Revisit Your Childhood

I have a  confession to make! I was an extremely happy child and I love to revisit childhood memories and relive them! I still love to do childish activities and reliving my childhood activities gives me pleasure in my adult life!

When I feel down in the dumps, I have a quick and simple way of pulling myself up!  This childish activity goes back to when I was a little girl and suffered from allergies. I was allergic to so many things–trees, mold, grasses, and foods such as wheat. I took allergic tablets such as Benadryl  which helped but had a terrible side effect–it made me irritable! When I got irritable, my parents made me go into the bathroom and make faces at myself until my irritable mood dissolved into a torrent of laughs! Luckily I could always come out of a bad mood by making faces at myself in our bathroom mirror!

I still like to make faces at myself in a mirror! What an easy and fun way to get in a happier frame of mind!

Other childhood activities I still enjoy are singing youthful songs such as “Oh, Susannah,” or saying tongue twisters such as “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

A favorite childhood activity of mine was coloring. When I started working at the Writing Center of one of America’s largest and best universities, I was amazed that the university encouraged their students to color with colored  pencils as an excellent way to relax after studying hard! I felt beautifully liberated to enjoy my old time pleasure of coloring with the permission and encouragement of university professors! What a good excuse–not that you need an excuse to do something you enjoy and that is good for you!

So the next time you feel a little down, pick yourself up by going back a few years (or many years) and revisiting your childhood activities!

Start acting like a child again for a few minutes. Enjoy yourself! Say “Hello” to the child that still resides inside of –YOU!

See you next time!

Love from your friend Hope