“Grown-ups have developed an unpleasant habit of comforting themselves for their degradation by pretending that children are childish.”
― T.H. White
Emotional maturity isn’t a given. It isn’t necessarily correlated with aging, as the truth is that it has to be sought for. Sadly, in today’s society, one’s emotional health isn’t a topic that gets approached in schools, and if you aren’t part of the lucky ones, it isn’t either one being discussed at home. In such case, it shouldn’t be surprising to note that the emotional age of most of us falls well behind our biological age.
In a culture that conditions the masses to suppress their emotions, it is only natural that we inadvertently learn to push away one of the must fundamental parts of our very human nature. Unless we become aware that this way of doing things is an unhealthy one, we ought to grow further apart with our emotional world. Losing touch with our emotional reality comes with a high cost.
It is deeply saddening that the society in which we live in glamorizes work and busyness over emotions and mental health, as it only results in people focusing on achieving more from a work perspective, while completely putting aside the internal work that is so necessary for all of us to complete.
Emotional intelligence is so important that it even holds the power to make or break romantic relationships. When we don’t take the precious time to examine and understand our own emotional reactions, how are we supposed to be empathetic to someone else’s emotional responses? If no one taught us that anger doesn’t get solved with anger, shouldn’t it be expected that we will respond to anger the way we’ve internalized it should be responded to?
Emotions are excellent teachers – hence why we have to learn how to experience them fully. IQ is only one part of the equation. The biggest part of the puzzle lays in the hands of EQ. You may think of yourself as one smart ass for being a Ph.D. holder, but the truth is that it does not mean you are a Ph.D. holder in all domains of life. Unfortunately, people are biased all day long and they mistakenly assume that because one is a ________________ (fill in the blank with "reputable" profession) that automatically makes him a genius in every possible facet of life.
Elon Musk may have knocked it out of the park in his domain of expertise, but he still is like all of us a fallible human being, and I think it is fair to say his mastermind didn’t do him that well in the marriage department. Come at me all you want, I’m just trying to point out here that we shouldn’t assume that because one is good at one very difficult thing – that one is good at everything.
Your emotional age doesn’t get written on your school diploma – only your biological age.
