Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

How to Celebrate your Inner Child

               Babyclothes

The inner child within each of us longs to be heard, to be embraced and followed. Our inner child is creative, innocent and holds the keys to our true desires. Though over time our inner child is often told to sit, be still and listen. The keys that our inner child holds are then stuffed deep down into the pocket and forgotten.

How to celebrate your inner child:

Let your mind do the walkin' and your heart do the talkin'.

Sing! Even off-key and if you don't know the words make them up as you go along.

Jump in and say yes to the things you are afraid of…. if you fall and skin your knee it isn't the end of the world, it is just another badge of courage.

Explore your day through your "six senses."

Sit with your inner child, and tell her how wonderful she is.

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I was the oldest and the only girl in a family of four brothers. One of my favorite things to do as a child was to play make-believe. We grew up on a dairy/rice farm/ranch. We rode motorcycles, swam in the ditch (or my Uncle Phil and Aunt Sara's pool,) and picked black berries every day in the summer so our mother could make a pie. What about you, who is your inner child?

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Photo: Hand-made vintage baby clothes seen at the flea market in France.

Comments

53 responses to “How to Celebrate your Inner Child”

  1. Paris Poupée

    My inner child lived in my doll house
    And wore doll clothes…
    My outer child lived for jaunts to the penny candy store
    And to the 5 & 10 to gaze at the plastic doll furniture…
    Hugs

    Reply
  2. Jeanne

    Love to hear about your innner child…………
    Love the beautiful yellow treasures above…………..
    I am very childlike (not childish) in many ways…….
    I love the innnocence of children and their belief in the sweet things in life………
    Blessings~
    Love Jeanne

    Reply
  3. Mary

    Rightly or wrongly I use reading time with my kids to give my inner child some time – because then I get to enjoy secret gardens, rivers and lakes, ballerinas, trains and trucks all over again…I am officially delurking after enjoying your blog from the Blue Mountains,,, Mary

    Reply
  4. Pauline Clarke

    Such an intriguing, thought-provoking post! And that lovely shade of yellow!
    While the adult in me looks around to make sure no one’s watching or listening, the child dances and spins and twirls, sings or whistles out loud, and often slips into a miniature world where a dewdrop can quench a mighty thirst.

    Reply
  5. rochambeau

    Great post today! I don’t think about it very much, but yes I still love to play! That is what creativity is all about.
    I still do many of the same things I did as a child. Make doll cloths, cook, paint. I have always love going to and giving parties and celebrating life for any excuse.

    Reply
  6. Kim H

    Recently read a great quote… “Don’t run from danger– run from safety!” I think it’s another way to find your inner child!

    Reply
  7. Penny

    As a child I loved to curl up in a big chair and read, read, read. One of my fondest memories is of walking into the library and just standing there looking at all those books which were waiting for me. Today I am a book artist and I still go to the library once a week — so guess my inner child never left me – thank heavens.

    Reply
  8. sheila

    I was the oldest of three girls. If my inner child was to copy the me of my childhood, today I would be on my bicycle, and off (alone) to read on the river bank. In the hot, hot summer days we too would pick blackberries to make into pies.Blackberry with apple was good too. The wild ones we picked..by the bucketful…tasted far sweeter than any I can buy now. The huge cultivated ones have little or no taste. In those days my purple lips were testament to their sweet wild flavour..!

    Reply
  9. Sigrid

    My inner child lived in a 1000 souls village in southwest Germany (http://www.heiligkreuzsteinach.de/bilder/fotogalerie/impressionen/image019.jpg) and there were lots and lots of other children and we roamed forests and meadows (no adult disturbing our play or our imagination) and helped our grandma during potato harvest (drank her lemonade and ate her snacks, that is) and went with her for slicing the cabbage (she was the only woman in town who had that large-size cabbage cutter) for chouxcroute. We saw her make cheese, prepare chouxcroute, preserve fruit, helped her feed the pig. My inner child is full of scents and images and the memory of fresh air. This is only less than 40 years ago. And yet, children have completely different childhoods now.

    Reply
  10. Shannon

    Based on your list, I’m apparently celebrating my inner child!!
    I am the older sister to a younger brother. I used to climb trees every chance I got. I liked to play with the boys and ride my bike with my best girl friend. My friend and I would walk for miles, cutting through the woods, to get to the lake where we’d swim from morning till dusk.

