Episode 131: Youth is a Thought Away

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero. And let me tell you a story, a story about how I was able to transport myself back into time, into being a kid. Not crazy. But the reason why I'm gonna tell you a story is that you could do it too. That's the punchline. Last night, I walked home very late, past midnight, 45-minute walk home, and the sky was not a cloud, stars everywhere. As I walked home, I walked through this park where there were no lights on, and there was no neighboring homes to put any light into the sky, and the stars were everywhere. You know, it was such darkness, that you could see every single star. And I was tired. It's, you know, as I said, it was past midnight and just a long day. And then I realized that I had this joyful feeling. I remember when I was a kid, don't you? Do you remember when you were a kid? Do you remember when you looked up the stars and how exciting that was and how amazing it was? And I looked up at the stars, I said, God, I haven't felt or had that thought In so long, since I was a kid back then, those days, I haven't felt that joyousness, that easiness to life, that no pressure, that feeling of just like anything goes, any possibility, and that the simplicity of that the world is amazing and the stars are my guiding light. And then I asked myself, I stopped there in that park on the grass and I asked myself, Why don't I just bask myself in that feeling and emotion? Why don't I just transport my mind? Because right then I had that feeling that I hadn't had before, those memories. I said, "Don't let it go." For the remainder of my walk, I'm just going to hold on to that feeling. I'm going to hold on to those emotions, to that giddiness, to that simplicity that is just sort of like— why do you think kids skip when they walk? They skip because they're so happy. It's the only way to let off that energy. Their life is so simple and so beautiful, so exciting that you want to skip down the street. As an adult, let me ask you, do you skip down the street? When's the last time have you skipped down the street, even as a joke? When was the last time you skipped down the street? Probably you haven't. And the reason is, is because we're all caught up with all this stuff that as adults we get caught up in. But we forgot ourselves. We forgot that we are children. We are children with wrinkles, with bad backs, with mortgages, children with children. But we are kids. That's where we started. That's where we were defined. That's where we were molded. That's where you started, right? You're still a kid. You're always going to be a kid. It's just that you forgot that you are. And so did I. So for the remainder of that walk last night, I walked and I did not let go of that feeling. Not just a memory, but I was back in time and I was a little kid again. And you know what happened? It was the most amazing thing. As I walked home embracing, just feeling that— how do you call it? You just smile. I forgot that when— and do you remember when you were a kid and you just walk, you were smiling all the time? You're just so happy. I was just smiling. And after a while I realized I started walking differently and I started walking a bit pigeon-toed, if you know what that means. That's like knock-kneed where your knees and your toes sort of go in when you walk. And I said, how far back have I just gone? And I thought to myself, when you are elated, when you have let go of everything, when you're just so happy with everything, you return back to when you were a kid. That's your natural place, our natural place of happiness, of complete independence, of complete love. And I let it go and I just kept on walking funny and I wasn't doing it on purpose. And I started to embrace it even more. And then I asked myself the question, and this is the question you need to ask yourself: Why don't I do this more often? I actually could time travel. You can time travel. We can actually go back to moments, and it's just not for a moment, but we could be there for a long time. I kept myself there for about 15-20 minutes till I got home, and I let go of everything, and I embraced the fact that the air— and the air in the evening was cold, that my skin felt kind of frosty, and that I and the sky were connected. I was looking at the stars and drawing pictures of animals. I didn't worry about anything. I didn't worry about my job. I didn't worry about my family. I just existed. Just like when you were a kid. We actually can do this. You actually can do this. Why don't you do it more often? I just want to share with you this experience I had last night. It's brand new and I'm excited. I'm excited that I'm going to be spending a lot more time with myself. The younger version of myself, learning from it and embarrassing my current self. Because life doesn't have to be so complicated. Life could be so much fun if we just don't take our current lives and our problems so damn seriously. Because when I finally get home, and I had to take care of things, and I returned back to the present day, and I time traveled back. It was fine. Things weren't as bad, and things won't be as bad for you. So time travel. Go forth and spread beauty and light and time travel yourself back to any time you want and be nice to yourself. It costs nothing. But helps you with everything. I'm Thomas Anglero, sharing another crazy experience, another crazy reflection, but try it. I promise you, for that first moment when you do it, you're gonna feel weird. You'll look around and say, "Does anybody see how weird I feel?" And then, and next moment you feel, "I don't care," because you're there as a kid, and as a kid you didn't care if people were watching you. You were just basking in love, love of everything. And now as an adult, you could go back and bask in love and be in that moment anytime you want. You just have to let go of everything. Let go of the things that the society is asking of you. Let go of your bills, let go of your job, let go of your mate, let go of your problems, let go of your loneliness, let go of your insecurity, let go of everything and just bring yourself back to a moment that, God, you just— everything was amazing. And for me, that trigger was the stars. I remember laying on the front of my building, there was an abandoned car. And us as kids, we would lay there late in the evening on this abandoned car, on the hood of the abandoned car. We just all lay there, all these like 3 to 5 kids, exhausted after playing all summer long, all in the summer day. And we lay there and we just look at the stars and we say, "Oh, I see this, I see that." And I didn't realize that those moments as a kid was a defining moment, and that actually now as an adult, so much later on, I can actually go back to those moments, and that moment actually is my happy place. Why don't you relax, go for a walk, tell yourself, "I have no fear, I have no problems, I am so happy," and you too will return to your happy place, surrounded by love. I'm Thomas Anglero. And I love you. Take care of yourself. Travel back in time to your happiest of places. Until next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com. And you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.