Childlike Wonder: Revamp The Excitement In Your Life

So when was the last time you time you took a walk in the park and appreciated nature? Gazing at the trees and in awe of their existence, embracing the warmth of the sun and tuning into the rhythm of birds’ chirping. Really, when was the last time you were absolutely in awe with nature? Or of anything for that matter? So much in awe, that you would spend moments, that would feel like eternity, wondering about these things.

Perhaps, wondering how bizarre life is. Wondering how we are literally floating in space, how caterpillars turn into butterflies (do they know they turn into butterflies?) or how our skin is crawling with billions of bacteria. You know, the types of thoughts that children think of. That childlike wonder that makes all of life into a wondrous fairytale. Why isn’t life a fairytale anymore?

As kids, we are new to the world so we are filled with fascination when seeing and experiencing things for the first time. So much of life had a special spark that would draw in our interest and keep us fully invested in the moment. That is why going to the park, on roller coasters, beaches had all the magical wonder of a fairytale. In fairytales are things that don’t ordinarily happen or exist. To kids, most of the things we see and experience never existed or happened before as well! Hence why it was all so magical.

Our minds also had little to no references through which to judge our experiences. Our minds were completely open and in being so, we could more thoroughly enjoy every moment. As kids, we do not have fully developed egos which means we generally do not have a base culmination of beliefs and memories that make up our perception of ourselves. This lack of identity granted us more flexibility in the question of “I am” and allowed us to play more with our imaginations. We could shape our consciousness to be whatever we wanted it to be at that moment. I am an eagle. I am superman. I am walking on hot lava. Our minds were the greatest playgrounds you could find on planet earth.

But as we continually experience and see the same things, we slowly begin to develop certain attitudes and preferences. We become the culmination of our beliefs, preferences, experiences, social circles, values, ext… And so we fall into routines we follow day to day and focus only on the things we deem as most valuable to our current beliefs.  In other words, we fall into the box that becomes difficult to think outside of. We become quite comfortable inside this box and generally avoid most things outside of it because they do not relate into our realities.

Your ego becomes the personal reality you experience day to day. You experience the same thought and emotional patterns, same situations with different names and words involved, same locations with little to no regard. In fact, we begin to also experience new things in the same way we did with similar experiences. Our reality becomes a limited experience.

Life is not so wondrous anymore. We don’t stop and look at how elegantly that tree is standing. We stop to think about what it is we want and either complain about it or imagine what it would be if we had it. We live in our heads and forget that we live in the world. A world filled with beauty and wonderment that overshadows the petty things we care about so much. But now that we are trapped in this box, how do we see it all again?

Try new things

It can be difficult to be fascinated by things you have seen or done time and time again. So then it’s time to try and see new things! Tired of seeing the same flowers growing in your local park? Go to your town’s botanical garden. Tired of the same local pub with the same crowd or music? Try a different one.  I am quite sure there are plenty of places in your town that you haven’t seen or experienced as of yet.

Tired of seeing the same rehashed Hollywood flicks? Seek for overlooked, unique or indie movies online. There are hundreds if not thousands of amazing movies or television shows that you may not have ever heard of. Check out these great movie lists. 

25 Spectacular Movies You Probably Haven’t Seen

50-most-underrated-films-of-all-time

You can even go down this list of what are considered the best movies of all time. I have seen a good portion of those movies and they truly deserve those spots. Those are phenomenal movies that generally have a lasting effect on you (I saw Forrest Gump for the first time several months ago and wow, what a great movie.. Better late than never!). Some of these movies will blow you away and many people would be jealous that you get to see them for the first time.

Same goes for music. Go on Pandora and find new artists you never heard of related to those you like. Perhaps, try out a new genre. Youtube is also amazing for finding new artists by checking out related videos to songs you like. This website is great for finding new music as well.

Read books off of  reddit’s top 200 books list.

Learn a new talent or discover a new hobby from one of the following lists.

50 Fun Things To Learn

Useless Life Skills

Best Websites To Learn New Things

Want new friends? Meet with new people over similar interest on Meetup.com

There are enough things to do and see to fill up an entire lifetime. But seeking to try out new things won’t amount to anything if you don’t approach them with an open mind.

Open your mind

Now while many of these things  may sound intriguing, I’m pretty sure some of you reading would rather not try doing most of these things. In fact if you tried, you will likely not even enjoy it and wonder “why am I even doing this?” “I’m bored, I’d rather do this other thing I’m more comfortable doing.” “This isn’t “me.”” Well the truth is, this “me” is very limiting and keeps you from getting more out of life.

If you could enjoy all the things you currently avoid, then you would open yourself to a much more fulfilling life. Imagine enjoying all forms of music, food, places… You’d be in a constant state of enjoyment! Only way that is possible is through keeping an open mind throughout life. When you keep an open mind, you open the possibility of feeling a wide array of different emotions, thinking in unique perspectives and experiencing life in an infinite amount of ways. When you believe anything is possible, you can experience everything possible.  But how do you open your mind?

