Weekly Challenge 1/30/11 through 2/5/11 Become Childlike

Childlike:  resembling, suggesting, or appropriate to a child or childhood; especially : marked by innocence, trust, and ingenuousness

This week, the angels ask us to see and interact with the world through the eyes of a child, to become childlike.  To trust, speak, imagine and use our hearts in the way that children do.  This may seem silly but to the angels, this week's challenge is nothing more than serious in relation to where we are and where our hearts long to be.  Children are said to be closer to the truth, closer to knowing their hearts and what lives within.  It is with their experiences and training that this truth gets buried.  Along with this truth all of the wonderful attributes tend to fade as well.  Our playful, creative, imaginative, curious, less logical minds exist.  The angels ask for us to reach within and allow for our inner child to come out and play!  Challenge yourself to become Childlike this week.  Remember who you once were, who you still are!

Children are naturally imaginative, curious, able to play without a worry in their minds. Some qualities of children that happen naturally are:

• Living in the present
• No worries of money or expectations
• Tons of imagination, without limits with the exception of what they’ve been exposed to
• Loose themselves in play
• Create with full force 
• Endlessly curious and full of wonder and delight
• Display innocence to what the world could offer

This week, commit to engaging your inner child.  Some ways of exploring your child within include:

• Identify qualities of children you’d like to emulate: curiosity, play, living in the moment, abandoning worries, imagination, creativity, pure joy.
• Watch how children play, how they live, create, and ask questions.
• Allow yourself to get lost in the play. Be a dinosaur, or a gorilla, or a villain, build a Lego castle or play a board game. Have FUN! 
• Play!  Go outside and run around, jump, slide, kick a ball around, pretend. Forget about who might be watching.
• Create! Allow yourself the freedom to let go of worry about what others expect. Be wild and have fun. Imagine that things can be different, that there are no limitations, and see what happens.
• Be curious like a child. Look at things with a child’s eye, and ask questions you’ve never asked before, explore with a beginner’s mind. Don’t be afraid to ask why, and what if, and why not?
• Live in the moment. Allow yourself time to forget about all you have to do, about what happened yesterday, or that conversation you just had. Just allow yourself to be.
• See the world with new eyes. It is a wondrous place, a miracle happening every second, a source of fascination and wonder that can take you back if you allow it. Every moment you have is a gift.  Allow yourself to see the world through these eyes, the eyes of a child.
• Play!  Dance, sing, wrestle, ride a bike, ski, roller skate, invite friends for a party just because...have cupcakes and dance!  Whatever you decide to do, play, play, play!  Allow yourself to play like a child without worry, fear or consequence (but be safe!  don't hurt yourself! :-0).

Challenge yourself, let out your inner child and commit to becoming childlike more often during the course of this week!  You just might be surprised how much fun you will have and possibly just how much you have missed your child within!