Counselors and mental health specialist often talk about the elusive inner child that we all have inside of us. The idea behind the inner child is that we are able to connect to the perspective on life we had as children. Recalling this innocent nature within ourselves is beneficial to ourselves and those we effect. But just why is the inner child important and how do we access it?
The reason that every person’s inner child should matter to them is because there are sound psychological reasons why people should never lose touch with this part of themselves. There are many ways that our brains grow and develop to broaden our perspective on the world and expand our scope as we age. However, as children, we are arguably more in touch with ourselves than any other time in our lives because we have not been influenced by outside factors yet. We are the most in touch with our own inherent qualities as children, and thus more mentally healthy and in tune with our own needs. Therefore, when we are able to access our own inner child, we recall truths about ourselves that we have since forgotten.
Psychologists recommend drawing and coloring as one universal way of getting in touch with your inner child. This is because most of us, at least in North American society, were given basic drawing and coloring materials as children to occupy our time and our minds. Children naturally have large, limitless imaginations and they spend a majority of their time expressing them through pretend and through art. Therefore, sitting down to engage in drawing or painting as adults naturally channels the memory of creating art as children. This simple act can actually make us recall things we have forgotten, open compartments of our minds that have been sealed off and let us access valuable, innocent thought and behavioral patterns that we have long since forgotten about.
