The Innocent

The Innocent Archetype: Simplicity, awe & wonder

The Innocent archetype is a big one. It’s where our journey through archetypes begin.

We all start out as the innocent. It's the inner child—the one who sees the world through eyes of awe and wonder but who is a total recipient of the choices made for us, by our parents or guardians.

During this time, of choices and events, something changes within us. We go from seeing the world as a recipient to realising we need to take a more active stance in our character development. It could be a something big such as childhood trauma, or something as small as realising our parents lied about Santa. Either way, as children, we perceive it as a fall from grace and we decide that we need to take matters into our own hands.

This is when we start developing the other archetypes. As a strategy to make sense of it all, or in order to fit in, or in some cases, survive, we build new ways of being and we quietly took the innocent away in the process.

That's why many can find inner child work quite a challenge at first. Because it's uncovering all the layers of where we left that little child - who is still watching, still waiting, still wanting to be a part of it all.

It's not a literal child. It's the part of our psyche which saw all of the magic and appeal of the world and then so quickly got shut away, in what felt quite abrupt.

It's a big topic, one which delves into the sunshine child, the divine child, the shadow child, the artist child… and all the beliefs and wants they held. So let's just keep it simple and talk about why it is good for you to begin reconnecting with the innocent, without feeling like you are opening up Pandora's box to inner child work.

What the Innocent Brings Us

The Innocent invites us back to just that—innocence. A trust in the world.

As adults, we can be much more judgemental, cynical and logical, thinking in straight lines: How do I get from A to Z the fastest? How do I prove my worth?

And while some of that approval is actually our inner child at play—I need my friends to like me, my parents to approve—it’s not the joyful, curious part.

The joyful, curious part of the Innocent says: “That looks fun—let’s go see where it leads. Let's give it a go.”

I can hear you already - I haven't got time to see where things lead, that's way too much of a risk, I'm not 5 - I have a mortgage to pay.

And I'm really not asking you to give up all responsibilities and be greeted by bailiffs at the door because you were busy making daisy chains in a forest, instead of attending your day job.

However, I am asking this - How often do you do things without any plan? How often do you go out and just see where it takes you? I know for, going for a walk down my street, without my dog seemed weird a while back. Like I needed a dog or a 'chore' to be venturing out and about.

The innocent loves to be curious and create their own fun. Perhaps your fun one day is reading a fiction book, the next it might be counting clouds. It's not about forced fun or what society and social media deem as fun, it's what lights us up and makes us feel that innocent and lightness for life again.

Some of us feel so far removed from that, it's hard to know what that even looks like.

Why You Might Resist the Innocent

You might think: No, no—life’s not that simple. I need to be smart. I need to protect myself.

After all, life may have given you reasons to be suspicious, or to analyse and predict people's characters, intentions, situations and outcomes.

But, just think of how nice it is when you don't feel that.

When you're walking down a street, or you're on holiday at a family resort and you have none of the background noise—no job titles, no status symbols, no history. You just see them as people. It stips it all back.

There's less comparison (usually - unless of course there's Britain's next top model at the pool, or the next Jay Z splashing his cash) and we come back to ourselves and what lights us up.

Why the Innocent Matters

The innocent reminds us that life should feel simple and good.

They might even choose to see the good in others or a situation, regardless of what’s happening—and that’s powerful. Because when we lose that, we lose our softness. We harden. We go into protective or survival mode and miss out on joy.

The Innocent is the friend who reminds you that not everything has to be strategic.

The colleague who keeps team morale up.

The belly laugh you didn’t see coming, because something tickled you.

The song that makes you feel ten years old again.

The comfort of a teddy bear that still lives in the corner of your wardrobe.

The Innocent never really leaves. It just waits to be invited back and it's especially good to invite it back, when life feels heavy. For me, watching an animated film on the sofa always gives me that feeling—like I can step away from “adulting” just for a while.

It reminds us:

• You don’t have to carry everything.

• Softness and self-compassion are necessary.

• Magic and goodness exists.

• Sometimes the best next step is the simplest one.

The Shadow Side: Avoiding Reality

Of course, like every archetype, the Innocent has a shadow. When it's out of balance, you might:

• Avoid adult responsibilities

• Rely too heavily on others and then blame them when things don’t work out

• Shut down when things get complex or uncertain and isolate

  
  

This archetype teaches us that while idealism is beautiful, we still need to take action when it counts.

How to Work with the Innocent

Here are some real, grounded ways to reconnect with this archetype:

🌼 Simplify something. What are you overthinking? What can you take off your plate?

🌼 Let yourself enjoy things just because. You don’t need to justify joy.

🌼 Make time for play. Get outside. Roll down a hill. Don’t do it for Instagram—do it for fun.

🌼 Ask yourself: What would this look like if it were easy? Adulting doesn’t always have to be hard.

🌼 Reward yourself like a kind parent would. Offer gentle praise: “You’re doing so well, sweetie.” Take yourself to the cinema. Lighten the mood.

🌼 Look for things that excite your inner child. Let her watch, feel, and explore—even just for a moment. Would she find that yapping dog really cute. Stop and admire.

🌼 Create time for your inner child to come forward. Invite them in for 10 minutes. Ask, “What would my inner child think of this?” Use an object—like a toy or a photo—to symbolically bring them out.

🌼 Reconnect with optimism. If you notice yourself spiraling into negativity, try this: wear an elastic band. When the thought hits, gently ping it, then stroke your arm as you say something kind instead. Let your body remember what it feels like to be on your own side.

The Innocent archetype isn’t naive—it’s hopeful. It’s not about ignoring reality—it’s about meeting it with soft eyes. And it might just be the part of you that helps everything feel possible again.