[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”We humans live in two worlds simultaneously.” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”]
One world is the outer world that we occupy daily. Our activities of work and family. Conversations with a friend or coworker. Dropping off and picking up kids from soccer practice, grocery shopping, doing a load of laundry or paying the bills. Meeting a project deadline at the office, mowing the grass or dealing with a misunderstanding with your spouse. Caring for your elderly parents. This exterior world is what we most often describe as “our life,” however, in reality, there is so much more!
The “so much more” is the interior world of our thoughts and emotions. It is the realm of feelings; those mysteriously elusive, super-charged particles of soul matter. While we are in engaging in our exterior life, we are experiencing and living out an entire other world inwardly. A world in which rich coats of texture and color are being applied to the events of our day. The results can yield a polished, brightly colored and appealing finish or a rough, dull, darkly colored and unappealing patina. In either case this inner world exerts incredible influence over how we perceive our lives, ourselves and others.
While every dimension is important it would be hard to argue with the assertion that the emotional dimension is most crucial in determining individual happiness and health. Emotional health is foundational for creating a life of deep satisfaction and purpose. Over the past two decades there has been increasing attention given to the concept of Emotional Intelligence. Studies have shown that one of the primary predictors of an individuals ability to achieve long lasting success and satisfaction in life is a high Emotional I Q.
Emotional Intelligence is characterized by:
1. Self Awareness…knowing what I feel in any given situation and why I am feeling this way.
2. Self Management…recognizing that my emotions at times will be consistent with reality and at other times will not. In order to have good and healthy relationships I need to know the difference.
3. Empathy..moving beyond myself and identifying with others; their joys, fears, pain and longings.
4. Strong Relational Skills…putting self awareness, self management and empathy in to practice as I interact with others by listening and responding constructively.
I encourage you today to live fully connected to both your interior and exterior life. Commit to explore and discover your core feelings; recognize their importance. Take your “emotional pulse” daily and make it a point to communicate life-giving empathy whenever possible. Raise your Emotional IQ and experience deep transformational change in all the dimensions of your life!
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Good article. Any clues to developing in Self-Awareness skills — learning to identify “what you are feeling” and “why?”
Hi! Mary Jo,
Glad you liked the article and thanks for the great question. A simple exercise that I have found to be helpful in increasing emotional awareness is to take your “emotional pulse” on a regular basis. To do this all you will need is :
* a Feeling Word List ( you can find these on the internet & are helpful in expanding your feeling word vocabulary)
* a Pen & Paper
Now take a moment to reflect on your day or situation you are facing, scan through your list of feeling words & begin writing down all the words that describe your emotions. From here you can begin to narrow it down to two or thee emotions that best describe your emotional state. Do this every day or whenever you are feeling stuck and your ability to quickly identify what you are really feeling will increase.
Hope this helps,
Ron