“I have been closely associated with Indian Classical Dance from a young age. And when I dance, I always experience a certain joy that allows me to be curious and explore emotions using characters or situations. Even today, after many decades, I continue to dance every day and surprise myself and the people around me. Dance awakens the child within me and nurtures my creativity and courage to explore new pathways. 
 
Suddenly in 2014, while we launched the Global Leadership and Coaching Seminar with Philippe Rosinski, we decided to use dance, voice, and theatre as a key experience during the workshop. My joy knew no bounds as I could get leaders to explore their emotions and #innerchild using the same medium that has nurtured me. Ever since 2014, every year when we run the Global Leadership and Coaching Workshop, leaders have expressed the power and possibilities this medium of exploration opened for their leadership. I strongly believe that only when these leaders let go and allowed their #innerchild to take over, can they write some new narratives for their leadership. 
 
How much does your #innerchild contribute to your growth and leadership?”

Books are the pastures for the human imagination. For as long as I can remember, books have always fascinated me. Summer holidays at school were always about a weekly visit to the local library to borrow a set of books that we would devour throughout the week. A book every day was not uncommon.

As I hark back to those childhood days of fascination and joy about reading, I am struck by the extent of that imagination that still resides within me. Even today, when I read a book, I cover a couple of pages, and instinctually close my eyes with my imagination weaving possibilities around what I have read. Strangely enough, these mental soirees have always made me feel good, although I daresay, it can seriously slow down progress :-)

As the realities now of building and expanding our businesses consume me every day, I balance this responsibility by investing in my customers to make them greater – one leader and team at a time. Brackets of time between meetings is when I head back to my books to open up my thoughts to the art of the possible. That inner child of curiosity, imagination and the sheer joy of vicariously partaking in others’ experiences and learnings, constantly sustains me during the day.

The question for you is – how are you tapping into your inner child to sustain you everyday? What aspects of your childhood joys keeps you company now, as an adult? How can you trigger the inner child in others, so that you make their day, today?

P.S: The photo below is me tapping into my inner child on Diwali :-)

Childhood memories remain evergreen in one’s life. I am fortunate to live in the same locality in Chennai after being a Bangalorean for 2 decades. Quite often I pass through my alma maters (schools) and the joy derived from simple things as a child erupts spontaneously. Walking to primary school was a norm in those days since parents would buy a bicycle only in mid or high school.

One aspect which I dreaded as a child was being late to school- sun or rain, one has to run before the assembly starts for prayer. I did feel the embarrassment standing outside the gate few instances and receiving the gentle bamboo beatings from PT master.

Fast forward, #Myinnerchild used to get annoyed-when I was struck in the maddening traffic at Koramangala or Silk board junctions. Thanks to post pandemic era of Zoom/Teams meetings. I login in few minutes before the scheduled time checking the time in laptop, mobile and wall clock simultaneously. I feel the same sense of time pressure as a school student. #Myinnerchild drives me to be punctual. What is your #Myinnerchild story?

When I was young, My brothers, sisters, and I had formed a Cultural Group called “L” Board recreation Club through which we conducted a number of Plays and other cultural activities. My Brother was the scriptwriter and I was the Assistant Director taking care of the dialogue delivery, acting, and so on. We created the props ourselves — Swords, crowns, and other ornaments with gold paper and even created a 5 feet wall with cardboard sheets. We even endured the task of carrying it around everywhere we were invited to perform.

Prompting, Stage presentation, body language, lighting effects, music with vessels etc… we did it all ourselves, a feat which was great fun and truly memorable.

Recently during #dusshera celebrations, our Next Gen children wanted us to write them a script. It was a walk down memory lane and brought me great joy. We felt like children once again and forgot current-day stress and pressures. The preparation period was full of jokes and childlike giggles.

This made me realize:
Finding your inner child doesn’t mean you’re immature or don’t want to grow up. Rather, it can help make it easier to understand your adult experience, heal from pain in your past, and handle any future challenges with self-compassion. Since tapping into this awareness of your inner child can help you regain a sense of joy and wonder, you can even consider it a form of #selfcare.

A few days ago, I was on a short #vacation at a nearby hill station. What started off as a conscious getaway from ‘routine’ turned out to be an awakening for #myinnerchild. We chanced upon an aviary. I expected to see colorful macaws and parrots in cages but the moment I walked inside the aviary, I was baffled. Once we entered the trap door, we could be with birds in what looked like their natural habitat. The birds flew all around and sat on us. Two parrots were in love with my bag and wouldn’t let go. One was on my head. The macaws loved to be held. It had been a number of years since I heard my own excited shrieking. I was in such joy! I couldn’t stop giggling. And I carried those happy hormones with me for the rest of the day. Along with my 6-year-old, my husband and I became children in that aviary. And that got me thinking:

Why don’t I invoke #myinnerchild more often? Which rule book says that adults can no longer experience uninhibited joy like little children?

As #children, we are all naturally creative and joyful. However, some of us had our spontaneous creativity trained out of us at an early age. It could have been through an education system, or perhaps when we felt pressured to please others by striving for a “talented” end product.

