Take a look around you. You’ll see a whole generation rushing through their childhood to grow up faster. The adults on the other hand, are always dreaming about going back to the simpler days of their childhood. An adult has simply become a child who has forgotten how to be playful with life. We’ve lost touch with our inner child.
So the question really is WHO draws the line between a child and an adult? Only YOU! The good news is that there is an inner child within each of us that can make our adulthood as healthy, free-spirited and joyful as possible. Do you feel you didn’t receive something you deserved as a child? You’re not the only one. But it’s not too late to gift your inner child what you missed out on.
Here are 3 ways you can use to get in touch with your inner child again.
1. Accept Things As They Are Without Blame
Let me make it clear that time traveling back to alter your childhood is not one of the options available for healing. So the first and biggest step you need to take is fully accept whatever happened to you back then, without feeling like it can limit what happens to you right now.
Yes, the truth is our childhood shapes our subconscious mind, which eventually shapes almost 95% of our life. But refusing to take responsibility for our emotions means letting the same subconscious patterns dictate our decisions for the rest of our lives. It’s like sleepwalking through your adulthood.
No, taking responsibility doesn’t mean we’re shifting the blame for what happened to you. It means stepping out of the blame game altogether. It means you understand that you can’t control what someone says about you or the situation you’re in. However, you can still always be in charge of the way you respond.
You may have heard this saying – “Hurt people hurt people.”
What does it really mean? The ones who hurt you – your parents/friends/siblings/teachers were all hurt by something themselves. But they refused to let go of their victim identity and got tricked into the blame game. So those hurtful patterns in their subconscious mind kept creeping into their lives as well.
Now the choice is up to you – rise above whatever hurt you or keep repeating it.
2. Find Any Excuse You Can to Spend Time With Mother Nature
Remember the paintings you drew when you were a kid? We bet more than half of them were filled with images of a smiling sun, a clear blue sky with birds flying, lush green fields, rivers, rainbows and whatnot. Why? Because deep down, we already knew Mother Nature was the best parent for our inner child. We kept drawing that scenery because that is exactly where we wanted to be.
Mother Nature’s classroom can teach us everything we need to know about life. You’re never too old to be her student.
What benefits can you expect? Spend enough time outdoors and Mother Nature will effortlessly balance the 5 elements within your body – earth, water, fire, air, and space. This means a healthy body and mind will become your baseline. It won’t be something you’ll have to take extraordinary steps to achieve. For instance, a 2012 study showed that after only four days of immersion in nature, a group of hikers tested a 50% improvement in their creativity and problem-solving skills.
That’s not all. I remember some of my most profound life lessons came through simply observing Mother Nature. I realized that just like how a river can only remain pure as long as it is flowing. Or how the presence of a tiny creature like an earthworm in our soil can decide whether there’s going to be food on our plates in the future or not.
You begin to embrace the uniqueness of creation and appreciate how everything is connected to each other. Naturally, you begin to come into a flow state with Mother Nature instead of living in your head isolated from her.
We’re not just talking about planning a two-day hill station vacation. You have to get in touch with Mother Nature daily to keep your inner child healthy. Whether it’s 20 minutes of sunbathing, an hour of jogging, or just attending a 5 minute phone call in your garden, find any excuse you can to spend time with Mother Nature.
3. Spend More Time Interacting With Children to Heal Your Inner Child
If you’re learning to see through the eyes of a child again, why not learn from the ones who can already do it effortlessly? Don’t underestimate the power of your association. Because you start reflecting the nature of the people you surround yourself with. Your inner child needs a safe space to find its fullest expression. But if you’re surrounded by serious, judgmental, or stressed adults all the time, your inner child will remain in hiding.
And don’t worry about what you can teach them. Just be willing to learn from them. (They won’t care about your teachings anyway if you come off as an unhappy, stuck-up person.)
Children can teach you a lot about finding joy in little things to living in the present without expectations. So what do you do to connect with them? You can simply jump into their playtime. It shifts your energy into a more free-flowing and spontaneous expression. You can even watch their favourite movie or show with them. Let your imagination run wild and collaborate with them as they share their make-believe fantasies. It will help you unleash your creativity.
Have you ever noticed kids barely spend time gloating over their victories or crying about their losses after a game? In fact, most of us would just keep going at an activity until we ran out of energy. Only when we saw adults reacting to our wins and losses in a certain way, we started mirroring their behaviour. That’s how playtime became less playful over the years.
Tell us in the comments below what do you do to connect with your inner child.
