Act Like Children
Why are our childhoods so nostalgic? When we look back we sometimes wish we could be that kid we once were without a care in the world, with all the energy, imagination, curiosity and playfulness. The lack of responsibility also helped with the carelessness, and that was the point. We were too busy playing. We aren’t meant to care until we need to. And I believe that is how it should be.
So many of us are caught up in the rat race. Life itself can be a rat race and we have to make the most of it, the best, most enjoyable race possible. But we don’t always do that.
We become too serious, too rigid, too robotic, too mechanical, too worrisome. And I get it with the rapidly rising cost of living, we have to think and be more cautious about our financial situation than ever before and many other things. But most of us… particularly in the Western World and way of living… we’ve developed such a tunnel vision sense of how to live life that we’ve forgotten all the beauties about it and how to really live The Good Life.
We’ve become so self-centred on a few particular things that we've forgotten to look from left to right and back again and see all the beauty that is around us.
How does this happen? Why does it happen when we grow up? It’s exactly that.
We grow up.
Now I’m not saying rid of all responsibilities and go just play, paint for the rest of your life and move to the countryside in Italy. If you have that luxury and you can afford to do that by all means go do it. But for the rest of us who aren’t as lucky, there is some adulting that we have to do.
We get so caught up in it that we stuff down the child in us. We push down The Child within us so far without even realising that it takes active practice to bring that part of us alive again.
Don’t forget to stop sometimes and fuel your inner child, no matter what it may be. Everyone had a different childhood and upbringing so, just like ourselves, our inner child is unique to us and us alone. We create our own rules, we create our own play, we create our own imagination.
This is one reason that leads to burnout. We are go go go go go all the time and our energy levels get depleted until finally our body says “STOP!”. We need to start listening to our bodies again, listen to the inner feeling inside us and let it guide us.
Life is a game and what do you with games…? We play. Well… go play. Bring Play back into your life, whatever it may be. Buy a puzzle and put it together with someone you enjoy company with, buy a Polaroid camera and start capturing memories, paint, write, invent, wander, do whatever you like.
Follow your natural curiosity. You’ll find an endless amount of energy there.
Listen to the feeling inside you… and say “Yes!” to it
Find that balance between play and work. Go ahead and play.
Play is the key to being children again. We are all children, so let’s act like it.
Until next time,
Brody
