Think Happy!

There’s a great post over at Dumb Little Man, entitled, 7 How-to-be-happy Lessons That Kids Can Teach Us. I wanted to link to it, because as the father of 3 - yes, three! - girls, I can vouch for every word.

Here are DLM’s points, with some commentary from me at the bottom:

1. Living in the present
2. Single Focus While Doing Things
3. Use of Imagination
4. The future is limitless
5. Always Joyful
6. Inherent Goodness and Trust in Others
7. Absolute Faith In Getting Their Wishes Fulfilled

All I want to add to these points is that I don’t believe it’s enough to connect with our ‘inner child’. In reality, such a construct may not even be helpful for us.

What is more beneficial is going out and living these lessons. Things like this cannot just be learnt through observation. These lessons, like all great lessons, can only be learnt through experience.

So, don’t just ‘get in touch with your inner child’, as if something like that can be accessed at will. Instead, get in touch with yourself. Discover that you never stopped being that child. The adult you are now didn’t surpass that child, replace it or reject it. Instead the child gave birth to who you are - and you owe your adulthood to that playful, wishful, joyful sprite. Instead of ditching that child, to simply be recalled when it’s convenient, it might be more helpful to think of growth as the wearing of an extra layer clothing. We don’t take our underwear off when we put our trousers on. And we don’t take our trousers off when we put our coat on! Quite the opposite, most of us check that we are first fully dressed before putting an outer jacket on venturing on.

Why then would we think that we can function as an adult without first acknowledging and accepting the child within?

I don’t want to belabour the point, so I’ll leave it at this:Don’t use the innocence and energy of kids as some kind of metaphor to learn from. Instead, see it as a challenge to be lived? If you’re up to the task…

Now, with that rather long caveat, go and read the whole thing.