7 Days of Calm, Day 7: Find Your Inner Kid

Kids are experts at living in the moment. They don’t worry about what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow, they enjoy being where they are today.

As adults, we find more time to worry or be distracted. We create more time to over-analyze the events of yesterday and over-plan the events of tomorrow.

Find your inner child and ask them: What do they want to do today?

Picture yourself as a child. Pick a time when you remember being happy and carefree. Focus on that version of you. Picture yourself at that age. Picture where you are, how you look, what you’re wearing. Is there a toy you loved playing with? A bike you rode everywhere?

Let yourself become that child version of you, and let yourself see the wonder in the world they see.

As your child self you can become carefree. You can lose yourself in something inconsequential. You could draw. Color. Build something with Lego. Take books from the shelf and stack them into a tower. Maybe make up a song.

Don’t try to create something perfect, just enjoy the sensation of being creative. Remember how you would become lost in something when you were a child? That activity was the most important thing in the world, as you were doing it. Let that feeling take hold of you now.

Remember, this may not be something you’d normally consider ‘productive’, but that doesn’t mean it’s a waste of time. Quite the opposite.

Think of one thing you loved to do as a child. What about it did you love? Imagine your present self doing that thing and feel that sensation of joy.

Is this something your present self can do? If not, what would be the equivalent experience, as an adult? What would trigger an equivalent sensation?

In what ways can you make that childhood joy a part of your everyday routine?
Is there an image, a song, a memory to trigger that feeling?