We are all familiar with the adage that "youth is wasted on the young." Well, as a clinical psychologist and a woman, I suggest that we re-visit that thought. There are countless ways that maturing is not only beneficial, but actually feels oh-so -good. There are so many things that we learn as we age that lead to smoother sailing on a daily basis. And, it's a shame that we rarely acknowledge the benefits come along with aging. Have a look at some of the perks of being a woman and having learned about life:1. We learn the true meaning of taking care of our friendships. When we were younger, we would inadvertently drop friends when we were involved in new relationships, only to hope that our friends would still be available to help us with break-ups. As we mature, we recognize the unique importance of maintaining relationships with our dating partners, new boyfriends and spouses as well as with our friends who stand by us when we are involved in a good relationship or leaving an unsettling one. We learn the importance of finding time for everyone. We learn that there is no such thing as no time to reach out to friends. #FRIENDSHIPS2. We begin to understand the impact that we have on others. With this knowledge, we learn that we can make someone's day just by simply greeting them cheerfully or giving them a sincere compliment. We learn that in just a few minutes, we can elevate the mood of those around us. We also become aware that bad moods and energy are contagious and that if we tend to be negative and full of complaints, those around us will feed that mood right back to us. In other words, we learn that we create the tenor of our own energy field. #KARMA3. We learn that there are two sides to every story and that we have to be very careful judging the behaviors of others in relationships. Maybe the ex-husband was a jerk, but maybe he is now someone's sweetheart. We learn to listen to character descriptions with a grain of salt. The ex and the new partner have both good and bad qualities. There are rarely any true heroes, heroines or villains. It just depends on who is telling the story. #EXES4. We learn the importance of giving people the benefit of the doubt and to conserve our emotional energy. We learn to be less generous with our negative emotions and tend to become more even emotionally and more emotionally neutral. We have learned over time that vitriol and rage don't get us to good places, so we listen more and react less. #EMOTIONALITYAND5. We give ourselves a break and tend to have more self-compassion. Over time, we tend to become less perfectionistic because we realize that perfect is an unreasonable and unattainable construct. We also realize that it is not a quality that people are looking for in a friend, partner or co-worker:right? #PERFECTI will be back with more to add to this list. See you soon.(huffingtonpost.com)ANN.Az