Imagine if you will, a society with citizens who have healed their codependent beliefs around their relationship with the world and are functioning in harmony, with honor and respect towards others, and maintains their quality of life in well rounded way! I believe it is each person’s duty and job to take responsibility for their emotional, physical, mental and spiritual health and when this happens, we all win!  This is work you have to do for yourself, no one can do it for you.  If we have the majority of individuals taking responsibility for these things, we can coexist much more harmoniously.  This article is focused on identifying and processing your emotions and how that improves the collective wellbeing.

5 ways increased emotional intelligence can make the world a better place for everyone.

1. Reduce mental illness. It is my opinion that many mental health issues are not so much unique and complicated issues but rather symptoms of low emotional intelligence.
2. Increased sovereignty. Emotional awareness and the ability to remain present while processing discomfortable is essential for individuals to operate in a more sovereign, responsible and stronger manner.
3. Beauty in simplicity. Learning to manage emotions- read, understand and respond is actually much more simple than all of the insanity that results from the mismanagement them.  Let me show you how.
4. Take the focus off others and put it on yourself.  In order to cooperate and create together we need to rethink what our responsibilities are regarding ourselves and others.  The rubber hits the road here with emotional intelligence and the famous adage of “not being able to change others”. There’s a lot of power available.
5. Becoming process oriented vs. outcome oriented.  Helping to transform our materialistic society into more intrinsically satisfied and more thoughtful behaviors.

1. Reduce mental illness. It is no secret we are in the midst of a mental health crisis, and the way I see it, we are trying to treat the symptoms and overcomplicating the matter.  Given the unfamiliarity of many people with the idea of emotional  health I think comparing the issue to a physical health phenomenon is probably more relatable.  Let’s say you have a weight loss or muscle increase goal and you don’t change what you are eating but you expect to make a change.  The results you currently have are nothing more than a reflection of your current efforts.  In order to change your results, you need to change some of the variables in the equation. So thats what you are putting in and the action you are engaged in.   Food + Exercise = Change in results.  Let’s look at the same formula for emotional health.  The situations you are in, and the way you are handling them we can replace in our formula.. and then consider our results.   In order to address our results we need to change the action we are taking, which I suggest is the process of read, understand and respond to emotions to get a different outcome. If you don’t change what you are putting into your body and your physical activity, you can’t expect your body to change can you?  The same goes for your emotional health- you have to change the way you are managing your emotions in order to address your overall wellbeing. The beautiful thing is when you feel more empowered to identify and communicate your emotions respectfully, you find yourself really in the drivers seat of your life and taking a more active role in the relationships in your life!

2. Increased sovereignty. We need a makeover on how we treat one another.  This is where it starts- each individual taking ownership of their purpose, experience, strengths, weaknesses, contributions, health, and success.  Add more or less to this list as you see fit, but the bottom line here is that we have a problem of dysfunctional expectations of what the individuals responsibilities are and what healthy expectations of others are.  Personal sovereignty involves each individual adopting a growth mindset to strive for maximum contribution and fulfillment in who they are and conducting themselves within society in a respectful, healthy, and compassionate manner with a mindset of cooperation and coexisting.

3. Beauty in simplicity. Life is not as complicated as we’ve been led to believe.  If we address emotional health which can seem overwhelming if we don’t have a path to do so, everything else becomes more simple. If we don’t address the management of our feelings, we end up making mountains out of molehills when we feel something.. and spending our energy being avoidant and trying to compensate, and worrying about things that are not our responsibility… By simplifying the process, we can focus our energy into our creative pursuits and stay on the path towards success while engaging in healthy communication and management of an aspect of ourselves which is unavoidable..

4. Take the focus off others and put it on yourself. People say this everyday but I think there is a gap between saying the phrase and the actual application of what we do have control over. Taking responsibility for reading, understanding and responding to your emotions truly puts you in the drivers seat of your life. Using your emotions to navigate your interactions, endeavors, relationships, pursuits… will create more change and transformation than trying to control things with your mind.  I want people to look at emotions as a guidance system to help them in their choices, whether as signs of being in the right place, signs that something needs modification or that they need to go in a different direction.  If you chose to be honest about your feelings and practice communicating them in a functional way, you gain the ability to really be yourself and live your life authentically.  Many people feel like they have to compromise their values to survive in this world and I argue that’s not true.  There are some scenarios where that is probably true, but I want this to be the exception, not the norm. It’s possible if everyone educates themselves about this process and we start engaging with one another from this more independent, cooperative, mutually respectful perspective.

5. Becoming process oriented vs. outcome oriented. This is a major issue in our society that has people looking for fulfillment from outside sources instead of within.  Peace comes with being present in the moment.  Having awareness of your state in the moment is an essential component to being successful.  Imagine you are in a business conversation and trying to negotiate a deal, if you can monitor your state and start taking situations step by step you can actively drive the conversation.  You have to stay in the moment and communicate effectively during negotiations to work towards your desired goal.  This is an important skill when receiving feedback from a coach, when negotiating a business deal, when seeking to have your needs met in a relationship- taking things moment to moment..

I hope you are inspired to continue learning about how to read, understand and respond to your emotions so you can feel more focuses, confidant and tuned in.  There are many resources out there to improve your emotional health!

Check out the video!