A love note from my Inner Child to yours

Hello beautiful!  Today I wanted to write a love note from my Inner Child to yours. Her name is Linda Minette-y spaghetti. And she loves to color and to play outside. She’s been demanding a lot more of both lately. Do you have a relationship with your Inner Child?

Do you remember what you loved to do as a child? What felt easy, playful and fun?

Do you also remember what made you feel sad or scared? My Inner Child sure does and sometimes she still does and lets me know it.

Is your Inner Child Driving the Bus?

Oftentimes we let our Inner Child sit in the driver’s seat of our decision-making, which can dramatically slow our progress towards dreams, goals or happiness. This powerful part of yourself has an important role to play and you need to know what that role is so you make sure you stay in the driver’s seat of your life.

This is not about judging, blaming or shaming any aspect of ourselves. It’s about honoring and fully integrating all the different roles we play into the fullness of our adult self. And it’s about reminding yourself that by embracing and taking responsibility for your feelings and emotions, you will feel more balanced, more steady – even in uncertain times like the ones we are experiencing now with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Assuring your Inner Child that it is your job to keep her safe and secure will go a long way towards creating more calm and ease in your days.

I recently attended a workshop where I had to give my Inner Child a name and give her a new role in my life. Linda Minettey-spaghetti is definitely in charge of play in my life. She always loved being creative and spent a lot of time daydreaming, imagining and riding her big horse Blacky. 

She often needs reassurance that I will take good care of her and make more time for play in my life.The past few weeks have been strange, hard, and different but not impossible. I have a tendency to put my head down and push forward, muscle through, work harder when I am stressed. That doesn’t work for Linda Minettey-spaghetti. And it certainly doesn’t work for my emotional health or my family.

I find myself making even more time for creative play than normal and I invite you to do this too. In my Facebook group I shared a fun, creative process that can help you ease stress and color in calm and joy. If you’d like to see the video and follow along with a guided version of this process, you will find it here in The Sisterhood of Unstoppable Artists and Creatives.

15 Minutes of Creative Play for Stress Relief

Go raid your kids’ stash of crayons or grab your favorite markers and some blank sheets of paper. Maybe light a candle or find a spot to sit outside if you can. You might choose to put on some music that love – instrumental is best for this.

First, take a few deep breaths and allow yourself to come fully into the moment. Allow any feelings of anxiety, worry, stress or fear to rise to the surface. Know that you are safe, you are okay! Just feel. Then grab two or three colors that represent how you are feeling right now and start coloring on your blank sheet of paper. No picutres or images, just move the color around the paper. Use lines, strokes, swirls or movements. Allow all of the negative emotions you are experiencing to pour out onto the paper. Do this for as long as you need to until you feel calmer and more relaxed. I promise this works like magic to move energy out of your body and onto paper.

Second, pause. Take a few deep breaths again and now allow joy, delight, wonder, happiness, ease or other positive emotions to fill your body. Pick new colors to represent these emotions and on a clean sheet of paper, color in calm, ease, joy and delight. Color as long as you need to until you feel complete.

Third, notice how you are feeling. Name your two pages or add some words to remember how you were feeling.

Lather, rinse, repeat anytime you are feeling worried. Allow your Inner Child to come out – throw a tantrum, cry, sob her way onto the page. Then allow her to play, dance and draw across the page. You will be so glad you tried this.

Let me know how it goes. And I’d love to meet your Inner Child. Does she or he have a name? Do you let her out to play? I’d loe to hear your story in the comments below.

P.S. Take it from a recovering work-aholic and overachiever, creativity flows from play and rest, not from hard work. Let’s find the  perfect balance between play and effort for you, too, my creative friend.