Letting your Inner Child Soar: Explore!

We all know that children love to explore and that exploring is important to their development.  As adults, it is easy to get stuck in the routines of daily life and occupy ourselves with the same old activities, habits and chores.  I personally love my routines but recognize that us grown-ups can certainly benefit from exploring too! 
​Exploring can open our minds to new ideas, gain a new perspective, clear our minds from stress and inspire us to seek knowledge of the world around us.  Here are five easy ways to incorporate more exploration into our adult lives and helping our inner child to soar:

Explore Nature

One of my favorite ways to explore is by going outdoors and into nature.  I’m blessed to live in a beautiful place where within a hour’s drive I can be either at the coast or the mountains.  The Pacific Northwest offers a variety of landscapes that make it fun to explore with the whole family.  The seasons offer different activities to explore nature and many of them are free! 
​Our family loves to go hiking and pay attention to wildlife tracks on the trail.  We study the native plants we see or try to figure out which bird is singing so pretty.  In summer, we swim in mountain lakes and learn about newts.  In fall, we hunt for edible mushrooms in the forest or go for “nature treasure hunts” in the city as we look for pretty acorns and chestnuts.
While the kids learn lots through these experiences, I have found myself learning as well.  Exploring engages me with the natural world and encourages me to open up reference books to better understand what plant or animal track I’m looking at.

Explore Creativity

As an artist, I explore by trying out a new art supply or experimenting with a new medium.  In my illustrations, I strive to communicate ideas with simple line drawings and push myself which lines are necessary to make the drawing as pleasing yet simple as possible.  Last year, I received a rubber stamp making kit for Christmas.  I had never tried my hand at making stamps but found that my simple designs work very well in making stamps.
Even if you don’t consider yourself an artist, it can be so fun to doodle with some pencils, build something out of wood or create a bowl out of clay.  Our modern smart phones are equipped with amazing cameras so you can literally be a photographer on your lunch break and receive instant feedback through posting on instagram!

Explore New Skills

If you feel stuck in your job or tired with daily chores, maybe it’s time to learn a new skill.  Who knows what opportunities open up by learning a new skill!  It may help you to work more efficiently or step up in your career.  You may find a new hobby, for example by learning how to play a musical instrument.  
I recently started taking ice skating lessons.  If you would have told me last year that I would be taking ice skating lessons, I would have told you you’re crazy.  However, my daughter started taking lessons and it looked so fun, I couldn’t resist!  I grew up ice skating during the winter in Holland so it feels great to be back onto the ice.  I have to be very careful because of my back issues but taking a basic skills class has been an exciting way to get back into it.

Explore through travel

Being an international family, we’re lucky we have family all over the world we can visit.  We love to travel!  Exploring through travel truly opens your mind and helps you to learn about other cultures, foods and ways of living.  It widens our horizons…. quite literally.
If travel is not in your budget or you have physical challenges to make travel a reality, you can travel from your most comfortable chair right at home by reading books!  I recently read “A State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett which allowed me to “travel” to the Amazon rainforest, a place where I have never been.  Do you love to travel through books?  If you have any good book recommendations for me, please leave them for me in the comments.

Explore your community

Talking about books, have you visited your local library recently?  The library is not only a wonderful place to find books but also connect with your community.  Our local library offers free events for all ages. 
How can you explore your community?  By visiting a park, by visiting a neighborhood coffee shop, by introducing yourself to a new neighbor, by supporting a local small business or getting involved as a volunteer?  So many ways to explore your community!

Feeling inspired, I created a new design around this concept of exploring.  The design has a triangular shape with colors that are attractive to men and women, boys and girls. The “explore” design is available on a wide variety of products including cards and apparel. By clicking on the images, you will be directed to zazzle which is the print-on-demand company which produces my designs into real life products and gifts.  If you are interested in seeing the entire product line, please click here and select newest products.


If you believe in the benefits of exploring and enjoyed reading my post, I always appreciate it if you share via social media.  Thank you!!

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