How often do you choose your battles? When we experience life events, we are given an opportunity to respond.  How we choose to respond to these situations, effects our lives more than we like to admit. Choosing our battles requires emotional maturity. We must be able to respond to situations with a control of our emotions and behaving in an adult manner when dealing with others. In recent events, I’ve been reflecting on my level of maturity when handling my emotions. Understanding how to approach the good and the bad. I’ve developed four easy habits to improving your emotional maturity.

Defining your ideal self.

Who are you working to become? If you had 2-hours of free time, what would you like to do to pass the time? We need answers to these questions. Assess yourself, have a great understanding of what you truly desire. In case you don’t know the answer yet, there are various blogs out there assisting in this matter.  Understanding who we are and who we’re working to be, will allow us to manage our actions responsibly.

Recognizing your triggers.

Triggers can cause insecurities, lash-outs and other emotional reactions we tend to fall victim too. We allow people to be too trigger happy in our lives. So much so, it’s becoming the cause of toxic relationships and dysfunctional friendships. Getting to know yourself on an emotional level, takes time. Life experiences cause us to identify with emotions based on the actions of another person. Recognizing what those actions are will allow you to react to similar situations effectively.

Practicing personal responsibility.

Yes, more responsibility. Nevertheless, this responsibility should be top priority—self. Practicing personal responsibility means, “Claiming your power to choose how you respond to life, you can jump off the treadmill of unconscious reactions.” We have a responsibility to ourselves that we respond to life in a way that is aligned with who we want to be. Hint: No seriously, define your ideal self.

Making it a habit to be present.

If you’re too busy thinking about your past and worrying about your future, you’ll miss what’s going on right now. Being present will allow you to focus all of your energy on what’s happening at that moment. This is what meditating is all about. Freeing yourself of shoulda-coulda-woulda’s and focusing on your breathing. Start doing more fitness activities, prayer, yoga, cooking…there are so many activities that will allow you to tune out the outside world, thoughts and distractions.

We live in a world that can be very distracting, misleading and corrupting. It is our mission to live a life of love and light. Start small, smile at the person on the elevator. Spot an intern—say good luck. When you spread positivity the energy in the atmosphere changes. Start your day with words of affirmation that make you feel powerful and truly believe in your power. Emotional maturity isn’t a goal it’s a lifestyle.

By: Jillynn Reese

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