A recent inspiring story I read showcased a
question of “What’s the difference
between “Growing Old” & “Growing Up?”, The question triggered a thought
and inspired and idea to share on the concept of “Growing Up.. Mentally”
As I read in the story which said any one
can grow old … even when we do not do anything we shall grow old that’s
biological… very true indeed. I would say, Growing up mentally has its very own
criteria and it takes much effort and experience to “grow up mentally”…
How could we categorize a person is
mentally a grown up? Well the following can be a set of criteria to understand
the mental growth of an individual as the criteria addresses the
characteristics of a mentally grown up individual from a psychological
perspective
A person may be considered as mentally
grown up when is capable of understanding an issue or a matter at a very broad
perspective or has the ability to see the big picture of an issue. This is the
ability to see or think beyond their personal mental frame which consists of
their personal belief, understanding, teachings, thoughts and feelings
A mentally grown up will be able to
conceptualize a complex issue or matter, the ability to conceptualize comes
from an alert mind which could absorb, understand, organize and segmentize
distorted information’s this indicates a matured mind functioning i.e. a
mentally grown up mind
The ability to think soundly without the
influence of personal feelings and emotions also indicates mental growth as it
indicates that the person could separate their personal and general values on
an issue, hence bringing forth a neutral opinion with consideration of the
complexity and diversity related to the issue
Ability to cope with mental stress with
positivity is perhaps a hallmark of mental growth as today many seems to break
down at this point where when battered with loads of stress, tendency to burn
out or break down is high and a mind which is encapsulated with negativity is
sure far away from a mentally grown up category
The ability to balance both emotions and
feelings with logic or rationality is another set of concrete criteria of a
person’s mental maturity, when a person can justify matters based on a balanced
mind between the emotional quotient (EQ) and the intelligent quotient (IQ) it
proves that they are mentally well grown to a matured and sound minded individual!
It should be understood that the said
criteria’s need not to have any correlation with the physical age as mental
growth or in other words mental maturity lies purely factors such as education,
life experience, peer & family or significant others influence, religious
teachings & so forth rather than the biological growth of the physical
body. This explains why we have very matured young individuals and also
immature elder person among us
Importance should be given in parenting to
allow mental growth among adolescents, ways should be paved for the young minds
to grow through providing the opportunity to learn through experience, hands on
learning and cognitive reasoning’s, this is to ensure that the young minds
grows gradually towards a matured mind or a “mentally grown up” whom would be
able to lead their life & society with much effectiveness & capability
in addressing issues & making decisions.
Suren
