Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 130: REPARENTING YOUR INNER CHILD: Compassion for Yourself and Those Who Raised You: Reparenting Your Inner Child

Reparenting your inner child is one of the most powerful tools for healing we have in our toolbox. 

What do I mean by “reparenting?” 

What do I mean by “inner child?”

Some of you may be familiar with these ideas, and some of you maybe not so much. 

In simple terms, your inner child is the part of your psyche that is vulnerable, needy, sensitive, and also joyful, exuberant, and honest. Most of us shove aside our childlike tendencies in adolescence to become “mature adults,” only to later realize that connecting to our inner child helps us experience the fullness of life to a greater degree. 

Growing up forces us to put on the armor of adulthood. Growing wise means we start dismantling that armor, piece by piece. 

In order to connect with the gifts of living out of your inner child, you first have to do the hard work of reparenting your inner child. Let’s get into what that hard work entails in today’s podcast.

EPISODE 130 TOPICS:

- Reparenting is a way of looking at yourself and the people who raised you with compassion, or at least acceptance.

- Even with wonderful, available, and well-intentioned parents, each person still has a wounded inner child that needs to be tended to and needs to be reparented.

- You will continue to attract the same experiences over and over again and fail in your romantic life until you address your inner child.

LINKS:

THE PATH BACK TO YOUMy brand new course, The Path Back to You isn't about starting over, but starting again, on a path that will return you to yourself.For the past few years, I’ve been on this journey of rediscovery, and it has changed everything. So here’s my invitation– learn to feel at home in your skin again. Just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.Join me, on The Path Back to You. jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

In Part One of this chapter, Removing Shame and Shedding Limiting Beliefs, I touched on the word “should.” 

Here’s a little refresher:

And anytime you hear the word “should” thrown around, that’s a pretty sure sign that someone is trying to play the shame game. 

“You should really cover up.”

“Do you really think you should be wearing that at your age?”

“You should mind your manners.”

“You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Ring a bell?

Throughout this journey, we’ve been working hard on raising our vibrations and being responsible for the energy we give and we surround ourselves with, we’ve worked on living from soul instead of ego, and we’re currently working on removing shame and shedding limiting beliefs. I don’t think we can fully remove shame or shed limiting beliefs without dealing with the magnitude of the word should and totally eliminating it from our vocabulary. So while this Part 5 is not expected, it’s absolutely necessary. 

Because the words we say matter. The words we say to ourselves matter. The words we say to others matter. 

Words speak things into existence. They’re a tool of creation. 

The word “should” is not good for any of us. 

Should is an indication of obligation, not desire.

So when we tell ourselves we “should” do something, we are telling ourselves we are morally or legally bound to do it. 

How many times a day do you think or say the words “I should”? That’s how many times you're telling yourself you are morally obligated to do that task. Not that you’re grateful for the opportunity to do that task. Not that you’re excited to do that task. 

You’re obligated.

It’s crucial for us to flip the script here: we need to rewire that trigger from one of obligation to one of consideration. Find out more about this concept in today’s podcast.

EPISODE 129 TOPICS:

- The word “should” is not good for any of us. Should is an indication of obligation, not desire.

- It’s equally harmful when we use it with others. And why if we have children, we must eliminate it from our vocabulary.

- Because “should” is judgmental. The word “should” creeps into our minds and steals away our most precious resource: our time.

LINKS:

THE PATH BACK TO YOU

My brand new course, The Path Back to You isn't about starting over, but starting again, on a path that will return you to yourself.

For the past few years, I’ve been on this journey of rediscovery, and it has changed everything. So here’s my invitation– learn to feel at home in your skin again. Just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me, on The Path Back to You.

jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 128

As we close out our chapter on removing shame and shedding limiting beliefs, we’ve gotta talk about triggers and glimmers. 

We all know what triggers are. Trigger warning! Painful stuff is coming! Triggers are ways we respond– even in ways we can’t control– to things that bring up past pain. It’s a way our body remembers threats, to try to protect us. 

Glimmers are similar, except instead of remembering pain, our bodies are remembering joy. They are welcoming back beauty and saying, I see you. I remember you. 

The thing is, both triggers and glimmers are good things, because they act as arrows pointing to growth. 

Find out what I mean by that in today’s podcast.

EPISODE 128 TOPICS:

- The meanings of triggers and glimmers

- What happens when you avoid your triggers

- How triggers and glimmers relate to horticulture, and how you can use them to help with personal growth

LINKS:

THE PATH BACK TO YOU

My brand new course, The Path Back to You isn't about starting over, but starting again, on a path that will return you to yourself.

