I'd read the book. I'd definitely start to communicate with your inner child. To do this, get a big piece of paper and some crayons or pencils. Then just sit and be quiet with a pencil in your NON dominant hand, and see what happens.
Sometimes it takes a while for the inner child to be brave enough to come out. When she does, you can write back to her in your dominant hand.
My little me, used to hide under the sofa, she was very, very scared, no one loved her or wanted her and she was terrified that I would go away again, leaving here all alone under the sofa. Invisible. These are the things that she told me. It makes me cry even now. Rightly so...it's so sad!
That poor little creature. You can see how it would change the way you relate to your children....profoundly.
I started to draw...a lot! The stuff that came out was extraordinary. The therapist pointed stuff out in my pictures, for example, that "mother" always has her back to me and has no face, the only one with a face is a very scary witches face that is green. I just looked at it again...It's terrifying!
I think this stuff is fairly safe to do, because your own psyche will dictate the pace.