11/2 2009
Every Emotion has a Purpose is a basic tenet of Emotional Intelligence. I thought of this today when I heard about a study quoted on national news: “Bad moods can actually be good for you, with an Australian study finding that being sad makes people less gullible, improves their ability to judge others and also boosts memory.”
Here’s another quote: “…research suggests that sadness … promotes information processing strategies best suited to dealing with more demanding situations.”
Good to know that my moods can provide some benefits at work!
You can read the entire article here.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Hi Laura,
Thanks so much for posting this! As soon as I saw it I knew it would end up here in one form or another and I like your take. I copied a paragraph that made an impact on me – it made me think about the positives and negatives of our moods and how we choose to use them to our advantage or not. Or, how we can feel manipulated by our feelings if we’re not paying attention. Here it is:
Professor Forgas said: “Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world.”
It seems so important to be aware of the ‘space’ we’re in when we do things, no?
Thanks again!
Alex