    Reply
  11. Beverly

    My favorite childhood memory is climbing the apple trees in our yard and eating the apples before they were ripe! (I still love the sour green apples at the grocery…and so do my kids!). I believe I might still climb an apple tree today…well, if we didn’t live in Florida!

    Reply
  12. somepinkflowers

    always a big fan of the marriage of Pink & Green,
    my inner child just looked longingly at this post and shouted, “Oh, yeah! YELLOW!”
    thanks for reminding me, sunshine…
    🙂

    Reply
  13. Cre8Tiva

    My inner child runs free and dances just to dance…she is gleeful and curious and courageous…I embrace her every day…blessings, rebeca

    Reply
  14. CathyC

    Me, my sisters, and my cousins would spend hours each day outside perfecting our circus routine for our parents. We would even make tickets for them “to buy.”
    Riding bikes and racing with the neighborhood kids.
    Pooling our nickels and dimes, then racing to the candy store to buy lollipops, Hubba Bubba, Big Chew, and Pac Man cards. This was every day, every summer.
    Unless it rained. Then we were always in our basement playing countless hours of Monopoly, Sorry!, Clue, and many other board games.
    Where were our parents? I have no idea, but I doubt they had as much fun as we did.
    Summer was my favorite time of year when I was a kid.
    Thanks for the trip down memory lane Corey!

    Reply
  15. Suzie sews

    what a lovely post.
    Suzie Sews

    Reply
  16. Leau

    Good morning, what a lovely post! I don’t know that I have to “think” all the much about my inner child. I seem to channel her in every thing I do, in fact I worry more about my “inner adult” and letting her come out often enough to balance my child like ways. Still love crayons,finger paint, splashing in puddles, gathering rocks and treasures from nature, laughing until I loose my breath.Thank god for the small children in my life who will go along with me so it looks like we are doing it for them!

    Reply
  17. Paula

    Love those little yellow baby clothes. How darling.

    Reply
  18. tut-tut

    Someone who loved to make things, to pretend, to get lost in the pages of a book.

    Reply
  19. ardi

    We played cowboys and Indians in the woods next to our house. Our cousins lived next door and other cousins visited occasionally. Recently I saw one of the “other cousins” who reminded me that he had been the one tied to a tree by us girls. I hadn’t seen him in 25 years (or more) and didn’t even recognize him. My sister and I also made grass houses in the weeds that grew in the field next to our garden. We would tramp out pathways and “rooms” and tie the weeds into knots for the doors. Mud pies were big with us, too.

    Reply
  20. susan

    ah yes, and don’t forget to do some scribbling outside the lines every day too!
    lovely post corey… hugs to you and chelsea! grace graduates today and the sun is shining!

    Reply
  21. Star

    I used to love to swing. We had a little swing set in our back yard and I would go outside after supper in the summertime and swing and sing. I’d sing anything and everything–folk songs (like “Home on the Range”), church hymns or Sunday School songs, even commercial jingles. It wasn’t so much about seeing how high I could swing; I just loved the motion and the singing. Thanks for bringing that memory back 😀

    Reply
  22. martina

    Bouncing a tennis ball against our fence and imagining I was Chris Evert, fishing with my uncle, digging in the garden and looking for treasures, dressing the fox terrier up in funny outfits which made mom say “poor Perky, she is such a patient dog”. Now I still like finding treasures of broken china and pretty stones in the garden. I laugh very easily and the dogs are constant companions. Life is good.

    Reply
  23. Rosemary

    I feel like a child everyday. I play in my office/studio. I have glitter and glue all over the place. I think everyone should play.
    Loved your post today as usual.
    Rosemary

    Reply
  24. ally bean

    My inner child colored. I could get lost in that activity and tune out the adult world. So I guess my inner child is an artist?

    Reply
  25. eb

    I was the first born and only child to my beautiful parents in their early 20s. I was the first grandchild to my “soulmate” gran – with birthdays a day apart. I lived in a tiny town in the sand hills of Nebraska – I wandered, rubbed smooth rocks on my upper lip, and drew and painted with my gran. I stayed up all night reading. I loved exploring in gran’s basement – FULL of treasures. I ate cherries from the tree and had a sumac to ride that I called my dapple gray. I was a dreamy loner type and fantasized about inventing and creating things. I am still that child –
    and I loved this post
    xox – eb.

