In the Ten Stages we begin to confront our frozen child within and realise that if we refuse to change, our problems do not go away.

In the Ten Stages we begin to confront our frozen child within and realise that if we refuse to change, our problems do not go away. They instead get worse—even catastrophic. Perhaps our drinking or other addictions that once made life possible are now life-threatening. Perhaps our friendships or other intimate relationships seem empty and echo the despair of our childhood. Our love aches for expression and cannot find a home. Perhaps depression or other emotional problems set in as we deny the sad reality of our abandoned child within and the neglect we endured long ago. We feel chronically unworthy of life’s blessings and nurturance.

These painful symptoms all indicate a life aching to break free from the frozen constraints of despair. We hit a wall. A terrifying reality confronts us. We must change—or we’ll die.

When the ice on a lake breaks up in late Winter, it cracks and groans. With time and patience, the waters thaw—fluid, alive. Changing from a frozen, outworn way of being may be painful and fraught with uncertainty, but, as in Nature, renewing child withins spirit is in us, directing our course. ur Child Within knows where we are going—life is ahead! If we yield to the rhythm of hidden child within and dare to change, our child within will emerge. We call this re-birth of our child hidden within.