E.51 - Listening to Your Inner Child - Adam Rubin Your Next Chapter

My guest on this episode is Adam Rubin co-founder of Renew. Renew is a non-profit that brings personal development and self-discovery to children and young adults.
The organisation has brought programs to over 1,500 people since being founded in 2013.
Adam has a Masters in Non-Profit Management and Leadership. He has worked run programs in Tanzania, Arizona and is launching next into Australia.
I brought Adam onto the show because I wanted him to share what he's found on the ground level from bringing personal development and self-discovery to kids. I wanted him to speak about the results they are finding and the impact this is having on kids lives.
The Walkaway - Find a Childhood Photo and Connect With Your Inner Child 
The biggest takeaway for me from my conversation with Adam was the importance of connecting with your inner child.
During the podcast Adam spoke about the impact Renew is having on kids. How self-development, self-love and self-discovery is having a positive impact on children. It's even improving their academic results.
Very few would anticipate that doing personal development work would have a positive impact academics but it does. Countless teachers have told Adam so.
Yet the impact Adam's work has goes much deeper than that.
"I had something horrible happen. I looked at myself as someone who wasn't worth anything. But now since you guys have come in. I see that I have more meaning. I can love myself who I am."
- Adam Rubin sharing about the impact Renew had on one girl's life
And this is why it's so important to tap into our inner child. When we tap into the innocence and purity of our childish heart we can begin to start to love ourselves. We begin to be kinder on ourselves. We can take off the pressure that we put on ourselves.
Suggestions
Nurturing this side of ourselves allows us to find an inner ease within ourselves and gain more confidence in ourselves. 
Adam suggests a few powerful questions throughout the podcast to assist connecting with your inner child:
- What part of yourself are you not loving yourself unconditionally? - What emotional blocks are you carrying around?- What work needs to be done to let go of these blocks?
Adam suggests finding an old childhood photo of yourself to assist with this process. A photo which you can intimately connect with and is a representation of who you were as a child (Ironically this strategy has come up in 2 podcasts in a row.)
This photo is a stepping stone to reconnect with your inner child. To say I'm here for you. I'm here for you in a big way. I may be up against a lot in my adult life but I'm not turning away from you again.
The 3 Step Process
During the podcast Adam suggests a three step process to reconnect with your inner child.
1) SURRENDERING - surrendering begins with acknowledging that a greater being exists and that we must reconigize that we're here with a purpose higher than ourselves
2) REMEMBERING - the second step is to remember that we're all spiritual beings living in a physical body. Inside all of us is a deep loving heart and that we need to surrender to the greater process we were born for.
3) RELEASING EXPECTATIONS - too often we put too much weight and pressure on ourselves. We believe that we have so much more control over our outcome then we actually do. When we surrender and remember that we're part of a bigger process this allows to let go of some of the pressure that we put on ourselves.
It's by following this process that we can begin to reconnect with our inner child. And if that feels too spiritual for you, you can start with an old photo of yourself to see what impact the photo has on you. What does your old self say to you? What needs are you neglecting?
It's in this process we can begin to heal and move forward.
Because as we've seen through the results that Adam has with his work, when we embrace self-development, self-love and self-discovery there are positive impacts to be embraced. And it's not just better