It heals.
“She wants to eat ice cream just because it’s sunny.”
Psychological research supports this.
Reconnecting with childlike states of joy can enhance emotional resilience and lower stress levels (Van Velsor, 2004). Inner child work, a concept rooted in psychodynamic and humanistic traditions, encourages reparenting ourselves with compassion, especially when we’ve internalized messages of shame or unworthiness (Brynolf, 2017).
This spring, maybe you try something radical: go swing at the park. Eat that favorite childhood snack without calculating the calories. Schedule a spontaneous lunch with a friend—no agenda, just connection. Play your favorite game from when you were a kid. These small, playful acts are deeply therapeutic. They remind us that being is enough. They help us remember how to feel again.
Even existential psychotherapy reminds us that life is not only about responsibility—it’s also about freedom, play, and presence (Yalom, 1980). Our inner child often holds the key to a more authentic existence. She reminds us how to be fully alive.
The truth is, healing doesn’t always look like hard work. Sometimes, it looks like coloring outside the lines. Sometimes, it looks like giggling on a Tuesday.
