Inner Child Healing – Re-Mothering & Forgiveness

This guided meditation is a gentle journey inward to reconnect with your inner child and offer the love you may not have received. You’ll explore your relationship with your mother or mother figure with compassion, honoring both the love and the pain.

Through a nurturing re-mothering process, you’ll create a sense of emotional safety and begin to release old wounds held in the body and heart. This practice invites forgiveness—not to erase the past, but to free yourself from its weight.

Especially supportive for healing childhood wounds, navigating complex emotions, or reconnecting with a deep sense of self-love and inner security.

Music by ⁠Grand_Project⁠ from ⁠Pixabay.

Transcript

Welcome to Whispers of the Heart, Guided Meditations. I'm your host and the voice behind the meditation, Noriko Tanigawa. Today's meditation is called The Inner Child and the Wounded Mother, A healing meditation for re-mothering and forgiveness. It's a tender journey, One that invites you to hold space for your younger self, To rewrite the story you inherited, And to release both yourself and your mother from old pain. This episode is a heartfelt offering to every kind of mother story, To those who had an amazing mom, To those who lived through trauma, To those raised by a grandmother, Auntie, Teacher, Or neighbor, And to those who grew up with no mother at all. No matter what shaped you, This meditation is for you, Because today, We remember that we get to be the mother now, The one who shows up, The one who soothes, The one who loves our inner child with unwavering unconditional love. We'll journey inward to meet the child within, Hold them with care, Honor what they've lived through, And gently become the mother they always needed. We'll also look back with compassion at our own mother, Not to excuse, But to understand, To see her too as someone carrying wounds, And to offer forgiveness, Not as a gift to her, But as a liberation for you. Now, Come home to your breath. Let's walk together into this sacred inner sanctuary where mothering becomes a choice, A love at last returned to its rightful place within you. Find a comfortable seat. All right now. For today's meditation, For those of you who enjoy curled up in a fetal position, I invite you to just curl up in a fetal position or any position that makes you feel comfortable, Or any position that will help you to stay in touch with your inner child. I'll give you a moment to settle into the position of your choice. And now let's take a deep breath in and out three times. Let's take a deep breath in. And breath out. Let's take another deep breath in. And breath out. Let's take another deep breath in. And breath out. Allow your breath to return to normal. Witness your breath. And this breath in and out, Think of it like it's a little game of hide and seek. And as you play the game of hide and seek through your breath, See if you can find your inner child. Where do you feel your inner child? For some of us, We might feel your inner child in your heart or your belly or some other specific part of the body. Some of you may not feel your inner child's presence at all, And that's okay. And for some of you, You might feel the presence outside of the body, And that's perfectly fine too. And even if you don't feel your inner child's presence or you have no idea what to look for, Let's just consider this like a pretend game because we're going to use this as a way to get back to your childhood. So let's play along and then see where this takes. Allow your body to feel your inner child. And if you don't feel your inner child, Then hold the space in your heart where inner child can join if your inner child chooses to. You don't need to force anything here. You're just allowing and holding this safe space. And this space is safe. You can express anything and everything, Even those things that you may have been told that is not appropriate, Nice or good. You get to feel everything and you get to express everything because this place, This space is your sacred place where you get to be totally and 100% honest. You don't need to cover up anything or hold back anything. So as you keep holding space for your inner child, Look back to your childhood. What kind of feelings come up when you think about your childhood? Do you smile at your sweet memories? Or do you feel maybe a little bit anxious? Confused? Or a mixture of everything? Whatever the feelings that you have about your childhood, Allow it to be there. For those of you who had very hard childhood, You may have had some very traumatic incident or experiences. You may even feel like you missed out on being this innocent child, Carefree and just enjoying life. All those feelings that comes up, Allow it to be there. There's no right or wrong way to feel about your childhood. Allow yourself to feel. Whatever it is and everything that you meant to feel in this moment. And as you are holding this safe, Sacred space for all your feelings from your childhood, I want you to start thinking about the relationship you had with your mother. If you did not have a mother, I want you to think about people who were surrounding you as you were growing up. The type of people who gave you guidance and care. And I want you to think about all the feelings that comes up. We are human. So I think the feelings you come up will be very complex. It's not just all good or all bad. You'll probably think of some very sweet, Fond memory to something that was traumatic and sad. Maybe frustrating at times. Many of you may have felt loved in some occasions, But also not loved. In some others, You may have felt unseen, Misunderstood, And not good enough. And a lot of us were raised, Being taught by adults, To listen to others. So we sometimes forget how to listen to ourselves. And for now in this moment, Whatever the feelings that are coming up, Honor them. All the good, Happy, Wonderful moments too. Those moments that made you question, Felt uncertain, Unseen, Sad, Unloved, Ignored, Forgotten, Abandoned. The feelings you had back then. No matter how small the incident may have been, It left some scars in your heart. And it is the moment not to minimize it or to ignore those scars. It is time to look at the scars head on. Don't close your eyes, Don't run away. It's there. And I know they're painful. But allow your inner child to express all the pain. You as an adult self get to feel what your inner child felt. And by doing this, You are giving your inner child much needed space to express themselves fully. And if you're feeling pain, Know that this pain is moving away from your body as we speak. And this is the reason why you're feeling the pain right now. Take a deep breath in. And breath out. Let's move this energy along one more time. Take a deep breath in. And breath out. Can you, As an adult here, Be the mother of this pain? This inner child? And whether you are male or female or somewhere in between, It doesn't matter. You get to be the mother to your inner child. Hold the space and imagine you're giving your inner child a gentle hug. Exactly the way you would always have wanted it. Don't let go. Just continue giving this sweet embrace. And keep telling your inner child, I love you. It doesn't matter whether your parents expressively told you that they love you or not. Now, You, As the mother of your inner child, You get to express, I love you fully and gently and totally and in a very unconditionally loving way. So let's affirm, I love you ten times. This is a special message to your inner child. