“Whatever you choose, do it fully - with passion and child like enthusiasm.”

Mehmet Oz

What is Childing?

Definition

Well you may have heard of the concept of ‘Adulting’, a term that writer Kelly Williams is credited for inventing over a decade ago.

“Adulting is an informal term to describe behavior that is seen as responsible and grown-up. This behavior often involves meeting the mundane demands of independent and professional living, such as paying bills and running errands." https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/adulting/

So in contrast, the concept of ‘Childing’, is for grown ups to make a conscious decision to commit to being more child like more often. This particular definition of the word isn’t in the dictionary yet, but one can hope! Stephanie Lam wrote about this idea of ‘Childing’ in a recent article in the magazine ‘Breathe and make time for Yourself’ (GMC Publications, Issue 56, p120).

It also seems important to define the difference between ‘childish’ and ‘childlike’ behaviour in grown ups at this point.

The meaning of ‘childish’ often refers to the aspects of juvenile behaviour more challenging to self and others - impulsiveness, emotional escalations eg sulking or rages, being out of control, anti social behaviour, a lack of maturity and self focussed to the point of narcissism. Whereas ‘childlike’ alludes to all of the powerfully amazing and useful parts of being connected to our inner child selves - freedom to express masses of creativity, access to a full spectrum of emotions, playfulness, curiosity, wonder, awe, delight, gushing with love for even little things, being led by the heart in decision making, embracing being silly and daft, laughing often, strong intuition, insightful, trusting, connected to everything including nature, non-judgemental, joyful, being in the moment and active in the body.

In a daily practice of childing by using lots of everyday activities to re-connect with your inner kid, it is possible to; create more joy; become super resilient; have a more positive focussed outlook; a better quality of life and make more authentic powerful choices based on what will make you truly happy, led by your heart, rather than what you think as an adult busy adulting, you should do.

Anna has discovered she has been childing for many years as part of her self development practice and never had such a useful name for it, so thank you for whoever coined the word and gave it this meaning first!

The Main States to aim for when Childing

Love, Joy & free access to the positive emotional scale

Do you remember a time where you positively gushed with love for something, no matter how small? The overwhelmingly euphoric feeling in the moment which supercedes anything else. Nothing else exists or matters, everything is well with the world. In this state you are sailing in the moment and topped up with happy hormones.

Laughter & Playfulness

You laugh regularly and much, even at small things. Everything is a potential game and you are free to express your playful side. In this state, you are relaxed, happy hormones are flowing and life’s tasks can becomes simple. You can find the fun in everyday tasks like the washing up!

Wonder & Awe

From raindrops on a leaf, to pondering the whole universe! In this state, through the eyes of a beginner, you can appreciate everything and feel connection to everything. From here it is possible to have a kind of reverential respect for the amazingness of all living things, including other humans.

Curiosity

Having a strong desire to learn new things and be in the energy of the ‘beginners mind’. There is so much to learn, see with fresh eyes and find amazing! In this state, life will never be dull or ordinary again.

Dreaming & Infinite possibility

You can be anything or do anything, you can dream big. There is ultimate freedom of fantasy and ideas. The world is your oyster and anything is possible. In this state, you are no longer limited by your beliefs or others opinions.

Timelessness & Now

Living in the present moment and being distracted towards whatever captures your focus. Time doesn’t matter because you are occupied only in the current moment. Grown ups call it being in a state of mindfulness. In this state, all worries of the future or regrets about the past can disappear.

Authentic & Natural

You only know how to be utterly yourself. Your preferences, likes and dislikes can be clear. In this state it feels easier to say no when you need to and a big YES! when you feel it, unencumbered by others opinions and self limiting beliefs.

Intuitive & Gut led

Using your emotions as an indicator, you are able to tap into the heart of your intuition. In this state decisions become way more powerful and you have a knowing about what is right for you. Fears become easier to step beyond, being able to feel the fear and do it anyway because you intuition leads the way.

Creative

When you let your inhibitions about whether you are good or not go, your natural innate creativity can be freed. You can let go of wrong and enjoy the process of creating something.

