Emotional Intelligence; Need of the Hour
By: Syed Mustafa Ahmad
At present, when everything is going from bad to worse in every sphere of life, the need for emotional Intelligence has increased manifold. Wars, climate change, cyber-attacks, family disputes, religious bigotry, economic crises, pandemics, etc have become the order of the day and in these situations, it becomes quite necessary to look out for the remedy and the remedy is available in the form of Emotional Intelligence.
It is a fact that a man is the mixture of different emotions. One moment the man is on the zenith of happiness while the next moment his emotional rush is at its lowest. Once, we used to criticize the lowest level of Intelligence by calling him a fool. His ingenuity was so low that he would fall in the lowest category of the IQ.
However, with the passage of time and the radical changes in all the departments of society, IQ has taken the back seat. Instead of answering the academic questions and being cunning in every facet of life, it has become a necessity to be able to radiate the positive rays of EQ and SQ too.
Social Quotient is a part and parcel of the EQ. If EQ is restricted to a single individual, SQ is a multidimensional aspect of our lives. No one can deny this fact that though man is the product of society, he is a society in himself too. His emotions get hurt at the individual as well as on societal level.
Being in the company of others, his raw emotions get carried away by the toxic words and gestures of other people. Moreover, his conditioned prejudices that a man embraces each and every day are given a severe blow that affects the inner emotional clock of the person and results in anger, frustration, isolation, rude behaviour, self-hurt, low esteem, laziness, self-doubt, social retardation, economic retardation, religious biasness, etc.
Nowadays, no one is emotionally mature. Everyone is sailing in the boat of emotional immaturity. From children to the youth, adults and the old people are not emotionally mature. The children and the old people exempted on account of their age.
However, the youth and the adults must not be emotionally fickle-minded. It is they who lead from the front. When their emotions remain raw and they do not go through the grind of emotional maturity and strength, they are sure to face the defeat in their lives.
Going through the different flames make the gold pure. In the same vein, if the youths are hurt at the slight provocation, it means the future will be bleak and there will be shifting sands, donning different uniforms and dotting the landscape. If we look at the civilized countries of the world, the secret of their growth and development lies in the best use of Emotional Intelligence.
They never act like emotional fools . Emotional rush has both positive and negative aspects. However, the continuous negative rush has the potential to set the well-organised society on the disastrous path. The experts say that the positive emotional release can transform deadwood into a green tree which is resistant to different storms and diseases. The same rule applies for all of us.
There are many causes responsible for emotional immaturity. The first is the narrow mind-set. A broad-minded person can never be an emotional fool. His vision and the clarity of the daily happenings of the ephemeral life behove well to him act as an emotionally immature person.
He knows others’ as well as his own position too. He is able to sift truth from falsehood which enables to keep a keen eye on the level on emotional rush. Though he is tempted by emotions, his control over emotions doesn’t allow him to do so. In this way, he wins the game of emotional intelligence and comes out winning. The second is conditioning.
We all are born without any kind of conditioning. However, it is the society, family and we ourselves who prefer conditioning to reality or originality. In other words, we keep on piling layers of conditioning those results in such a situation where the lava is boiling inside while we are watering the twigs.
Instead of addressing the dirt of the soul and sweeping the rubbish of negativity inside, we keep on conditioning ourselves. The end result is that we remain emotional fools or idiots. We learn to add as many faces or layers as we can, however, at the minute level, we remain raw and get carried away from the minor storms. The third is religious fanaticism.
We have embraced the peripheral beliefs so close to our hearts that we can never think of parting with them. The Complete Code of Conduct of the Perfect Way to God doesn’t mean that we never give ears to what others are saying. Everyone has the right to speak his or her heart.
However, the secret of emotional Intelligence lies in this fact when we listen to the other person’s talk attentively, without getting aggressive or happy. Patiently listening to someone, though he is criticising my cherished beliefs, is the sign of emotional Intelligence.
In this approach, lies the true meaning of emotional tolerance. Our attitude must be to introspect our beliefs every time. Keep on cross-checking and declare that no truth is the only truth. Instead, every truth must go through the different stages of different grinds so that it keeps on improving and accepting the new changes.
The fourth is our leniency. Being aware of the negative ramifications of the emotional foolishness, we still tread the path of emotional immaturity. We deliberately expect from others. We love as well as hate blindly. We shut our eyes to the truth and become blind to the core. When we are nudged by the enlightened ones, we become sad, angry and begin hating the person(s) who dared go disturb me sleep, full of mirages. Sometimes we cross the limits and kill or poison the rational person, for his originality and spirituality.
In order to live a peaceful life, we must go for the Emotional Intelligence as early as possible. If must become the inalienable part of our lives. From the childhood, the children must be trained to be emotionally mature. Starting from an individual level, we can bring a revolutionary change in the society if we keep working on the principles of the Emotional Intelligence.
The services of experts and the people associated with this field can be handy in this regard. When life seems to be a roller coaster ride, it is of utmost importance to look out for remedy and the more than half of the remedy lies in the EQ. Before it is too late, let us embrace the world of EQ whole heartedly and become the emotionally strong people.
The real enlightened is one who has a total control over his emotions. It is never too late to mend. Now the ball is in our court to become the real models of the EQ. It will trickle down to our coming generations and the result is that that there will be lesser number of crimes and diseases. Everyone has to come forward in this regard. Let us hope for the best while prepare for the worst.
