3 Ways to Embrace Immaturity and Flourish

I’ve had some crazy encounters with nature. A few months ago, I wrote about how I jumped over a porcupine… and now I have a new story to tell.

I was nearing the end of my workout. The sun was hot, the air heavy, sweat dripped as I sprinted up the bank and away from the river. My body was firing on all cylinders, my mind was sharp–aware. I felt strong, alive, and powerful.

Suddenly I stopped.

Up ahead stood a baby fawn of maybe a few months. Still covered in white spots, it froze and stared at me. Careful not to startle it, I slowly squatted down into a crouching position. We looked at each other for what seemed like the longest time, and then something amazing happened.

To my astonishment, the fawn turned and started running towards me. Taken aback, I remain crouched and watched as it trotted across the field, moving closer and closer with each second.

40 feet separated us, then 30, then 20…When it got within ten feet I stood up and started backing away. The second I moved, the fawn bolted. Sensing my fear, it bounded across the field and vanished into the woods.

When my heart slowed and my mind stopped racing, I thought about what had just happened. The fawn, too little and innocent to know better, had trusted a six foot tall foreign creature enough to run right up to me. I, conditioned by the world, had become frightened by it’s lack of caution and freaked out. My reaction was instinctual, but was it justified?

As I walked home over the rolling hills, I had a small epiphany.

We are born nearly perfect, but as we grow up we lose many of our inherently good natal traits.

Kids are unconditioned by beliefs, biases and opinions. Kids laugh, play, trust and explore the world around them with unrestrained curiosity and enthusiasm. While some awareness and caution is necessary for survival, we should work towards regaining this trusting, playful and childish way of living.

So, in the spirit of that recklessly bold baby fawn, here are three ways to act (and feel) like a kid again.

3 Ways to Act Like a Kid Again

1. Play Like Your Life Depends On it

I have two awesome cousins — Wyatt and Chelsea. Wyatt is a nine year old baseball slugger, avid fisherman and aspiring parkour ninja. Chelsea is a seven year old artist, actress and future bestselling author. Together they make up the two coolest kids on the face of the earth.

I’m lucky enough to live very close to my cousins and spend a lot of time with them. We go hiking together, rip up the mountain on our snowboards, and simply play together all the time. While most people would probably dread spending time with two crazy little balls of energy, I look forward to spending time with Wyatt and Chelsea and even seek out their company. In fact, I’d much rather hang out with them than with most of the adults in my life. No question at all.

Time with Wyatt and Chelsea is just one big game, a chance to escape social pressures and responsibilities and get caught up in imagination, playfulness and exuberance. It is filled with laughter, joking and physicality. There is always a new challenge to complete, a new treasure to find, a new game to play.

Most adults have lost this sense of playfulness. For some reason, with age life becomes more serious and the thought of playing a game of tag, capture the flag or painting an imaginative picture is regarded not only as immature but as downright irresponsible.

Contrary to popular belief, I believe play is not only fun, exciting and creative…but one of the most responsible things we can do.

I’ll write more about ways to incorporate play into your life very soon, but for now I want to give you one playful mission you can complete today that will help bring back a sense of childish adventure.

Are you ready? Here it is: Go climb a tree. Go outside, find a tree, and climb it.

For more information on tree climbing, check out The Monkey Man Workout.

2. Laugh Your Bum Off

Children’s laughter is contagious. Why else would this video have over 193 million views?

When you hear a child giggling you can’t help but laugh, or at least smile. Try it, it’s nearly impossible.

Laughter truly is the best medicine. It relaxes the whole body, boosts the immune system, triggers the release of endorphins, and protects the heart. However, laughter is hard to come by these days. One study reported that kids laugh over 400 times every day while adults laugh a mere 17 times. Seriousness not only makes life less enjoyable but can also have serious repercussions when it comes to our health and wellbeing.

So, you know that laughter is good for you, but how can you get more laughter in your life?

