Reconnect with your inner child: 6 things you can do right now

When you were 10, do you remember how much energy you had? How happy, confident and hopeful you were? You had little to worry about and the days weren’t long enough to fit all the things you wanted to do. Each day, you tried your hand at something new and it brought a smile to your face. Most importantly, you were least bothered about what others thought of you.

As you got older, however, your priorities changed. Life became less about living in the moment and more about creating a future. In the quest of getting somewhere, you became so busy that your inner child got lost. While fulfilling your responsibilities, you forgot to enjoy the little moments of life and what it meant to live without a care or worry in the world.

Maybe it’s time to reconnect with your inner child. How? Well, listed below are a few things that you can do to rediscover that sense of freedom, enthusiasm and fun.

Start asking questions

Do you remember how curious you were as a kid? Be it wanting to know the names of characters in a movie or how to tie a shoelace to asking why it feels cold in winters and warm in summers, you never stopped to think how silly asking seemed. But as you grew up, your sense of curiosity faded and you became afraid of what others would think of your questions. From today itself, start asking questions again. Just be yourself and ask if you have any doubts. This way, you will rekindle your curiosity and be able to find joy in little things.

Give wings to your imagination

Remember playing and building things with your toys as a kid? It was so easy to believe that you were an architect constructing buildings or a doctor helping dolls heal. When you played with your friends, you’d come up with new rules for a game, and find unique ways to communicate—the language that only you and your friends understood. In short, you’d let your imagination run wild because you saw the world as clay, ready to be moulded.

But then you got older and discovered how the world already had rules of its own and you didn’t have to make any! Since you no longer had to do things differently, you stopped keeping in touch with your inner child.

Reconnect with your inner child by giving a free rein to your imagination because it leads to not just creativity but gives you the power to do things that haven’t been done before.

Travel to new places, try new things

A simple way to establish a connection with the inner child is to travel to new places and try new things. Travel to a place that you find exciting and that brings you joy. Do something you haven’t done before. Eat a new cuisine, meet new people or even try an adventure sport. Doing these things will take you back to the time when you weren’t afraid of outcomes, you simply did things because they made you happy.

Once you understand how to be happy by following your bliss, you won’t have trouble reconnecting with your inner child anymore.

Smile as often as you can

You know how simple it is to bring a smile to a kid’s face. If they are upset, take them to a toy shop. If they are sad, play with them and they’ll forget about everything that happened. They’ll smile and laugh at the silliest of things. This is something adults can learn from them.

Just as any kid would tell you, there’s a lot of good in smiling often. According to researchers at the University of Kansas, ’smiling during brief stressors can help to reduce the intensity of the body’s stress response, regardless of whether a person actually feels happy.’ This might be one of the best reasons to imbibe the qualities of a child, just turn that frown upside down!

Take chances

As an adult, we rarely take chances. We think too much and do very little because we are comfortable wherever we are. But as kids, we were different. We didn’t allow ourselves to get caged or cornered, instead, we learned, adapted and evolved with time. We expanded our limits.

This is exactly what you need to do to find your inner child again. You need to step out of your comfort zone and embrace the wonders that the world has to offer. The inner child within us craves adventure and change.

Protect your play-time

As a kid, could you imagine compromising on your playtime? Playtime was the time to enjoy and have fun. After school, you would meet your friends, play with your toys or watch TV. This time was essential for you, easily your favourite time of the day.

As you grow up, things change. You have so much going on that you can’t even find the time to rest. But this also causes a lot of problems—you feel bored, tired, and tend to procrastinate a lot. This is why you need to take out time for yourself to do things that make you happy—your playtime. Do not let anything or anyone take it away from you. Once you relearn to play regularly, you’ll be able to connect with your precious inner child again.

Growing up may have its advantages but letting one’s inner child fade isn’t one of them. So get going with these lovely practices and see how life becomes simple and beautiful, just as a child sees it.