Emotional intelligence is often associated with gender stereotypes. There’s a common belief that women are more in touch with their emotions, while men are better at managing them. However, I oppose these stereotypes, as emotional intelligence is shaped by individual experiences and personalities, not gender.
The discussion on the difference between knowledge and knowing was fascinating. Emotional people, especially those with kinesthetic metaprograms, tend to rely on their intuition and feelings by listening to their body sensations when facing different experiences in life. Most of their physical senses are fired up when processing different events. Loud voices and sounds, visual cues, body language, facial expressions, and internal feelings are incorporated into human interactions. Other physical sensations can be experienced and are associated with specific emotions. For example, neck stiffness is associated with stress, chest heaviness with sadness, headaches with worries, and abdominal pain with anxiety. Therefore, knowledge is fact-oriented, whereas knowing is experienced and awareness-oriented.
I was surprised to learn from the suggested documentary on EI that there are over 3,000 words that describe emotions. Moreover, 60 % of these words describe negative emotions. No wonder people find it easier to identify and express negative emotions. I enjoyed watching this documentary because it provided a quick overview of the hidden messages behind emotions. Understanding the hidden messages behind emotions can be life-changing because it can shift the perspective by focusing on the solution rather than dwelling on the problem. As a result,
people will not be imprisoned by their emotions and will not allow them to control their lives. The term used in the documentary, “being enslaved by emotions,” made me understand the effect of giving in to negative emotions, which makes people stuck in self-limiting beliefs.
It was surprising to see some words classified as emotions. I used to think of being tired and feeling respected as adjectives, not emotions. The discussion on how different cultures convey emotions was enlightening. Should we know and experience all emotions to identify them and develop self-awareness? The discussion on negative experiences made me reflect on the impact they have on people. Developing emotional awareness skills by approaching them from a learning perspective is essential.
It was interesting to evaluate the different emotions that we experience during the day. I have definitely observed a pattern of how my emotions vary from morning to evening. This made me realize the causes behind the fluctuation in mood and encouraged me to find solutions. For example, I realized I always felt bored and agitated around 5 pm. I observed that this feeling is linked to being confined to the house. I realized the effect of not seeing the sunlight on my mood. I started taking short breaks (even if the weather is hot) on the balcony during the day
to enjoy the sunlight. Noticing the pattern made me think in a solution-focused way to address the negative emotion. Without awareness, we act on autopilot mode, allowing emotions to take control and disempower us instead of using emotions to our advantage. After the session, thinking about this activity made me review the emotional experience patterns over the 4 different decades of my life. It is an excellent exercise to see how we evolve and develop our emotional intelligence skills in our life journey.
In the last part of the session, we reviewed the different levels of learning. As a nutritionist, I find this model handy in my practice. People who struggle to develop new healthy habits are usually stuck in conscious-incompetent or conscious-competent. In those stages, people find it hard to keep practicing the habit. Reaching the unconscious-competent level takes a lot of discipline, time, skills, and motivation.
On the other hand, breaking a bad habit can be equally as tricky. The person who tries quitting a lousy habit goes through the reverse cycle. Creating awareness and not acting on autopilot in that case is the solution.
Ultimately, being in the moment and creating awareness are the basis of good emotional intelligence skills. I look forward to many more great learnings and new awarenesses.
