7 Ways to Channel Your Inner Child for Good Health

Channel your inner child for more happiness.

Bring out your inner child to add more joy for a happier and healthier life.

As we get older, and the responsibilities of life take up so much of our time, it can be a challenge to rekindle the joy we felt about life as children. It’s difficult to be joyful in the middle of doing taxes, cleaning toilets or spending time stuck in traffic, but research is showing just how important being happy can be for our health.

Fostering positive emotions can be just as important as keeping negative ones at bay. Research conducted by a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health shows that having a “a sense of enthusiasm, of hopefulness, of engagement in life, and the ability to face life’s stresses with emotional balance” can be just as important to our health as regular exercise not smoking. That’s pretty huge and that means there are very real benefits to bringing more happiness into your life and trying to tap into your inner child.

But how do you connect with your inner child when the real world is always ready to intervene?

Here are 7 ways you can channel your inner child for better health:

  1. Add spontaneity to your life. Do something “just because” not because there’s necessarily a reason to do it–good health is reason enough.
  2. Play. Whether it’s digging in the dirt (grownups call this gardening), skiing, starting a board game night amongst your friends, add more playtime to your life.
  3. Take dance breaks. Not only will taking a 5 minute dance break reduce your stress, it will also get your circulation going–that’s a double win.
  4. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Kids jump into things head first and it’s only as we age that we start to over analyze every decision. Happiness and joy can come from overcoming a challenge that comes from making mistakes.
  5. Don’t get too caught up in what others think of you. There is powerful joy in being yourself and not spending too much time on how others perceive you.
  6. Treat yourself. Don’t regularly overindulge but do allow yourself to occasionally enjoy a sweet treat. Better still, make it something you haven’t enjoyed since you were a kid.
  7. Spend time around younger people. Having friends who are younger than you can help you tap into your younger more carefree self.

Resources:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/happiness-stress-heart-disease/

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015863,00.html

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Image: lorenkerns

Jen Wallace

Jen Wallace shares her indie life by writing about making, creating, cooking, learning, playing, decorating, and pretty much anything else that strikes her fancy from indie biz tips to the modern history of the American hemline.