Here are three quick ways:

1. Spend more time with the kids (or funny/laughter prone people) in your life. It’s incredibly hard not to laugh when you spend time with people who laugh.

2. Go to a laughter yoga class. Kind of a funny sight, but it’s sure to get you laughing.

3. Watch this video. I’m pretty sure I laughed the 7th time I watched this.

Ultimately the key is to embrace the lighthearted attitude of a child. Enter situations as though they are a game, not serious but fun and filled with laughter.

Not only is laughter good for you, it’s also incredibly wise. When I was in India, I was fortunate to visit the Dali Lama and spend time with a Buddhist monk named Ken Rimpoche. Ken Rimpoche is 76 years old. He’s is in charge of a HUGE monastery in northern india, travels the world year round giving lectures and raising money for a school he built AND has to make sure that very school runs smoothly at the same time. Despite the massive amount of responsibility resting on this man’s shoulders, Ken Rimpoche is never stressed, angry or frustrated. In fact, he’s constantly laughing. Even when we are talking about something that is not funny at all, this Buddhist monk finds a way to break into infectious chuckling.

Katie Tallo’s contribution to my last post really conveyed this light hearted spirituality that Ken Rimpoche embodies. She wrote, “Finding my own truthful balance is the key, not some fantasy or “should” about how many friends I need to have to make me happy or how spiritual I must be to feel true joy, but a truthful balance that suits my temperament, my needs, my world – a balance where my connections are few and deep, meaningful and real and where I’m at the centre of my joy, alone, but content.”

As Ken Rimpoche, the Dali Lama, and other wise beings around the world exemplify, true wisdom lies not in being overly serious about spirituality. Yes, they are dedicated to their meditation practice and offer prayers every morning… but above all there is a playfulness that pervades all their actions. I believe this is true spirituality, true wisdom.

3. Ignore Your Ego

Children’s minds are like plaster, easily molded and shaped in any direction. Children are born unbiased, without opinions or judgments and it’s only through cultural conditioning that they develop the beliefs that often stay with them throughout their entire life. No one is born with racial prejudices or a sense of superiority over others. To children, life is simply one big wide adventure to be experienced in this moment for what it is.

Allowing yourself to experience life unbound by preconceived notions, judgements and criticisms can be extremely difficult especially if you’ve identified with these beliefs for years. However, it can also be one of the most liberating things you can do. Eckhart Tolle puts it this way, “Not all thinking and all emotion are of the ego. They turn into ego only when you identify with them and they take you over completely, that is to say, when they become “I.”

The fawn was too young to see me and immediately think danger. Its skittish habits had not yet been formed by life experience. While staying away from humans probably IS in that fawns best interest and is therefore justified, many of our “skittish reactions” exist only in the mind and surely aren’t in our best interest.

Do you treat people in your life badly because of past interactions? Do you shy away from chances for growth because you’ve been conditioned to feel shy or not good enough? I know I still do.

However, realizing that these conceptions are self-created and therefore aren’t necessarily true can be enough for many people to step beyond personal barriers. In addition, training your mind to simply ignore thoughts and emotions can allow you to step beyond the temperamental and into the transformational.

Enter each new situation like a child. Without judgments, biases or criticisms. With an open an curious mind. With a heart that is eager to soar.

Final Thoughts

One day in high school, my friends and I charged into school soaking wet after a mud run. Sprinting through the halls, we raced to the locker room, dodging chairs and people in our path. As we wheeled around a corner, a kid scoffed at us and called out “you guys are so immature.” At this, my friend Will just smiled and said, “We’re not immature, we’re fun loving.”

While I admit it probably wasn’t a great idea to race through the school, I still see wisdom in those words. Who says we have to grow up? Who says staying in shape has to be a boring struggle? Who says we have to settle down and get a “secure” job? Who says we have to be “mature”?

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be fun loving.

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I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!! :)

To your health and happiness,

Logan