The Moment You Realize You’re Parenting Your Younger Self
When Your Child’s Emotion Feels Bigger Than the Moment
There is a moment that almost every parent experiences — though not everyone recognizes it.
Your child reacts strongly.
They cry loudly.
They resist.
They question.
They feel deeply.
And something inside you reacts just as strongly. Not because the situation is dangerous. But because it feels familiar. There were times when my own child’s emotional intensity felt disproportionate to the moment. I would feel tension rise in my body before I even had language for it. It wasn’t until years later that I understood what was happening. I wasn’t just responding to my child. I was responding to the younger version of myself who never had permission to feel that way.
The Inner Child Doesn’t Disappear When You Grow Up
The child you once were does not vanish.
She adapts.
She learns to cope.
She learns what is allowed and what is not.
She learns when to speak and when to stay silent.
But she remains.
When your child expresses something that was once suppressed in you — anger, sensitivity, curiosity, fear — your nervous system remembers.
Not consciously. But biologically. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/understanding-emotional-triggers-2021031722145
Research shows that emotional triggers are often stored responses in the nervous system rather than conscious decisions.
This is why some reactions feel automatic. It is why certain behaviors feel disproportionately triggering. It is why you may find yourself saying words you once heard, even if you promised yourself you never would. This is not failure. It is unfinished healing asking to be seen.
Healing the Reaction Instead of Correcting the Child
This is where everything begins to shift.
Instead of asking, “How do I stop my child from behaving this way?”
You begin asking, “What is this activating in me?”
That question alone is powerful.
Because the moment you turn inward with compassion instead of outward with correction, generational healing begins. https://wendylynnjohnson.com/blog/becoming-the-cycle-breaker/
This is what it truly means to become the cycle breaker in your family. Reiki supports this beautifully.
When you practice self-Reiki during or after a triggering moment, you are not avoiding discipline. You are regulating the nervous system that was activated by old memory. You are soothing the younger layer that once had to suppress.
Over time, those triggers soften.
And parenting begins to feel steadier.
This Is Where Spiritual Healing Becomes Practical
Spiritual healing is not abstract.
It is deeply practical.
It looks like pausing before reacting.
It looks like softening your voice instead of raising it.
It looks like placing your hands on your heart while your child is upset and regulating yourself first.
That is not weakness.
That is mastery.
And when this becomes consistent, your child grows up in an emotional environment where intensity is not punished — it is guided.
When Awareness Becomes Readiness
There comes a point when awareness becomes desire.
Desire to understand energy more deeply.
Desire to work with healing intentionally instead of instinctively.
Desire to learn how to support your child without projecting your history onto them.
That desire is not random.
It is readiness.
And readiness is never forced. It emerges naturally when healing has already begun.
For now, the work is simple:
Regulate.
Notice.
Soften.
Practice self-Reiki.
Honor your wiring.
Your child does not need you to be finished.
They need you to be willing.
Closing Reflection
If you have ever realized mid-reaction that you were parenting from an old wound instead of present awareness, you are not alone.
That realization is not shame.
It is awakening.
And awakening — when supported with Reiki, self-regulation, and spiritual honesty — becomes the foundation for something entirely new.
Not just calmer children.
But healed families.
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