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. It doesn't matter how your mother was or how you wished your relationship to your mother was different. Because you can show up for your inner child and you get to be your inner child's mother and shower your inner child with this unconditional love. Where do you feel your inner child now? Allow your inner child to just rest. Feeling totally safe and secure and loved. And now I want you to look at all the imperfections that your mother or your mother figure may have had. And that doesn't mean that you love your mother any less. You're only realizing that they are just human just like us. With things to heal from and things to work on. I want you to look at your mother or your mother figure and if you grew up without any mother figure I want you to imagine the person who brought you into this life. Whatever the circumstances that led your mom to act and behave sometimes in a way that was hurtful for you. In this moment I want you to not condone what she did but to see her with compassion. There is no way to minimize what was done. And we must honor the pain and the scar that left us. But know that your mother was doing her best in that moment with everything that she knew. And all the awareness and understanding she had that was the best she could do. And her too has a very wounded inner child within. Her behavior may have been just a cry from her inner child feeling helpless and unseen and not knowing exactly how to handle the situation. So whatever was done to you can you forgive her? And let go from the pain that is still haunting you today. And for once accept her exactly the way she is. Now this does not mean that if your mother was manipulative or abusive you condone her and allow her to continue the manipulation or abuse. But by accepting your mother or your mother figure exactly as is you can let her go from all the guilt. And you can free yourself from being in this victimhood and shift your focus from being a victim to claiming your power back and empowering yourself. You become victim to survivor. So in this moment can you free her and free yourself? Imagine your mom as a little child and see your inner child claim with your mom's inner child. It just could be that your mom's inner child needed a friend. Your inner child doesn't feel like you're all alone. And put in this world where you have to be someone that you are not in order to be good enough and loved. What if you as the mother of your own inner child and your mom's inner child totally accept both of you exactly the way you are and just love them. Love them unconditionally without any judgment. And be that mom who gets to say I love you exactly the way you are. You don't need to change a thing about you for me to love you. My love for you is unconditional. How does your inner child feel now? How does your mom's inner child feel now? And let's expand a bit and see everyone that you know whether you have personally met them or not. All the world, Everyone's inner child. And just imagine you're in this giant playground with everyone's inner child in it. Having fun and enjoying. Can you in this moment just send love to the inner child of all humankind? Let's take a deep breath in and out and as we breathe out I want you to send your love to all inner children. Let's take a deep breath in and out again. Breath out I love you. And what if we extend that to all creatures on earth? All animals, Plants, Bugs. Doesn't matter just look at their inner children and send love. Let's take a deep breath in and breath out. We don't have to feel like we are not seen because we see ourselves right now. And not just us but everyone. We see inner child. In everyone. And we get to be the mom who loves and shows up. And see your inner child at all times. Lovingly holding the space to express yourself. Do you feel this love? This is it. This is unconditional love you're feeling. It's been hiding within you all along. Now you get to give this to your inner child and to everyone. This is unceasing, Unwavering very strong form of love. And this is very tender and it heals everything. Heal yourself with this love and and while you're at it heal your mom too. Forgive her and let her go of everything that has happened in the past. It's okay. And this does not mean that if you feel the need to impose some form of boundary with your mother you need to stop it. No. Keep having your boundary but you don't need to drag the pain and the suffering that was caused in the past. You can let that go. Because all those experiences that you had it was there to teach you how to enforce, How to set up your boundaries. Let's take a deep breath in and breath out. Now let's slowly bring back this unconditional loving power back into our lives and then see where this love can take you. Slowly wiggle your toes and fingers rotate your wrists and your ankles shake your head yes and no and when you're ready slowly open your eyes. And welcome back. How do you feel? You might feel a little lighter or cleansed maybe totally fresh. Big healing took place within you during this practice. And if your relationship with your mom or mother figure is particularly difficult for you come back to this practice and see if you can continue your healing process. And make sure after this meditation take a tall glass of water or any cleansing drink of your choice. It can be calming herbal tea or something. Just allow yourself to heal and allow this drink to fresh out whatever remaining toxins that remains in your body. Thank you for coming along in this very powerful healing journey with me. I love you and I'm sending all my support. Thank you for listening and I will see you next time.