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We assume that maturity comes with growing older. Actually, it has a lot more to do with emotional intelligence than with our current age. We all know some full-grown adults who \u201cdon\u2019t act their age\u201d as well as younger people who seem to be wiser beyond their years.<\/p>\n
Emotional maturity comes from experience, self-reflection, and our ability to manage our emotions. It\u2019s about how we choose to respond to life\u2019s challenges and learn from them.<\/p>\n
Emotional maturity boils down to self-awareness and having a good understanding of who we are. What makes it harder to address and manage our emotions is that expressing them is often seen as a weakness, in addition to not being taught how to validate or control them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Control does not mean repressing. Handling our emotions in healthy, constructive ways is about acknowledging our emotions, being honest with them, and not being ashamed to express them. We need to be willing to open up and make ourselves vulnerable instead of being afraid and keeping our emotions bottled up.<\/p>\n Emotional maturity begins by taking responsibility for our feelings and actions, not by putting the blame on everyone else or consistently making excuses. The less accountability, the higher the chances that we overreact and act on impulses rather than pause, think, and respond.<\/p>\n Emotionally immature people have difficulty regulating their emotions. Some end up having temper tantrums or behaving in childish ways, making them selfish and self-centered. They tend to demand attention and manipulate others by resorting to lying, name-calling, bullying, denying, attacking, being abusive and hurtful, gaslighting, and raising their voices. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since they are emotionally insensitive and have limited insight into their own feelings, they lack empathy for other people\u2019s feelings and struggle with making deeper connections and communicating effectively. When they become overwhelmed with their emotions, they tend to shut down and become defensive and dismissive. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They hold on to grudges and have a hard time letting go of things, so don\u2019t be surprised when they throw something back at you that happened years ago. Being around them is like walking on eggshells since you try to avoid their outbursts. As a result, personal and professional relationships suffer due to their lack of emotional and social skills.<\/p>\n An emotional, mature person can perform well under pressure and handle stressful situations in productive ways instead of resorting to ineffective coping mechanisms.<\/p>\n They own their mistakes and are solution-oriented. There is no need to whine or punish themselves for being wrong, nor do they always have to be right or to seek perfection. It\u2019s the progress that matters as they continue to learn and grow from their experiences.<\/p>\n They respect the boundaries of others as well as establish and defend their own clear boundaries. This will enhance their ability to deal with conflicts and build healthy relationships.<\/p>\n They seek out mentors they can look up to and follow in their lead as to how to handle situations with more patience and compassion and with less drama and regrets. They are also able to admit when it\u2019s time to seek support and ask for professional help.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Emotional maturity is about growing up and doing the work you need to do to become comfortable with how you feel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You can design a more balanced and fulfilling life by developing emotional stability, cultivating self-awareness, becoming more mentally flexible, and showing empathy. Emotional maturity is an ongoing process that requires practice and sustained efforts, but the rewards are well worth it.<\/p>\n Take charge of your emotions, and you will master your life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Antoinette Giacobbe M.A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We assume that maturity comes with growing older. Actually, it has a lot more to do with emotional intelligence than with our current age. We all know some full-grown adults…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heart","category-mind","category-social"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1427,"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/1427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innerview.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}