Remember your inner artist

Being around kids makes you revisit your own youth and the child inside yourself. It reminds you that you were once small. The inner child never truly grows up and can serve as a beacon back to the early developmental stages of life. This was a time of innocence, creativity and freedom, but can also be full of pain, shame and shadows. As children we live so naturally and effortlessly from moment to moment and through space and time with imaginations vast and varied. We are psychologically and physiologically open and vulnerable to all of life. If this time is cherished and nurtured by a wise adult, then it can flourish in us. But many times, this flame is extinguished. Reliving childhood memories can be one of the most mystical times of our life and one when the veil between then and now is thinnest. The child’s eyes have a fresh way of viewing the world with clearer lenses that are focused inward. Because of this inward focus they tend to see things more creatively and fully. 

Picasso once said that all children are born artists. The problem is how to remain an artist as we grow up. The inner child can be a difficult place to revisit, because of the pain and shame that comes with the memories. Yet it is still one of the closest connections we have to our native freedom deep within. The wounded inner child, a concept used in psychotherapy, is a place that many grownups are now revisiting and rebuilding a relationship with to better understand. With a more mature mind and experience we can begin to understand the situation more fully and begin to heal. A healed inner child can be the source of our life’s purpose and passion. A true “fountain of youth.” 

Most creative adults are children who never grew up, and anyone can be a creative adult. Some of the best poets, athletes, politicians, business leaders and teachers are this way. Offered here are a few suggestions on how to start reclaiming and reconnecting to that inner artist.

“Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

“Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow” – Kurt Vonnegut

“Three Things to Remember
As long as you’re dancing, you can
break the rules.

Sometimes breaking the rules is just
extending the rules.

Sometimes there are no rules.”

— Mary Oliver

Great suggestions from some great creators. Picasso reminds us that part of our work as adults is to hold on to that artist. Kurt Vonnegut tells us to create anything and everything and to do it anytime and all the time. “It is what grows our soul” he says. American poet Mary Oliver reminds us there may be no rules to follow, a great reminder of the fluidity and freedom of youth. 

Another line from Picasso: “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” This one speaks of the mature artist. The one who has grown up and learned but hasn’t gotten lost. This is the definition of the elder, the one who is wise yet understands and is connected to youth energy and creative solutions of modern life.

It is widely accepted and understood that there are as many forms of art as there are people on earth. The source of creativity is pure and unconditional, yet it seeks to be expressed, seen and appreciated. Maybe that is why children love to use their imaginations. As children, both inner and outer, this is also what we need and crave. To be expressive, seen and loved for no other reason than that we are all great works of art from the ultimate Creator.

Tim Hahn and his wife, Molly, have been running Instinct Fitness and Wellness in Springfield for the past 15 years. They are enrolled in the education program called being parents and have three small teachers, Huxley, 5, Juniper, 3, and Laney, 1.

This article appears in Summer 2025 June 2025.