The Relevance Of Emotional Intelligence To Our Lives

Scientists have alluded to two minds of man, one that thinks and one
that feels. This feeling and reason dichotomy parallels the folk
distinction between the “head” and the “heart”. It is for this reason
that if the heart rules the head, it can becloud the mind and thus make
reason ineffectual. For ideal situation there must be balanced between
reason and emotion. Given the reality that man has a single
intelligence, the alleged two minds are really one reflecting distinct
operations for each but interwined in a single circuitry of the human
brain.

There is a coordination of all human faculties in a healthy mind
that includes reason, imagination, emotions, senses and instincts. In
case of emotions, feelings are essential to thought and vice versa.
Psychologists and educators alike make a powerful case as to the
importance of emotional intelligence to our lives. This has catapulted
to modern understanding of what emotional intelligence is all about.
For biologists, it took fifty thousand generations to shape emotional
intelligence as what we have known it today.

Throughout history, emotional intelligence is coupled with the rise
of human civilization as well as with population from sparse to dense.
It has also been noted that the last decade there was an upsurge of
scientific research on emotional intelligence. Using brain imaging
technologies, which enable scientists to gather neurobiological data
making possible for the first time the process of human emotions.
Pinpointed by imaging are brain centers that move man to rage or tears
, love or hate providing now with more clarity of how our feelings work
which can help neurologists to suggest fresh remedies for emotional
ailments.

The seat of emotional intelligence is an almond shape neural cluster
perched above the brain stem and at the bottom of limbic ring which is
called the amygdala. It serves as the specialist for emotional matters.
It is also a storehouse of man’s emotional memory. Both affection and
passion depend on amygdala. It triggers tears, an emotional signal
unique to human, it sounds the alarm such as fear, excites the body
flight or fight hormone, activates the cardiovascular system and make
the senses more alert. To sum up, the role of amygdala with the rest of
the brain especially with the neo-cortex (the thinking brain) is at the
heart of emotional intelligence.

Nowadays, the cost of emotional deficiency or illiteracy is quite
alarming. Among youths there is evidence of dropping levels of
emotional competence manifested by the following:

1) Withdrawal problems - like sulking, lack of energy, feeling unhappy.

2) Depression - having fears and worries, feeling unloved, feeling nervous and depressed.

3) Attention problems - daydreaming, acting without thinking, doing poorly in school work.

4) Aggressiveness - lying and cheating, stubbornness and moodiness, having a hot temper.

Today, the most common disability recognized among teens
unfortunately is mental illness coupled with incidence of drug use at
staggering levels. Children of poor countries have the worst indexes of
emotional deficiency, indicating a future generation which lack
emotional competence, moral character and well being.

To develop emotional intelligence we need to be able to read our
innermost feelings, rein in emotional impulse and able to handle
relationship smoothly. We need also to master our feelings and allow
emotional intelligence to overcome various risks of human behavior
especially severe sadness and depression.