Reflecting on Your Growth: A Year with Reparenting Daily

Day-by-day: Reparenting yourself with fun, discipline, love and hope.

Introduction

As another year turns over, it’s easy to forget just how far you’ve come. When you’re in the thick of healing—facing triggers, managing emotions, trying to build a new inner foundation—it can feel like progress is invisible. But growth doesn’t always shout. Sometimes it whispers. And that’s why it’s so important to pause and reflect.

Whether you’ve been following Reparenting Daily from the beginning or just recently found this space, your efforts to show up, to listen, to reparent your inner child—those efforts matter. And they’ve made a difference, even if it hasn’t always been obvious.

Signs of Growth You Might Not Have Noticed

Healing often doesn’t feel like a straight line.

But here are some subtle signs that your nervous system, your mindset, and your inner child are shifting:

• You notice your triggers faster.

• You apologize with more clarity and less shame.

• You say "no" and don’t always explain why.

• You talk to yourself more gently than you used to.

• You cry, not because you’re weak, but because you’re feeling more.

• You don’t spiral as far, or for as long.

• You are more curious about yourself and others.

• You begin catching yourself when you’re people-pleasing.

• You laugh more often, even at small things.

These are not minor. These are huge. Each one reflects hundreds of unseen choices and moments where you could’ve gone the old way—but didn’t.

Tools That Helped You Get Here

Think back on the episodes, blog posts, practices, or journal entries that stuck with you.

Maybe it was:

• Practicing daily self-validation

• Naming your emotions instead of suppressing them

• Rewriting negative self-talk

• Creating boundaries where there were none

• Journaling through old beliefs

• Sitting with your inner child for five quiet minutes a day

Even if you weren’t consistent, the fact that you kept trying means you’re changing. Healing is never about perfection—it’s about repetition.

A Self-Reflection Exercise for the End of the Year

Get a quiet moment, open a journal or a voice note, and ask yourself:

1. What emotional patterns have softened this year?

2. What are you proud of that no one else saw?

3. What old survival habits are you beginning to outgrow?

4. What moments of joy surprised you?

5. What would you like to give your inner child more of in the coming year?

You might be surprised at what comes up. You might cry. You might smile. Let all of it in. It’s real. It’s yours. And it counts.

Looking Ahead with Gentle Power

Reparenting isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s about finally giving yourself the care, structure, and love you were always worthy of. It’s about building a future that isn’t dictated by the past.

So as you move into this next chapter, take a breath. You’ve already done more than enough to be proud of. You’ve already begun becoming the kind of parent, friend, protector, and ally that your younger self needed.

And Reparenting Daily will be here—day-by-day, with love and fire and hope.

References

1. Neff, K. (2011). Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. William Morrow.

2. Siegel, D. J. (2012). The Developing Mind. Guilford Press.

3. van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin Books.

4. Brown, B. (2010). The Gifts of Imperfection. Hazelden.

5. Linehan, M. M. (2014). DBT® Skills Training Manual. Guilford Publications.

6. Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.

7. Fisher, J. (2017). Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation. Routledge.

8. Maté, G. (2022). The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture. Avery.

9. Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1367–1377.

10. Hanson, R. (2013). Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence. Harmony.