Seeing the world with childlike curiosity

As you get older, it can be so easy to forget the simple bliss that comes from experiencing the world through a childlike lens - full of gentle curiosity and wide-open wonder. When I reflect back on my childhood, I remember tea parties under lemon trees and darting through sprinklers in bursts of giggles and excitement. Of summer days spent foraging for insects amongst tropical ferns. Building fortresses made of sheets and pillows that became temporary hiding spots.

As we grow older, we come across instances that remind us of this younger self - this younger self that we’ve left behind. And how, somewhere along the way, we’ve had to learn to turn down the volume of our inner child. We’ve come to reluctantly accept that our inner child’s voice, desires and dreams have gradually faded away. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.

Elizabeth Gilbert encourages us to “be childlike in our pursuit of life”.

In doing so we will refuse to let our to-do lists, our jobs, our bitterness or cynicism shut down the joy of our experience of being in the moment. At the same time, she points out that bringing out our childlike selves doesn’t mean we should be childish, acting without maturity.

Reconnecting with our inner child can be such a healing, mindful and cathartic experience, awakening a sense of playfulness within. As an intuition coach who’s worked with many creatives constantly looking to reconnect with their inner child, I’ve developed a few questions that’ll help you do the same.

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You can use these questions as journal prompts to explore your own connection with your inner child and see how you can bring them back into your life:

10 journal prompts to connect you with your inner child.

When was the last time you made a decision just because you felt the desire to do so? Remember when you were young and got to lick the icing off the wooden spoon?
Recall a time when you fully experienced the joy of the moment. How did you feel?
What do you feel drawn to do today if there were no limits on how long you spend on it? What if, just for today, you could lie in the grass under the blue sky and just enjoy it?
How does it feel when you experience something fully for the first time? How does this bring you into the present moment?
When have you blown off your to-do list in preference for something that made you happy and spontaneous? Sometimes, I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and break out in dance just because.
When was the last time you simply watched nature, completely absorbed by it?
What would happen if you wandered down a different path instead of taking your usual route to work? Just to see where it could lead?
What would make you deep belly laugh until you cry?
When did you last dare to dream - not just small goals that sit and wait for us at the end of a long to-do list, but big, bold dreams that scare you a little?

These questions exist not just to help you reconnect with your inner child. They exist to also help you understand how you’re living your day to day life. Life shouldn’t be a list of to-dos and goals that you’re setting out to achieve. It’s full of little moments that allow you to live life meaningfully and to the fullest. After all, don’t we encourage children to be children and embrace the bliss of play, nature, freedom and discovery? It doesn’t have to end just because we’re now adults.

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