Embodied & Interactive+

When you are here, you are physical, practical and want to interact with things around you as much as possible. Using all your senses, especially touch to explore the world, to sniff flowers, run a stick along railings, cuddle fluffy blankets, crack ice in winter.

So what is childing good for?

Childing can be helpful for increasing personal fulfilment, to experience way more frequent moments of joy & enthusiasm, improved well-being, resilience and is for the good of all.

Most of all, childing is a way to remind you to do more of what you love and find ways to positively counteract our innate human negative bias and the serious, what Anna calls, thinky thought head logical approach to life we can fall in to as grown ups!

Anna has a developed a series of resilience, self reflective, creative and positive emotion cultivating practices. You may have heard of people doing ‘re-wilding’, so Anna is calling her work ‘re-childing’.

In an array of ways, Anna invites you to ‘rechild’ yourself lightheartedly, to tap into more positive emotions, your own creativity, natural talents and innate wisdom via the awesome inner kid part of yourself……. A kid who has often been left behind in the serious business of being a grown up and/or has struggled along the way because of difficult experiences in growing up.

When we get busy practicing ‘childing’ to ‘rechild’ ourselves, Anna has found other things in life start to fall into place too. This is because when we are led by being in the moment and in a more positive emotional frame, we can access the intuitive part of ourselves to make better decisions.

Also, cultivating positivity enables like to attract like. If we think and feel more good things, more good things happen. Not only can we feel great, but the world around us will be affected as we radiate the increased positive energy.

Childing can help with:

Switching out of a state of overwhelm

Diffusing or switching out of intense emotions like anger or despair

Distraction, de-stressing and shaking it off

Building resilience

Relaxation

Freedom from self limiting beliefs

A remedy to over ‘adulting’ & responsibilism

A remedy to ‘people pleasing’

Finding clarity about which path to take

Easing Burnout

Being in a place of appreciation

Being in the energy of positivity, happiness and more joy

Improve your physical, emotional and spiritual wellness

Tapping into creativity and natural talents

Including the whole self in decisions, gaining clarity, not feeling divided

Finding intuition and going with your guts

Self connection

Connection with other people and to something greater

The resulting good energy spreads and can positively influence all aspects of our lives and those around us.

Childing is surely a cure for all ills!

What is Rechilding?

Anna is referring to her practice as ‘Rechilding’ because the focus of the work is with ‘Reconnecting’ to the inner child part of ourselves. ‘Rechilding’ is often used in relation to healing the wounded inner child and is based in the pshychological theory, first referred to as part of Transactional Analysis (Berne E, in the 1950s). Techniques to assist in ‘rechilding the wounded inner child’ or ‘learning to re-parent oneself’, are often used by therapists and psychologists as part of the therapeutic process.

Anna’s particular version of of ‘Rechilding’ is not therapy but can have some therapeutic effects. Originally developed to help herself, she is now passing the learning onto others. Anna’s work is better described as a fun and lighthearted daily resilience practice and set of self help techniques to build confidence, positivity and direction. Therefore, her work does not preclude the need for therapy or healing inner child wounds from childhood using deeper therapeutic methods.

In an article called “Rechilding: Creating a New Past in the Present as a Support for the Future” interestingly the authors discuss how “Rechilding can be employed in conjunction with other established theory and practice to achieve stability under stress." (Clarkson P, Fish S. Transactional Analysis Journal. Volume 18 Issue 1, January 1988 p51-59). Anna’s version of Rechilding is definitely also stress relieving - especially the laughter workshops!

In addition Stella McCartney’s new clothing collection the terms rewilding and rechilding are highlighted as inspiration: “Where rewilding protects and regenerates nature and its ecosystems by taking a step back and letting Mother Earth rebalance herself, rechilding follows the same spirit – steering us back to a child-like state to develop a more positive outlook.’ (https://www.stellamccartney.com/gb/en/stellas-world/spring2023-what-is-rechilding.html)

Creative, Positive and Super Resilient