Reclaiming Our Innocence: Temba Spirit's Creative, Revelatory Approach

What if a simple practice could help us reclaim the empowering joy, wonder and innocence we experienced as children? In his eye-opening book, How to Reclaim Your Innocence: Remembering the Love-Beauty Within, musician, author, inspirational speaker and humanitarian Temba Spirit suggests we look no further than our own baby pictures to rediscover ourselves as precious, innocent beings, filled with light and love.

Your early life included gang violence, drugs, homelessness, depression and incarceration, yet you reclaimed your own innocence and today offer a powerful message of unconditional kindness, love and compassion. How do baby photos help us re-embody this innocence?

When we look at babies and their pictures, our hearts effortlessly open up. When we see a beloved child, we say, “Oh, that baby is so beautiful!” We see the young child’s innocence and loving and are moved to a peaceful place.

And yet how many of us actually realize that the innocence we see in that child is also coming from inside of us? We could not see the child’s innocence, beauty and love unless we had it ourselves, could we?

What would happen if we were to purposefully look at our personal baby pictures? That same innocence, love and beauty would potentially be invoked. We would likely remember our very own childlike nature, simply because we would be looking at ourselves. What a great yet simple and easy complement to our spiritual practices this would be.

Why is this potentially such an empowering practice?

Everything that we strive to attain on our spiritual path as adults, we have already experienced completely as children. If we truly want to live a life of passion, purpose and spontaneity from the fullness of our hearts, reclaiming our innocence is a must.

As children, we embodied the law of attraction. The consciousness of childlike innocence is the most irresistible power in the universe. When we realign ourselves with our childlike qualities, we are drawn to our true life purpose, and the universe conspires to support us in everything we do.

Looking at our baby pictures regularly reminds us that we are truly priceless vessels of innocence, and living in this awareness transforms us into magnetic powerhouses of love. Each one of us is eternally valuable—often, with that realization, our lives begin to reveal true fullness and authenticity.

This revelation came to me while writing, How to Reclaim Your Innocence: Remembering the Love Beauty Within, and the simplicity of it moved me profoundly.

What steps can we take to begin reclaiming this birthright?

Start by setting out on the sacred journey to find your baby pictures. The energy of perfect love is contained within them. Your image as a child was and is priceless and adorable. You are, even now, that same infinitely innocent and uniquely creative expression of love.

Once you look at your baby picture, close your eyes, turn within and say, “I am adorable and priceless. I will never abandon my innocence again.” Treat your baby picture as something sacred, something perfectly precious and something infinitely adorable. Embrace it, smile at it and love and adore it each and every day. Consistency is the key! This is a part of yourself that has been forgotten and, sadly for so many of us, left to collect dust in some lonely cardboard box.

Many people have told me they had to get in touch with their loved ones in order to find their baby pictures. The journey to find your pictures may even be a wonderful way for you to reconnect with friends and relatives that you have not contacted in years. How beautiful is that?

You are also the founder of International Baby Picture Day. What is that?

It is any and every day in which “grown-ups” look at our own baby pictures in order to remember the innate innocence, beauty and love that was our essence then and is even now.

A great Master once said, “Except ye become like little children, ye will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Another way Jesus could have said this is, “Unless you reclaim your childlike innocence, you will not experience the spiritual depths of your very own love.”

Ever since Chicagoan Temba Spirit put his life on the line by renouncing his gang affiliation on national television, he has devoted himself to service, spirit, love and helping others to reclaim their power. His book, How to Reclaim Your Innocence: Remembering the Love-Beauty Within, is available at Amazon.com in paperback and as a Kindle ebook. Friend him at Facebook.com/TembaSpirit. Contact Jessica at 509-690-4969 to book Temba for events. Also visit TembaSpirit.com.