Weekly Tidbit: Emotional Intelligence

[Charly Hill]

People tend to think of their cognitive brain as the source of their intelligence. Our society has devised highly structured IQ tests to measure "intelligence" and our educational systems focus pretty much on left brain thinking. Perhaps emphasis is on the superiority of logical thought because it can be manipulated more easily than emotional intuition. Or maybe the reason most people believe that logic is more important than emotion is that we don't understand the connection between the two.

Dr. Antonio R. Damasio, professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, has done extensive research to prove his belief that rational thinking cannot function without emotional input. He studied patients who had frontal lobe surgery and lost the ability to use their visceral emotions, their "gut intuition". These patients were unable to function in the world on their own even though they evidenced normal IQs, had functional working memories and logical reasoning abilities. They had to have caretakers because they could not make decisions that had no logical structure ..... they would get stuck in endless rumination. Without emotions to guide their logic, something as simple as choosing between two days to make an appointment was beyond their capabilities.

Abraham / Hicks agree that our emotions are our inner guidance system. "Your loving Inner Being offers guidance in the form of emotion. Entertain a wanted or unwanted thought and you feel a wanted or unwanted emotion. Choose to change the thought and you have changed the emotion --- and you have changed the creation." During my years as a psychotherapist in private practice, cognitive restructuring was highly regarded as a treatment for changing behavior and for improving emotional affect. Cognitive restructuring works to change thought patterns by intentionally choosing new words to shape new thoughts. And when you change your thoughts, your feelings change also in response.... and visa versa: they are in intimate relationship with each other.

We live in a society that invites us to lose connection with our emotional guidance. Technological overstimulation, overuse of medication, and policies of disinformation encourage us to go along with consensual reality rather than attune to our own inner knowing. Paying attention to our emotions, learning to trusting our intuition, and opening to our inner guidance allows us to be more fully wise. The collaboration of right and left brain enhances our ability to know ourselves and manifest what we truly desire. A beautiful illustration of this is the creation of music, for music combines emotion and intellect seamlessly, and it transcends all cultures and languages. We all have music inside of us.

Charly
www.conversationsforchange.com