Set-aside adulthood, embrace and nurture Inner Child
Set-aside adulthood, embrace and nurture Inner Child
Any creative expression is in
fact, a child’s true mother tongue, for it resides in the heart or the Manipura
chakra. So when we open our heart to our
Inner child, we are, truly opening our heart to all, thereby finding the source
of our true power: Love.
Don’t deny or
deprive the voice of your Inner Child ---the feeling, playfulness and creative
self.
On account of society’s brain washing, the commonly held parlance is that
only a selected number of people are born talented whilst the rest should not
even contemplate on it. This erroneous belief has deprived many of their
natural birthright: the ability to bring out their Inner Child in them through
creative pursuits. The plain matter of truth is that anyone, be it male or
female, from 3 to 68 years can take a fling to express oneself through the medium of any form of art,
be it pottery, dance, music, playing instruments, gardening, sculptured
carpentry, chiseling stone work, etc.
For example, as one learns to allow oneself to
play with clay, overcoming the inner criticisms or self doubts, one re-learns
the language of the child and embraces the Inner Child by agreeing to meet it
half-way. Invariably, unconsciously too when we project our feelings through
clay play or any creative activity, we are, in fact speaking the language of
the Inner Child. In clay-play, dancing and instruments, every participant gets
to experience their Inner Child as that is what is encouraged during the
session with the help of the dominant and non-dominant hands stretching out to
give their best to the creativity, thus paving the way for opening of the “right
brain”.
Invariably, none makes a
conscious effort to write with the non-dominant hand as we are led to believe
that we cannot write with the “other hand”, and we blindly accept it. We often
view the other hand as a retarded one, considering it is practically not
trained or preferred to be used and therefore it stays frozen. The paradox is
that it is this very “other hand” which takes us back to our state of Inner Child.
Be it pottery, writing poetry, dancing or in the
learning of instruments we advocate the
usage of both hands to bring out and project the Inner child in us and thus be
aware that creative expressions are fun and makes one feel good about oneself
and the world. Watching a person, be it
an adult or kid, release bottled up sentiments, such as fear or anger is a
profoundly moving experience and can immerse them in the ‘Child’ state to
experience a very powerful, yet unique and enjoyable means of self-expression
as in dancing, drawing, painting or clay play, etc.
The expressive arts have a great
deal to offer in healing the Inner Child, as they are creative pursuits done by
setting aside the adulthood for a period
of time , while one experiments for the sheer joy of the experience (with
absolutely no pressure to perform and nothing defined as right or wrong during
the experimentation). On account of the
right brain enjoyment, multi-sensory activity gets closed down by restrictive
parenting with a left brain school that emphasizes more on verbal logic and
memorization rather than self expression by way of arts. Except music, dance, drawing, painting, and
needlework, most other creative pursuits of arts such as artistic pottery, gardening, chiseling stone or carpentry and the like are treated as step-children by the
curriculum and the first to be junked when it comes to budget allocation.
Even at Corporate level, those
who find themselves embracing their Inner Child are the ones who carry home
less stress, as they have absolutely no pressure on them. They can be spotted easily at work as they
not only have no ego but are down to earth and a friendly lot, being
spontaneous. The Inner Child in them blossoms to bring out solutions at
workplace that only an unbiased can provide.
Remember, your Inner Child can
get angry at any time and be demanding if you
have not paid attention to what
it has to say … so give due credit and abide by what it has to voice out . Your
Inner Child can never go wrong and looking at it differently, I may add that
one’s conscience, instinct and Inner Child will tally in what they have to say
to you.
Let’s look at a situation from
the legendary Epic which clearly demonstrates the Inner Child.
Once, Krishna
and Arjuna were walking in a village together. Arjuna was pestering Krishna,
asking Him why Karna should be considered an imparallel Donor and not himself (
Arjuna)? Krishna turned two mountains into gold. Then said, “Arjuna, distribute
these two gold mountains among villagers, but you must donate every bit of it.”
Arjuna went into the village and proclaimed he was going to donate gold to
every villager and asked them to gather near the mountains. The villagers sang
his praise and Arjuna walked towards the mountains with a puffed-up chest.
For two days and two nights
Arjuna shoveled gold from the mountains and donated to each villager. The
mountains did not diminish in their slightest. Most villagers came back and
stood in queue within minutes. Now Arjuna was exhausted but not ready to let go
of ego, told Krishna he couldn’t go on any longer without rest.
Here Krishna called Karna and
told him to donate every bit of two gold mountains. Karna called two villagers
and said, “Those two gold mountains are yours” and walked away. Arjuna sat
dumbfounded. Why hadn’t this thought occurred to him? Krishna smiled
mischievously and told him, “Arjuna, subconsciously you were attracted to the
gold, you regretfully gave it away to each villager, what you thought was a
generous amount. Thus the size of your donation to each villager depended only
on your imagination.
Karna held no such reservations.
Look at him, after giving away such a fortune, he did not expect people to sing
his praises. He doesn’t even care if people talk good or bad about him behind
his back. That is the sign of a man who embraces the Inner Child in him. Giving
without expecting in return is a child’s outlook.”
No matter where you are, be it at
workplace or at home, be rest assured that your Inner Child is the one who can
prompt you to take the right decisions in life. The Inner Child is your birth right. Establish a claim over it and experience it Begin the practice to invoke and try it out
now.
Wish you all the best in your endeavors to bring out the Inner child in you !
MALINI KALYANAM
www.malinipottery.com
(The writer is a freelancer, social
activist, Pottery artist, Agnihotri , Mudra therapist, Recruitment Consultant, Reiki
Grand Master, Yoga practitioner, Pottery artist, freelancer, Spiritual
Writer, Content writer for Govt -Poompuhar art / crafts, Color Therapist
Malini conducts workshops on Inner child, yoga–mudras-dance fusion, Pottery and building Terrariums, but not necessarily in the same order.
#Manipurachakra #Epic #Spiritual- #love-playfulness - #creative self- #Lord Krishna -#Karna #expressivearts #innerbeauty #innerchild- #experiment

Love it. The krishna, karna and arjuna story.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sudha !
DeleteWonderful thought and precisely to the point.
ReplyDeleteWonderful to hear this from you Sumeet Jeswani :-)
Delete