Mrunal Thakur Views Love as Emotional Healing and Inner Child Reparenting
In a heartfelt revelation, actress Mrunal Thakur has shared her deeply personal perspective on love, describing it as a transformative force that heals emotional wounds and reparents the inner child. Her comments come amid ongoing dating rumours linking her to fellow actor Dhanush, though she chose to focus on the philosophical and emotional aspects of love rather than addressing the speculation directly.
Love as a Transformative and Healing Experience
While promoting her music video Bheegi Bheegi, Mrunal Thakur spoke to Filmygyan about her beliefs regarding love. "I think love is a beautiful feeling and should happen to each and everyone on this planet," she expressed. "It changes you into a better person. It is literally like reparenting and fixing your inner child issues. It's like the most beautiful thing in the world. I really pray and hope that everyone finds love in their life."
Her words position love not merely as a romantic or companionate bond but as a profound journey of emotional growth and healing. This perspective challenges conventional notions of love, framing it as an opportunity for personal development and addressing unresolved childhood patterns.
Giving and Receiving Love: A Balanced Approach
When questioned about whether women in love tend to give more, Mrunal Thakur offered a nuanced response. "Not necessarily. I disagree. Anyone who is in love is more giving," she stated. "But what is important in love is to accept it also. Sometimes, it is very difficult to receive love and acknowledge love. The definition of love has been changing."
She elaborated further, emphasizing the universality of love's giving nature. "The only constant thing is love. It's how you receive, there's a lover, there's a beloved. When anyone is in love, they are the givers. It doesn't matter – woman, man, no. Jab pyaar hota hai (when there's love), you just do things for that person. You just surrender!"
This discussion highlights critical themes of emotional balance, boundaries, and the evolving understanding of healthy love in contemporary relationships.
Therapist Explains the Challenges of Receiving Love
Sonal Khangarot, a licensed rehabilitation counsellor and psychotherapist at The Answer Room, provides expert insight into why many individuals struggle to accept love, even when they deeply desire it. "Inner child work refers to recognising and healing emotional wounds formed in childhood due to unmet needs such as safety, validation, affection, or consistency," she explains. "These early experiences don't disappear with age; they quietly shape adult beliefs, emotional reactions, and relationship patterns."
Khangarot notes that when these childhood wounds remain unresolved, they often manifest in romantic relationships as:
- Fear of abandonment
- Excessive people-pleasing
- Difficulty trusting partners
- Emotional shutdowns
- Intense reactions to minor triggers
"Secure adult relationships can support emotional healing — not by 'fixing' each other, but by offering consistency, emotional safety, and repair after conflict," she adds.
Why Accepting Love Feels Unfamiliar or Unsafe
Delving deeper into the psychological barriers to receiving love, Khangarot states, "Many individuals grow up internalising the belief that love must be earned, performed for, or sacrificed for—rather than received freely. When self-esteem is fragile or the self-concept is built around inadequacy or hyper-independence, love can feel unfamiliar, undeserved, or even unsafe."
People who struggle with accepting love often exhibit behaviors such as:
- Minimising affection and care from partners
- Doubting their partner's genuine intentions
- Feeling uncomfortable with vulnerability and emotional closeness
- Dismissing compliments or positive reinforcement
"This can create imbalanced relationship dynamics where one partner overgives while the other keeps emotional distance, reinforcing feelings of rejection or exhaustion on both sides," Khangarot observes.
Healthy Surrender vs. Unhealthy Dependence in Love
The concept of surrendering in love, as mentioned by Mrunal Thakur, raises important questions about maintaining individuality and avoiding emotional dependence. Khangarot clarifies that "surrendering in love becomes unhealthy when it happens without psychological boundaries or awareness of one's own needs."
Psychological boundaries enable individuals to stay emotionally connected without losing their sense of self, core values, or personal autonomy. "Unhealthy emotional dependence usually develops when a person expects a partner to meet needs that were previously unmet — such as validation, security, or self-worth," Khangarot explains. "When these needs are unconsciously outsourced to the relationship, love can shift into over-adjustment, fear of conflict, or self-silencing to preserve closeness."
Healthy surrender, in contrast, involves:
- Knowing which emotional needs can be shared and supported within a relationship
- Recognizing which needs require self-regulation and personal growth
- Practicing self-soothing techniques independently
- Maintaining a balanced sense of self while being emotionally available
Mrunal Thakur's reflections, combined with expert psychological analysis, offer a comprehensive view of love as a healing journey. They underscore the importance of addressing inner child wounds, learning to receive love gracefully, and cultivating healthy boundaries to ensure that romantic relationships become spaces of mutual growth rather than sources of emotional dependency.
