Continuing on David’s theme about happiness… I completely agree that we’ve got “happiness-seeking-run-amok” and that sadness is good too! Does real “happiness” mean the absence of sorrow? I suspect it means “being more alive.” It certainly doesn’t seem to come from ease. I haven’t read it, but thought the premise of this book sounds right [...]
This week’s issue of Newsweek has an article about some fall-out from the ‘happiness movement’. Basically, the argument is that sadness can be a natural response to life events and that negative emotions can be adaptive. Accessing and leveraging the ‘full range of emotions’ should be part of any approach to EI. Remember that emotions [...]
Lately, I have been thinking about values and EI so I started to re-read some of the earlier writing on the theory. These abilities are to be used to promote emotional growth and development. People high on EI are not masters of the universe, nor do they rise to the top of the corporate heap. [...]
“Which is more of threat to your health: Al Qaeda or the Department of Homeland Security?” was the provocative lead in question to a recent article entitled Living in Fear and Paying a High Cost in Heart Risk. The article states that the answer is not as clear cut as you might think. A study [...]
A really excellent article in The Walrus entitled Repress Yourself published originally in 2006 explores in some detail the social boundaries and attitudes towards ‘expressing everything’ and a more British ‘stiff upper lip’ or as they describe it, ‘blessed silence’. With references to enthrawling tv drama where actors are scripted and characters at times magnetic, [...]
I was interviewed for Feb ’07 Redbook article. It’s always fun to see how these things come out… Excerpt: “See” your feelings in full color. Take a moment each day to imagine that you’re a blank wall waiting to be painted, suggests Joshua Freedman, of Six Seconds (6seconds.org), an emotional-intelligence website. “Let your imagination run [...]
Is it emotionally intelligent to fight? New study from University of Michigan divides 192 couples 3 groups based on “unfair attacks”: both partners communicate their anger; one spouse expresses while the other suppresses; both suppress their anger and brood. Preliminary finding after 17 years is that group 3 is at risk. Ernest Harburg, professor emeritus [...]
I have had a couple of times lately that tears have welled up in my eyes. As I watch and listen to the events surrounding the presidential campaign, I am really amazed about those citizens who are attempting to become President of the United States. Diversity is such an important value of mine and I [...]
Yesterday morning that song kept running through my head. Family and I were walking on the beach, a glorious, amazing January-I-am-so-lucky- to-live-in-California kind of day, watching my kids collecting sea glass… and thinking about my dad in the hospital. We don’t quite know what’s wrong, it seems most likely to be lung cancer, we will [...]
Your posting on decision making and emotions is really fascinating Tom. It resonates with some of the points that Bill Gates made in his Harvard speach where he discussed how we can help cut through complexity to ensure that we continue to tackle difficult problems and not give up. His point too is that we [...]