How Inner Child Healing Supports Entrepreneurial Success with Lauren Best, Certified Hypnotherapist

Have you ever felt triggered by events that, logically, should not feel that triggering? Do you tend to take rejection personally? Do you keep procrastinating tasks that you know you should be doing to take your business off the ground? If the answer's Yes, you're in the right place. Today, we're chatting with Lauren Best, a Certified Hypnotherapist, Provoker of Possibility and an expert at removing limiting beliefs through the power of hypnosis. Lauren speaks about how we can heal our inner child and remove the subconscious barriers affecting the way we show up in our businesses.

Thanks for joining me on the blog to talk about inner child healing, Lauren. This is an important topic that is not so frequently discussed in entrepreneurial circles, and I would love to dive deeper into the subject, but first things first - tell us more about you. What led you to enter the field of entrepreneurship and hypnotherapy?

Before starting my own business, I worked with a lot of start-up and non-profit founders and entrepreneurs as a Service Designer, Business Transformation Consultant and Operations Director; what I brought to these collaborations was the perspective of being able to see the bigger picture of the overall purpose but also to creatively connect the dots to design a strategy that made it easy for them to execute their vision in a human-centred way. What I wasn’t prepared for when I started my own business was the mindset blocks and limiting beliefs that I found myself up against, as I was struggling to take any action towards building my own bigger picture. Even with my track record of designing businesses and service experiences for others, it just felt really hard and I knew I needed support to break down these barriers that kept me stuck. I started hearing more about hypnotherapy and found a hypnotherapist whose energy aligned with mine and my values. Together, we began digging deeper than what I thought was keeping me stuck on the surface to face the old stories that created limiting beliefs for me in my childhood. From there, the layers kept unravelling, and I knew that, because of how much this work was supporting me to take that aligned and confident action in my business, it would also be a superpower tool to use with my clients - a tool that could help them match their mindset to the strategy they wanted to take and feel the freedom that they have been looking to create for their lives.

How has hypnotherapy helped you in your business?

The biggest challenge I had to overcome to design my business in a way that felt authentic was to re-write a lot of the old stories that were keeping me operating from a state of fear and reaction, instead of creativity and authenticity. Using hypnosis, I was able to uncover some of these core beliefs that didn’t resonate with the lifestyle I wanted to live and catered towards a traditional ‘hustle hard to be successful’ mentality. And, by accessing my subconscious, I could look at these stories and experiences that provoked these beliefs and re-write them to support my vision, my idea of freedom, and allow me to create new habits. I pinpointed the experiences that my critical mind was storing as ‘proof’ or reasons why I shouldn’t share some of my greatest gifts, like sharing my voice because I was told I talked too much as a teenager. I had the chance to recognize where my critical thinking wasn’t serving me anymore and I began leaning into the idea that perhaps my version of success was having more balance in my work and life which, looks like working less than 40 hours a week; that success can be easy and fun and feel natural when you’re using your superpower; that I am different from everyone else and my value can be shown in how I do something differently than anybody else. And it continues to be a huge tool in my spiritual practice that allows me a space for introspection, a space to let go of the limiting beliefs that are blocking me from reaching my next goals and to get creative and build my intuition so that I can continue to take aligned action in my life and business.

How do inner child patterns play out in our adult life and what impact do they have on the way we run our businesses? 

You can think of the “inner child” as a younger version of yourself that lives in your subconscious mind. This inner child has been storing emotions, beliefs, and memories for us from our past, far before we were able to fully process experiences and messages emotionally and mentally. This inner child also dreams about the possibilities for the future, often full of wisdom and hope. They show us where they need help to heal, while also empowering us to remember who we are and to believe in ourselves.

Anytime we feel triggered in our adult lives it is safe to assume that that trigger started as an experience that our younger self had where our needs went unmet. For example, when we become frustrated or disappointed because something doesn’t work out the way we wanted it’s likely that we were told ‘no’ or were shown that something we wanted wasn’t possible. When we are faced with different situations, dynamics, or personalities that irritate us it can be a mirror to a memory that didn’t sit right with our child self. As much as these memories, beliefs, and emotions can create patterns of negative beliefs or emotions that continue to show up in our adult lives both personal and professional, it is possible to work with the inner child to identify where we need to heal to show up with more confidence, self-trust, and authenticity.

What can we do to become aware of self-sabotaging patterns that originate from childhood trauma?

A way that you can become more self-aware of these patterns is by clocking the emotional responses that show up physically in your body–like that tightness in your chest, the tension in your neck, and maybe even that sinking feeling in your stomach. These somatic sensations let us know that there is an emotional response happening because our body always remembers and clocks these emotions, and by acknowledging them it is possible to tap into the memories and moments in time where we experienced those feelings for the first time. By connecting to that first time we felt that feeling we can zoom in and heal the past by giving those versions of ourselves the support and love they needed

In your experience of working with startup founders and entrepreneurs, how has inner child healing helped your clients?

The biggest limiting beliefs that I see in entrepreneurs who have the desire to break through to new heights but are feeling blocked is a lack of self-trust and a fear of failure. And these beliefs often show up in their work and lives as procrastination, perfectionism, overwhelm, uncertainty, and self-doubt. Each of us has our own story of being a kid and feeling misunderstood, ignored, shut down, discouraged, or getting in trouble for doing something perceived by others as wrong. And tapping into the emotions of hurt and offering our inner child the support and acknowledgement they didn’t have when they needed it can help to heal those wounds by offering them the safety and love that they needed. When these wounds remain unresolved, subconsciously it is easy to be stuck in a place where our pattern is to make decisions out of fear instead of by trusting our intuition and making decisions from a place of clarity, inspiration, and love. On the other hand, it can also show up as stuckness that prevents or delays any action at all. I’ve seen entrepreneurs who healed their inner child unlock new levels of potential inside of themselves, showing up as more compassionate and collaborative leaders, experiencing more confidence and self-trust than ever before, and opening themselves up to new possibilities they hadn’t ever imagined.

I think that every founder and leader should strive towards gaining self-awareness and healing trauma-based patterns that might be impacting the way we lead our teams and businesses. What steps can we take to begin healing our inner child?

Talking to our inner child to receive their wisdom or offer them compassion is an easy way to begin healing. Visualization is a great tool to do this, and a simple activity that I often recommend to my clients when working on inner-child healing is a variation of the photo technique. You place a photo of your child self somewhere in your home that you visit each day, whether that be beside the bed, in front of the sink, or on your fridge. You can use this image as a visual cue to reserve your judgement, criticism, or doubt and instead treat yourself and your inner child with the love, acceptance, and joy that you and they need(ed) to feel safe, truly loved, and hopeful.

Where can our readers learn more about your work and services?

You can learn more about my services and follow me on social media at the below links. Also, I have created a free Inner Child Healing Hypnosis for the Co-created hub community which you can download here. If you have any questions and want to get in touch, you can drop me a note at [email protected]. 

Website - https://lauren-best.com/

Podcast - https://www.lauren-best.com/provoking-possibilities-podcast/

Newsletter - https://lauren-best.com/newsletter/

InsightTimer - https://insighttimer.com/laurenbest_co

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenhollybest/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/laurenbest_co/

Offers

Private Hypnosis Happy Hour Sessions - https://calendly.com/laurenbest_co/hypnosis-happy-hour-session-bogo

Permission Slips Group Coaching Program - https://www.lauren-best.com/permission-slips/