Photo by Fibonacci Blue
Last week’s blog was on the topic of Emotional Intelligence (EI), which is particularly relevant to today’s political situation. Have you tuned into the political news lately, and wondered where all the EI has gone? Does anyone have it? If there were more of it, the earth and biotic communities would be in a lot better shape – even flourishing, instead of floundering. Knowing that this is within the realm of possibility, after watching or reading the news, I need all the EI I can possibly muster.
EI is the ability to be open to, curious about, understand, and accept one’s feelings and needs, having greater choice around feelings and behavior so as to meet your needs and the needs of others. Using this definition, how many can you name of our political national leaders that exhibit much of it? What if they did?
We might see a tweet like this:
"Just got named “narcissistic” by the press. I’m SAD! Need acceptance and respect. Would someone help me feel great again? It would be a really big deal for me. THANKS!"
During the Obama years, there was a running skit about him and Michelle having an “Anger Translator.” Maybe our politicians need EI translators to help them learn about what might be going on for them and to speak in those terms. For the rest of us, it would help us understand their feelings and needs (Social Intelligence), and it might also help us connect to our own feelings and needs (improving our EI even more), even though our needs are so not getting met by the current political situation. We would have improved self-connection, and a resulting deeper connection to all life.
Try this as an EI practice to nurture yourself, and human nature in general, so we can nurture others and our wondrous earth. Join me on twitter at #gettingmoreEI and let’s do some translating and sharing, finding ways together to nurture ourselves and our public life, and maybe have a lot of fun. We tweet not for a “gotcha moment,” but to get and share more EI, which also makes us all more socially intelligent and which is a powerhouse for change and power-with dynamics.
Let’s all get more EI!
If tweeting is not your thing, visit our website, join or start a Nurture Nature Community, and take advantage of our resources and new Nurture Nature Academy at http://nurture-nature.thinkific.com/courses/nurturing-nature-for-life.