Your inner child is the part of you that remembers what its like to be a child. It remains from childhood, but for most of us it gets pushed deeper and deeper inside over the course of years as life lessons, responsibilities and baggage come along and reshape us into adults. Now I’m not talking about being childish, I’m talking about being childlike, there is a BIG difference. Please try not to be too childish, that doesn’t help anyone.

When you think about the positive characteristics that children exhibit, what usually comes to mind? My list includes traits like:

• playfulness
• creativity
• curiosity
• inventiveness
• imagination
• innocence
• trust
• spontanaity
• inventiveness
• optimism
• straightforwardness
• honesty
• enjoyment of simple pleasures

How many of these character traits do you express in your daily life? Do you remember when you did? Do you miss them? Well, you don’t have to. Reclaiming your inner child, this suppressed part of yourself, can change your life for the better. It can keep you feeling young. It can stimulate your imagination and creativity. And when simple things give you pleasure it allows you to be a much happier person.

Here is a list of 101 ways to reclaim your inner child, most of them either free or very inexpensive to do. See if there are some you would be willing to try. You can do most of these are activities with your children. But you might also want to try some of them without the kids. Make it about you once in a while. You’re worth it, right?

You may notice there are actually more than 101 ideas in this list. I guess I got a bit over-enthusiastic. Think of it as a bonus. Anyway, here is my list.

