Crystal Andrus Morissette: The Emotional Edge
An Interview with Crystal Andrus Morissette: The Emotional Edge
Emotional Age and Communication Expert Crystal Andrus Morissette is a worldwide leader in the field of self-discovery and personal transformation. She is the founder of the S.W.A.T. Institute (Simply Woman Accredited Trainer), an empowerment coach certification exclusively for women that she created with fellow female visionaries Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Colette Baron-Reid, and Sandra Anne Taylor among others. Crystal is the author of four best-selling books, including her latest release entitled, “The Emotional Edge: Discover Your Inner Age, Ignite Your Hidden Strengths and Reroute Misdirected Fear to Live Your Fullest.”
Crystal’s personal story is the perfect backdrop to become a voice for the next era of the women’s movement. She has overcome insurmountable odds to create a life of joy and purpose. From a tough beginning—her parents turbulent divorce at age 12, a stranger rape at 14, extended sexual abuse from a family friend, moving out at 15, battling the early stages of cervical cancer at only 17, suffering a traumatic head injury at age 20 that left her to deal with seizures, marrying young and gaining over 80 pounds in her pregnancies, then struggling through a difficult divorce and near bankruptcy before becoming a single mother to two beautiful girls (one who nearly lost her own life in 2010)—Crystal has dedicated her life to helping women transcend their victimhood, martyrdom, and self-limiting beliefs, fears, and patterns. Now, she is helping women all over the world to do the same. Crystal Andrus Morissette lives in southern Ontario with her husband and two daughters.
OMTIMES: You speak about Emotional Age in your new book The Emotional Edge, what is the difference between Emotional Age Vs Chronological Age?
Crystal Andrus Morissette: Most of us have heard about Biological Age. It is a scientific concept that measures how well, or badly, your body is functioning relative to your Chronological Age. For example, you may be sixty years old but you’ve eaten well, exercised, consumed plenty of clean water, minimized stress, and so on. Your body might be functioning as well as someone twenty years younger than you as a result of your self-care. We’ve also heard stories about thirty-year-olds who have lived too hard and recklessly, leaving themselves with bodies and hearts that bear extra decades’ worth of scars. Emotional Age is a similar concept to Biological Age. But rather than predicting how young or old our physical bodies are, Emotional Age helps us understand how empowered or disempowered we are emotionally. It helps explain how we’ve been communicating, compromising, socializing, and interacting with others. For example, we’ve all seen those sixty-plus-year-old persons who, regardless of their chronological age, behave like angry teenagers when they’re upset—yelling, screaming, slamming doors, and stonewalling. Conversely, we’ve also witnessed the young, twentysomething-year-olds who carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, acting way too mature for their age, silently burdening not only their own worries and fears but taking on those of their loved ones, as well. We’ve also seen the older guys with young trophy wives, and immediately we know these men are father figures, in a “parental role,” while the young women are operating as children, in the “daughter archetype.” In other words, we all innately recognize when people are acting outside of their Emotional Age; we’ve just never given it a name until now! Emotional Age is different than being an “old soul” or a “young soul.” It has little to do with Intelligence Quotient, Emotional Intelligence, or economic or social status, and it has everything to do with the way we act and react to life. The more empowered our Emotional Age, the better our lives will be!
