Children hold the keys
Have you encountered a child recently? Have you noticed how most younger children engage life wide-eyed, undaunted, and full of wonder and delight?
However, most of us take hits as we go along. Thus, we begin to fear, doubt, and believe the worst about ourselves instead of the best.
To begin to re-cultivate a sense of childlike delight in your life, experiment with one or more of these ideas:
1. Play. If you have a child or grandchild, join them in what they are doing. Resist the urge to steer them into your world. Rather, join them in theirs. For 10, 20, or 30 minutes, just play a game and attempt to see it from their eyes.
2. Imagine. As adults, the demands of careful planning and strategy development are ever present. But, dreamy imagination has its place as well. Allow yourself the indulgence of imagining yourself walking on the beach, walking the streets of your favorite vacation spot, or enjoying some past or future pleasant experience.
3. Ask why. Tap your childlike curiosity (even if you must force yourself), and ask why. About anything. Why do cats scratch their claws? Why do dogs bark at passersby? Why do people get wrinkles on their skin? Why are they building that tall building?
4. Engage your passion. Maybe the word passion seems like a stretch at this point. But, what do you love? Baseball, ice cream, theatre, travel, brain games? Children are passionate about lots of things. Adults can surely come up with a few. Find what or who that passion is and engage.
If you experiment with these four ideas, I suspect that your sense of delight will begin to re-emerge.
Worth Repeating
If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
-Goethe
