Children create fearlessly, recklessly, joyously. At least until someone starts judging, ridiculing, or criticizing them for it.

In a previous exercise, we talked about rediscovering that reckless, joyful creativity, the kind of play we enjoyed before someone made us feel weird about it.

Today, look for ways to watch a child or children while they’re creating, and by this, I mean in an entirely not-at-all creepy way.

If you have young children at home or in your family, you’re in luck. Spend time with them as they draw and color, create stories with their toys, and engage in other imaginative play.

For those of us without kids, we might have to find videos on YouTube or elsewhere. If the internet can give us Two Girls, One Cup, it can give us educational videos about childhood creative development.

If that’s too time-consuming – or if it feels weird, sure – spend some time meditating on your memories of childhood creativity. What kinds of stories did you make up? What did you draw? Whom did you pretend to be?

Use this exercise to learn how to become more of who you are and less of who you are supposed to be.