Spiritual Tip #8: Childlike vs Childish

The conversation explores the concepts of being childlike and childish in a spiritual sense, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, enthusiasm, and joy. It delves into personal experiences and reflections on embracing the childlike essence and differentiating it from immature behavior.

• Embracing the childlike essence involves curiosity, enthusiasm, and joy in the present moment.
• Differentiating between childlike and childish behavior is essential for spiritual growth and maturity.
• Personal experiences and reflections provide valuable insights into the significance of embracing the childlike essence in a spiritual context.

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Transcript

TNT SpiritWorks (00:01)

So exploring life as a child and having fun is what this episode is all about. We're going to be exploring childlike or childish in a spiritual sense. So welcome back to Enthusiastically Spiritual. This is Spiritual Tip Number 8. Hey Tom. Hello Teresa. So you know how I like to have fun. you like to have fun. And this topic came up recently about being childlike or childish. 

So what does being childlike mean to you, Tom? Well, for me, being childlike, I always remember when I was about four years old and how I'd walk outside and explore the neighborhood, you know, the few houses around where we live. And I'd go and look at bushes. And I just was ecstatic, you know, about, wow, look at this flower. Look at that bee, you know, and,

It was just this amazing sense of curiosity. I'm sure many people can relate to that. And then of course, over time that sort of died down, but the things that really turned me on now, you know, are similar and childlike is having that renewable enthusiasm. Ooh, I like that word so much. What is, what is childlike? 

What were some of the things you'd like to share about that? Well, so childlike to me is really embracing for myself, embracing the moments that I'm at. And an example is like recently we went to the Botanical Gardens here in Des Moines and I was like, you know, like take pictures and stuff for social media. I'm like, hey, Tom, take a video of me. So I took a video of skipping and spinning around. And I just that's to me like being childlike, just enjoying the moments.

And sometimes it's kind of reverted back like even sometimes we'll go for walks and I'm like, a swing set and I'll go over and I'll swing for a while or something because it's just fun. I feel like invigorated. I feel like renewed when I'm more childlike because of the fact that I'm embracing that part of me that I don't get to embrace all the time. So that's what childlike to me is. Yes. And as we go through, you know, that...

we're sort of talking about cycles of life, the seven year cycles and from zero to seven, our basic personalities formed and from seven to 14, we start programming our intellect and going to school and so forth. And there is a point from seven to 14 where we kind of look around and see that it's cool not to be committed to life. It's cool not to get fully involved. And that...

I've raised two sons and I watch them go through it as well. It's just seems to be something that we all pick up from the environment. But when I think about it, what really turns me on is like you said, just getting on that swing and still swinging. And, you know, there's many things we can still do. Even if you don't, even if you can't, you know, get on a swing, like, you know, you're physically, you're a bit past it. I mean, it's just feeling the joy of the morning.

Or feeling the joy of watching the birds in the backyard or something like that. Well, and I'll say too, what just comes to my mind as you're saying that is like it's almost summertime here in the Northern Hemisphere. So like for us in our small town is going to the Frosty's place and just getting a little ice cream cone. That's like the best, right? I mean, maybe not the best sugar, but it rekindles that childlike part that I just love so much because I have good memories of well, not really good memories, I'll tell you.

When my Dad, we used to go, we would go to Dairy Queen in California. But my memories of ice cream cones, honestly, is we're in the back of the car. Dad, we go up to order. Dad orders himself a big ice cream with chocolate all over it, gets us a little, one of those little star pops in the back, and we watch him suck it down, and we're not able to get one because it was really a mess. Well, so what are you gonna do about that? I'm gonna go and have a...

I'm going to go have a dipped cone now and enjoy it. There you go. Wow. There's a solution. And that's my timing. That's a matter of timing. But so it wasn't that bad of a memory. But yeah, it was a memory from my past when I was a young kid. So now what do you feel? I think you were going to go there. But how would you describe being childish? Childish. Well, that's a different energy. 

So being childish to me is going from an immaturity. It's someone that's like has maybe the Peter Pan syndrome and hasn't really grown up and treats life more of an immature kind of fashion. Now what's an example of that? Hmm. What would be your tendency? What would be my tendency? Cause it seems like you know what my tendency is. I don't know. Cause I'm looking at him going, I think he knows something I don't know. Something you'd be comfortable sharing; to be childish.

Maybe it's like, like sometimes when an energy moves in, I throw a little tantrum or something. is that where you were going Thomas? Which doesn't happen all that doesn't happen like as much as it used to happen. But, but there are times when yeah, I might be a little childish about something like that. Yeah. And what about you? What is childish or an example you have? Well, probably wanting more attention than, you know, my allocated spot energy.

So that's, we're trying to push things before their timing. You know, that's kind of a bully childlike, I'm not a bully, I'm a really nice guy, but, or feeling sorry for myself, that's childish. You know, that's probably the biggest one. If I'm gonna waste time feeling sorry for myself rather than going, okay, what's the solution? Let's snap out of it, let's move forward, let's... 

You know, no matter what's happened to me in the past and who did what to me. So what am I going to do about that? Okay. Yeah. And next. And, anyways, but that takes a bit of practice because in our environment, you know, there's a lot of, reinforcement for the victim in society. I like to suffer. Yeah. There's a lot of prestige victim. You get a lot of attention.

So from a spiritual perspective, how does one set oneself up to become a victim in a situation? You know, so anyways, those, those might be some examples, but I'm sure that the listeners out there and the folks who are viewing this on YouTube can probably come up with, ideas about, you know, what's more childish or childlike and what's more childlike.

I, one, one that just came to mind was kind of wanting more than your fair share. You know, that, I guess that's the one that's not tuning into the bigger picture. You know, we, as when we're little kids, you know, it's all about us first, second and third, you know, it.

And so for me, maturity is like, it's all about me first, but then there's people I'm living with and then there's greater community and it all has to be simpatico and in sync with all of that. Absolutely agree. Yeah. So that was a good one. So yeah, just a little insight guys for the spiritual tip number eight on, are you sometimes working with that childlike part of you, which is fun and exciting and

filled with curious, filled with enthusiasm. I enjoyed that little looking that ice cream. Or how often are you working with the childish part of you that that may be more immature? Yeah. So a childish example would be this ice cream isn't perfect. You know, it, why, why don't they have more of this on it? You know, and, why didn't you ask for some of that? Well, they should have just known, you know, so there you go.

I mean, yeah, that's funny as you say that it's like I can, I can see even adults saying that. So, anyway, this happens to all of us at different times. And so we hope that this episode gave you a little insight into the difference between being childlike or childish and accessing the spiritual part of you to really rock the right one. You want to walk rock. Yeah. Renew your enthusiasm with that childlike essence of curiosity, love, joy, fulfillment, involvement.

I love it. Matter of fact, tonight we're going to be going ballroom dancing. So we're going to be getting childlike tonight, people. Right. Right. Tom's like, boy. So until next time, thanks again for listening into another mini morsel episode, another spiritual tip number eight for you guys out there listening spiritual tip number eight. And we look forward to come back and sharing again soon with you. And until next time, remember that life is too short to not be enthusiastic about your unique journey.