Eesha, I agonised a lot over the "ready to date" thing. I knew I wasn't ready and I left it for a year before jumping in. Then I still wasn't ready but I did it anyway. I think I was never going to be ready before getting some experience.
The first man I connected with online was not a spectactular human being and I had much warmer feelings for him than he deserved. I sort of knew this at the same time as doing it and it was something I had to go through - the learning curve of feeling feelings, realising they were misplaced, realising that no one was going to save me from getting deeper in that was sensible than me, and then recovering from it all.
For me it was a very aware and short-circuited version of a thing I had been through in cycles my whole life, usually in a much more self destructive way.
- meet not-great man
- feel flattered and excited his affections - far too moved by all this as I was insecure
- get very involved and exaggerate every trait of this that tenuously implies we are right for each other; ignore red flags
- work really hard on a relationship, loving too much, losing myself
- when literally no other choice, get out, feeling absolutely destroyed
- recover
- start again
In the past that cycle has taken 3 - 13 years. This time, with my eyes wide open, I completed it in 6 weeks (by leaving out the "working hard on the relationship" part I guess!)
So: I would say that dating when I "wasn't ready" was an important part of my personal development. It sounds like you are like me - you like to feel, you like to like someone and you can imbue someone with all kind of good characteristics they don't have. If you are feeling yourself doing that - then go in and take a good look. If you think you can come out again. I don't know if you can develop by hanging back and waiting for time to do it, on its own.