Take Pride in Being Childish

Earth has been molded by oceans, volcanoes, and ice. Landscapes have moved, new inhabitants have settled in, and changes is happening at all times. But, underneath all these layers of molds , and changes, there is a center. The core center of our earth is untouched, and has remained the same since its creation.

We are just like our beloved earth. When our ugly, wrinkled faces see the sunlight for the first time, we are this core center. We are untouched, un molded, and the purest form of self we will ever be.

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There’s a bunch of psychological theories about if we are born with a clean slate, and shaped by our environment, or if we are already born with our personalities and traits. I believe it’s a mix of both. We all have certain predisposed abilities, and survival instincts, just as any other mammal, and we might even have some personality down there in our newly born little souls. But, environment is a certain factor of change! How can we even argue about that!? The way we are raised will effect us, the people we meet when we start school will effect us. Things we hear, see, smell, taste – everything will set its mark on us. And in a technological evolving world, where things are fast paced, and new things are popping at us form all directions, we end up becoming these energy drained, routine robots. Centering ourselves, and finding our inner child is nothing we really do, and we look at this robotic changes as a part of “growing up”.

“Enjoy your life right now, kid, when you grow up it will be harder” – Isn’t this some shit almost all of us been told when we were younger? When did life and growing up turn into a long hard misery?

Kids see and live in a way that is different from us. We do set examples for the younger people, but we to, have a whole lot to learn from children.

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The pretty awesome thing children do, that we somewhere along the line forget:

Brutally honest – The worlds toughest critics are children, yup, they are indeed. They speak their minds whenever, and about whatever. If they don’t like something, you will know, and if they love something, you’ll also know. It might not be the most appropriate to spit out someones food at a dinner party, but there’s other ways, in which we can be honest about the food. We can let the hostess know that they might’ve put a little bit too much salt in the soup, instead of smiling in delight while forcing down salty soup down your throat.

They wear their hearts on their sleeve –  They show their emotions – hard core. Ever lost in a game, and being such a sore looser that you threw yourself on the ground, crying and screaming as if you were dying? Yup, been there, done that. From soccer games, to monopoly. If someone were mean to you, you made sure they knew how bad they did you. As we grow up we learn to put on the “I’m fine” mask.  And boy, isn’t that something we wear on our sleeves? We are so fine all the time, but deep down our inner child is yelling in terror, punching our insides like a boxing bag.

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They have fresh eyes – Kids wake up super early in the morning and they are ready to seize the day, for no apparent reason at all. They bounce around with these exploring eyes and they just make every day its own, despite routines like school. A new day means new adventures. Everything is exciting. They live in the present moment all the time. Remember how weeks felt like months? You were living in the present, homie.

Going out is what’s up – Children loves to go out – in nature. They are outside as often as they can, and they make up own worlds in our existing world. A leaf is now a pizza slice, and the big stone is now a five star restaurant, with some twigs being the new luxury utensils. We might not have the same time to go out in nature, with a 1 hour break at work, but we can make our hour count, or you can make your pencil at your desk, your own kind of new luxury utensil.

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(Shout out to my amazing friend Savannah, we knew how to keep ourselves more than entertained, and we had some serious editing skills in Paint.)

They get bored – Well, now days with smart phones, I guess our young kiddos doesn’t get as bored anymore, but hey, they still get bored. Getting bored is, despite its bad rep, pretty awesome. Boredom forces us to do something. Even if we’re just sitting right up side down, our mind starts to wonder , and we spark some creativity. Boredom is the best little guy for creativity. The times you were bored as a kid, were the times where your best new games got created, or when you decided to come up with that killer dance routine with your friend. Boredom gave you the freedom to do exactly what you wanted to do, in your own way.

They are curious – If you’ve ever played the “why game” with a child, you know what I mean. They ask questions on questions, and follow up questions on follow up questions. They can never ask to much, and they never feel bad for wanting to suck out all the possible information they can. Be curious. Seek answers in random shit, that you never really though about. Learn as much as you can, because, why the hell not? Kids trial and error all the time, while we don’t even get to the trial part, because we fear the error.