Before learning how to open your mind, you must learn to acknowledge that all your beliefs are not 100% true. Thoughts such as “rock music is the only genre I can listen to,” “nature is quite boring,” “Donald Trump is the best president ever,” are simply beliefs. Thoughts such as “I like horror movies and hate comedies” are also beliefs because preferences are ideas that you believe about yourself.

Beliefs are perceptions that over time become a core element of your personality’s foundation.  They become true to your mind and in a sense, the reality you experience daily. The subconscious mind sets to filter out information in the real world that contradicts your beliefs and continually proves what you believe to be true. People that believe Donald Trump is the best president ever will come across all the proof that makes this reality to them. But only because they experience this belief as truth does not mean it is truth for everyone.

Reality is so subjective that it can be quite mind boggling when you open your mind and experience reality for what it truly is.  There are many of people whose realities consist of  “Donald Trump being the worst president ever.” But now if one person experiences Donald Trump as the best president ever and the other person experiences him as the worst, which one of their realities is the true reality? Well…

Both realities are true yet false at the same time. It is best explained by the Sufi maxim:

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

Everything is true and wrong at the same time. Nothing is concrete. If everything is possible, then every answer is possibly wrong or possibly right. This is infinity and in truly embracing this, you gain so much more mental freedom. Its also similar to how in quantum physics,  electrons are in a constant probable state of being either a wave or a particle at the same time. So there are no concrete answers, only probabilities.   The sooner you accept and integrate this viewpoint, the easier it will be to be able cease your current beliefs and experience the infinite possibilities of reality.

The next time you are trying something new and feel unenthusiastic about it, observe the way you feel about it and the beliefs that generate these feelings. Affirm that these feelings/beliefs are true and rationalize as to why they are true. Then affirm that the opposite is true as well and rationalize why the opposite can be true as well. By doing this you have neutralized your perception and now have a clear mind on the subject. You won’t be prejudging what is happening any longer and experience it wholly for what it is. In experiencing it wholly, you can experience the childlike wonder that invokes excitement and fascination.

For example, you may want to try classical music. Your mind automatically finds it boring. You begin by thinking “yes, classical music is boring because of my current preferences in music. There are no lyrics and there is no apparent rhythm like in the music I currently enjoy listening to.” but then think “but it is also true that classical music is amazing. It was the most popular form of music in the world at once point. The skill it takes for all those instruments to play in harmony is astounding..” Remember, all these things are true because they CAN be true. If someone else can experience it as so, then so can you. So now listen to the music without judgement and fully embrace it. 

It wouldn’t be an enlightenedstates article if I didn’t offer a shortcut you can take…

Listen to childlike wonder

Our new audio, childlike wonder is an energetically embedded audio that recreates the excitement of experiencing things as if it is the first time. This is an amazing tool you can use in your day to day life to bring more excitement to your life. Listening to this audio before going to a place you have been to before can reintroduce more wonder and excitement in being there. You may find yourself appreciating the place more and noticing things you hadn’t noticed the first time.

Using this audio before seeing or trying out something new can also fully enrich the experience. This audio is also a shortcut to opening your mind and fully embracing new things. The process mentioned in the “open your mind” section can take time to fully take advantage of but this audio can begin helping you see the world in a new light today.  

But why

You might ask why? Why do these new things? You might not feel like it or think you are too old and have more important things to focus on. Maybe you’d rather go for a drink at the pub. If you were a kid, would you be satisfied with doing the same exact things daily?  Does it sound like you are adding new experiences to your life? Life is all about expansion and evolving your character. You learn more about yourself when you do new things. New experiences are what shape your character… Proof of that are all the relatively new experiences you had growing up that shaped you into who you are today. If you get trapped into a routine, it becomes difficult to progress and learn about yourself. It would be like reading the same pages of a book every single day. The next pages contains the progression to your story. Progress your story.

Some of you also may also be far too focused on the other problems you have in your life and think that you can’t go out and explore life in the state that you are in. With that attitude you won’t! Maybe doing these things will breathe new life into you and lead to bigger and better things. In being in new places and situations, life can throw more opportunities your way and pave your path in the right direction to fix the problems you have.

See, cause life is always seeking for ways to get us in the right path and fix your problems. But far too often, we fail to catch on to these opportunities and find ourselves in the same events, around the same people and in the same places time and time again. Life begins to lose options to grant you opportunities with and even if the opportunities are right there, you won’t catch on to them because they blend right in with your routine. But when you go out and do new things, life has more space to manifest opportunities for you. Opportunities to meet someone special, get a new job, find a new hobby, ext…

So start now. Make life worth living by doing and seeing things worth doing. You’ll grow all the more because of it and find more reason to wake up every single day.