| Lifetime Growth Emotional Quotient At home, in school, and in the workplace, Americans have been taught to value the intellect and to devalue the emotions. We’ve learned not to trust our emotions; we’ve been told emotions distort the allegedly more accurate information our intellect supplies. In fact, we tend to mold our entire self-image around our intellect. As a result, we now pay so little attention to our feelings that our emotional resources have atrophied, like any unused muscle. A more enlightened perspective is to view emotion and intellect as two halves of a whole. That’s why the term recently coined to describe the intelligence of the heart is “Emotional Quotient” or EQ. EQ is deliberately reminiscent of the standard measure of brainpower, IQ. IQ and EQ are synergistic resources; without one the other is incomplete and ineffectual. IQ without EQ can get you an A on a test, but won’t get you ahead in life. When your EQ is high, you are able to experience feelings fully as they happen and truly get to know yourself. Keeping the lines of communication wide open between the amygdala (the emotional memory part of the brain) and the neocortex (the thinking part of the brain) endows you with compassion, empathy, adaptability, and self-control. The EQ’s domain is personal and
interpersonal relationships—it is responsible for your self-esteem,
self-awareness, social sensitivity, and social adaptability. EQ provides a
critical edge in work, family, social, romantic, and even spiritual settings.
This is because emotional awareness brings our inner world into focus.
It enables us to make good choices and to strike a balance between our own
needs and the needs of others.
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