Traveling with kids can be an amazing experience, not just because you get to experience the privilege of introducing them to amazing new sights and sounds, broadening their knowledge about the world, and laughing at their antics, but also because it can remind us of something that we all too often forget as adults.
That “something” is the sense of wonder and awe with which children view the world; it’s the way they’re able to see the fun and joy in every experience.
There are lessons there, and those lessons might just reinvigorate you and return some of the magic to your world, whether you’re using an Orlando limousine service to ride into Disney World in style, or are walking through a beautiful forest on a hot summer’s day.
Here are two principles to follow in order to rediscover your inner child on vacation.
Cultivate your sense of curiosity
Children are naturally curious about the world in a way that most grownups find pretty difficult to comprehend. The reasons are simple enough — children are new arrivals, and they have no idea how things work. They look around and see unexplained mysteries all about them. They think these mysteries are really cool and want to find out how everything works and why.
The interesting thing is that, as adults, we don’t know everything either. Sure, we know a lot more than our kids (hopefully), but the majority of the world is still something of a mystery when it comes down to it. We have a vague idea of how our phones, or the internet, work, but the underlying physics and logistics are completely alien to us.
But rather than being driven by wonder to find out more, we’re all too often jaded.We ignore the everyday magic of the world to focus more intensely on our immediate concerns.
A great place to begin rediscovering your inner child is to work on cultivating your natural sense of curiosity about the world while on vacation. Ask questions of tour guides, read in-depth about the history of different monuments, and take note of things which leave an impression on your imagination, even if they’re only oddly shaped rocks.
Take yourself less seriously
Young children are always running around and playing games without any apparent sense of embarrassment at how they look, as they’re rolling around in the mud.
As adults, we naturally have to be more mindful of social rules and expectations so that we don’t scare everyone else away from us, but we all too often get caught up in our own ruminations and hangups.
We obsess over how other people view us, to the point where we terrify ourselves into inaction. We don’t dance because we worry we’ll look stupid. We don’t go to the gym because we worry we’ll “do it wrong”.
As a result of our hangups and image-obsession, we often miss out on a good deal of the joy to be had in life, simply because we hold ourselves back for the sake of protecting our — often fragile — egos.
So when you’re next traveling, try to leave some of your ego at home. Dance from time to time, do interesting things you would normally be too shy or straight-laced to do. Take yourself less seriously and live a little.
