In Order To Change Your Life — Change Your Phone's Wallpaper To One Specific Picture
Practicing self-worth while looking at your new phone wallpaper can help you heal.
Daniel Hoz / Shutterstock A woman named Sonya Traschel has recently gone on a self-love journey and got some help from one of her friends who gave her an interesting piece of advice.
Traschel’s friend once told her, “In order to change your life, you need to change your phone’s wallpaper.” Confused by what she meant, Traschel asked her friend to explain what she was talking about and how her phone’s wallpaper could possibly change her life.
Changing your phone’s wallpaper to a childhood photo can help heal your inner child.
“Look back at your childhood — the memories and your feelings. What do you remember? If you were criticized, neglected, abandoned by adults, or weren’t accepted by your peers, chances are that now you’re struggling with self-worth,” she explains.
These problems and issues with self-worth are stopping you from achieving the “life you know you deserve.” “Your inner child’s wounds are holding you back,” she adds, “so what if we start healing them by doing this experiment?”
In order to understand the wounds that you hold onto from your childhood, it’s important to understand what exactly your inner child is. When people say they’re healing their “inner child,” they’re referring to a metaphorical part of themselves that still clings to the emotions, beliefs, and memories felt during a traumatic moment from their childhood.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than two-thirds of children reported experiencing at least one traumatic event by age 16. Potentially traumatic events include, but aren’t limited to, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse, witnessing or experiencing domestic violence, and neglect.
In order to begin healing that inner child, Traschel explains the experiment she believes will help. “Find an old photo album with photos of yourself where you remember going through a difficult time in your life,” she says. “Take a picture of that photo, and make this your phone screensaver.”
For the next 21 days, she says, every single time you take a look at your phone for any reason — whether it’s to check the time, a notification, or to unlock it for something — she wants you to say four things to yourself.
“You matter, you’re here for a reason, you are significant, and you are enough,” she says. “You can’t change the past, but the truth is, you don’t need to, because the most important person who needs to love and believe in you has been with you all along. It is yourself.”
Photo: Anna Shvets / Pexels
One of the first steps in healing your inner child is to acknowledge it.
Acknowledging that there’s trauma from your childhood that you’re holding onto is the first step in healing it, according to PsychCentral. But it’s not enough to just acknowledge it — you need to pay attention to it, and listen to what those feelings and emotions are telling you.
Among the other helpful tips for healing your inner child are practicing self-compassion and identifying your emotional triggers. By following Traschel’s experiment, you’re essentially working on these steps and healing your inner child.
Telling yourself that your feelings were once and still are valid will allow you to embrace your past and guide you on the path to self-love.
Research has long suggested that the quality of your childhood relates to the outcome of your adult life, and while you can’t change the past, it’s certainly never too late to begin the process of healing from it.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.