Everyone has two sides to their personality.
You could call them yin and yang.
Masculine and feminine.
Type A and Type B.
Today, I’m going to talk about the Inner Artist Child* and Inner Professional.
Losing Touch
Those of us who are driven to succeed tend to become “The Professional” when we grow up, and completely forget the other side of our personality.
We forget how to play, create, and have fun, which leaves us feeling like we’ve lost our sense of joy and wonder. It also leaves us completely out of balance.
But this doesn’t mean our inner artist child is gone. It only means it’s never getting any space because we are too busy for it.
It’s there underneath our never-ending to-do list and hectic schedule, waiting for us to slow down and give it some attention, so it can play and be loved.
Benefits of Reconnecting to your Inner Artist
The incredible thing is that when you give space to your Inner Artist Child, even for a few hours per week, it gives you enough balance to think more clearly, relax, and ultimately reach your highest potential…
Even more than if you filled this same amount of time with tasks. Not to mention, it makes life more fun!
Some Suggestions To Reconnect
1. Put on some music and dance in your room!
2. Follow whatever sparks your curiosity
3. Get out some crayons and scribble
4. Find a notebook and pen and don’t stop writing until you’ve filled 3 pages, without worrying about the quality*
5. Go for a walk and look at your surroundings with the curious eyes of a 5-year old
6. Do whatever your body wants to do!
7. Treat yourself to food you love, and enjoy whatever it is you’re eating with a beginner’s mind, instead of scarfing it down
8. ASK your inner artist what it wants to do, and honor that!
Further Reading
One of my favorite books for reconnecting to the Inner Artist Child is “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. It takes you through a 12-week process to help you reconnect to your lost childlike sense of creativity and wonder.
Further Guidance
Creating a balance between these two parts of the personality is something I specialize in helping ambitious young people do, so they can reach their highest potential through inner harmony.
The process I’ve found to be most effective for this is called Internal Family Systems, which is my main approach as a transformational coach. If you want to learn how to do my targeted, fascinating, and transformative technique to reconnect with these parts of you for better balance, you can learn more by signing up here.
This article originally appeared on my blog.
*The term “inner artist child” and the concept of writing 3 pages nonstop comes from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way.