Living Life Child Like
11 August 2008
18 Comments
Photo Courtesy of Afferent-Rapture
So, Like A Forgotten Fire, A Childhood Can Always Flare Up Again Within Us. - Gaston Bachelard
There is something magical about childhood that makes all of us wish to revisit it. I used to wonder, is it possible to bring elements of childhood to our present life. Is it possible to live life in such a way that we can experience the wonders of childhood for life.
As I look back at all of my cherished memories, what stands out is that though individual experiences cannot be brought back, I can bring back who I was then and live life fully - the way a child does. I can live life child-like by being childlike.
1. Give Happiness It’s Place
There Is A Garden In Every Childhood, An Enchanted Place Where Colors Are Brighter, The Air Softer, And The Morning More Fragrant Than Ever Again. - Elizabeth Lawrence
Every emotion in life has it’s own place and importance. And from all of them, some form the center of our life. As adults, we give way too much importance to sadness and worry and make them our center. We keep looking out for opportunities to be happy - but because it is not our center, sooner or later we have to leave it and go back to sadness and worry.
It seems, children are more intelligent than us. They have put happiness in their life center. And everyday, they keep building habits that strongly tie happiness to the center. Everyday they seek and create more and more reasons for happiness to stay in center. For some fleeting moments, they do get sad, but because of their strong habits, they come back to Happiness effortessly.
2. Remove All Labels
A Grownup Is A Child With Layers On. - Woody Harrelson
We use labels to describe ourselves and others. However, labels have such power that once set, they define us rather than we defining them. They influence our thoughts and actions. They influence the way we see ourselves and others.
Hence, remove all labels that you have set for yourself and for others. Let nothing stop you. What happened before, need not happen now. No one should be judged based on their past. No ones potential can be determined by how they have lived so far.
Believe in self and others. Not in the labels. Kids do this. Kids don’t have labels. Yesterday they were pilots, today they are doctors and tomorrow they will be supermodels.
3. Short Term Memory Wins In Long Term
I Wish I Didn’t Know Now What I Didn’t Know Then. -Bob Seger
Bad memory is a gift. Everyone should have one. It’s a blessing for relationships. Kids fight and make up and forget all about it. Adults fight and then they fight. It never goes beyond that. If they are lucky, they may make up with each other. But the fight is not forgotten. It is saved for the next fight.
As a kid, I have had my share of fights with siblings. And for every fight, there was only one answer - we were asked to stay in one room till we made up. Within 5 minutes, we not only made up, we were best of buddies again. Most importantly, the fight was forgotten the moment we made up.
4. Fun, Fun And Fun
Kids: They Dance Before They Learn There Is Anything That Isn’t Music. -William Stafford
This of course is everyones favourite - having fun in each activity, have a blast no matter where we are and what are we doing. Kids are very creative over here. A set of cards is not just a game, it is money and palace and huts and trains and secret pass keys and what not. They not only have fun but they make having fun a top priority. Everyday, there is time for school and studies and loads of fun. We need to learn how to balance our life from them.
5. Open The Wonder Eye
There Are No Seven Wonders Of The World In The Eyes Of A Child. There Are Seven Million.
To experience being a kid, learn something new - on your own or through a class. Fresh experiences makes one alive. It removes stagnation and boredom from ones life and fills it with curiousity and wonder. Kids are interested in each and everything. They have unlimited number of questions and the more we answer, the more they will ask. Their favourite one of course is ‘Why’ to everything we say and all our answers.
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Great advice here. You’ve cut to the heart of it. So simple. So true.
We get ourselves onto such tangents when we label everything. Learning not to label is a powerful skill. It opens us to the abundance of reality, and to ourselves more fully.
Loved all of it
John
John Rocheleau - Zen-Moments’s last blog post..Happiness is a Yellow Flower
Hi Avani - I like your “Short Term Memory Wins In Long Term”! That’s a great way of putting the concept of letting things go!
Robin’s last blog post..Letting Creativity Just Slip In
Hi Avani - I like your “Short Term Memory Wins In Long Term”! That’s a great way of putting the concept of letting things go!