    Reply
  26. Dee

    I also have 4 brothers! Lived in Capay Valley (Guinda) on an Almond farm until I was 5…then moved to Woodland, California…great farming town! My Dad was manager of Yolo County Farm Supply…and his dad before that. I still love “the farm land”!
    I still remember the times we would go and bottle feed the small lambs my dad bought…and play with all the fluffy chicks & ducks at the Farm Supply…many…many wonderful memories of my childhood.

    Reply
  27. patpaulk

    Have never seen that particular McD’s commercial. Is that what’s been hiding in my belly all these years??

    Reply
  28. Gypsy Purple–Chamara

    Always the little gypsy that sings and dances…..sometimes performing with glittery clothes & wings……I`m still there you know….

    Reply
  29. Jeanette

    Memories of the summer…Our nieghbor’s newphews would come up from the city and we would climb the in the hay stack and swing across the barn on this rope to this day I still don’t know what the rope was used for? Then we would run along the creek and by the end of the day we would be sun burnt, tired, wet, hungry and already talking about what travels we would do tomorrow. We also had a lot of fun on the slip and slide(black plastic found in garage) My girls got one as gift(store bought)this summer. I thought oh the fun I used to have with my brother and friends…So I got my swimming suit on and joined them….Today my arms, back, stomach and muscle I didn’t know I had hurt! Who would of thought sliding down a strip of plastic used so many muscles… no laughing today…It hurts!

    Reply
  30. cruststation

    I am the ‘inner-child’ 🙂
    love the McDonalds ad.

    Reply
  31. Ulla

    …the one who likes to play with american/french girls… when are you coming to California???? HUGS!

    Reply
  32. Lisa Oceandreamer

    I was the second to last of 5, only girl with 4 brothers. I loved to hop on my bike and ride to the park where I could climb a tree or go to the local pool there. My inner child wrote stories and drew pictures and wrote plays for the neighborhood kids to act in. We’d put on summer productions for the stay at home moms…costumes borrowed from closets not known about until the performance. My inner child liked to use her imagination. She still does. Only sometimes now she forgets what it felt like to play with such abandon.
    XOXO

    Reply
  33. BOSSY

    Bossy’s inner child has tangles. She slumps because she is tall and she roller skates on long city blocks until dusk. The chocolate on her face? That’s lunch.

    Reply
  34. Cousin Chris

    Corey, funny how the pool that you used to swim in which belonged to Aunt Sara and Uncle Phil….now belongs to your Brother!!!!
    Chris

    Reply
  35. Amy

    My inner child lays under a towering oak tree in cool grass with puppies around her. 🙂 Sadly, the husband will no longer support my inner child. “No more dogs!” he says. LOL

    Reply
  36. shabbyinthecity

    OH Corey you know my inner child probably needs to be put away more often! She gets on people’s nerves! Bring those old clothes over soon and we’ll play dolls, whaddya say?

    Reply
  37. susanna

    Corey, your inner child is alive and well! You’re always a fun read. 🙂 My inner child ran around barefoot with wild, tangled hair and scrapes across my knees and elbows. My inner child steered big logs like ships in the ocean and once stood on top of a ferris wheel to get a view of her house! My inner child had an overworked inner guardian angel! ;p

    Reply
  38. beachy

    I’ve been listening to my inner child alot the past couple of weeks, and have been having many wonderful surprises and blessings along the way. For you to write this post makes me glad I’ve been “childish”! lol =) It’s nice of you to spread these words of encouragement!

    Reply
  39. Blue

    My inner child loves to sing! I adore your inner child. You always show her to us through your postings.
    My inner child and I work on some stuff together, you mustn’t ignore your inner child, she is a valuable addition to your life that must never be forgotten or left behind.
    xo

    Reply
  40. Hasmin

    Growing up an only child, one tends to play make believe alot. I enjoyed playing with my set of toy pots/pans, dishes, utensils, tea cups, groceries, high heels (even though they were a mere 1″ high). Loved to color too. Now that I look back, it’s funny that I still enjoy these things, but in a whole different prospective! BTW, those baby clothes are adorable!

