You may have lost touch with it, but trust me, it is still there — your inner child.
Have you ignored it and pushed it aside? After all, life is busy and you are a responsible adult!
In the 1970s, Eric Berne wrote about a theory he named Transactional Analysis.
He reported that we all have a parent part, an adult part, and a child part.
Our child part is responsible for courage, creativity and fun.
You can imagine the roles of the other two parts, and they do not have anything to do with having fun!
We need a healthy balance of all three of these parts.
When we let our inner adult take over too much, we let ourselves get absorbed by a lot of organizing and planning. We focus on the future, and we lose touch with how to have fun in the present. Sound familiar?
Sure we are adults now, and with life comes responsibilities.
We have to report to work, pay our bills, and tend to the things and people that depend on us.
To have a balanced and happy life, however, we need to regularly let our inner child express itself.
Alternatively, what happens when we chronically ignore our inner child?
What do most children do when we push them aside? They act up, they lash out, and they become more and more persistent until they get the attention they need.
In adulthood, an “acting out” inner child may manifest as tension, frustration, depression, and physical maladies such as headaches, digestive problems and inflammation.
We may try to push these symptoms aside too, but they never really go away.
Instead, let your inner child out to play at least once a day.
Here are some childlike activities you could think about doing:
Watch a completely silly movie that makes you laugh instead of think (I’m talking Airplane and Napoleon Dynamite)
Skip the gym and play an active game, like Ping Pong or Frisbee
Run through a pile of leaves or stomp in a puddle
Ride the grocery cart back to your car
Sing like a superstar in the shower
Have a pillow fight
Catch popcorn in your mouth
Color in a coloring book or build a Lego set
Dance — what the heck dance naked
Do some cartwheels
Practice juggling or the yoyo
Actually play on the playground
We need to do something fun and silly each and every day; our health and happiness are depending on it!
As always, I wish you all the best!
I made a 5-day Guide to Mastering Happiness, and it’s yours for free! Click here to get the guide for free!
Visit me at www.christinebradstreet.com
Originally published at medium.com