adulthood breaks us

here's how to find your way back

I lost myself there for a while.

Maybe you’ve felt it too. Somewhere along the years, you realized you were now an adult. You have responsibilities, loved ones to care for, and ever-present bills to pay.

There is now a sense of seriousness in your life—one you can’t shake.

I feel you. It’s hard, isn’t it? We are supposed to handle all these heartbreaks with grace; loss of friendships, our youth, our stability.

We need to face the deterioration of the world daily, all the while seeing our parents age.

And time keeps moving faster and faster.

How is anyone supposed to be okay with that—or “strong” enough not to collapse?

What if I told you, you don’t have to be okay with it?

What if I told you there’s a way to feel better, without ignoring responsibilities or overlooking the importance of things?

The answer is simple, though it took me fifteen years to realize. The truth is, the answer lies within you, in your inner child.

from pinterest

At twenty-four, my quarter-life crisis hit. My decisions now determined my entire future. I realized my mortality in a way I never had before.

I felt like I had been shaken awake, that my eyes had finally been opened up to the gravity of life.

But in reality, the opposite had happened.

I went from being busy living to being busy worrying.

“The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” — Patrick Rothfuss

My frontal lobe developed, and suddenly, everything felt like life or death. Do you know the feeling?

The crazy thing was—when I started to realize what was happening to me—and I could name it, everyone around me recognized themselves in it as well.

It started with my mom, who said twenty-five was the most anxiety-ridden year of her life. Then I remembered my boyfriend, two years older than me, had burned out at the same age.

Everywhere I went, the story repeated.
It seemed universal, almost.

But the thing that helped the people around me (and me) wasn’t leaning into the gravity of life—quite the opposite.

It was reconnecting with our inner children, which I now believe is simply another way of naming our soul, our inner being.

Child-me didn’t have many recognizable talents, but she did have one expertise: living in the now.

The one thing I prioritized over everything else was having fun. I did everything I could to make space for laughter.

Most days felt like an adventure in the pursuit of joy.

from pinterest

I lost myself for a while there, but I’m slowly relearning what I knew back then—what I think we all knew at some point: life is more fun when you do fun things.

When we were children, we just knew. We knew to put our legs up on the wall after a long day. The blood racing down them felt freeing.

Why do we have to relearn that now from wellness gurus on YouTube?

We knew what made us laugh, and we chased it—created it.

It felt great to sprint barefoot on sunlit grass in spring, to fold over laughing from jumping out and scaring our brother, to scream and howl at the top of our lungs.

Something within us that’s never really left us, told us.

Maybe you’re reading this, thinking: But I’ve always been this way—I’ve always worried. And that’s okay. If I think about it, I could say that about myself, too.

I’d lie awake at night, creating scenarios in my head about all the horrible things that could happen to the people I loved.

But the thing is, those thoughts could be there one moment, and there would still be room for laughter in the next.

When we’re children, we feel things deeply. But what we tend to forget as adults is that one emotion doesn’t cancel out another. Life leaves room for more than we think.

You will be safe, even if you show the entirety of yourself. Above all, it feels freeing.

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” ― Tom Robbins

I’m relearning how to be myself, and I invite you to join me.

Let’s be weird; say our unfiltered thoughts, run barefoot until our feet turn green, and sing as loud as we can.

Meaning starts when you engage with life.

Being cool, nonchalant, indifferent… Those are only synonyms for being scared. We’ve all been there, but it’s never too late to come back to yourself. Apreciate life for the wonder that it is.

Explore the things that used to make you feel alive—drawing, singing, acting, you name it.

Dance in the rain, eat the cookie, eat another one. See those fairytale moments for what they really are.

Dare to live your life as yourself. It’s the easiest thing you can do—if you really think about it. Or don’t think, rather.

take care of little you

♡

sofia

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