Since childhood, society has been pushing us to grow up as soon as possible. They say to the child, “Do not behave like baby,” and insufficiently reasonable behaviour is scornfully called childishness. However, many children’s skills and habits will come in handy in adulthood. Let’s find out why it’s sometimes useful for everyone to think like children.
1. Discover more opportunities
Children do not think about life in the categories of limitations, and they do not perceive the world as a series of endless obstacles. They boldly dream of becoming astronauts, ballerinas and anyone else, focusing only on their desires and interests, and they believe by default that everything is possible unless proven otherwise. With age, we accumulate disappointments, and it becomes more and more difficult to believe in ourselves. This approach is called a realistic outlook on life, but this statement is only partially true. Often, we deprive ourselves of many opportunities, without even trying. For example, you may avoid dating your best friend even though they are your soulmate. To achieve success, sometimes blind faith in oneself is required, so it would be nice to once again learn to approach the solution of any problem with the thought that everything is possible.
2. Learn healthy interactions with others
Children often use the game as a way to make new friends and make contact with any person. This technique can be used in adulthood. Some companies have already realized the importance of the game process for productive relationships in the team and organize corporate sports tournaments, joint art classes or professional business games for subordinates. Games are useful for any healthy relationship: friendly, family, romantic. Moreover, this is not about specific games, but about joint creative activity in general.
3. You can think outside the box
In a child’s head, impressions of the world are not yet laid out on shelves with ready-made templates, so the child is much more inventive than an adult. Children can invent new functions for familiar things, reinvent items and adapt any space for their own entertainment. With age, our thinking narrows, but this is not an irrevocable process. During an experiment at the American University of North Dakota, researchers asked two groups of college students what to do on a day off. They asked one group to think like a seven-year-old child. The experiment was repeated with several hundred students, but the result was one: the groups whose task was to include children’s thinking came up with more creative answers.
4. You will become more relaxed
At an early age, children do not hesitate to dance or perform in public. They do not care much what others think about it, they are not afraid to be not good enough or to look stupid. With age, we erect more and more barriers around ourselves, and now you’re afraid not only of dancing but just coming up and talking to a stranger. The ability to think like a child from time to time will allow you to worry a little less about the opinions of others and more boldly follow your needs and interests.
5. Learn to take life less seriously
A child’s process of thinking is a great way to relax and deal with stress. It’s easier for a child to take life lightly because most of the cares are taken by parents. It is not so easy for adults to lose responsibility, but sometimes it is also useful to admit that not everything depends on you in this world. The ability to think like a kid will help be at least a little carefree and give in to a fun, which is especially difficult for people with anxiety.
How to Wake up the Inner Child?
- Communicate more with the children and watch them. At such moments, it is especially easy to remember what you were at that age and realize how much has changed.
- Spend more time with people who let you relax. It can be parents or old friends: communication with them always takes place at ease.
- Do something creative. Drawing, music, anything you want – you should just enjoy the process.
- Strive for new experiences. This is the best way to nullify everything that you previously knew about this world, to step back from the usual ways of thinking and learn to improvise.
- Learn to mess around. Our creativity is activated at the moments of doing nothing.
- Do not try to make yourself useful every minute and do not reproach yourself for wasting your time. Better learn to enjoy and benefit from this process.