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They see things for what they are – As we grow up, we have a tendency of over complicating things. Things are always kinda in that grey area. For kids, it’s black and white. What is, is. Simple. No time to dwell upon it, they move on to the next. Sarah is not your friend anymore, okay, cool, now I’ll play with Betty. I’m not saying we should throw away our relationships like this, but you get the point. If an issue occurs, you deal with it, and you move on. They don’t hold grudges, and next week I’m best friends with Sarah again.

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Right now, I want you to close your eyes and remember something, or certain things, that you used to do as a child, and time just seemed to fly by. Thinking about it? Are you seeing little you being in tune with yourself and just enjoying life for what it is? Do you today, make time for these things that made you feel this way? If not, we have to start.

The more we tune in with our inner child, the more we can find out what makes us awesome, and what abilities only you can bring to the world. We “de-child” ourselves as we grow up, and we set age restrictions on when we have to stop behaving like children, and suddenly just become all adulty and serious. Don’t get me wrong, growing up is amazing, and we learn a lot of life skills we never knew as children. But, what’s even more powerful is an adult that can do both. Be the child, within the adult.

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Brain mush

2018 is in full Bloom, January has already passed us by, and we’re entering February quicker than a teenage boy losing his virginity . By now the “new year new me” bullshit is either going fabulous, or starting to fade away. However it may be going, I bet the New Year started out with superior motivation and a new zest for life! That’s usually the feeling new beginnings bring us.

For some people though, the new year super motivation just didn’t kick in. At all. I happen to be one of those people. For the majority of my past New Years Eves I’ve always been super hyped up, ready for new things, and to fire up the gear and take action. But this year started out slow. That I spent my New Years sick in bed might have been the first negative impact, I barely even acknowledge the birth of 2018. I was just like “another day, I still have a fever. Yey.”

Slumping up and feeling like you’re out of your element is normal. Life is not always a dance on roses, and you will have phases of ups and down. Sometimes though, you feel like you’re just digging yourself deeper and deeper into the chaos, and you leave yourself feeling lost and anxious. The underlying cause of this is usually that we have to many things going on and we don’t know what to prioritize, or how to organize ourselves. This leaves our minds in the middle of a battle field. Juggling work, family problems, health, not finding time for your hobbies, you all know the drill. Or the shake. Or the wobble. Why is it called drill anyways? “You know the wobble” sounds way more fun. Well, whatever, when our minds are unorganized we tend to procrastinate, which leads to more anxiety, and more problems. No bueno.

What we all need to do when we get lost in these slumps is to:

Feel – Acknowledge the feelings. You are lost, let’s face it. And it’s okay. It sucks, but it’s okay and a natural part of life. The more you try to hide your feelings, the less able you’re going to be to move past it. So grab your feelings by the balls! Be brave!

Write it down – This always works for me. I sometimes don’t want to because it’s forcing me to deal with my problems, but as soon as i do, I’m removing the negativity form my head onto the paper. It feels amazing, trust me guys. And for my fellow journal lovers, you know exactly what I’m talking about! Writing your feelings down goes hand in hand with acknowledging them and feeling them.

See your friends – You need positivity in your life. Before you can tackle your shit, you need to feel joy and excitement. See your friends and your family, you have people who care for you and wants to be around your amazing spirit! Rip those abs up with some great laughter, go dancing, have a game night. Surround yourself with love and happiness.

Avoid social media – Social media is amazing, but it can also be the devil. Especially if you’re in a bad place mentally. We have a tendency to compare ourselves to the people we see on there, living their “happy, perfect lives”. Social media is also a great companion for procrastinating.

Be grateful – Last, but definitely not leas, be grateful. It’s hard to see the positives when you’re feeling down, but start by saying thank you for every little thing that you take for granted. Say thanks for a hot shower, food, your cozy fluffy bed. Even the Uber driver not finding your pick up location causing you to run late – at least you’re able to take an Uber! You are blessed in so many ways!

Where does this leave us? As they say, once you’re down, you can only go up! Just because you’re having a slow start doesn’t mean that your year is going to be a total slacker. I actually think that you’ll end the year on an even higher note than ever before. This slump will force you to deal with it you issues in different ways, which will make you gain new experiences early on in the year, and have you ready for a grand finale when the ball drops next year. Embrace your slump! It’s a wonderful thing, it’s a prime time for some growth action, and a fabulous year ahead. So to all my fellow slumpy heads, we’ve got this! This is our year! You’ve got to slump to triumph.

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