Tag Archives: Play

Honoring Your Inner Child!

Me at 4

Me at 4, and not a care in the world!

Good evening!

I wanted to talk about something that has been on my mind for the past few months, and that is about honoring your inner child, or at least my perspective on my inner child and my reconciliation with the idea that I need to honor her. Maybe you might be able to relate. In September 2012, I had gastric bypass surgery, but through my profound weight loss journey, and ultimately my profound self-rediscovery journey started back in April of that same year, and I started to seriously struggle with the question

“Who am I?”

After doing a lot of soul searching I had decided that I knew who I was, I had always been in here, even if I had been keeping the truest form of myself tucked deep, deep down inside of myself for quite some time. To re-discover who I was, I just needed to delve back into my long lost memories about who I was as a small child. Still fresh and impressionable,with no responsibilities or obligations, and not yet tainted by other peoples’ self-imposed rules, beliefs, and limitations.

This is my first outing.

Here I am with my mom, grandma, dad, and great-grandma. This is my first outing.

I am not sure if everyone can remember a clean and pure memory of who you were back then, but for me I remember being a very imaginative child, who could play for hours alone, make believing all sorts of adventures where I was the main character in all of my stories. I could run, and jump, and fly, and breathe under water, I was invincible, and completely fearless! When I was at this age, I had friends, but never very many, I usually preferred to be alone or with one or two very close friends; catching bees in jars while smelling the sweet scent of honeysuckles all around, laying on my back watching the clouds roll by – trying to find shapes amongst the billowy whiteness, climbing trees and viewing the world from my new vantage point, racing around on my bike with the sound of the wind racing past my ears, or walking barefoot through the grass enjoying the feel of the coolness on my toes. I was a very observant child, and I felt like the world was my oyster, and I was ready to do whatever, and be whatever my heart could imagine.

Looking back, I can see that as I got older I let more and more of what other people believed influence who I let myself be. I tried to change everything about myself to fit in. I tried to be more social and more group-oriented. I tried to keep up with my peers in style, and attitudes, and in accomplishments, and I can see how I had ended up as a woman with so many hang ups, and really ultimately unhappy, not to mention 130 pounds overweight!

Me with my Mom, I was one month old.

Me with my Mom, she was only 16, I was one month old.

No wonder I was confused about who I was. Was it possibly because I had tucked away little Chrissie with a complete disregard to what her needs might be? I was afraid that she could not possibly be accepted or loved, and because of this I let myself be conformed to what I thought people would be drawn to, so that I could fit in, and be “normal”, whatever that is?

As soon as I made this connection, I had the ultimate light-bulb moment! I realized that I may look different, sound different then I did when I was a little girl, and I don’t really climb too many trees nowadays, but the deepest parts of me were still essentially the same. I still feel the need to be alone a lot of the time, I still prefer having only a very small handful of close intimate friendships, I still relish my time spent in my imagination, and I still cherish the times that I get to spend having my own brief adventures.
And you know what? That is okay. I have come to terms that this is who I am, the me that was designed, on purpose, to be just this way, and it is my job to honor that and to live it up! πŸ˜‰

My dad, my mom, and 2 of my 4 sisters (Alice, and Lani). I am the one in red. I am 5.

I am the one in red. I am 5.

Little Chrissie is still hanging out inside of this woman who can sometimes have what feels like the weight of the world on her shoulders in obligations and responsibilities, but little Chrissie is still patiently waiting to be given permission to come out and play, and if I don’t let her come out and play often enough she gets very cranky and we both end up having a bad day! πŸ™‚

Do you ever feel this way?

So, ask yourself these questions about your inner child:

  • What did they like to do?
  • What games did they like to play?
  • What adventures did they like to have?
  • Who did they like to hang out with?
  • Can grown-up you relate to any of their hopes, dreams, and desires any longer.
  • Is little he or she still in there begging to come out and play?
  • If so, what is one activity you can do this week to let that happen?
  • When was the last time you let little him/her come out to play

My Take Action Challenge for you this week is to:

Get reacquainted with your inner child, honor that little part of yourself, and make some time for your inner child to come out and play! Blow some bubbles, read a fun book just for the hell of it, climb a tree, play kickball, whatever!!

PLAY! PLAY! PLAY!!

You are worth it, and little you is soooo worth it too!

I smile as I write this this evening, thinking what all the possible playful activities might be going on this week!

Please let me know in the comments section, what activities you will commit to taking this week with your inner child!!

Have a FABULOUS and PLAYFUL evening!! πŸ˜‰

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Another Short & Sweet Post!

