Child

In my heart there lives a child. She is at times solemn, alone and afraid. At times I am close to her and hear her calls. Other times and for months, and at times years, I’ve kept her locked up deep inside. But she is there, she’s alive and will always be with me, no matter my age or life stage. 

I first encountered her many years ago when the adult in me had neglected her for sometime. One day she called out to me and with her young, innocent and helpless voice, she questioned ‘don’t you love me anymore?’ Her simple inquisition; her need for love; her desire to be heard, and her ability to find a moment to come through, brought tears to my eyes in a way I hadn’t encountered emotive dwelling. It occurred to me this day that she, the child within, had never left and all these years, I had her locked away; unable to breathe. The child within still needed a voice and I was determined to find out what this meant. I became driven to fulfill her dreams and wishes; to see her feel loved again. It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined - Henry James

As an adult we assume we grow out of being a child like a jump suit that evidently no longer fits. We find ways to be mature, “free” in an adult way; “in control”, a master of our own destiny, and in a position to tell other children how to be, think, feel, act and behave. But there are many things we will never be able to control, including life itself. My personal awakening to my child within saw me reach out to her - in any moment, when as the adult I felt alone, abandoned, misguided or betrayed. I began developing this strong, interconnected relationship with my child within: Me - my heart, soul and inner guide; my creative spirit, my trust; my voice. Occasionally what you have to do is to go back to the beginning and see everything in a new way - Peter Straub

A call for innocence... This is a great gift to us all. Innocence calls for freedom in thought without judgement from ourselves and others. Innocence runs wild with creativity and calls from the heavens an opportunity to always breathe a new breath, uncover a new voice, embrace a new idea, and see things through a different set of eyes. Having innocence empowers the freedom to make “mistakes”; growth the universe invites us all to endure. When you’re innocent, there is no such thing as failure or wrong doing. When you’re innocent, your emotions are free falling and open for exploration. Here births the greatest ideas and heightened abilities to express creatively. Children are innocent. That includes you. Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning - Gloria Steinem

But what happens to our innocence? It’s a possibility we lose our way in the school system - mentally succumbing to controlling ideologies where we can experience indoctrination of a creatively crippling kind. It’s a complex concept understanding where our innocence goes. We might have become too afraid of what our peers might think if we do or say the “wrong thing” or afraid of what our parents might say if we do something outside their projections of what is ‘right’. Our innocence might suffer judgement from others as we’re in a place of work or relationship where ‘we should know better’. Our innocence can become tainted by responsibility to be something other than we already are. Our innocence is made redundant as we take on greater pressure and stress to perform, achieve, succeed and lead. But for whom? A life changing resolve would be to discover how we sustain our innocence and prevent ourselves from losing sight of the magical abilities of the child within. Innocence is accessible as an adult, we just need to understand how each of us can personally undo the lock that has been done. Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down - Kobi Yamada

Fear has become the adult epidemic. We all experience fear in different aspects of our lives. Are you aware of what you might fear and why? Fear has stifled us as human beings and prevented us from growing in love. Although in life there has to be a yin and yang; a night and day, a dark and light: Fear and love. Fear is the opposite to love and therefore we cannot have one without the other. Whilst fear prevents our innocence from its natural state of organic soulful rejoice, fear also empowers us to want, need, strive and demand for more in our experiences of self and life. It also, in special moments, gives us the opportunity to see through the clouds and into the skies of love again. We all know that opposites can attract. And here we become inspired to feel, dream, anticipate, create, share and live in our greatest truths. Start the journey with your child! He or she is anticipating the opportunity to take your hand and walk with you to a higher state of being. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are all powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous talented, fabulous? Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God, your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do, It is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others - Nelson Mandela

We are all born into varying circumstances and situations - many children are far less fortunate than our own. The platforms of many children’s lives are not there for them to exist in anything other than a fear based reality. Innocent lives can be shaped by the wrong doings of others and as a five year old child your experience might only be feelings of living in the dark. Lives of children in the East and West differs, but every problem, issue or ailment of our children across nations, also provides us with the opportunity to care, and bring us closer together in a philanthropic world with conscious effort. The suffering of any child can include starvation, abandonment, betrayal, various forms of abuse, disease and other external influences including natural disasters from cyclones, hurricanes, tsunami’s and earthquakes that divide mothers from their babies and children from their siblings. The interconnectivity of various circumstances and situations; geographically, culturally, spatially, economically, politically and not to mention religion and war, shape the journey of a child. Have they ever had the chance of being a child in the first place? Have they even been given the opportunity to make it to adulthood? No matter where you’ve been or what you’ve been through, always be grateful for what you have. We’ve got two lives. The one we’re given and the one we make - Kobi Yamada

