“See the world through curious eyes of a child. Excitement, playfulness and wonder will become part of your life again. Awaken the child from within.”
~Tejal Patel
How I Found My Inner Child
When I was a practicing divorce attorney, I felt like I had two personalities… The professional, studious, conservative, version and the hidden boisterous, fun loving, freedom-seeking inner child who wanted to run with the wind, laugh without reservation, and just be silly.
That silly inner child didn’t make many visits when I reached adulthood. There is this misconception that when you become an adult that you have to give up the fun loving, goofiness and curiosity you had as a child. It’s as if the adult takes the place of the inner child. After becoming a children’s yoga teacher and having the privilege to teach and spend time with kids, I realized that the adult side doesn’t take place of the fun loving child, they both coincide together but the inner child lies dormant and repressed in our being.
It’s an honor to be in the presence of children and teach them powerful tools of yoga and meditation. Having the innate ability to connect with children and gaining their trust by dropping my “Adult side,” I’ve been able to tune into the essence of the children by allowing my inner child to come forth.
Not only have I been blessed to feel the emerging of the true innocence and untainted essence within children, it has brought out that deeply conscious essence within me. Encouraging my inner child to come out and play. The more I’m surrounded by children, the more I have given myself permission to let my inner child come out in all different areas of my life.
Here are 3 things I’ve learned from my yoga students about awakening your inner child:
- Live to the Beat of your Own Heart. Children are willing to try anything, do anything and believe in their dreams. We all have a unique soul signature with our own special innate gifts and life mission. Being in the presence of children has allowed me to re-invoke my childhood pastime of using my imagination. This has greatly helped my visualizations when I’m trying to manifest something in my life. Kids have it right, when you want something play it out, speak it out, feel it out. Sometimes having a tea party with your greatest mentor is exactly what you need to do to set the intention with the Universe.
- Be Unapologetic about your Emotions. There are many mistakes we will make in life, breaking vases, hurting someone’s feelings, stepping on someone’s toes, which will warrant a genuine apology but one thing we should never be apologetic for is how we feel. We always have the right to feel the emotions we do, if negative emotions are triggered, its our responsibility to understand what within us is being triggered in order to release and let go. Children have a short memory span. Their emotions arise, they express them, they deal with them, and they happily move on. Children are quite unapologetic about how they feel as should adults be. It’s how we express and internalize the emotions that causes problems. When emotions manifest as rage, anger, manipulation, depression, we have lost touch with feeling the essence of the the situations in our life. Unapologetically express your truth with the intention to express, release, let go and forgive.
- Embrace Your Childhood Pastimes. As we get older, our social interaction becomes limited to having drinks, going to bars, clubs or being alone watching a movie on a Friday night. Whether you prefer to be alone, or prefer to hit the social scene with a few drinks, re-ignite your passion and aliveness by doing the simple activities that you used to love as a child. Did you play baseball throughout high school, find a inter-mural softball team in your area. Love art? Join a painting with a twist class with a few close friends. Enjoy music? Pick up your old instrument and learn how to play it again. I realize many of my adult past times, involved alcohol which was followed by hazy conversations, blackouts and hangovers. I realized to truly feel alive and embrace life, we have to go back to the simple activities that we loved as children. I’ve never felt so deeply connected to my soul and essence when I gave up alcohol and my bar days to start painting, playing the piano again, laying in the grass and playing board games. Don’t close your heart down to the simple pleasures of life, you never truly outgrow them.
Life is meant to be fun enjoyed and be in the flow. We create this belief that as adults, life is meant to be hard and maintain this seriousness in our relationships and work. We only let loose when alcohol is involved in our past time . Give yourself permission to let down that shield, be fully present and let your inner child come out to play and watch your joy exponentially increase.
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About the Author
Tejal Patel is a former divorce attorney and mediator who reinvented her life to become a spiritual life coach, children’s yoga teacher, motivational speaker and writer. Tejal now advocates universal laws, so adults will live from their highest truth and be the example of peace for future generations. As a student and teacher of Kundalini yoga and meditation, it is her mission to make meditation easy to understand, so families can come together daily, to meditate as a unit. She teaches children the fundamental skills of conscious breathing, intuition connection and positive self image in her Yoga Birdies, Yoga for Youth classes. She inspires adults on her weekly Astitva Seekers VLOG by sharing guided meditations, empowering wisdom and kid friendly mindfulness and yoga techniques.
Connect With Tejal: Her Website, Facebook and Twitter
Feature image @ Federica Marchi
