#599: Lost (and Found) Inner Children

Hey, Psst. Wake up. Wake up. Let's do a ditch day. Let's go to the ocean. Let's go. Let's go to the store. Let's get something fun. How about a new toy? Something we can play with. Nah. Maybe we'll just draw. Maybe we'll lay on our backs and we'll look at the clouds. You know what? Let's just get this stress off of us. Why is there so much stress? Where is it coming from? This isn't how I want to live. This isn't how I want to be. You know what? I'm your inner child, and I'm asking for a play date. Do you want to join me? Flow Dreaming, it's a show where we talk about the power of your mind to change your world around you. Literally affect the fabric of your reality. We talk about this feeling of hope and joy and relief. And that is what being aware of your flow does. It gives you a feeling of power again in your lives. Breathe. I'm Summer McStravik and welcome to another episode of Flow Dreaming. Well, here we are, chickadees. Episode number 599, Lost and Found inner children. Now, normally people think about your inner child as this little being inside of you that unfortunately has probably been a little bit abused over time, neglected, not heard, not seen, something that needs to be healed. That is the extreme focus that people give to this concept of inner child. But I want to do something a little different. In today's episode of Flow Dreaming, we're looking at your inner child as your friend, your little sweet friend, one who wants to draw you out, pull you out of your grown up self and say, come play and be with me and do things and let's get serious silly and let's have fun and let's not always be so darn responsible all the time. So I was inspired to do today's show because I think the spring weather is just getting to me. We had a flurry of butterflies painting lady butterflies coming up from our Anza Brago desert here about a week or so ago. Millions, multi millions all through Southern California. And I walked outside one morning and I saw them clustered on one of my trees, similar to the way the monarchs cluster up there in Northern California on those big eucalyptus and they just coat the trees. And I was stunned and I was brought back to this sense of awe and joy. I just wanted to sit there and look at and watch these butterflies and wonder where they're going and what they're doing and how many of them are going to make it and what's their journey? And Mommy, can't you answer all of these questions for me? And I realized I'm Mommy, and no, I can't. I just don't know either. But it was a spark. That. That. That childish spark kind of came up in me, and I said, no, I don't think I'm going to start work now. I'm just gonna hang out here with all the butterflies and just be and just enjoy. And it made me remember what it's like when you don't have quite as much responsibility on your shoulders. You don't have the stress, you don't have the demands. And how punishing we can be to ourselves, to our joy, to our laughter, how we contain and tell ourselves when and where we are allowed to let our hair down, what time of day it can be, where we're supposed to be, what we're supposed to be doing. We set aside time for joy and relaxation with this idea that the rest of the time we've gotta be at work or we've got to be serious, or we've gotta be grownups or we have to be momming and adulting. And on and on and on we go. So, so many of us, you know, in personal growth, we talk about this inner child like it's our guide, it's our light. It's that part of ourself we used to be and we used to feel. And if we can only get back to heal, her will somehow be whole again. I want us to think today that maybe our inner child doesn't need as much healing as we keep saying she does. She just needs to play. She needs to be allowed out. She needs to enjoy herself and her life. And you need to take her out and do fun things with her and let her stop when she wants to stop. And when she's tired, you have to let her take a nap. And when she's hungry, you have to feed her good food and then you can give her a treat. The question is, why do we treat our own children better than we treat our own inner child? Think about this. How demanding are you with yourself? What goals have you placed in front of you that you work toward all the time? And I don't even mean big goals. It doesn't even have to be like, well, I'm gonna make a million dollars and get 15 promotions and retire when I'm 22. No, these goals can be as simple as, I just have to get through the day, make sure I pick up the kids and make sure I get dinner made and make sure I turn in that assignment on time and get ahold of this person. I have to get all of this done, and every day I get all of it done. And I'm so good. I'm such a good adult. And then we wonder, hey, how come we're not getting that stuff done that we want to do? How come I'm not working on that mosaic that I started three months ago that's just sitting there in the garage? How come I haven't written another chapter in my book? How come I don't even feel inspired or excited to write another chapter in my book? How come I'm not outside just laying on the grass and staring at the sky? How come? How come? How come? Well, when we're done with all of this adult stuff, because we usually stack it up on ourselves so darn much we get to the end of our day and, you know, all we want to do is say, I don't want to have to think or make or create or be responsible for one more thing. Sometimes even reading a book in bed is too much effort. And that's why we end up flipping on the tv, watching whatever happens to be on the dumber the show, the better, because it takes so little out of us. Even our inner child has gone to bed. She waited all day and we didn't show