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Reconnecting With Your Inner Child
Being an adult is boring, isn’t it? Sure, you’ve got the chance to eat all the chocolate and shop for as many pairs of shoes as you want, but in general it’s full of responsibilities that no one wants to be involved with. When you’re a child, you feel like there is nothing but rules and regulations that you have to adhere to – which would be right. As a child, you’re not supposed to do more than what your parents ask of you and often that includes discovering yourself and learning who you are within the boundaries that you are set. Children often daydream about being adults and moving away from all the rules. I’ll let you in on a little secret, though. Being an adult has nothing but rules. There, I said it. There are rules everywhere that you look – and not one of those rules is fun.
You have to get up and go to work and earn your bit every single day. You have to report to someone else if you’re not feeling well. You have to carve out the time in your day to be able to see the people that you want to see, and you’ll see them a lot less than you want to. Because your job will get in the way of it and you need your job to be able to pay the rent and the utilities and the food and…there are so many ‘and’s in that sentence, isn’t there? Well, being an adult comes with a responsibility that as a child, you cannot appreciate. Every adult that you meet when you’re a child tells you not to wish away your childhood. They tell you to enjoy it while it lasts, explaining that those long weeks off school in the summer don’t last and they will fly past. We don’t believe them, of course. We don’t believe that there will ever be a day that we want to have rules and regulations. But we do – of course, we do.
We think that children learn from us, but more often than not, we are learning from them. Children absorb everything that they see and feel around them, but we actively watch what our children do and we can get into their world, their mindset and their thoughts – simply by paying attention. We were all children once, which means we haven’t forgotten how to embrace being childlike in nature. We haven’t forgotten what it’s like to want to eat ice-cream at 3am, it’s just that now we have to make sure that we can afford the ice cream. There are a great many ways that you can go ahead and discover your inner child, it’s just that you have to want to. Being an adult can be boring and serious and allowing your inner child to roam free is a good way to ensure that you keep a little element of fun in your life. Adulthood has a way of taking the fun out of things and getting back in touch with who you once were can heal many feelings of stress and depression. You may not have had the perfect childhood, but that doesn’t mean that these tips below won’t help you to embrace the child that you once were.
Make Some New Friends.
If you find that you are stuck in the same social circle of mainly work friends, then it may be time to put yourself out there and make some new friends. Friendship finding is rather like dating, in that you can get knocked back even by people that you want platonic relationships with. As we age, we have a tendency to allow friendships to go to the backburner, putting in less effort. It’s not intentional; work and family life means there is a lot less time to put on sleepovers and buy the best giant bean bags from www.fombag.com to be able to lounge on. There’s a lot less s’more making and a lot less fun playing video games. Joining local clubs and volunteer groups can help you to get yourself back in the game.
Embrace The Rain.
As a child, you likely had the fun of jumping up and down in muddy puddles in a pair of galoshes. You could kick the rain and people walking down the street would smile at you, appreciating the wide-eyed wonder and innocence in your face. Adults constantly check on the weather, feeling grumpy and restricted by the rain and the fact it can ruin a day out. Here’s the thing, as an adult, you have the ability to get a rain mack and a set of galoshes as well as an umbrella. Stop running inside and avoiding the rain and have fun in it, instead. You are the one holding yourself back and choosing to be a grump; go and splash until contented. You won’t regret it.
Go For A Bike Ride.
And not at the gym. Calories, portion control, workouts for burning fat… these are all grown-up issues that we constantly think about every day. When was the last time you grabbed your bike and helmet and went for a ride? Just for the hell of it? Ask yourself how much of your day you spend in a car or sitting on a bus. It’s a long time to spend in traffic, staring at an unmoving world. You need to grab your bike and go for a ride – just because you can. Feel the freedom of the wind against your face. Feel the freedom of knowing you can go wherever you want to go – because there are no rules telling you that you can’t do it.
Build Something New.
Whether you have building blocks or Lego bricks, build yourself something beautiful. It doesn’t matter what or how tall the tower is, but you need to build something that you can marvel at. Children explore and get creative with building towers, that in their mind, is a dragon hide out or a skyscraper for daredevils to climb. Embrace your inner miniature architect and build something that is going to make you happy.
Colour It In.
Adult colouring is making a huge comeback lately, and for good reason. As a child, we sit and concentrate on the pretty colours and we fall in love with the scenes in the cartoon colouring book. Chunky crayons, fat pens and freshly sharpened pencils were always wonderful to receive as a child. There are meditative effects when you colour in as an adult. Being able to concentrate on the stroke of the pen, the colour of the ink and the pattern on the page is marvellous, with many adults loving the relaxing way to be artistic for a change.
Dance It Out.
Have you ever seen a toddler dance? They throw themselves around without a care in the world. They jump, they skip, they shimmy, and they shake, and they don’t mind who sees them. You should put your favourite track on your iPod and just dance it out. Dance until the adrenaline and stress leaves your body. Dance until you’re laughing so hard you have to sit down. Dance crazily and wildly and as silly as you want. You’re an adult; you can do whatever you like.
Switch Off.
The hardest thing for an adult to do is let go of their social media and just embrace the shut-down. Adults have no true idea how to relax, since all they do is get on their smartphones and scroll Facebook and Instagram. There’s an entire world outside a smartphone. There are trees and flowers and places to visit. There is food to eat – food that doesn’t need to be photographed before it’s consumed. There are theme parks to head out to. There is sand and grass to feel beneath your toes. And while you sit there and scroll social media, you’re missing it. You’re just missing it all. So, turn it off. Turn off your phone. Turn off your tablet and turn off your television. Go outside and breathe a different air, hear different sounds. Leave the music at home and just go with your own thoughts. Sit in the sunshine in the park and listen to birds, to trees, to other people chattering away. There’s a world outside your technology, and you should be getting as involved in it as you can.
This list is by no means exhausted. You are an adult and only you can go ahead and embrace your inner child. There are huge numbers of things that we do as children that we daren’t do as adults, and it’s a sad situation to be involved in. Adults are in charge of their own destiny and we accept stress as if it’s a part of the life that we lead. It shouldn’t be, and we shouldn’t have to take it, either. So, while you’re worrying about work and the family issues and the commute, remember this:
There’s always chocolate and new shoes.
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