Live like a kid

We’re taught as kids not to hit each other. We’re told not to be rude to each other. We’re (hopefully) taught to have open minds and hearts and accept everyone for who they are. And, if someone disagrees with us, we should try to see things from their point of view and then move on with our lives because, “it’s OK.”

Seriously. How many times a day do parents say, “It’s OK” to their kids? They fall down? It’s OK. Get back up. They get a toy stolen from them? It’s OK. Find another one. They get smacked at the playground and cry? It’s OK. Play on the slide. Have a bad dream? It’s OK. Go back to bed.

Because really — it’s literally ALL OK. Life goes on. Good things happen. Bad things happen. It’s OK.

And as we’re skipping through life, thinking everything is dandy, somewhere along the way — we grow up and things start to feel less rosy. We start to think, “Wait…maybe it isn’t all okay. It doesn’t feel okay and it’s hard to imagine a time when it will feel okay again.” This usually happens around the teen years when we get our first heartbreak. I think it’s after that, that we become a little more jaded. And then something else happens — a friendship quarrel, another heartbreak, etc. and it just snowballs a bit from there. We’ve lost our rapid bounce-back. We’ve lost a part of ourselves…the part that felt it would soon be OK and then we’d go do something that makes us happy.

So, how do we get it back? When we are adults, and have major responsibilities and are aware of what’s happening in our society and it might get us down for longer than it should…how do we find our inner kid and tell ourselves “hey…it’s OK. It’s all gonna be OK. Go do something fun, now.”

I think the first thing to do is be very selective with your social media. It’s important to stay up on current events, but it’s another to be sucked in and feel it changing your mood.

Then, I think it could be something as small as not stating your opinion as fact. I think adults do this a lot, and don’t even realize it. For example — see how I started those last two sentences with “I think”? People should do this more when communicating. I mean, maybe you don't agree with what someone is saying on social media/in real life/about work/a parenting tip, etc., but that doesn’t mean you’re right. Open your mind a little bit. It’s like when we’re kids and we want to play Barbies and our friend wants to play some game they made up that involves pretending to be mice that can fly and we have to rescue each other from the swing set…sometimes you have to sit and think, hmmm…this could be cool and humor them. Who knows? You could wind up loving it and learn something new. And if you don’t…

…it’s OK.