Do you want to gain the ability to make tough calls? Tackle life’s challenges? Build a healthy social network? Become successful? Then it’s time to learn how to grow up mentally!
A lot of people ask “why can’t I grow up mentally?” Well, growing up physically is inevitable, but growing up mentally is a choice. No wonder why a 40-year-old man would act immaturely, while a 20-year-old kid displays remarkable maturity. Mental growth is not as easy as hitting the gym, eating a balanced diet, and popping vitamins or protein shakes.
Mental self-improvement means you have to change yourself from the inside out. You got to work on your mindset, behavior, communication skills, emotions, beliefs, thinking, and overall mental health.
If you’re dedicated to learning how to grow up mentally, then below are some reliable tips:
1. Pause for 5 seconds before replying when angry
“Shit…..I shouldn’t have said that” Isn’t that the most common reaction when we say something in anger and regret it later? Anger shuts off your thinking power and makes you impulsive!
Unexpected reactions lead to adverse situations and push you towards a never-ending guilt trip (especially when you can’t repair the damage anymore)! With a five-hundred-pound load of guilt pushing you towards depression, how to grow up mentally?
Mantra: Pause, take a deep breath, think, and then speak!
This helps you balance emotions and logic and do the right thing in life.
2. Do mental exercises every day
Just like physical exercise is a key to a healthy body, mental exercise is a key to growing up mentally. The good news is mental exercises are far more enjoyable and you don’t sweat at all! My favorites are Sudoku and word games. What’s yours? Chess? Jigsaw puzzle? Piano? Learning a new language?
Working on things that are new and complex on a daily basis gives you the greatest mental stimulation. Anything that involves memory, visualization, and reasoning, will train your brain! And that’s how to grow up mentally fit!
Read 14 Riddles That Test Your Attention Skills
3. Stop gossiping, blaming, and judging
These are the three things most people love to do because it releases happy hormones in their bodies. Although tempting, the sad news is these habits will never let you grow up mentally. They only give you a good ego boost, which makes you think you are the best even when you are slowly becoming the worst!
If you are thinking about how to grow up mentally and emotionally, ask yourself-
- Where did I go wrong?
- How can I overcome my mistakes?
- How can I improve as a person?
- How can I gain better career opportunities?
- What are my values and beliefs?
Accepting that you need to improve is a common attribute of the strong-minded. When you spend time thinking positively and generating new ideas or improving yourself, you grow up mentally stronger.
4. Practice active listening
Do you pause so that the other person can finish what he was saying? Or do you keep thinking about what to say next? When you don’t listen to what others are saying, you don’t understand their point of view. Even if you do, you fail to process it enough. So, practice listening to understand and not to prove your point!
When the other person feels understood, they are more likely to build a connection with you and trust you. You can have new experiences, achieve personal growth, and identify and solve problems. Active listening makes you a good communicator as well as increases your knowledge and understanding of various topics, which is food for mental and emotional growth!
5. Pen down your thoughts
Do you know?
- Leonardo Da Vinci constantly poured his drawing ideas, and inspirations into his journal.
- Albert Einstein always maintained a travel Journal and shared his personal insights.
- Thomas Edison has left over 5 million pages of journal entries that are mainly ideas, business plans, and future inventions.
Write down what comes to your mind and your notes can make you a millionaire one day! You don’t trust me? Well, that’s what happened with Madam CJ walker! Journalling helps you grow up mentally!
Do you know the mental health benefits of journaling?
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Reduces depression
- Improves mood
- Improves cognitive function
- Deal with negative thoughts
- Improve your self-awareness
As you can see, journaling improves your mental health and well-being drastically!
6. Meditation
Meditation is a world-famous technique to grow up mentally and emotionally. Meditation brings about a state of self-awareness and inner calm because you hang out with your soul. It involves techniques such as –
- Listening to the breath
- Repeating a mantra
- Detaching from the thought process
- To focus the attention
“You should sit for meditation for twenty minutes every day – unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour,” said Dr. Sukhraj Dhillon.
Are you wondering what I can gain from meditation?
I think the image below says it all.
7. Complete your bucket list
Check out your bucket list and find out what are things you always wanted to learn or accomplish but kept procrastinating or waiting to start after you retire.
Is it playing music?
Computer programming?
Cooking?
Stand-up comedy?
Start now! Life is too short to wait for retirement!
You never know what awaits you the next moment. A bigger opportunity or death?
It’s always better to die with satisfaction that you tried and a smile on your face than regret! Agree?
You can take just a few minutes out of your busy schedule to learn a new skill and progress a little each day. Learning a new skill increases the white matter in your brain and boosts your performance on a number of tasks. That’s how to grow up mentally stronger.