Good evening!

I am going to keep this post short this evening! My sweetie and I have just gotten back from the play The Underpants, put on by the Pentacle Theater. It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! and we had an ABSOLUTE MARVELOUS TIME!!!

While I go off to dream about the amazing fun and laughter that Jason and I have shared tonight, here are some pictures from this play!

If you ever get the chance to get out to this little theater, I would highly recommend it!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! πŸ˜‰

Fearless!

Good evening!
I thought the word “Fearless” would be an appropriate term for this evening!! I just got done with my belly dancing class, and I am feeling TERRIFIC!!! Tonight was the last class of a three month session, and we are now off for a 3 week span until the next round of classes start. That is a little bummy, but I MUST tell you, that I just CAN NOT BELIEVE that I DID IT!!!

pssst…Let me divulge a HUGE secret to you right now, I am a 320 pound woman, and I am

BELLY DANCING!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!?!?!

I still have to pinch myself to make sure that I am ACTUALLY living my life and not just dreaming all of this!

Within the past 3 months, I have found a confidence that I NEVER thought possible, and NOW I REALIZE NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! My momma was right, I CAN do anything I put my mind to, if I am willing to do the work to earn it!! Man, she was ONE SMART COOKIE!! It is too bad that it took me 35 years to learn that she was telling me the ABSOLUTE truth!!

Something happens to me when I am dancing! Time flies, I feel like a child again, and even though I am sweating and starting to get sore, I push through because I am having such a FUN TIME, and for one brief moment, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and say, “WHO IS THAT WOMAN? I WANT TO BE HER!!! and I look again, and realize IT IS ME!!! LOL! πŸ™‚ THAT, my friends, is called GROWTH!!

I think I realize that THE KEY, for me is to find the FUN IN FITNESS!! Dancing, swimming, hula hooping, skating, bike riding! These are the things that I NEED to be doing to get healthy, but not doing them to get healthy, but just for the act of bringing more fun into my life – fitness will come, if I can play in this kind of way!

So, for now, my word is FEARLESS! I can do it! I just have to be FEARLESS to take that first step, EVERY SINGLE DAY!! FEARLESS!! I can do it, and I know that you can too!!!

Something to think about: What is something that you can do to add a little more FUN back into your life???

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

A Quick Cheery Morning!

Good morning my lovelies!!

I am up and ready to head out to work just a little early today, so I thought I would stop and take a few moments to post this morning!!!

While doing my morning pages, this morning, it got me to reminiscing about one of my childhood friends. His name is Robbie! You see Robbie’s mom, and my mom were best friends growing up, so naturally, Robbie and I spent a lot of time together growing up too!!

I remember both of our families lived in a duplex forΒ  a time, they on one side, and we on the other. Robbie and I were inseparable. We went to school together, played together, went to church together! He was my

πŸ˜‰ Robbie and I would sometimes play in the back yard, and we had this folding table back there that we would turn on it’s side and cover with a blanket. That would become whatever building our imaginations needed it to be for that particular game. Most of the time we would playArmy, and Robbie, every the epitome of a gentleman, would be the soldier, and I would always pretend to be the nurse. My job was to hang out in the table/fort and take care of any wounded soldiers that would come in, and generally remain safe from enemy fire!!! Isn’t that funny!! I think we were probably 8 or 9 when this was happening, and it just makes me smile.

Robbie was my hero; he was faster than any of the other kids – seriously, he could run like nobody’s business! He was smarter than any of the other kids, he was more polite than any of the other kids – not many other kids held the door open for ladies! πŸ˜‰ He was cuter than most of the other kids!! Looking back, I am sure I had little crush on him!! πŸ˜‰

Robbie and I would do all sorts of things together, climb trees, go to the penny candy store (yes, they still had one of those back then), catch bugs, play on the park playgrounds, run around making up games to play with our siblings, and one of my favorite activities at the time, screeching around on our big wheels going as fast as we possibly could!! Man, what fun we used to have!!

Well, we both eventually grew up, and we had kept in contact with each other until our early 20’s but, as people change and life moves on we have lost touch. I sometimes think about him and wonder what his life is like right now!? I sure know he really helped make my childhood fun!!

Wherever you are, Robbie!! I hope you are as happy and as blessed as humanly possible!! You TOTALLY deserve it!! πŸ˜‰

Did any of you have childhood friends that made your childhood special, like Robbie did for me?? I would love to hear about them in the comments section above! πŸ™‚

Have a FABULOUS morning!!! πŸ˜‰