For the past few years, I’ve been on this journey of rediscovery, and it has changed everything. So here’s my invitation– learn to feel at home in your skin again. Just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me, on The Path Back to You.

jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 127

Before I had moved back to my hometown of Conway, Arkansas, over a year ago, I had some unspoken expectations of what I thought my life would look like when I returned. In my effort to see the best in every situation, I’d imagined some specific moments and memories I wanted to create. 

After being back for a few months, I started noticing this creeping feeling that those moments and memories… weren’t going to be my reality. I had put my hope in this version of life back in my hometown that would make returning “worth it,” and when that didn’t come to fruition, I felt stuck, a little hopeless, and more than a little devastated. It was that shame + limiting belief spiral coming back to bite me. 

How am I still dealing with these same issues, I wondered. I thought I had looked through everything. I had peeled back layers. I had done some major healing. For a year. 

And that’s when I woke up to the real cause– and purpose– of these wounded cycles we inflict upon ourselves. 

Each of us has some core wounds we internalize in childhood. They’re not always the result of bad parents or abusive situations or neglect, although they can be. They can also be interactions with friends, teachers, coaches, and strangers. 

Core wounds are more than just general shame or limiting beliefs. It’s an insult or situation or feeling that starts as a one-time thing, but then we start seeing it confirmed time and time again. It’s not a passing feeling that we are bad, but a wounding that changes how we behave going forward that only confirms our deepest fears about ourselves and causes us to act in ways that continue to prove that fear to be true. 

Once we internalize those core wounds, throughout our lives we “call in” scenarios that confirm the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. Because even if the message we’ve internalized isn’t kind or loving, seeing it confirmed feels familiar, which can be mistaken for comfort. 

If we don’t heal from these childhood wounds, we spend our adulthoods recreating them. 

Do you see this playing out in your own life? Find out more during today’s podcast.

EPISODE 127 TOPICS:

- Each of us has some core wounds we internalize in childhood. Core wounds are more than just general shame or limiting beliefs.

- Soulmate relationships – those where you can see and be seen as you truly are – showed the lesson I was missing, the core wounds I still had all wrapped up in abandonment.

- The good life is a life of unconditional love and that doesn’t happen until we first and foremost love ourselves unconditionally, until we can live out of our true identity.

LINKS:

THE PATH BACK TO YOU

My brand new course, The Path Back to You isn't about starting over, but starting again, on a path that will return you to yourself.

For the past few years, I’ve been on this journey of rediscovery, and it has changed everything. So here’s my invitation– learn to feel at home in your skin again. Just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me, on The Path Back to You.

jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 126

Last week, we talked about how shame disconnects us from our true self. Shame and limiting beliefs are like two sides of the same coin. Shame tells us that we are bad and wrong, and often, limiting beliefs can tell us that others are bad and wrong.

Often, a limiting belief isn’t something we even realize we agree with until we… stop believing in it. That’s what makes them so hard to identify! But typically these are beliefs we have about what leads to success, what’s going to get us a “good” life or make us a “good” person.

It’s like some sort of script we believe we have to stick to if we want the fairytale ending. And usually, we’re so young when we get handed this script that we don’t even have the tools to question whether it’s true or real or leading to any kind of happy ending that we actually want!

Let me give you an example during today’s podcast.

EPISODE 126 TOPICS:

- Shame and limiting beliefs are like two sides of the same coin.

- There is no right or wrong choice. There is only truth. There’s only what’s right and true for each person.

- Limiting beliefs aren’t helping you or protecting you. They are simply lies based in fear.

LINKS:

THE PATH BACK TO YOU

My brand new course, The Path Back to You isn't about starting over, but starting again, on a path that will return you to yourself.

For the past few years, I’ve been on this journey of rediscovery, and it has changed everything. So here’s my invitation– learn to feel at home in your skin again. Just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me, on The Path Back to You.

jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 125

I remember when I turned thirty-nine and bought my first crop top. It was an act of beautiful rebellion. Not against age, nope! I’ve never had a problem with growing older, and no part of me wanted to dress like a teen in some sort of mid-life crisis.

I was rebelling against shame. Against all the messages I’d heard growing up that sunk in deep and made me feel like revealing any part of myself– both physically and emotionally– was something to be ashamed of.

Like most women throughout history, but even specifically those growing up like I did, in the American south in the last half a century, showing any amount of skin was met with disapproving glares, gossipy whispers, and choruses of “bless her heart.”

Can you relate? Find out in today’s podcast.

