7 Ways to Feel Like a Child Again

Who needs a fountain of youth?

Feel like a child again: kick through a pile of leaves

This morning I found myself doing something kind of silly. And admittedly not very adultlike. As I took my usual morning walk, I started kicking my way through piles of leaves along the roadside.

Ah, the sweet, fruity smell of fallen leaves! The happy feeling as my feet scuffled through bright layers of Autumn color.

In my mind I conjured up pictures of past childhood pleasures. Those simple, happy memories rose like an underground stream, pooling to the surface of my conscious mind.

Feel like a child again: blow some bubbles.

I remember the delight of the small plastic bottle filled with silky liquid. When you dipped a little round wand in the liquid you could blow bubbles. Quivering bubbles like iridescent balloons, catching a ride on the breeze. Magic!

Sometimes it’s not easy to find those little bottles that were so ubiquitous in the days of my childhood. But here’s a very simple recipe for making your own magic bubbles and wands.

Feel like a child again. Make a handmade card.

Make a handmade card for any reason. A birthday, a holiday, or for no special occasion. But here’s a suggestion: if you make a valentine card, don’t send it to a lover. Send it to a friend instead.

Lovers get lots of attention. But friends are sometimes neglected. So gather some paper, bits of ribbon, colored pencils or crayons, and paste or glue. Maybe cut out pictures from catalogs or old calendars.

Hallmark may not come knocking on your door wanting to hire you. But I am sure your friend will love receiving your card through post or hand delivery. You can be sure your friend will cherish your handmade card, just as the loving grownups in your childhood did.

Feel like a child again: eat cookies straight from the oven.

When we were young, my brothers and I could not wait for my mother’s fresh baked cookies to cool. With eager, greedy fingers we scooped up the cookies , while the chocolate chips were still gooey and the dough still very warm and soft.

Never have I enjoyed cookies more. Make some cookies, and like a child too excited to wait for them to cool, snatch up one or two for one of life’s true elixirs. Who needs a fountain of youth?

Feel like a child again: skate in your socks.

As a child I was never athletic. I did not know how to skate. But in my socks on the smooth linoleum floor, my feet slid easily. I twirled gracefully, skated backwards, and speed-skated across the kitchen floor, to the sound of imagined applause.

At that moment, I was an olympic skater. As far as I was concerned, I would not have been surprised to find I also could fly.

Feel like a child again: make a drawing and color it.

Sure it’s great to color in an adult coloring book. Such beautiful mandalas or graphic designs to choose from. But as a child I remember making my own designs of circles, triangles or squares.

In school we would be given a piece of sturdy construction paper. We folded it and refolded it several times to make little squares. In each square we would draw and color in our own patterns and designs.

Oh, the pleasure of coloring! The pride in transforming a blank piece of paper into a picture uniquely my own. And because I wasn’t trying to make a “proper”drawing, like a sketch of a cat or a dog, my pictures always looked perfect to me.

It was as if the colors I held inside of me flowed without obstruction or judgment, from my mind to the paper.

Best of all was that my mother would place my drawings, along with those of my brothers, in “the place of honor”, which in my family was atop the fireplace mantle.

Feel like a child again: Say a prayer before you fall asleep.

The prayers of childhood are simple. There is no guilt. Only trust.

I remember the simple prayer I used to say as a little girl that was partly memorized, partly extemporized: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

God bless Mummy, Daddy, Steven and Domenic, Grandmas and Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. And all the good animals, good fish, and good birds.”

All these years later, I am not sure who the “bad” animals, “bad”fish, and “bad” birds were!

All I remember is that when I said this pray I felt safe and happy. And perhaps that is the most precious gift any child can feel. As adults, don’t we deserve to feel that too, if only for just a few moments?

So there you have it: 7 ways to re-experience a happy moment or two of childhood.

Do you have other ways to bring back the silly, sweet, eager feelings of childhood ? If so, let me know!