How do you nourish your inner child?
The concept of "inner child" has been coming up for me a lot lately... it's addressed often in the book "The Artist's Way," a program I'm following as best I can to get creatively unblocked. The term also came up in a yoga class I went to yesterday where we hugged blanket rolls in place of our inner child.
As someone who was very adult-like at an early age (latch key kid at 7 with a full set of chores and dinner to put on the table every night), and as someone who always wanted to just be an adult already, I feel I lost touch with child-like things before I really had a grip on them. There are several things that I have a child-like enthusiasm for: rollercoasters, popcorn, and peanut butter to name a few, and indulging in these things does make me feel younger and more carefree. On a rare occassion I'll even have a "do nothing" day, yet when was the last time I watched Saturday morning cartoons or didn't feel guilty about one of these indulgences?
My new approach to feeding my inner child is doing anything that makes me feel free (and guilt free, too, if possible)... like dancing, singing out loud to the radio even though I have a terrible singing voice, wearing silly cotton panties, putting my hair in pigtails, or making a new outfit or piece of clothing. I recently got a bike -- don't get me wrong, I've had bikes as an adult -- yet there's something about a new bike that makes me feel giddy and kid-like again. I'm mostly using it for errands to help cut down on gas usage and to start getting back into shape (not very child-like conscientiousness), yet I'm truly enjoying myself (okay, the last uphill home does take a lot out of me) and my inner child says "wheeee!" every time I let loose and coast down a hill.
Some people I know buy fun socks to treat their inner child. Or collect rocks, bones, and interesting found objects. The best part is that there are no rules. You and your inner child can have fun secrets which means hopefully it will come out and express itself more in wonderful creative ways. For me I'm coddling mine and working on being less self-conscious... hopefully she'll come out to play some day so we can make big fun sculptures and crazy conceptual jewelry together with no concerns about what's right or wrong... it'll all just be in the doing and freedom of creating.