February 23, 2015

Emotional Intelligence is one of many human capacities we can train and develop.  Researchers are discovering that high Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has a profound effect on business success, employee satisfaction, income levels and helps the individual flouish in life.

Can we find ways to incorporate the training of emotional intelligence in our teaching and learning.  What about leadership?  Here’s an example related to music:

Music students often have to practise technique (scales, chords etc).  What if we introduced emotional states (known or unknown to the participant) and got them to play that scale “angry” or “red”?  What about “blue” or “sad”?  Can we introduce more vocabulary for emotional states (high, medium and low states) such as “elated” or melancholy to young people?  Increasing the understanding of the states and the vocabulary can help us improve both internal EQ and better read external EQ.

Let’s all think about the many and varied ways we can learn more about EQ and nurture and develop it within ourselves and others.  Let’s proactively add EQ education into the many daily activities we do and the learning environments we have.  The end result will be a a citizen equiped for our rapidly changing world and one who can enjoy all of the subtlties of self-development and community interaction.