Thankfully, everything in life comes in waves of motion, transformation, seasons and evolution. Humanity’s parallel is nature. Our interconnectivity with the earth powerfully ignites personal experiences of great magnitude. With the rain comes the power of the skies to wash the earth’s pain away, just as our tears provide us with an innocent emotional outlet. With the sun that warms our earth and feeds our soils, so too do the children of our world need the warmth of affection. Just as the moon settles our evenings and calms our shores, so too do our children need that familiar figure to calm their souls. As seasons come and go; birth, death and everything in between, so too does opportunity to make change. In our hearts, we can always choose to let go of the past and find clarity in direction again. Moods, emotions and behaviours brought on from circumstances, situations and experiences, are always transforming who we are, how we grow, and what we choose to see. Our job is to trust in our own hearts, continue to find love, light and humility in all that we do; to trust that everything happens for a reason and that there is no such thing as failure, but only growth to bring us closer to uniting with our higher selves. Your inner child craves that journey. Just around the corner, any moment now, any day something will change. New leaves will turn and there will be the opportunity to reconnect with that wondrous child within. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. In the long run, we really do shape our own lives; and then together we shape the world around us. The process never ends until we die - Eleanor Roosevelt

When darkness reigns over your reality and you don’t know who you are. In moments of anxiety, depression or any kind of personal suffering, ask yourself how you can create. Through creation comes freedom. And personal and creative freedom will guide you towards your innocence. Your innocence will always remind you of who you are, and there your friendship with self is at its highest oscillation. The child within can celebrate and rejoice in your ability to recognise your strengths as your own artist. Inside all of us lives an artist, no matter our professions. If you’re a lawyer, doctor, accountant or mechanic, you’re still an artist. Every human being is capable of creating and procreating. This gives all of us a right of passage to express our hearts desires in the form of music, dance, painting, drawing, planting, cooking, singing, writing, knitting, sewing, designing, tapestry and more. Creativity comes in thought and inspires imaginative thinking. With imaginative thinking comes an opportunity to act on a gift given to you by the universe. When your heart is open and your imagination allows you to dream, that’s when magnificent clarity can inspire you positively to maneuver your journey in life with focus and direction.Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision - Ayn Rand

But you must believe. You must believe that despite being born into difficult circumstance and experiencing the endless knock backs we all endure, that there will always be choice to manifest different outcomes. You must believe that the power of your heart is so great that it will transpire any type of adult suffering into the power of innocence we all crave. You are a master creator. You must know that your heart is not capable of giving up; that your voice within will always have something to say. Just remember, if you don’t go within, you go without, and know that the child within has something to say, each and every day. The greatest thing is to be willing to give up who we are in order to become all that we can become - Max Depree

Allow the power of positive manifestation to come in waves of visions and motions. Use your imagination to dream up magical dreams and indulge in visions that reflect exactly the life you wish to lead. Meditate on them. Think about them each and every day, but also allow yourself to see them, feel them and know these visions intimately. To activate your creative thinking, let your body, soul, mind and spirit dance; dance as they do in other countries and from all around the world. In the privacy of your own home and room, dance a ritual to release your fear. Imagine yourself to be an animal of the earth, running free amidst controversy; out in the wild, setting its own heart free. Get back into your body. Listen to how it feels. Listen to how you feel. Imagine yourself to fly above the most sensational world views and colour these visions with positive affirmations around all the things you do. Imagine living in a dream or magical location, breathing in rich, fresh air and feeling this every time you enter your office each day. Merge your realities with imagination. Take the hand of your child within and ask what he or she wishes to see. What do they want to feel and where will they be most happy? They can because they think they can - Virgil

