This young man has a gift for us. It is not the twinkle in his eye, nor is it the slightly mischievous smile, although they are in fact both wonderful gifts. Instead he is offering us something much more profound. He holds in his hands the energy behind his success. He offers us the gift of self-love. And this gift alone will lift us higher than even the newest of airplanes. He represents my inner child. I want to introduce you to “inner Brad”.

Inside of each of us exists our “inner child”. This young innocent version of ourselves has much to offer us. Whether you are 10 or 100 your inner child is still at play within you. We are never abandoned by our inner child, however many of us have abandoned them long ago. It is time to reach within and bring our inner child into our outer reality.

Why is our inner child important? What can we gain from releasing our inner child? The very thing which we need to stay healthy, happy and whole. Our inner acceptance, our non-judgmental selves, our joy and laughter, our immediate emotions blatantly displayed. In fact, when I think of it much of what we strive for on our spiritual journey is available from our inner child.

Now I am not proposing your revert to a prepubescent stage of our development. We are the age we are now although as my mother used to say “you are as young as you think you are”. I am suggesting that we reach within and rediscover our ability to sing, regardless of talent, dance, regardless of audience, laugh, regardless of environment, cry when we are sad, imagine, regardless of reality and dream with wild abandon of things to come and things to do.

Not everything about “inner Brad” is necessarily fun or easy as anyone who has been through therapy will attest but that should not stop us from looking within and discovering all the wonderful things our inner child has to offer us.

I believe there is something we can do to discover for ourselves the benefits we derive from reconnecting to our innermost child. I will explain the method here and then you can try it at your leisure, if it be your pleasure. Remember, as with all things I suggest, it is  an invitation not expectation so please do not “should” on yourself or others to do it.

For the next week to ten days make a habit of picking up magazines or newspapers, advertisements or flyers wherever you see them. When possible rip out the images that you are drawn towards or maybe just capture an image on your cellphone. Do not ask yourself why or judge them in anyway. Simply start to collect them along the way. It does not matter what images you choose. They could be items to buy or rent, places to go, things to do or images which evoke emotions within you. For now your only task is to collect them.

In 10 days I will follow-up with the next step. I do not want to explain it here and now because I do not want to prejudice your collection. I want you to collect with reckless abandon and hold on to them. Use an envelop or a large shopping bag, whatever you prefer just keep them all in one place and do not revisit them. Do not ask yourself questions about them. Simply collect them and store them for the next week to ten days.