In the advanced stages of the planetary initiation process, an initiate  simply cannot properly handle the intensity of the agony and ecstasy of  the experience unless they have mastered and matured emotionally and  mentally. Theoretically, this maturation process would have occurred  gradually over their current life as well as previous lives. With the  recent acceleration of the initiation process, initiates have had to  quickly move through this maturation process, and this has been  challenging and incomplete as their higher spiritual bodies are  generally much more developed and mature than their lower emotional and  mental bodies. Many high level initiates, with great spiritual gifts and  knowledge, are acting out childish behaviour which is hindering their  ability to uncover their authentic self and be of greatest service.   
 
 Everything is energy and energy vibrates and varies by its frequency of  vibration. The physical-etheric, emotional, mental, buddhic, atmic,  monadic and logoic are the names of each of the bodies of our seven-body  system that spirit inhabits. These bodies are each distinctly different  in their frequencies. Just as light spectrum has seven main ‘colours’  we can distinguish with our physical eyes, the colours are really just  gradations in frequency. Similarly each body has a unique function and  energy or vibrational signature, and function. Our physical-etheric body  experiences physical sensation, our emotional body emotes the range of  human emotions and our mental body thinks, decides and discriminates.  The lower mind engages when inspiration is received and thinks up  strategies as to how the inspiration can be implemented and expressed.   When not engaged for this purpose, the lower mind ought to rest and be  still and pure in service to the knowing of spirit. For most people,  this requires training in order to remove the addiction to unnecessary  thinking.
 
 Thoughts are things. Thoughts stimulate emotions. Emotions and feelings  however, are not the same thing. Feelings include emotions but also  include our thoughts and physical-etheric sensations and more. Feeling  is a higher sense perspective where one is aware of all the activity  occurring in their bodies. Feeling puts one in touch with the indwelling  spirit. Feeling is sensing how things are in each of the bodies  simultaneously without getting sucked into identifying with the  experience of only one or two bodies. It has been said that our feelings  are the eyes of our hearts. These feelings include the realm of our  buddhic body and are an expression of the soul. The buddhic body is a  higher frequency processor of emotions. It becomes the matured vehicle  for emotions once the emotional body no longer runs fear-based,  separatist, survival-based patterns. 
 
 
 To mature emotionally we must, as a soul and as spirit, fully feel and  then release all that does not serve our expression of greater will. So,  our aim is to feel as we feel and not judge any feelings. For example,  if we try not to feel ‘guilty’ we put a lot of energy into not feeling  'guilty'. We use a lot of energy to push the energy of 'guilt' away. But  by focusing on the reverse of an idea we actually energise the guilt  and feel guiltier. This energy is either pressed out into our mental or  emotional bodies or repressed into the cells of the physical body. Both  create disharmony and imbalance. Alternatively, we can allow and  acknowledge any feeling, be grateful for the opportunity it presents for  greater self-awareness and then re-choose in accordance with the truth  of the God within, our authentic self, and release the displaced energy  to restore harmony.
 
 Many of our life experiences have impacted us, wounded us and left scars  in our emotional body. Some have caused us to recoil and retreat within  to feel safe. It is rare for people to not have some emotional  dysfunction or immaturity that can manifest as victim consciousness. As  we release these impacts, hurts or pains, from our inner child’s  experiences, we will move forward and cease going around in circles.  When our inner child grows up and we become emotionally mature, 
 we can simply be authentic and embrace greatness. 
 