Some of us have experienced taunting and teasing. Bad things have been said. Your heart has suffered pain. Some of us have been forced into communicating or acting in ways we never wanted to as children and now as adults, we repeat some of the same mistakes. Some of us had to develop mechanisms to survive against various wars within our own hearts, minds and within our family walls, communities or countries. Some of us had to become adults before we were granted the opportunity of experiencing Child. Despite these shadows, understand that you are the master of your hearts ship. Sail it towards the shore you wish to anchor. Jump, dive, swim or fly towards the new piece of land that’s yours - a template for discovery and in turn creation. You’ve discovered it. No-one else. No-one can take that away from you. You are the captain of your journey. Discover what you need to discover and see what you want to see. Nothing else matters when you arrive here. A new earth is yours to keep. From small beginnings come great things - Proverb

Take a friend on your journey. Who knows, they may wish to follow. Every friend reflects a universe that resides within you. Through laughter and meditation, and with different friends, you can call upon any universe anytime anywhere, and journey into that space at your discretion. Trust that any friend can become family on that journey. Trust that you can become your own best friend - your inner child is already your best friend. Friends inspire thought and in turn, action. Friends make you do, say or engage in something - together. Friends are positive reflections of who you are and can teach you an array of lessons along the way. Sometimes friends can reflect in you things you might not like about yourself. This can be the inner child saying to you ‘I will not be loved or accepted if I behave the way your friend does’. The inner child speaks up in ways you have not necessarily been accustomed to listening to... Just yet. Friends are a wonderful way to understand how your inner child feels about itself and you. How your inner child responds to the existence of all these different universes within and around you, often provides you with answers of what personal growth needs to be embarked upon. Open your heart; your ears, your eyes and nourish your inner child's wisdom. The secret to succeeding is inner strength - Shaquille O’Neal

The grass will always be greener. Friends can come in more desirable packages. They may not have suffered as you have. They may be seemingly prettier, funnier, skinnier, wiser or more “together”. Friends might have more money, more possessions, a warmer family or more friends of their own. However, I can assure you that everything in life is a balance and you have to love, appreciate and accept the already perfect package that you are. No one or nothing is the same. The goal in life is to manage your own balance and use your own happiness as a bench mark for your success. You will always undergo growth and your inner child and higher self will always crave this. Just remember that with the ups can come downs - it’s all about balancing yin and yang energy, and understanding that the motions of your life reflect the motions of your heart, and as a scale of life, balance is your hearts keeper. Spaces and places continually change. There is always opportunity to ignite new perspective as the walls of your reality continually transform into new mirrors. Stand before these reflections and smile. Laugh hysterically at your beauty, your perceived flaws; your noted strengths and supposed weaknesses. You are already a beautiful eternal expression of creation. You are you. You are one. You are your child within. Look the world straight in the eye - Helen Keller

Be inquisitive. Everything in life is a reflection of who you are and what you choose to see. If you don’t like it, change the dialogue you have with self. Change the way you process words, images and conversations good, and bad. Make room for acceptance of self and learn to let go of your own and others mistakes. You’re only human after all and are bound to make them. Love your mistakes and embrace them. Make room to see through others eyes; ask questions and take the time to understand new perspectives. Don’t judge! An open mind is an open heart and that’s the greatest gift you can give your inner child. Everyone wants to be loved. Everybody wants to be accepted. You are not alone. Don’t put yourself in a corner where no one can see you. Stand out in the light and shout ‘this is me and this is who I am!’. Stand before the greatest of sunsets and see all that you are right there. Any and every experience that comes with that will only guide you to your light and sense of knowing that you are free; free as a bird; as a child; as the sea and as any magical breeze. We are each responsible for our own life - no other person is or even can be - Oprah Winfrey

Sit and listen to the sounds of children playing in the sun. Let it calm and console you. Close your eyes in this setting and picture the children as though they were you. Rejoice in running free and nude amongst the world without inhibition or fear. Let your dreams come to you. With the guarantee from life of birth and death, know that everything in between is for living. Know that with each breath you take, it is a new chance to dream. With every thought comes the ability to inject loving action into your daily existence. Imagine the life you wish to live. Imagine your inner child being free. Hold his or her hand and understand that your souls will be together for eternity. Your dreams are alive. They live through you. Now go on... Create your masterful reality. Death is life’s change agent. Stay hungry, stay foolish - Steve Jobs