8. Be Your #1 Priority
Do you always think of your family and friends first? Compromise your needs? Then, it’s time to prioritize yourself. You need to engage in “ME TIME”. This is the time to rest, sleep, get a body spa, read, play music or work on your business ideas, reflect on your life. If you don’t consider yourself important then who will?
If you are serious about learning how to grow up mentally strong, then be your #1 priority.
9. Party hard with positive people
I mean to say that you need to surround yourself with positive people because they can change your perspective, behavior, and attitude and trigger an upward positive spiral. You too will become more positive and attract more positive people in your life. They’ll inspire you and you will inspire them right back. This process will become a snowball in your success.
As people say, positivity and happiness are contagious. Those who harness the power of positivity, have greater resilience during times of hardship. More the resilience, the more you grow up mentally.
10. Engage in self-love
Sounds like self-obsession or selfishness?
But, self-love outperforms beating yourself up.
In one study, recently divorced individuals who treated themselves with self-compassion were more able to bounce back in the months following the separation than those who spoke with self-criticism. Self-love can also prevent procrastination and lower depression and anxiety. Practice this skill to stop that downward negative spiral.
According to Psychologist and International Keynote Speaker Emma Seppälä, self-love –
- Prevents the defeating effects of self-criticism
- Decreases stress
- Increases strength and responsibility
Self-love is a happy habit that can lead to greater satisfaction with your life and help you grow up mentally strong.
11. Do things that boost your confidence
People who lack confidence and self-esteem are prone to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. So, if you are trying hard to learn how to grow up mentally, then confidence is the one skill that you really need to work on.
Here are some well-proven hacks to build and grow your self-confidence:
- Live by your principles
- Know what you want and why
- Groom yourself
- Correct your posture
- Stop comparing yourself with others
- Practise self-compassion
- Achieve small goals
- Do some noble work
- Focus on solutions
Also read – 29 Proven Ways To Build Your Self-Confidence
12. Enjoy differences in opinions
For example, if your friend says, “I’m crazy about watching the series FRIENDS”, and if you don’t really like such stuff then say, “I am not watching FRIENDS, can you say more about this show?” You don’t have to say that FRIENDS is a waste of time and that people should watch sci-fi or deep philosophical movies. Bro everybody has their own tastes and preferences.
If your opinion doesn’t match with others, that doesn’t mean, you are inferior. Every person has unique experiences that shape his beliefs, thoughts, and opinions. So, you don’t need to prove yourself right and the other person wrong. Both of you can be right and agree to disagree.
How to grow up mentally using this mantra?
- Sharing and valuing opinions – leads to a fresh perspective and adds to your emotional maturity.
- Being open-minded – will help you stay calm even when your ideas are challenged and make you see the bigger picture. It will open doors to many opportunities in the long run.
- Closed-mindedness – leads to a greater sense of negativity, while open-mindedness inspires a more optimistic attitude toward life and the future.
13. Practise gratitude
See the image below to know the plenty of benefits of simply being thankful for all the good things in your life. I hope I need not explain how being grateful can improve your mood and help you grow up mentally tough.
14. Don’t be defeated by fear
To learn how to grow up mentally you must learn to be resilient and how to deal with fear. When you treat challenges and threats as an opportunity for you to grow, trust outweighs the fear.
15. Build characteristics of a mentally healthy person
This is the key to learning how to grow up mentally. To become like mentally tough people, you must first know what mentally healthy people do and live. Here are 11 characteristics of a mentally healthy person:
- They accept who they are
- They have satisfying and harmonious relationships
- They are comfortable with other people
- They can control how to react to feelings
- They have high self-respect
- They are responsible and make their own decisions
- They can adjust to the changes in the environment
- They have high self-awareness
- They have high self-discipline
- They can face rejections gracefully
- They are creative in thinking
Also read – 13 Characteristics Of A Mentally Healthy Person
If you have read all the tips on how to grow up mentally then, congratulations you have successfully completed the first step. Now it’s time to implement what you have learned and move one step ahead towards growing mentally strong.
What are you waiting for? Start your Mental Self-Improvement challenge NOW!
Please share this article with anyone who is asking you about how to grow up mentally tough.
Frequently Asked Questions (Faqs)
What age do you mentally grow up?
Research on brain development shows that most people attain full maturity by the age of 25.
How do you know you are growing mentally?
You are growing up mentally if you have clarity about your life, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and purpose of living. You know how to meet your needs while taking care of others. While empathizing with others you don’t get overwhelmed.
Can mental toughness be taught?
According to psychology researchers, mental toughness skills can be taught. Many schools in the north of England are helping students to gain mental toughness so that learners can become confident individuals, perform well in academics as well as do good to society.
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