Enhance Emotional Literacy

Enhance Emotional Literacy is one of the core competencies in the Six Seconds Model of Emotional Intelligence. Emotional literacy helps you notice, name, and understand feelings. This provides critical information about you (and about others), which gives you insight into the core drivers of behavior. This understanding is also key to managing your reactions.

The Neuroscience of Chai: Overcoming My Own Obstinance

Why do we sometimes take risks to learn, but other times we’re so determined to stay “right”? Zooming into the neurobiology, in a sense we have a tug-of-war between the striatum and the amygdala, between opportunity and risk. It’s just like trying Chai for the first time on the steamy streets of Kuala Lumpur.

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Getting Off the Trouble Train

“Have you ever found yourself in the middle a situation and you know it will to turn into a big mess? You can feel it slipping out of control… and yet you keep going. It’s as if you’re being pushed along this track; you know it’s going to lead to trouble, but it seems like there’s no choice.”

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Decoding Emotions

Smarter About Feelings: Part Two . Part One introduced the idea of becoming smarter about feelings — and how that can help you (kids) get more of what you want… and less of what you don’t want!  In that article I promised that I’d also write more about emotions and the meaning behind our feelings.  […]

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Smarter About Feelings

When I was a kid, no one taught me about emotions. They’re so powerful! And such a big part of our lives… here are the most important ideas every kid (and adult) needs to know about feelings.

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Enhance Emotional Literacy

Emotional literacy helps you notice, name, and understand feelings. This provides critical information about you (and about others), which gives you insight into the core drivers of behavior. This understanding is also key to managing your reactions.

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Integrated Emotions: Feelings Are Allies

What if all our feelings had value? Many people see emotions as “good” or “bad” — which leaves us in a constant state of internal struggle against our own feelings. Here’s a framework to rethink feelings as valuable signals about what’s important.

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Coaching Emotions (#22)

Join Jenny Rogers (author of Coaching Skills), Ann Rindone (VP at ICF), Natalie Roitman (coauthor of The EQ Gym) and Josh Freedman (author of At the Heart of Leadership) in a deep dive to the heart of coaching.

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Illuminate: Who drives you NUTS?

Your ‘Sandpaper Person’ illuminates your own personal beliefs + opportunities for growth. This articles breaks down how to identify + learn from the person who most challenges you.

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Illuminate: The Burn Out, Part I

So often, when we are in a hard place, we just want to get out as quickly as possible. But transforming our muck into meaning takes time, acceptance, and understanding. Here is my story of a recent burn out, and how you, too, can transform your muck.

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Need Help Making a Decision? Try Mixed Emotions Cards

Have you ever had really mixed feelings about a decision or a choice you have to make? It can paralyze the decision making process and cause us to waffle endlessly back and forth. The Mixed Emotions card deck embraces the complexity of emotions and turns them into an asset for decision making.

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Talking with Kids About Tragic News

After horrific events in the news, do you share your feelings w kids/students… or try to reassure by hiding your feelings? How can we talk with children about these difficult feelings?

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Scared Excited: Talking to Children About Trauma

How to Talk to Kids About Fear and Trauma, Part II It’s difficult enough that, as parents, we struggle to find answers to the everyday issues with our kids, such as how to get them to eat more veggies, do their chores, and be kind to their siblings. When it comes to trauma and fear, […]

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How Do I Control Emotions Better?

It’s one of the most frequent questions in emotional intelligence workshops worldwide. How can I get better at controlling my feelings? The language of this question reveals a bias that there are bad emotions requiring control – which means exerting power to subdue. Here’s a simply radical shift in perspective: How can I get better at harnessing […]

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A Curious Case For Boredom

Tired of feeling bored? Finally we can understand the reasons behind the feelings of being trapped, restlessness, lack of challenge, and lack of purpose.

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Physiology of Emotion, Exercise, and Change

I was recently talking to a group about the fact that we can choose how we feel. “But didn’t you say emotions are an automatic biological response?”   Yes, in fact, I did… but don’t we have choice about our biology?  I remember years ago interviewing neurobiologist Debra Niehoff about the way some people seemed […]

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