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Mastering Adulthood

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Mastering Adulthood

Go Beyond Adulting to Become an Emotional Grown-Up

New Harbinger,

15 min read
9 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Practicing mindfulness helps you form better habits and reframe past events that still provoke anxiety.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Psychologist Lara E. Fielding offers a map of the path to adulthood and teaches readers how to gain new skills that can ease disquieting or stressful feelings. People often develop habits to make life easier and then forget why they adopted them in the first place. Fielding suggests using mindfulness to detect and address these habits. She suggests also applying mindfulness to identify and reframe past events that impose a lingering anxiety on your present life. Fielding effectively blends observation, theory and case studies in her discussion of using mindfulness to navigate life’s challenges.

Summary

Becoming an adult is a challenge that calls on your ability to cope flexibly with change.

The ability to be flexible as you adapt to changes in your environment is called emotional regulation. It comes under pressure when you face major changes, such as starting a new job or ending a relationship. Faced with charting the course of your life, particularly at times of upheaval, you might feel despondent and anxious; you might lack energy. Growing and maturing is never easy, though it is important to understand that everyone encounters doubt and despondency.

If these feelings limit you, you can learn strategies for countering them. These new skills won’t merely address the outward manifestations of inner distress. As you learn to work your mind and body, these skills can help you find the core of your upset feelings and gain an upper hand.

People tend to under-regulate when they feel anxiety, panic and despondency, and to over-regulate when they lack motivation.

You might feel so anxious that you believe some facet of your emotional system is unregulated. If you feel anxiety, panic and...

About the Author

Clinical psychologist Lara E. Fielding specializes in mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy. She is an adjunct professor at California’s Pepperdine University.

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