up. She went to sleep. She's like, you just do whatever you have to do to relax now, because I'm tired too, and I don't want to play anymore either. So let's make a goal today to reverse this in ourselves to start to course. Correct? And of course, you know, we refer to flow dreaming. If you're new to this show, by the way, we talk a lot about flow and life and energy and simply better ways to live, better ways to co create, better ways to make things for ourselves. And everything comes under examination. Now, flood rimming is a technique, right? It's a way of emotionally reconditioning ourselves and creating new characteristics in ourselves, creating happiness in ourselves, co creating with the universe, being able to make things, attract things, receive things, all of it. This show, wow, Gosh. It'll be in its 600th episode. Very next episode. I better make it a good one, huh? So we are going in all different areas, especially this year. This season, we've changed it up again yet again. You go to some of the past shows, and I'll be doing a lot of flow dreams with you. These are the actual emotional techniques we practice together. But right now, today, I just want to give you some mindset. I want to give you that reminder. Your inner child might be lost. Your inner child might need to be found. The best way to find your inner child isn't to go up to the department store, you know, clerk, and say, have you seen my child? Which, by the way, yes, I have done. I will admit my own kids. No, the best way to find your inner child is to do something that your inner child enjoys. It's so simple. Go for a bike ride. Break out the kite. Go for a walk on the beach or the lakeshore. Pick up shells. You know what I did recently? I took my son up to a children's museum in. In Ojai. Well, not Ojai. Santa Barbara, California. Cool. Cool museum. And they have a room that's filled with activities, all different activities that you can do with your child. One of them was, we're making fairy houses today. And I said, guess what, Locke? We're making a fairy house. And my Sweet son, he's 13. Okay, Mom, I'll make a fairy house with you. We probably spent two hours with a hot glue gun and tons of bark and shells and all natural. Just everything natural. Grasses and flowers. And we made the most beautiful. And my daughter came in. She's 16. She helped out. She made a beautiful, teensy, tiny little table set. And the three of us made a fairy house. It's pretty amazing. I should post it somewhere. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll put it up in my Instagram or my Facebook. The point is, I remembered my inner child as I was doing this. It's like I called to her, hey, come here, little summer. We haven't built a fairy house in decades, have we? No, we haven't. Do you want to do it right now? You betcha I do. Does it have to be perfect? Nope. And you start to remember all of these things about yourself. Remember when things didn't have to be perfect. Remember when things didn't need to be done by deadline? Remember the things that you did that didn't have to be related to work or your career? Remember when you did things that didn't have to affect your family or be responsible for someone or something, or be the leader or be in charge? Do you remember that when you would hula hoop or ride your bike or play your video games and it was just for you, and there was really not much point at all, all to it, except you enjoyed yourself and you laughed and you were silly and you played with your friends and you imagined and you daydreamed why do you think this is so important to humans as they grow? If this wasn't important, children would not play. Children would not daydream. Children wouldn't spend so much of their life pretending, making up things. It's important. And where do we get off thinking that as we grow older, we don't need this anymore? That it's done, it's closed up, it's over, it's no longer useful? Imagine if you said to yourself, well, I'm 18 now. I guess I can never sleep again. I did that. That was useful then, but I'll stop sleeping now because I'm all grown up. We wouldn't dare say something silly like that. It would be ridiculous. But we do stop playing now. Some of us do play more than others. Right, you guys. You've got your speedboats. You got your fun cars. You have your motorbikes. You have your dancing with your friends. You have all the fun things that you do. Going out to the farmer's market, whatever. Whatever fills your fun basket up. Your activities, your hobbies, your joys. But even with your activities, hobbies and joys, you can also let your inner child out a little. Especially when those inner hobbies and joys start to feel repetitive, or they start to feel competitive, or they start to feel like, there's a reason I have to do these, not I want to do these. This is so fun. Your inner child is there to help you release, relax, and not live up to anything. Your inner child is there to say, let's do something, let's make something. Let's talk to friends, let's play pretend. When was the last time you played pretend? Well, maybe you don't anymore. Why? Because you don't have to play pretend. Because you've got a real life now. And the things you do are the real things you do. Well, you know what? Your kids have real lives, too. They've got school and they've got homework and they've got dealing with all the family stuff that you have to deal with as well, only they just don't have as many tools to even know what to do with it yet. They still play pretend. When you flow dream. It's kind of like playing pretend for grownups. I want you to look at it like that. When you flow dream, you're daydreaming. You're going into this other space, this other part of you where you say, this is who I