24-140 Maturity

The Mandala Lady, , , , , , , , , , ,
abstract background of green, light green, pink, purple, and copper. a large black outline circle with a spiral inside, around the circle are seven petals, five of which extend beyond the paper (partial views), each petal has a spiral. in between and above the petals are hearts, each with a spiral inside.

Maturity

“the ability to respond to a given situation appropriately”

First and foremost…I know this to be true…Maturity has nothing to do with physical age. I’ll leave it at that.

The two operative words in this definition are “respond” and “appropriately”. Let’s take the first one: respond. I have learned over the many decades Iiving on this planet, that a sure sign of maturity is the ability to “respond” vs “react”. The difference? Reacting is impulsive and emotion-driven, whereas responding is thoughtful and deliberate.

Reacting, at least for me, is usually a trigger response to some unresolved emotional issue(s). For instance, because I have a deep-seated fear of being wrong (getting in trouble)… if someone is pointing out a mistake I’ve made, I have a tendency to immediately react defensively. I assume someone is telling me that “I’m bad, I’m not good enough…that I’m going to get in trouble” when the reality is, this person is just trying to be helpful.

Responding, at least for me at this stage of working through the “being wrong” trigger, is me internally stopping for a moment, taking a breath, truly registering what was said and how it was said, realizing this person is being helpful, and then responding externally with “Oh…thanks for pointing that out. I’ll go fix it.” My response time is usually about 15-30 seconds. I’m working towards a 1 second response time.

Now let’s take the second word: “appropriately”. How subjective of a word can you get. Who determines “appropriately”? Do we let other people determine appropriateness? Or is that our job? Well here’s where maturity comes in…it really just depends on the situation…and whether we’re reacting from an emotional trigger or we’re responding thoughtfully and deliberately. That is the question.

How about you? Is maturity a core value for you?

BTW…here’s what it looked like to begin with …

abstract background of green, light green, pink, purple, and copper

joyfully,

Maureen
The Mandala Lady

*ToGAs: Team of Guides and Angels

inspiring and encouraging creativity, curiosity, and play through the art of mandalas

About the 2024 Mandalas of the Day

Each day I will create and post a mandala inspired by one of 366 “value” words chosen randomly. The objective being to discover for myself which ones would best represent my core values…and by doing so, I hope it inspires you to determine your own.

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Published by The Mandala Lady

My Mission: connecting with our Inner Light in delightful, inspiring ways For me, creating mandalas is more than just coloring pretty patterns in a circle. I do it because my spiritual evolution and creativity require it of me. My mandala designs come about within an active meditative state, connected with my higher self, my spiritual guides and nature spirits. Together, we bring into form, mandala art the allows me to re-connect with my own inner peace and joy, letting me explore and expand my own creative spirit to however far and in whatever direction I want to take it. As part of my own spiritual journey, I encourage, and hopefully inspire, others to explore their own creativity, to help them re-connect with their own inner peace and joy. As a means to that end, I make all of my mandalas available for people to color. Why should I have all the fun?

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