EPISODE 125 TOPICS:

- How does a crop top equal freedom

- Shame is one of the main things that can keep you from being who you were meant to be and living the life you were made to live

- Choosing to honor your own inherent value by standing up to shame, and what this looks like in hustle culture

LINKS:

THE PATH BACK TO YOU

My brand new course, The Path Back to You isn't about starting over, but starting again, on a path that will return you to yourself.

For the past few years, I’ve been on this journey of rediscovery, and it has changed everything. So here’s my invitation– learn to feel at home in your skin again. Just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me, on The Path Back to You.

jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 124

In Part One of this past chapter on Exchanging Ego for Soul, we talked about how obsession with our bodies and the physical form can expand our Ego, feed our obsession with how we’re perceived, and distract us from nourishing our souls.

Today, however, we’re going to give our bodies the credit they deserve. Because when we learn to honor our souls, the body can be one of the greatest sources of wisdom, working in tandem with our souls to direct us and lead us on the path back to our true selves.

Our bodies aren’t evil. They’re not bad. There’s a reason we’re not disembodied souls floating around a spirit world made of fog and twilight. But we’re often so busy telling our bodies what to be, what to do, and what to look like, that we forget to listen to their inherent wisdom.

Your mind will often lie to you about your body. But your body never lies.

When you’ve retrained your mind to trust your soul’s truth, your body becomes your best ally.

Let me tell you what I mean with a little throwback story involving a fourteen-year-old Jess, in today’s podcast.

EPISODE 124 TOPICS:

- Your mind will often lie to you about your body. But your body never lies.

- Sometimes, it’s easier for us to trust our bodies when they warn of something bad, but that same trust doesn’t apply when our bodies recognize something good.

- Living a deeply soulful life requires trusting your body. All day long, your body is talking to you. Will you listen?

LINKS:

THE PATH BACK TO YOU

My brand new course, The Path Back to You isn't about starting over, but starting again, on a path that will return you to yourself.

For the past few years, I’ve been on this journey of rediscovery, and it has changed everything. So here’s my invitation– learn to feel at home in your skin again. Just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me, on The Path Back to You.

jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

The Instagram post I mentioned in the episode: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7O4ufXuty3/

More Helpful Zimmerman Podcast Links and Resources: zimmermanpodcast.squarespace.com/zimmerma…st-links

Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 123

Have you ever been going about your day, doing something totally normal like getting groceries, logging into your email, picking your kids up from school, or going on a hike, and something happens that stops you in your tracks… some little coincidence or a moment of deja vu, or a text from a long lost friend you just had a dream about the night before?

I think most of us have. One of the most beautiful things about believing that there is a bigger purpose for your life, a divine destiny for your soul that the whole universe is conspiring to unleash, is that you get to go through life expecting to be amazed by these little moments where the spiritual world and the physical world intersect. 

It’s amazing how the further I’ve gotten from the rigid and sometimes dry faith of my childhood, the more I see God at work in the world around me. Can you relate?

God got real and fun (and real fun!) for me when I truly began to experience God outside of the teeny tiny box God was put in for me growing up in the American South’s Bible Belt. God was church three times a week. God was bible study. God was in a building. I couldn’t imagine then how much more God could be. That God could be playful, fun, and near. Here’s how, in today’s podcast.

EPISODE 123 TOPICS:

- When God got real and fun (and real fun!) for me

- The time an owl and I were locked in on each other, and the significance of this encounter

- Angel numbers and why I was seeing 11:11 all the time

LINKS:

THE PATH BACK TO YOU

My brand new course, The Path Back to You isn't about starting over, but starting again, on a path that will return you to yourself.

For the past few years, I’ve been on this journey of rediscovery, and it has changed everything. So here’s my invitation– learn to feel at home in your skin again. Just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me, on The Path Back to You.

https://jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: https://jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

More information when I first shared about my spiritual advisor: https://jessicazimmerman.com/blog/following-the-stars-part-three-staying-in-comfort-or-choosing-growth

Energy: Everything is Energy: https://jessicazimmerman.com/blog/everything-is-energy

Check out the picture of the owl I encountered: https://jessicazimmerman.com/blog/exchanging-ego-for-soul-listening-for-soul-messages-from-the-spiritual-world

My Art Collection, Uncovering Divine Femininity: https://jessicazimmerman.com/art-shop

More Helpful Zimmerman Podcast Links and Resources: https://zimmermanpodcast.squarespace.com/zimmerman-podcast-links

Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 122

If you’re following along week by week, you know that last week we talked about the difference between ego and soul. This week, we’re going to talk about what soul freedom looks like. 

The whole point of this series, and of my course The Path Back to You, is finding how to unlock the freedom to live your life out of soul freedom. Because if you’re not living out of freedom, what are you even doing?!? And yet, I’ve spent decades of my life living in bondage to people or stories that we haven’t chosen for ourselves. 