 There are two categories that people who are not emotionally content and/or mature generally fall into:
 One category is those who have repressed emotions due to some religious  or spiritual training in this life, or over many lives. They tend to  have a strong mental focus, spend a lot of time in their mental body and  deny emotion. They can be volatile and explosive and all they can do is  attempt to manage those emotions that suddenly erupt in order to  release the emotional pressure. These people will find it valuable to  work with their inner child, sometimes having to use firm, loving  discipline and at other times simply loving their inner child and  bringing them into the heart where they are cherished and safe.  They  have to work with and allow their emotional body to mature…a process  that never fully occurred or was disrupted or distorted along their  journey. A charged inner child aspect has not grown up to integrate the  qualities of innocence and playfulness (‘be like the child’), into a  mature, responsible, loving spiritual adult being. There is an  inaccurate myth that the inner child is supposed to remain childish,  without fear-based issues. An integrated spiritual being does not have  any un-integrated aspect living within. Healing emotionally is growing  up emotionally. Maturing emotionally is a crucial foundational component  of spiritual maturity.   We cannot spiritualise matter when we are  limited and hijacked by unhealed emotions, which take us away from our  heart knowing.
 
 The second category is where people have neutralized emotional  interaction and effectively switched their emotions off and become  emotionally numb. Their demeanour is somewhat melancholy, sad or even  depressed. They have learned through current or past life training to  kill out desire. For them, emotion and the ability to feel and express  their feelings has become like a foreign language. The solution for  these people is to turn that language switch back on and to embrace  their life learning to enjoy, and so, vivify their emotional body.
 
 Emotional maturity and living a life of true contentment means always  having, as appropriate, the choice to be emotion-still, rather than  being emotion-less which is often due to repression or neutralization.  Someone who is emotionally mature can still the mind or the emotions at  will and choose not to indulge in any fear-based emotion which leads to  loss of consciousness. Their mind and emotions are at the service of  spirit.  They can choose to express their emotions in a variety of  colours and hues, to bring richness, depth, tempo and texture to living  and serving. It enhances their pallet of empathy.  Our energetic  vibrations and our aura, the air around us, are raised through  expressions of joy, love, hope, compassion, appreciation and wonder.  Emotion is a vibrant component of feeling. Fully feeling with loving  respect and wonder is the language of sacredness. 
 
 
 Someone who is emotionally mature accepts responsibility for what they  create, and uses the wisdom of hindsight without trying to undo the  past. They reorient their consciousness and make attitudinal and  behavioral changes. They do not subject themselves to tantrums,  self-pity or an overly morbid or rigorous self-analysis. Emotional  maturity means not withholding greatness but rather doing the best one  can possibly do without arrogance, with humility. False modesty is the  enemy of long-term maturity. Those who are emotionally mature choose  greatness but do not expect others to choose greatness, as this is a  display of arrogance. Self-talk is vitally important for someone who is  emotionally mature and intelligent. If they have a “win”, i.e. some  accomplishment, they are wise and protect and build on that success and  therefore do not under-achieve. No one truly attains greatness through  ‘whipping’ themselves.
 
 Another hallmark of those with emotional maturity is when they feel that  they are cruising and their process seems easy, they then place even  more attention and energy on their spiritual practices and psychological  introspection. Mental, emotional and spiritual maturity requires mutual  interdependence, co-ordination and co-creation between all the bodies  so they function as a synchronized whole, with each body serving each  the other and serving the indwelling spirit. This means thinking as a  tool to devise strategy when required; expressing emotion to enrich the  living, being the eyes of the heart, and being still, poised and  allowing when not actively engaged. When fully matured, the content of  thought and emotion are chosen at will and can be ceased at will. For  example, we may choose to feel gratitude, joy or whatever is required as  sensed as a spirit in any moment, regardless of the current experience.  Cleaning, centering, aligning and synchronizing our bodies of  ‘self-absorbed’ patterns and immature states is now the spiritual work.  Maturity means growing further and further into our potential.
 
 Emotional maturity means loving the self yet being truly altruistic or  self-less.  Love is not an emotional opinion; rather it is a measurable,  tangible force.  One who is emotionally mature experiences all of life,  uses their integrated bodies to transform those life ingredients into  love and they emanate that love.
©The Insight Foundation
Michael King is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Insight Foundation www.theinsightfoundation.org.au
