Guest Post by Rakefet Hadar
I have a strange ability, when I look at people, I can see them as children. I can feel the energy of their inner child and feel their life potential.
For years I did not know I could do this, all I knew was that I felt a longing for something very basic, simple, playful, feelings I felt when I was a child.
And my childhood was not easy.
I grew up with two young parents, in their twenties, poets who wanted to succeed and were more busy with themselves than me .. and I remember myself walking around my house in the seventies, looking to do something, to create something, no matter what.
I remember the moment I knew I wanted to be an artist!
It was 3rd grade, I had joined the after-school club and there was an instructor — Leah, she taught me to knit and weave and paint, anything I wanted to learn — and I was addicted:
I embroidered, wove, painted and knitted. And since then, art has been there, accompanying me every step of the way, in all of life crises: my parents' divorce, the social disconnection in school, the move to a new high school, the social isolation that continued ... art was there, burning with constant fire.
There were nights I would dream about things I would create and could not fall asleep from the excitement. I dreamed of studying art, I saw myself creating in my own studio, surrounded by materials and colours.
I felt this passion as an inner dreaming child, and they wanted to live, wanted to feel, wanted to love, and above all-to learn and create more and more.
I do not know how others feel, but for me the dreaming child was an engine!
An engine to get up in the morning and start the day,
an engine to keep on track,
an engine to do difficult things like military service or boring work.
And at some point, in my life -this engine turned off ...
why did this happen?
Good question ... I didn’t know and did not even notice. I just went on with my life.
I disconnected from the dreaming child within and began to progress for the familiar and known - College degree, family, job ..
And the impact of that on my life was profound - I was frustrated, nervous, impatient with the processes, quickly frustrated with things, giving up.
But the dreaming child never gives up on us — when my mother was dying of cancer, during the many hours I sat at her bedside, I began to create within a small diary I had created.
I created endlessly to express the pain I felt
And slowly, through visual journaling, the inner child began to come out and play with me.
I began to feel her presence and began to see her in others.
Each and every one of you has a dreaming child within you - you just have to wake her up.
So what is exactly the inner dreaming child?
The inner dream child is a pure childlike energy that exists within us, they are familiar with our unconscious mind, with all the inner landscapes and all the treasures we have yet to unearth. The dreaming child is ready at any moment to go on a journey of discovery and investigation, with a fresh perspective, always seeing the world as if for the first time.
They are moved by the beauty of the sunset and knows when the tree in the backyard is feeling sad, they pay attention to the cracks in the sidewalk and the beautiful spots on the wall, constantly crosses the bridge back and forth between the known and the unknown, and can safely escort us to meet our inner guides and discover hidden power.
And they also love visual journaling.
In the moments that I succeed in connecting with my inner dreaming child – I get wonderful inspiration and can “move mountains”, fulfill dreams, and create with sense of time flying by.
How can you connect with your inner dream child?
Soul art journaling
View Here
In SoulPages journaling we use seven simple elements that helps us connect with our inner child.
Its important to understand the elements and know that each of them will connect you to one layer of the inner child.
The elements are: Intention, background, color, image, line, text and Magical coincidence.
You can read more about the 7 elements and the dreaming child in my book.
Children’s books!
One of the ways to connect with our dreaming child is to work inside a children’s books and connect with the child hero of the book while you transform the pages into your own art creation.
I did it with a few children books, this is an example of very intense and satisfying journey I had with a book I found in the garbage.
I kept the original image of the child character in every page but I transformed the rest of the page… it was a long process but when I finished, I felt that my life was transformed.
A month after I finished working in this children book, I managed to complete my book “Layers of Meaning”. I gained so much energy from just working with the dreaming child archetype.
Here you can see a flip through of the finished book
The dreaming child exist inside all of you and is waiting for you to
discover them
connect with them
play with them
your life will be transformed when you work in collaboration with your dreaming child, you would feel alive
you would feel happier and satisfied.
you could heal your childhood wounds.
I keep working with this archetype of the dreaming child every day!
Rakefet Xx
Learn more about Rakefet’s workshop The Dreaming Child Within HERE