When you’re not living life out of soul freedom, it’s usually because you haven’t figured out what you really want, or you haven’t given yourself permission to actually go after it. 

So let’s talk about what soul freedom is and how you can choose it!

True soul freedom comes when you have the autonomy of choice. So often, the lowest times in our lives happen when we have no good choices. Choice can be taken away from us in many different ways, some we can control. Others, we can’t. 

Even when someone isn’t actively taking away your freedom, limiting beliefs that are passively handed down can also take freedom away. Even if you have had the best childhood imaginable, a marriage a Disney princess would be jealous of, a career that lights you up, and a family that champions you endlessly, you can still uncover messages you’ve believed that limit your freedom. 

Let me give you an example and go more in depth in today’s podcast.

EPISODE 122 TOPICS:

- What following our envy can reveal

- You’re not the only one devoid of freedom to choose; everyone you know, even those you least expect, feels suffocated in some aspect of their life. 

- Soul freedom to me: Choosing the life I long for, even if there are painful consequences.Let’s get into it in today’s podcast.

LINKS:

The Path Back to You

When you feel like you're losing your mind, I’m here to help you restore your soul.

In “The Path Back to You” I share with you my own personal story of struggle, trauma, etc. as a sacred offering. My hope is that through my story, you can better see yourself. I share with you my darkest moments and the steps I took to find my light– the light I had dimmed for most of my life.

Throughout all the heartache I’ve endured, I’ve finally found peace. And I want to share my roadmap with you. And just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me on The Path Back to You here: jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: https://jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Subscribe to Zimmerman Podcast: zimmermanpodcast.squarespace.com/

Rate and Review: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zimm…st/id1476438143

Become a Zimmerman Insider: jessicazimmerman.com/#newsletter-home

Get the Sparknotes Version of My Story: jessicazimmerman.com/about

Get Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Check out Zimmerman Education: jessicazimmerman.com/courses

Follow Jessica on Instagram: www.instagram.com/jessicazimmerman_/

Shop My Favorite Things: www.amazon.com/shop/jessicazimmerman_

Welcome to Zimmerman Podcast Episode 121

My kids recently lost their great grandfather. It was an open casket. Before the visitation, I told my kids that even though they’d be looking at their great grandfather’s body, his soul was not there.

Have you ever noticed that the body never really looks like the person did in life? There are many reasons for this, but the most important one, to me, is that a body isn’t really anything without a soul.

I told my kids that just like our car is important to us because it takes us from school to piano to baseball and home again, our bodies are just vehicles for our souls. They are, at their best, functional for us. At worst, they can be the very things that keep us from embodying love, which is our greatest calling.

On earth, we focus so much on our bodies, on our human forms. We exercise and diet and hang mirrors everywhere, and even if we’re not looking at our literal bodies, we’re thinking about satisfying cravings, elevating ourselves, getting ahead, and winning. This is all living from ego. What do I mean by that, and why does it matter?

Let’s get into it in today’s podcast.

EPISODE 121 TOPICS:

- In order to reach full consciousness, to live in the energy frequency of unconditional love, we have to retrain our human selves to learn to live from the soul.

- The idea of soul and ego isn’t a new thing.

- It’s your brain (your mortal, human thing) mismatching with your soul (your eternal, God thing).

LINKS:

The Path Back to You

When you feel like you're losing your mind, I’m here to help you restore your soul.

In “The Path Back to You” I share with you my own personal story of struggle, trauma, etc. as a sacred offering. My hope is that through my story, you can better see yourself. I share with you my darkest moments and the steps I took to find my light– the light I had dimmed for most of my life.

Throughout all the heartache I’ve endured, I’ve finally found peace. And I want to share my roadmap with you. And just for my podcast listeners, use code PATH15 for 15% off.

Join me on The Path Back to You here: jessicazimmerman.com/the-path-back-to-you-course

My Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_ax0vCBUw

My Best Selling Memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger: https://jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Subscribe to Zimmerman Podcast: zimmermanpodcast.squarespace.com/

Rate and Review: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zimm…st/id1476438143

Become a Zimmerman Insider: jessicazimmerman.com/#newsletter-home

Get the Sparknotes Version of My Story: jessicazimmerman.com/about

Get Sleeping with a Stranger: jessicazimmerman.com/sleeping-with-a-stranger

Check out Zimmerman Education: jessicazimmerman.com/courses

Follow Jessica on Instagram: www.instagram.com/jessicazimmerman_/

Shop My Favorite Things: www.amazon.com/shop/jessicazimmerman_