Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Emotional Intelligence

Handling Feelings

Knowing that Tokyo is the capital of Japan is the intelligence quotient of the mind. But knowing how to respond in a balanced manner when someone shouts at me is emotional intelligence. It is an intelligence that helps the mind to rule over the heart in our day to day interaction with people.
The key lies in perfect balance of body, breath and mind. I don't need to stress the importance of emotional intelligence here because, disturbed emotions in one's personal interactions, can lead to a disturbed mind. The disturbed mind in turn invites disturbed thoughts. Disturbed thoughts result in disturbed action. And when actions lose balance, the results are not productive, they are faltering, they make us slip and fall. The cycle forms into a loop, just like a virus in a software programme where the mistakes and unfortunate circumstances keep repeating. It takes some quietitude of mind to sit back, relax and try to find out where things went wrong. The key is in handling emotions better - our interactions with husband, wife, children, close friends and relatives, office colleagues, societal contacts or even acquaintances on the road.
With expression of every emotion which is fundamentally one form of energy, joy, happiness, anger, hatred, jealousy, fear - forms an impression in the psyche. This impression, comes out again as an expression. Breaking this cycle is possible only with purifying the emotions first with breathing in and exhaling deeply and focussing on the breath. The next step of purifying is with meditation and just instantly dropping off all the emotions that make us uncomfortable - anger, hatred, greed, jealousy. Living with them is like collecting the garbage from the road and storing it in one's house.
Emotional Intelligence is all about cleaning up one's stable. The cleaning happens with first sweeping and mopping to remove all negative emotions. The next step is to decorate the house and make it fresh smelling with the incense of beautiful emotions of happiness, joy, bliss, truth, smiles and everything good. Maintaining a clean house is a task and that happens with constant practise of Pranayama and Meditation. A meditative person never gets caught in any emotional whirlpool and hence has his whole intelligence to apply in life situations in any critical period.
*****

7 comments:

Robbie said...

hmm!
I agree a meditative person is the most stable of them all! till mohini comes along:P
Swahilya!!!! Sorry I took so long to post a comment, I do not like posting a comment till I read all of what you have written and reading what you have written is like attending a 3 hour lecture on life. I need to read it contemplate on it and then comment.
Emotional intelligence for me is mans biggest gift. If you have ever seen star trek, captain kirk and his friends always get caught in a turmoil with aliens, the aliens are supposedly superior and have a higher intelligence, while humans are supposed to be stupid and dumb. But I guess that the creator of star trek gene rodenberry was a philosopher as well, he always lets humans win because of their emotional intelligence. I loved this post,complete control over ones emotions is essential to have a clear vision of what is around! AWESOME!

Swahilya Shambhavi said...

Yes interesting. Anybody who takes successful stories in films Star Trek, Matrix, all got to have a great deal of a knowledge of how to draw from the divine presence in them, though they may not be aware of it!
Thanks a ton for that post about Aham on your blog. But spiritual writing will take time to catch people's attention. But the thing is it is permanent stuff. Reading the same post a hundred years later - if there are humans on the planet or even thousands of years hence will have meaning.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the great work.

Where there is good there is bad too? Emotions, i believe are dualistic in nature. Cultivating good emotions lead to expections of good emotions, that takes you to its so called opposite in situations.

J Krishnamurti succintly puts it when he says that the psyche (ego, emotions, etc) are all made of thought (even the good emotions). Stillness and no movement of thought seems (to me atleast) to have been prescribed by all the great jnani's in the past and present. And pranayama and meditation seems to be the way to it. One of my guru's Shiva Rudra Bala Yogi stresses that meditation does not start until your mind remains still for atleast 1 hour. Until then, you are only trying to meditate.

Please keep updating your blog often. It is so peaceful to read on this topic.

Swahilya Shambhavi said...

Anonymous: Yes I agree that at one point of time there is nothing good or bad. But still every parent who brings up their children wishes that their children grow up into good human beings - in terms of what society says is good.
We do not still or thoughts in meditation, but the whole process helps us to discover the unmoving region in our own being.
Every effort that we do here is a process to help us to meditate, not just sitting in meditation, but all thought, word and action right from the time we are born is towards this. This is the only purpose of existence!

Swahilya Shambhavi said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.