Are you looking for the secret of how to stay young? If you are, it’s your lucky day! It’s Be A Kid Again Day—a day to let go of the stresses of life and return to the carefree days of childhood.
Read on to learn what research says about how adopting a youthful attitude can help you stay young and even live longer. And if you need ideas, you’ll love my 21 ways to embrace your inner child today and every day.
Remembering the lazy, hazy days of summer
It’s early summer and that means school’s out already, or soon will be, depending on where you live. Do you remember the lazy, hazy days of summer from your childhood?
Stop for a minute and think back to how you spent summers when you were a kid. You may remember playing outside for hours on end and the only rule was “come home when the streetlights come on”. You didn’t have to worry about the stresses of life. On the contrary—you spent your days laughing, having fun and just being.
Over time, you probably started to hear the term “grow up” a lot more often from the adults in your life. All too soon, grown-up responsibilities took over and those carefree days of summer disappeared, only to be resurrected for a couple of weeks of vacation every summer.
How to stay young – What the research says
With an aging population, it seems everyone is looking for the fountain of youth. If you do an online search on “how to stay young”, you’ll find a lot of articles like this one from Shape magazine. Most of the discussion focuses on healthy lifestyle habits like diet, exercise, stress reduction and rest. Those things are important but newer research reveals another important factor.
More and more, you’ll see that staying psychologically young and having a positive attitude toward aging can make a big difference. In You’re Only As Old As You Think and Do, The American Psychological Association reveals research from Dr. Jennifer Bellingtier showing that feeling younger than your actual age can lead to many positive outcomes, including better memory, overall health and longevity.
So, if the key to staying young is to not act your age, why not start now?
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21 ways to embrace your inner child
Here are some fun ways to embrace your inner child—starting today. I guarantee you’ll laugh and instantly feel younger. What have you got to lose?
If you’re like most adults, you might feel weird doing some of these activities alone. Adopt some kids for a day to tag along. You probably have kids, grandkids, nieces or nephews, or other kids in your life who’d love to hang out with you and have some fun.
Set aside some time today to…
- Have a picnic—if the weather doesn’t cooperative, picnic in your living room.
- Blow bubbles.
- Draw some pictures with sidewalk chalk.
- Pick daisies or dandelions.
- Play hopscotch or jump rope.
- Read a children’s book.
- Watch cartoons.
- Put on music and do a silly dance.
- Go to the park.
- Play outside until the streetlights come on.
- Invite friends over for a slumber party!
- Make a homemade card for someone in your life.
- Draw a picture.
- Do some crafts.
- Play board games.
- Watch Disney movies.
- Play dress-up.
- Build a sandcastle.
- Play video games all day. (Today is also National Video Game Day)
- Eat peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.
- Have cookies for breakfast—or your favourite sugary cereal.
When my daughter Colleen turned 18 last year, she wanted to spend her “last day as a kid” doing some of the fun things she enjoyed when she was smaller. We visited the park, blew bubbles on our deck and played with sparklers. It was such a fun day and definitely made me feel 30 years younger.
Let’s make every day Be A Kid Again Day. We’ll live longer, healthier lives—and have some laughs doing it. What’s not to love about that?
What was your favourite activity as a child? Tell me your ideas below.
Thank you, Michelle, for showing us why it is important to stay in touch with the child within and giving us some excellent tips of how to do this. I still watch cartoons on occaision, but could try of the others more. Also to try to keep that care free mind as I had back then. Things worked out and what I’ve noticed now is that this hasn’t changed. Remaining positive in life is also something we can change in our mind.
You’re right that we can train our minds to remain positive. Kids believe anything is possible. It’s only as we get older that doubt creeps in and takes over.
I actually love that your daughter dedicated one of the last days of her childhood to do fun things she loved doing as a young kid- that’s such a great idea to partake in with your daughter! I will do the same with Charlotte!
When I was a kid, I loved riding my bike everywhere with my sisters. One of my fondest memories is when my dad taught me how to ride a bike! I also have fun memories of us using our imaginations in make-believe play- we didn’t have a lot of money growing up so we often played with things around the house or things we could find outside! I sort of base how I want to raise Charlotte using the same limitless imaginations I had as a child rather than the things we can buy… 🙂 A lovely reminder to be a kid again sometimes!
Thanks Jen. I think it’s really important for kids to engage in creative play. My girls always loved playing with pots and pans, empty yogurt tubs, and the big boxes that toys and appliances came in. We often wondered why we bothered buying them toys. LOL
A wonderful blog post, Michelle. Reading your list of possible activities put a smile on my face. I especially like re-reading books I loved as a child. And it might be time to blow some bubbles…
Thanks Will. It is always fun to do activities we enjoyed as children. I still love bubbles!
I love this, and it’s the first time I read about this day. It was so refreshing reading about it and tapping into my own inner child. This reminds a lot of research on playfulness and its importance for overall health and well-being. All these suggestions are great starters. Last week I watched two kids movies, and I loved it. It’s always a good way to rekindle and cherish our inner child.
Yes, we definitely could benefit from going back to our childhood days. It’s great that there’s research to support this.
I loved reading as a child, and really old movies with Fred Astaire. I was never a particularly outdoorsy child I think. I used to play piano with my mum and do jigsaws and cross stitch. What a boring kid I sound like!
Not boring at all. Life would be very boring if everyone was the same.
Terrific advice. I love what your daughter did. The kid activity ideas are fun. The invite friends over for a sleepover part could be quite scandalous as an adult, however. 😉
Ha ha. Good point. You’d have to choose your friends carefully.
😛
How fun! My favorite thing to do as a kid in the summer was play in the kiddie pool in our backyard. My brother and I would pretend it was a huge pool and we lived in a mansion. We had such great imaginations!
Oh I love that. We used to run through the lawn sprinkler on hot days.
I used to play out all day when I was a child. I still have a little dance when my favourite music is played. 😀💃
Yes, that’s what we did when we were kids. Rain or shine, we were outdoors all day.
I was so into video games as a kid and would even get up early to squeeze in an hour before school… funny how I haven’t played for years even though it would still bring me a lot of fun. Maybe the sense that these kinds of things are a waste of time? This post has made me rethink them as adding value to our health
That’s the sad part about growing up, isn’t it? All these things that bring us joy are seen as time wasters? I think we need to revive our childhood.