1. Write a story.
2. make up a joke.
3. Chew some bubble gum and blow the biggest bubbles you possibly can.
4. Take a bubble bath.
5. Blow soap bubbles or plastic bubbles.
6. Try some kind of food you never ate before.
7. Go to a “pick your own” farm and pick your own berries.
8. Take a long walk or a drive with no predetermined end point in mind.
9. Take a different route than usual when driving someplace familiar.
10. Make pancakes in the shape of animals or faces.
11. Finger paint.
12. Eat cotton candy or a jelly apple.
13. Eat an ice cream cone. Bite it from the bottom and suck the ice cream out, then eat the cone.
14. Find a farm where they’ll let you try milking a cow. Of course, this won’t be much un if you already do this for a living.
15. Go to a petting zoo and feed the animals.
16. Play tag or hide and seek.
17. Ride a go cart.
18. Catch fireflies on a warm summer night.
19. Lie down on the grass at night and watch for shooting stars. It doesn’t really matter if you see any, just watch.
20. Do the same during the day and look for animals and people in the clouds.
21. Build a model rocket and send it skyward.
22. Build a model car.
23. Build a Mentos and Diet Coke rocket. Sure, its kind of old news now, but you’ve never tried it, right?
24. Go bird watching.
25. Buy a telescope or go to an observatory and use theirs.
26. Play with legos or building blocks.
27. Drink your juice from a sippy cup. Or try a crazy straw.
28. Go sailing.
29. Swim with dolphins.
30. Put on a silly hat and take a walk through town.
31. Take dance lessons.
32. Buy yourself some drums and learn to play. Or don’t learn, just play.
33. Hug someone.
34. Go to the beach and hunt for star fish.
35. Ride a unicycle.
36. Ride a scooter or skateboard.
37. Eat  jelly beans.
38. Make a roaring fire at a camp ground or beach (make sure the laws allow it) and then dance around the fire.
39. Toast marshmallows.
40. Collect dolls or GI Joes.
41. Write a song or poem.
42. Chase after an ice cream truck.
43. Go see a children’s movie without your kids.
44. Pick wild flowers and give them to someone.
45. Get a full body massage.
46. Play kids board games without your kids.
47. Talk with your spouse or best friend in pig latin.
48. Have a snowball fight.
49. Play in the mud, and don’t be afraid to get good and dirty.
50. Find a local park with swings and start swinging.
51. Join a pickup game of volleyball at the beach or local park.
52. Bake cookies in the shapes of animals or faces or anything you want, use M&M’s or other candies for eyes or decoration.
53. Make a collage.
54. Make a mobile and hang it in your room or on the porch where there’s a nice breeze.
55. Get yourself a box of crayolas and draw a picture. Be sure to use lots of colors. Or draw in a coloring book, but be sure to allow yourself to draw outside the lines.
56. Intentionally wear socks that don’t match.
57. Draw mustaches on people’s faces in the newspaper.
58. Next time you’re out with your kids or around someone elses kids, really observe their behavior and try to imitate it. Don’t do it to make fun of them, do it to re-experience the feeling of just being a kid.
59. Get a subscription to Highlights Magazine and read it regularly, or at least choose it over the sports or fashion magazines when waiting in the doctor’s office.
60. Go to a car dealership and test drive your dream car, even if you don’t have the money to buy it right now.
61. Hula hoop.
62. Hula dance.
63. Go to a thrift store and try on the strangest clothes you see. Consider buying the ones that make you laugh the hardest.
64. Go to a driving range and wack the golf balls as hard as you can. Don’t worry about accuracy.
65. Camp out in your back yard.
66. Go to the circus.
67. Play dressup. Let your imagination run wild. You can play this one naughty or nice, whichever floats your boat.
68. Try a Native American sweat lodge.
69. Make up a story in which you and some friends take turns adding two sentences until its complete.
70. Make up a game from scratch and play it.
71. Make up your own mad libs.
72. Go to the zoo.
73. Go to the library and browse a section you would never have considered before.
74. Find a grassy hill and roll down it.
75. Go to an amusement park. Be sure to ride the roller coaster and the ferris wheel.
76. Go to a karaoke bar and sing. Remember, it doesn’t count unless you actually sing.
77. Turn up the music in your car and sing at the top of your lungs.
78. Take an acting or improv class just for fun.
79. Find a nice snowy hill and go sledding.
80. Go fly a kite.
81. Build an ant farm. Sit for hours at a time and watch it.
82. Start a fire by rubbing 2 sticks together.
83. Grow sea monkeys.
84. Go out when its snowing and eat snow flakes.
85. Go out when its snowing and see how many different shapes of snow flake you can find.
86. Gather your loose photos and make a photo album.
87. Play in a sand box and don’t be afraid to get sand anywhere and everywhere.
88. Have a water balloon fight.
89. Shave your shaveable areas into interesting designs.
90. Build a rubber band ball and see how big you can get it.
91. Build something out of popsicle sticks.
92. Find interesting odds an ends in your garage, a yard sale or a junk yard and build a sculpture or something useful from it.
93. When you eat your food, take small bites and take the time to chew them well and really savor the flavor before you swallow.
94. The next time you think about something you don’t know the answer to, take the time to find out the answer.
95. Take a walk through your neighborhood and see if you can identify all the different trees, plants and flowers you encounter.
96. When you walk on the sidewalk see if you can avoid steppping on the cracks.
97. Catch a frog and then let him go.
98. Rent a bunch of 3 Stooges or Marx Brothers or Abbott and Costello DVDs and have a TV marathon day.
99. Find a quiet spot in a park or by a stream or somewhere else in nature and sit quietly for a couple of hours. Try not to focus on your work or your problems.
100. Volunteer to walk all the neighbor’s dogs at the same time.
101. Lie down in the snow, flap your arms and make snow angels.
102. Build a snow man.
103. Go to the beach, build a sand castle or sculpture. When I was a kid my grandmother took me to the beach and we sometimes built a sand lady. She brought along sunglasses, a bra and various other items to decorate her – we always attracted crowds of amused onlookers, especially lots of pretty young girls who I was too young to fully appreciate.
104. Learn to speak another language. Or learn how to say hello in many languages
105. Make your own greeting cards or gifts.
106. Try a different hair style or color. If you’re a man, try different a style of beard or mustache.
107. Climb into your kids’ playhouse. Have a tea party with friends, your significant other, or even your kids. Ours playhouses are big enough to accommodate an adult or two.

So, that’s the list. It’s by no means exhaustive. Please feel free to add your own ideas using the comment form below. But more importantly, try these activities for yourself.

How do you know which ones to try first? Well, as you were reading through the list was there anything that brought a smile to your face or made you laugh? Brought back a particularly good childhood memory, or a particularly bad one? There’s your starting point.

Enjoy!

Tags: children creativty, children imagination, children's playhouses, Folk Art Playhouses, folkartplayhouses.com, inner child, reclaim your inner child

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Creativity, Imagination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.