Anywhere but here

Have you ever had a topic continually pop up in the strangest of places?  Lately the topic that is haunting me is "where has your inner child gone"?

As I find myself losing my sense of HA HA while being burdened with grown-up stuff, it has occurred to me that I need to lighten up!  I have to admit that I am a chronic escapist, continually dreaming of where I want to be instead of being content where I am.  I scour tropical blogs and websites and cringe when someone tells me they are heading off to somewhere warm and sunny for their holidays.  I'm not begrudging the fact that I have serious commitments to people that are relying on me, but sometimes I just need to get into a fantasy head-space to deal with their reality.  Am I a bad friend?  An uncaring daughter?...no, but I am wanting to be anywhere but here at the moment.

A few weeks ago I asked some of my Facebook friends for book suggestions to deal with some of the stresses I'm experiencing.  I was flooded by their response and took it upon myself to order many of these books from Chapters on line.  One of the suggestions was Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr.  Forgive me if I shouldn't link this but come on Blog Police...give me a break.  There is a section to her book discussing the fact that even when we have real adult Sh*t going on in our lives we must take a look into our inner child and see if she would agree with the way you are treating yourself.

**Ask your inner 5 year old to take a good look at you and ask, are you happy?, are you laughing at yourself enough?, are you giving yourself credit where credit is due?  Are you looking after yourself by eating properly, taking naps, hugging your cat, really listening to friends and sharing laughter while doing fun and crazy things?  Are you getting enough exercise or enough sleep?  Are you getting enough hugs in the day?  If you answer no to anyone of these questions it is time to step back and reassess your life and yourself and your usefulness to anyone around you, because if your energy, outlook or attitude is anything but upbeat and positive, then you're not only toxic to yourself, you're toxic to those your are trying to help.

Find a picture of yourself when you were little and see what you looked like before all the adult stresses arrived, when you could sit down on the lawn and hug your dog.  When it didn't matter if you had grass stains on your corduroy's, when you were loved unconditionally.  When you fell down and you got yourself back up and laughed.  When life was full of wonder and excitement.  I bet your inner child would tell you it is time to take a time out in the corner and regroup.  That's exactly what I'm going to do, I'm going to back up, regroup and see if I can find my inner child.

Laurel and Sport

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

** Questions I asked myself, not questions from Kris Carr's book.