    Reply
  41. Jennifer

    I also had a ditch when I was a kid. It was cement and had a bridge over it and it was the meeting place for all the neighborhood kids. We’d say “Meet at the ditch in a half an hour!”. Most of the time it was dry and we played under the little bridge, but occasionally, it would turn into a river. That ditch is where my inner child plays. And up the street at her house she has a dollhouse and at least a dozen Barbies. I remember none of my friends would ever lend me their Barbie clothes because I liked to get creative and turn them into new fashions. This usually involved scissors.
    Ah, good times 🙂

    Reply
  42. Miza Booshay

    What a lovely photo.
    How I would love to tag along with you Corey. :o)
    I am waiting for my inner adult to show up.
    tee hee

    Reply
  43. jackie

    I was a tomboy, I climbed trees and played Indians
    and caught crayfish in the river. Once I caught a pail of toads and left them in the basement and they all escaped in the laundry room.I’m almost 60, I need to write all things down for my grandchildren! Jackie

    Reply
  44. Shelley

    My inner child… my sister and I when we were at my grandmothers in Bayless would put on my moms prom dresses, get my grandmothers shot glasses, fill them with hot coke (yes, hot coke- dont know why), sit at the piano and pretend we were saloon girls. (like on gun smoke) Now, that says my age…

    Reply
  45. freefalling

    Oh good on you (said in a sarcastic tone) – I’ve mentioned this before – can’t you just post pretty pictures – I can live without the thought provoking words – makes my brain hurt!
    It’s too hard….. I don’t know who my inner child is – if I squeeze my eyes tight will it come to me?
    Nuh.
    That didn’t work!
    I musn’t have one!!!

    Reply
  46. tut-tut

    By the way, is that your shoe? It looks quite fashionable.

    Reply
  47. angela marie

    My inner child loved to play dress up with my moms jewels, clothes and wiglets, have tea with my teddy bears and dolls, smell the flowers, play hide-n-seek, lay in the grass and find pictures in the clouds. Playing make believe that my little sister and I were a mermaid princess.
    Oh Corey… thank you for the memory. I am giving myself a hug!
    muah muah XX
    and a big ((HUG))
    🙂

    Reply
  48. Jenny

    Oh Corey what a lovely post! My inner child was a pioneer..off to explore my world…to conquer. I was a cowgirl riding my stick horse leading a “red wagon” train of kids and blankets and peanut butter/jelly sandwiches and toy pistols and other “western” paraphanalia around the neighborhood block. { Westward the Women was my favorite movie) I love it that you swam in ditches ( so did I) and picked berries for pies. We would have been great partners in crime! xxxooo

    Reply
  49. AmandaMay

    Lucky pennies, treats at the supermarket, dressing up, bare feet, four leaf clovers, an unavoidable avoidance of bedtime… I think perhaps my inner child is not so inner – I’m still waiting to grow up! (Though it seems other people think I have… funny how that works).

    Reply
  50. Frieda

    Great post! I can’t remember mine, strange! I hardly remember the past, sometimes I believe I was never a child…hmm

    Reply
  51. berrie

    barefeet & mud, lots of chocolate:) twirling around in a circle until I’m dizzy..laying on the grass spread eagle and gazing at the clouds or stars-eating lots of popsicles did I mention chocolate? and I eat it before supper too! oh there are so many things that I still do!

    Reply
  52. simple me

    such great childhood memories you have.

    Reply
  53. Micky

    SAVED BY GRACE
    About 3 years ago I dropped into a black hole – four months of absolute terror. I wanted to end my life, but somehow [Holy Spirit], I reached out to a friend who took me to hospital. I had three visits [hospital] in four months – I actually thought I was in hell. I imagine I was going through some sort of metamorphosis [mental, physical & spiritual]. I had been seeing a therapist [1994] on a regular basis, up until this point in time. I actually thought I would be locked away – but the hospital staff was very supportive [I had no control over my process]. I was released from hospital 16th September 2004, but my fear, pain & shame had only subsided a little. I remember this particular morning waking up [home] & my process would start up again [fear, pain, & shame]. No one could help me, not even my therapist [I was terrified]. I asked Jesus Christ to have mercy on me & forgive me my sins. Slowly, all my fear has dissipated & I believe Jesus delivered me from my “psychological prison.” I am a practicing Catholic & the Holy Spirit is my friend & strength; every day since then has been a joy & blessing. I deserve to go to hell for the life I have led, but Jesus through His sacrifice on the cross, delivered me from my inequities. John 3: 8, John 15: 26, are verses I can relate to, organically. He’s a real person who is with me all the time. I have so much joy & peace in my life, today, after a childhood spent in orphanages. God LOVES me so much. Fear, pain, & shame, are no longer my constant companions. I just wanted to share my experience with you [Luke 8: 16 – 17]. I have recovered my INNER CHILD who I abandoned many years ago – that CHILD is GOD!
    PEACE BE WITH YOU
    MICKY

    Reply

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