Enticing era of EI

By: Hania Karim

Emotional Intelligence

In 1983, Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist and Harvard professor proposed a theory which was, perhaps, never verbalized before. What thoughts cloud your mind when somebody utters the word ‘Intelligence’? Did the concept of IQ pop up in your mind? Or like majority you related intelligence to Einstein? If you did, you will find this theory rather enlightening.

Gardner argued in his theory of multiple intelligences that existing ways of measuring and defining intelligence were insufficient to gauge its true potential. He evaluated 8 types of critical intelligences, and one of them is emotional intelligence, popularly recognized as EI. Emotional intelligence is primarily defined as the capacity to be aware of, control and express ones emotions, and to handle interpersonal relations judicially and empathetically. EI has a far reaching impact on how we interact with the world and the people around us. The way it stirs interpersonal relations revamps the way societies work. EI can be used to pacify areas with discord to build empowering communities, to transform cognitive nature of individuals to support dynamic cultures. Daniel Goleman, a recognized author, in his book “Emotional intelligence” describes his experience with the rippling effect of EI when he sat in a bus belonging to cheery driver who greeted everybody coming on board with usual sullen moods. At the end of the ride which was full of comprehensive and positive reviews made by the driver on the parts of the city the passed through, the passengers left the bus with smiles. Moreover, EI is essential to achieve a peaceful, emotionally connected and developing lifestyle. If you do not want a hostile, sullen and passive life style, EI is the golden ingredient in the recipe to bring the change you want!

The question arises that how do we enact this valuable asset in to our lives to get the rewarding changes and results. Gardner went on to debate that the person can work on all of the 8 intelligences at a time. Just like that we can harness emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence, like its name suggests, targets the emotions. Since emotions vary person to person, are amplified or dims as people differ, they need to be handled tactfully. This also proves why emotional intelligence first starts to take root in individuals before whole communities are effected. Individual efforts can be made like taking time out for self-evaluation at the end of the day. Since sympathy is an important part of EI taking time to observe around you can give you a sense of awareness and empathy for people who face stigmatized problems. Exercising to urge yourself to think through positive and different ways at a problem will broaden your perspective about it. A great idea to implement EI on large scale is to include it into scheme of work for primary and secondary graders. We can visualize adverts on streets that give positive messages which ripple through the environment.

Some of many beneficial things that EI helps with

Focusing on EI clearly has a lot of benefits. It can enable youth to work in synchrony with their emotions and have less chances to be victims to stress. EI can cultivate leaders among the youth owing to the fact that the essential trait of a leader is to have empathy and use it to empower communities. Incorporating EI in our life will help dim out the hostility and constant mental pressure we are under. The more we enact it in our lives, the less we hear news about adults, as well as teenagers, involving in shooting and killing people, the less we hear about domestic violence, the less we hear about child abuse by parents or anyone because they were extremely angry and could not control their emotions. Moreover, EI can be used on prisoners to transform them and make them an asset to the society. The benefits we get are so vast, we cannot even stop pointing them out.
This is just a glimpse in to the enthralling science of emotions and EI. It is a chance to have a different world. The question is what else can EI do for us?

I would highly recommend reading Daniel Goleman’s books ‘Emotional Intelligence‘ and ‘Working with Emotional Intelligence‘ or check out the two in one book!