Inner child drawings are a creative way to regain contact with aspects of yourself that you might otherwise ignore or repress, or have forgotten. Inner child drawings are typically done with your non-dominant hand so that you are not tempted to try and control them with your authoritarian left brain. Buy yourself a box of kid’s crayons or pencils to support your inner child’s creative process!

I recently had the opportunity to explore my inner child again at a lovely hotel in Mumbai. It was a joy to see all the different colors and then start applying them to the blank canvas and see what would happen. I felt connections with a self from long ago that I had not realized was still there. It made me smile to see a rainbow appear on the page and all the colors interlocking to provide a beautiful hue. I felt happier for the experience.

It was during the Health camp last year, which was an excellent break; I was in the moment for the entire week, I felt like I visited my childhood again. Got a chance to connect with myself and nature. It was a complete switch off from the external world – No Laptop, Internet, or social media. I happened to meet great health enthusiasts who were very passionate about fitness, food, and healthy lifestyle and got a chance to learn a lot from them.

A day there starts at 4:30 am with a good meditation, followed by yoga, nature walk camp, healthy cooking and many physical activities to burn fat. The best part – You fall asleep early by 8 :30 PM and wake up the next day with amazing energy and enthusiasm.

Being physically active is very important, this has been reduced a lot in the last 10 years as a corporate adult. Right from childhood to high school there used to be a minimum of 3 – 4 hours of physical activities daily; which has now been reduced to 45 min.

After engaging myself for 3 – 4 hrs in Physical activities in the health camp, I could feel my energy levels of being very young; It was reflecting the young me with so much joy!!

My patti (grandmother) is a #storyteller. She influenced me so much during my growing-up years. I always used to sit on the stool she uses to rest her legs and enjoy talking to her and now 30 years later, my son does the same by sitting like that and chitchatting with her.

When I see this, I instantly become the child I used to be. I will cherish this moment so much for the years to come. It is always very special to spend time with her and enjoy her positive vibes!

I recently went to the beach with a few friends and as usual the first thing was to run to the water. There was sheer joy in touching the water barefoot and instantly I had tapped into #myinnerchild. Suddenly the inner child in me looked forward to the simple things and took me back to my childhood days when small things like playing in the water, playing with the sand at the beach, collecting shells and playing with cousins till after sunset mattered.

Remember when we were toddlers, we had that deep #selftrust? We knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were good enough. We were at ease with who we were. We were open and curious about each moment. We didn’t judge people or events as good or bad, nor did we blame anyone. Our #joy was complete joy. Our anger and our tears were full and intense. We recovered from the setbacks of life in minutes. We were not self-conscious about what we were doing or about how we looked while doing it. Life was an adventure that we explored passionately and intensely. What happened to us? – Most of us forgot how it was…. we now are often caught in destructive behaviors based on fears and limiting beliefs that do not nurture our self-love and our inner child.

It is important to let the child in you out again – to play, dance, laugh, shout, run, get wet & dirty, jump into puddles, play in the mud, feel connected with friends and with the earth, have fun, be one with nature, weave stories together, walk in the rain, feel grounded, eat with your fingers, be grateful…enjoy the simple pleasures…let it all out…and much more…

2018. It was my first trip to Dubai. I along with 4 of my other colleagues went there for our annual sales kick off meet. It was a short 3-day event, where a day and half was dedicated to official activities. For the next one and half days we had time for site seeing, shopping and to roam around the city.

Awestruck by the skyscrapers, amazed by the roads and traffic disciplines, astonished by the variety of stylish cars and trucks from various international brands on the roads, I was celebrating every moment there. Since we went as a group, we had loads and loads of fun, laughter and happy moments together.

As customary for every person who visits Dubai, we also landed in Burj Khalifa finally. We had exactly 1 hour at our disposal as we were supposed to catch our flight back home.

When I tried to see the top of the tower, my neck was literally paining. So huge. We went inside and started roaming around. For the next 1 hour, the time just flew.

My colleague kept telling us that it was getting late, and we had to leave Burj Khalifa for airport, else we will be missing the flight. We didn’t even finish one fifth of the tower. But we didn’t have much time.

Suddenly, I saw a small shop. There the visitors could choose the local Arab attires and take a picture. The shop keeper invited us. We told we didn’t have time. He said he could finish this within 10 minutes.

In my childhood days, I had never participated in any fancy dress competition. I thought this would be the right opportunity to take a pic of mine in a typical Arab style. I convinced my other friends and we all got inside. But it took more than 30 minutes for all to dress up, take pics and get print outs.

Finally, we came out and were rushing to airport. My friend and colleague kept cursing me that we would definitely miss the flight because of my child like behaviour. I kept on laughing. But we reached the airport in the nick of the moment and boarded the flight.

Those 30 minutes inside the photo shop, I was literally behaving like a child. So much of energy, enthusiasm, fun, friendship and what not. Thinking of that incident now, I realize that if I carry those child-like qualities, life will not be so complicated and stressed, rather it would be a blessing.

I am sure everyone will have this inner child. The question is, are we tapping it to lead a better life?