No period of life ever feels quite like childhood. This stretch of time contained fewer worries and responsibilities, easy comforts, and a pure outlook on life. Unfortunately, time moves strangely, rushing through happiness and meandering during low points. The past does not have to stay out of reach, though. Feel like a kid again with these ten activities.
Not everyone had a childhood filled with ease. Every day could bring something new for better or worse. Fortunately, these activities could help reclaim this lost era, encourage happiness, and make up for some wrongs of the past.
Eat that spread right from the jar
Children were never famous for their sense of hygiene. It’s always ideal to be mindful of germs, but one of the easiest – and tastiest – ways to be a carefree kid again means eating right from that jar. It could be fruity jam or decadent Nutella.
RELATED: Why Sunday Family Dinners Need To Make A Comeback
Now, some hygienic considerations can be practiced here. But this one is a two-for-one victory revisiting childhood activities and enjoying a tasty treat!
Ask the important questions
“Why?” When you’re still new to the wide world, a lot of processes, procedures, and facts seem confounding. So begins the endless stream of asking “why” about literally anything and everything.
While the cycle could go on forever, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While our understanding of many things grew over the years, that meant we don’t ask “why” as much – definitely less than a curious child full of wonder and a thirst for knowledge. While asking this over and over can help you feel like a kid again, it’s also a great practice for life in general. Wonder more and you’ll feel all the more enriched from it.
If it has wheels, it’s a ride
Today, all manner of sports vehicles or iconic trucks attract awed flocks. But when we were young, anything with wheels was impressive. A shiny new red wagon? The Porsche of the playground. Shopping carts? Basically like riding a tank down the condiments aisle.
Why did that have to change, though? Nothing was quite as exciting asa mounting a scooter and riding it down the road. Embrace thrills with anything capable of rolling.
Enjoy that fresh air
Before the advent of so many streaming services and tech gadgets, outdoors stored all the entertainment kids could want. That allowed everyone to take in all that fresh air and engage in creative thinking. They invented games and built interpersonal communication skills through games like stickball, for example.
While opportunities like this might not be so abundant, a stroll outside can easily bring back memories of simpler days. Days spent outside right after breakfast and as late before dinner as possible.
When you do turn in for dinner, do so together
This might not be the most straightforward entry on the list, but it’s definitely one of the most powerful in its sentimentality. And, like previous entries, it comes with a lot of benefits.
Family dinners are very important for staying a strong unit. Stanford Children’s Health lists the many ways this family dinner time of the day is crucial for not just kids but the whole family. However, for children, it plays an important role in laying the foundation for a well-rounded adult.
Say those three words to everyone it applies to
Nothing is quite as pure, wholesome, and healing as childhood. Nothing except perhaps love. Just as many upbringings differ from one another, love comes in different forms shared between different people. Wherever it exists, tell that person “I love you.”
Kids dispensed this phrase a lot, so to feel like one again, let’s bring the phrase back. Assuring someone how important they are can uplift that individual and express their worth. On a personal level, it can allow you to know everyone knows where they stand.
Every moment is perfect for dancing
You might notice a trend on this list. Many items offer multiple benefits at once. At the end of the day, that’s no coincidence. Revisting our childhood has a lot of psychological benefits. While exploring the actual elements of our youth is great, in the meantime we can engage in activities to give life an energetic flair. Plus, activities like these can release endorphins. No one has to be an expert to have some sort of fun with it.
So, get up and dance! Dance everywhere for any reason. Whether it’s a fun set of moves while cleaning the house or on a stroll down the street. In youth, we didn’t care who the audience was, so don’t be your own source of stage fright. Who knows, maybe others will join in.
Sing your heart out to feel like a kid again
One staple of childhood often involved watching some true musical masterpieces, often from Disney. That trend endures today, but where did the music go? Through all those films, songs allowed characters to describe themselves and scenes in truly gorgeous, melodious ways. Naturally, viewers could easily join in with catchy beats and iconic lyrics.
What’s stopping that from happening now? Nothing. Become a one-person Broadway show and combine this step with the aforementioned instructions to dance for any occasion.
Belly laugh
Laugh openly, unabashedly, and deeply. It takes more muscles to frown than to smile, and after so many years of life’s stresses, everyone deserves to laugh with abandon.
Scientifically speaking, such deep laughter actually comes with a lot of biological and psychological advantages, too. For one, it stimulates multiple organs to take in oxygen-rich air and keeps the hearet and lungs working well. It also promotes good circulation and has a brief cycle of tension then relaxation to provide subtle beneficial feelings that help us cope with stress. Practice finding reasons to laugh to strengthen your stress responses in the long term and protect your mental health.
Splash through all the puddles
What better way to think like a kid than to abandon all pretenses and have some fun? That means seeing everything as a potential game. What are puddles but little pools of water to have fun with? Kick and splash through all of them and pursue that fun that used to be had during simpler times.
Throughout the years, life can add sources of worry that build up and build up. This increase can be stunningly abrupt or deceptively gradual. Either way, with this one life, you deserve to fill as much of that time as possible with positivity, which means drawing from the past. How do you feel like a kid again?