Psychological age of a person: past, present, future

[Teacher]

In psychological time, sudden accelerations and decelerations are possible. We can sharply rejuvenate (not only externally) and no less sharply internally and externally grow old, experiencing certain life events. When the psychological age is less than the passport age, then the whole world around is dynamic, bright, unexpected. If a person feels older than his age, his colors fade, prospects narrow, everyday existence becomes more boring and banal. Even instantaneous distortions of psychological time associated with illness, stress, fatigue leave their mark on self-esteem, the level of aspirations, attitudes towards others, etc.

It happens that a person lives for some time in the past, literally dissolving in memories. He sees no point in anything other than looking at old photographs, letters, re-reading diaries. This is how a person adds psychological age to himself.

Then another period may come, and he, as in his youth, finds himself in captivity of the future: again plans, dreams, hopes, predicts. Then he becomes psychologically younger.

And then he begins to feel every moment of the present, to appreciate every impression, every thought that helps him to live "here and now", without looking back and without standing on tiptoe. This is how the psychologically mature age is experienced.

The entire existence of man is both a historical event and a projection into the future. Time in our life does not exist by itself, not just like that, but for something. It provides the formation, deployment of opportunities, plans, desires.

The need to go beyond one's own limits, to master the future is characteristic of a healthy person.

The existential of the temporality of existence, introduced into the psychological thesaurus several decades ago, raises the question of the model of the future. The inner potential of a person as the most authentic model of the future is a powerful interpretive tool when trying to understand his present, look back into the past and look into the future.

In a healthy, self-actualized, harmonious personality, the past, present and future coexist in integrity, unity and interaction.

Such a person does not abandon his own history, but integrates past experience, leaving it his own, knowing its value. In mastering one's past, according to A. Bergson, lies the key to freedom and spiritual creativity.

In order not to stop in his development, not to walk in a circle, not to fall into delusion, a person must clearly see the path that he has already traveled, and those distant horizons, prospects that are still ahead. He must understand, evaluate what he achieved, what he managed to do, and what he dreamed of, but remained unfinished, sometimes even not begun. His plans, goals, aspirations, appetites depend on the speed and quality of moving forward, on attention to the experience gained, and self-confidence. Wise, flexible acceptance of limitations that cannot be overcome today also play a significant role.

Psychological age is not biological age, it almost never completely coincides with the age of the passport, metric, obstetric.

Attitude towards oneself through the prism of psychological time, satisfaction or dissatisfaction with oneself on the corresponding segments of the life path determine how much a person feels like an adult. This can be an attitude towards yourself as a young man who does not make responsible decisions on his own and who expects help from his parents. Or as an elderly person who no longer has special desires, responsibilities and plans. It can also be an attitude towards oneself as a mature person, conditioned by the acceptance of oneself, the acceptance of what is happening in life, the activity and responsibility that is and will be for a long time.

In psychological time, sudden accelerations and decelerations are possible. We can sharply rejuvenate (not only externally) and no less sharply internally and externally grow old, experiencing certain life events.

When the psychological age is less than the passport age, then the whole world around is dynamic, bright, unexpected. If a person feels older than his years, colors for him fade, prospects narrow, everyday existence becomes more boring, more banal. Even instantaneous distortions of psychological time associated with illness, stress, fatigue leave their mark on self-esteem, the level of aspirations, attitudes towards others, etc.

A person may be biologically no longer young, but psychologically still infantile, or, conversely, in rather young years, surprise others with his professional, civic, personal maturity.

The discrepancy between human ages is explained not only by the unevenness of the biological, social and psychological development of a person. Psychological age depends on the number and quality of significant events that a person experiences during a certain stage of life, on the assessment of his role in what happened, on the level of self-realization, the awareness of which is not always objective.

There is a dependence of psychological age on cultural, national, regional traditions: in Europe and America it is fashionable to be young, in Asia it is prestigious to be old and, accordingly, wise.

The attitude to oneself as to a young, mature or old person in many respects predetermines the feeling of satisfaction with life, comfort, harmony of one's life world. At the same time, psychological age is also determined by the state of health: biological, psychological, spiritual.

Psychological age also depends on the acquired socio-economic status, the state of financial stability.

If a person at the age of 40 has not yet reached the appropriate position, professional status, his own comfortable apartment, car, proper material support, he will feel psychologically younger than his peers. And if at the age of 27-30 he already has all this not as a gift from his parents, but as a result of his own achievements, his psychological age will be older than his actual age.

The structuring of the future depends on the structuring of the past and the present, on the awareness of what exactly in the past influenced the already unfolded present. The psychological readiness of a person to embody his innermost and most important intentions, which should change his life, is also important.

A person can carefully look at his internal clock, which sometimes is in a hurry, and sometimes, on the contrary, barely moves, almost stops. If he wants, he can adjust them - for this it is only necessary to honestly investigate the reasons for their haste or inhibition.