really am, and this is how I feel. I'm Wonder Woman, I'm Superwoman, I'm Superman, I'm right. You're daydreaming, you're flow dreaming. You're putting these new emotions inside yourself. You're seeing and feeling this life that you want. You feel so good and so happy. You know, one of my daughter's favorite games when she was a kid was to pretend to be a doggy. And all the kids at school were little doggies. At recess time. I say, lexi, why are you being a doggie? We all are doggies. We like being doggies. We run around and we bark at each other. I said, okay, well if you want to be a doggie, you know, all right, sure doesn't make sense to me. But how, how is that so different that when we flow dream and we say to ourselves, I want to be a best selling author. I am a bestselling author. I and feel like a best selling author. And what does a best selling author do? She is so excited to come down to her computer in the morning and she taps out that latest greatest novel. And she has an amazing publisher who just loves her and says, oh, we're gonna put these all over the world and you're gonna have tons of raving fans and everybody out there is going to love your work. You are going to make people so happy inside. That's not so different than being an awesome little doggie. Why? Because both of them make us feel fantastic. Both of them are feeding your inner child. So when you flow, dream next time. And this is what I want to leave you with. When you flow dream next time. I want you to play with, experiment with this sense of what does my inner child want to be today? How does my inner child want to feel? How can I find that lost inner child of mine? Well, maybe I can it by waving around that big old candy cane and saying, come right here. Whatever lure it is that your inner child wants, they will show up. They will show up for you. And that's the first step for all of you who are on that journey of healing with your inner child. The very first step is re accepting him or her, inviting him or her back in and saying, baby, I love you. Guess what? I'm the grown up now. I can take care of you. I will love you. I will protect you. I will, I will keep you safe. And anything that's ever happened to you, you're here with me now. And you can exhale and you can know that you are so deeply loved, so deeply admired, so deeply adored. There is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with you. And all of those who said there were or there was, forget them. I'm telling you different. And the only person you ever have to listen to again is me. You are perfect. You've always been perfect. There has never been anything wrong with you. You listen to me. I. I am your parent now. I am your best friend. Now let's go play. Feel how strong that is. That's your inner baby listening and waiting for you. So please, take her on a date. Take him on a play date. Go have fun. Be silly. Be totally pointless. The only purpose is to enjoy yourself and to love and to just be so, so happy. So I want to leave you guys with that today and I want to recommend that if you have children yourself, if you are a parent, I do have a beautiful playlist that you can get for your kids. Flow Dreaming for children. They listen to it as they fall asleep at night. It is perfect. Anyone from about 4 to 12, maybe a little younger if they're a girl, 4 to 11, will benefit. My son listened to this playlist every night for several years. Every single night. And what it does is it teaches them how to be a co creator, how to love themselves, how to forgive themselves. It nourishes them and it lets them play in their minds as they fall asleep. So I encourage you to go to flowdreaming.com, go to the shop there or open up your phone and I guess maybe it's already open if you're listening. But go to the App Store, either Google Play or itunes or the app Store on your iPhone or iPad and look up Flow Dreaming. And there are a couple of apps there. One of them is for the shop and you can also get it through there. I really, really encourage you to do that for your kids. They will thank you for the rest of their lives. So that's it for me. I love and adore all of you and I hope you'll see me again next week as we explore more concepts of Flow Dreaming. And until then, thank you again for your reviews. I've seen some real sweet ones come in this month on the App Store and on itunes. I appreciate that. So love you guys and I'll see you all again for the next episode of Flow Dreaming. I have a present for you. It's a free gift. It's a kit that I created that teaches you how to Flow dream in under 15 minutes. It's really easy to get. All you have to do is pull out your mobile device or phone and send me a text. Send it to the number 38470. Again, the phone number is just 38470 and then write the word flow F L O W in the message area. That way I can get your free kit sent right over to you, which includes a Flow dream called Positive Flow for you to begin working with with, as well as an audio guide and a tutorial. Remember, this only works in the US if you're outside the country, go to my website and fill out your information there and I hope you have a lot of fun with this. That's a wrap for today, but if you want to keep things going, then download my free Flow Dreaming app. That's right, there's two of them. The first app allows you to listen to this podcast anywhere you want on your mobile device, as well as search and favorite episodes. The other app hooks you up with my Manifesting Store, which includes an oracle to help you see what direction you most are in need of right now and advice. You can also sample all kinds of Flow Dreams and put together a library of your own. So to find these apps, just search Flow Dreaming in itunes or on your Google App Store.