Robin’s last blog post..Letting Creativity Just Slip In
Love this article!! Maybe it’s because I see so much happiness in my kids “Yesterday they were pilots, today they are doctors and tomorrow they will be supermodels.” I just adore being with them and love them to bits!!
Hi Avani,
Well, being a father of two young children, it’s not hard to live like them when we’re spending sooooo much time together!
I suppose I may be fortunate, as I really haven’t changed much at the core. I still cry watching movies and sing silly songs.
That said, I agree with Robin — the point about the memory is a good one. I’m not all that vengeful person, yet it’s hard to shake off opinions of people once they’re formed in my head, no matter how shaky my assumptions may be.
ari
Ari Koinuma’s last blog post..How to Get Ready to Meet Your Soulmate (Digest)
I love it! Having fun should be our priority. Life is so much better. I believe children are the sages and we just need to learn from them.
Nathalie Lussier’s last blog post..Is Your Relationship with Money on the Brink of Divorce?
A big YES on having fun.
I don’t know what it is about grownup life that makes us so grumpy, and busy, and so much less prone to just plain having fun.
Vered’s last blog post..I Am Watching You
Here are some more:
)
6. Grit
7. Honesty (they don’t put power into trying not to hurt somebody’s ego).
8. Persistence (and however it does not seem to be toilsome for them to be persistent - they make it with ease.
Martin Wildam’s last blog post..Take care of you
Isn’t it funny that when we are around 15 years, all we want to do is act “grown up”. Then once we pass that phrase and reach 20s(and more) we want that “child like” attributes once again.
Good post.
Shamelle
Shamelle @ TheEnhanceLife.ocm’s last blog post..Expectations: Is It A Human Weakness?
I remember as a kid how I couldn’t wait to grow up. Now, I wish I could go back to experience that sense of wonder that I see on my daughter’s face we go out for a bike ride.. or a walk.. or when she plays with a new toy.. or anything she does. Everything is an adventure.
Kids are wonderful teachers.
Russ @ Escaping Enlightenment’s last blog post..Forcing Creativity
I really like #2 - Remove all labels. The layers of labels tend to stifle the inner child.
I remember when I was a kid everyone wanted to grow up. I never did. I think I was odd. I never wanted the responsibility of being an adult. I just wanted to have fun. My childhood was not perfect, but I just remember playing with my brother all the time.
Great post to remind us of some important things. I love it in the Bible when Jesus says to become as little children - speaking of their forgiveness, innocency and purity. He knew.
Hi Avani - This is wonderful advice. Why on earth do so many of us trade happiness for things like material rewards?
This is a great reminder to me to make happiness and fun a great priority. I haven’t been doing so until recently and I guess the reason I struggle to write sometimes is that I’ve given up a lot of the fun and imagination I had as a child. Thank you.
By all this enthusiasm a little side note: It is not everything healthy how children behave and act. They are not patient for instance, they can be very jealous (of course adults can be also
), …
I remember that I had good times but also suffered a lot in my childhood. So try just re-implementing the helpful behaviors only from those times.
Martin Wildam’s last blog post..Early intervention
I still go swinging in playgrounds! It’s darn fun to do! I had to grow up quickly and got real serious in the process. Swinging takes me back. So does dancing and singing, no matter how terrible I am. Guess we adults are too afraid of making mistakes and of falling. Remember falling as a child? I don’t remember dwelling on how much it hurt for too long. In fact I don’t remember that it even hurt.
Davina’s last blog post..I Dreamt I Died
Hi Avani,
Isn’t is wonderful when we can act childlike. I love how children see things for the first time and get so excited. It’s a trait worth recapturing.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Your Audience - Hitting The Bulls Eye
Hi Avani,
I like especially #5. We don’t get anymore thrilled by this beautiful physical world. This is because we have beliefs acting as filters, and we truly live according to where they lead us. They can be empowering, or they might hinder our lives, but what is true is that we should really get clean of everything to experience again wonder and happiness.
I like your post,
Elio
Elio Galluzzi’s last blog post..The art of meditation… with binaural beats
Hi, Avani.
Good Post!! and that is true.in childhood,we keep happyness in central but as grown up In Adult,we keep sadness and worry make in our central
It’s really thought”Living life child like” but it not everytime.
Girish Pant
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