Intelligence & Memory

 

Moving back to Emotional Intelligence...

Now that we have gotten the basic idea of what Emotions are let us move to the second word, 'Intelligence'!

Intelligence can simply be defined as the ability of a human being to learn something. This may be in terms of knowledge or skills. 

Knowledge pertain to gaining information about any thing i.e. the WHAT aspect. 

Skill pertains to gaining understanding of the process of the activity, i.e. the HOW aspect.

How well and how quickly an individual learns depends on how 'Intelligent' the person is. The level or intensity of the intelligence depends on how much the individual has applied his brain during his/her own  developmental phase of life.

The Intelligence of a person grows till he/she is about 15 years of age and then remains more or less constant for the rest of his/her life.

To be more detailed, Intelligence involves  lot of things and leads to positive results in a lot of aspects. It could be logical reasoning, problem solving, decision making, abstract thinking, language ability, mathematics and so on. The more intelligent you are the better you may be at the above things. 

You will also find individuals who have different levels of "Intelligences" for the various things listed above since Intelligence is more of a abstract working of the Brain than a clear cut mechanical mathematical calculation.

How much you are Intelligent, doing "what", will depend on the experience that an individual has gone through in the early stage of his or her life.

The exact working of the Brain is still filled with a lot of Mystery!

Memory on the other hand is a completely different skill and should not be confused with Intelligence. Yes, the Intelligence of a person might help improving memory, however they are two different skillsets. And we'll talk more about this in the forthcoming articles.

Ciao!!

The Five Senses & Synesthesia

 

In the previous article, we mentioned the senses. Let us process that.

Every human being has 5 sensory organs that carry the stimulus to the brain to produce an emotion and thereafter a feeling when it gets processed through thought. 

These 5 organs are responsible for the sense that we feel - 

1. Visual - What we 'See' through our 'Eyes'

2. Auditory - What we 'Hear' through our 'Ears'

3. Olfactory - What we 'Smell' through our 'Nose'

4. Gustatory - What we 'Taste' through our 'Tongue and Oral Cavity'

5. Tactile - What we physically 'Feel' through our 'Skin'

Any stimulus that is generated external to our bodies is received by the receptor cells of these organs and transmitted to our brain through the pathway of nerves or nerve cells. These pathways reach the Amygdala first, before they reach the pre-frontal cortex. And that's the reason our first reaction to everything external to ourselves is always Emotional.

That is something you cannot control. What you can control however, is how you choose to respond to these external stimuli. This is done by thinking, understanding and evaluating your choices of actions to be taken based on the situation and the time.

So respond... Do not react!!

Synesthesia

One additional thing I'd like to talk about here is the ability known as Synesthesia! This condition takes all the above and mixes it up. It is a rare ability in which our sensory organs experience each other. When you have the ability of synesthesia you are able to experience some of your senses through the non-respective sensory organs. This may be due to cross wiring of the nervous transmissions. 

For example, you hear shapes, you see tastes and so on. This is immediate and automatic and does not take any effort. It is more like a sixth sense and I'm sure it would be an interesting experience. Please be aware though, that this is not a disease or a disorder. It is, like I mentioned earlier, an ability that certain unique individuals are blessed to have!

Emotions & Feelings

 

Let us begin by understanding the difference between Emotions and Feelings. We tend to think that are the same and tend to use them interchangeably.

The difference lies between where the two arise. Emotions originate in the body whereas feelings originate in the mind. Let me explain...

Emotions are bodily functions that are immediate and arise as reactions to a stimulus. The origin is a little organ in our middle brain known as the Amygdala. They are based on the fight, flight or freeze reaction hardwired in us through evolution. They are automatic and cannot be controlled.

                                                                

Feelings on the other hand arise as the end of the process of thinking. It occurs when we let the senses from our sensory organs move to the pre-frontal cortex or the thinking part of our upper brain. This requires a conscious effort of not letting the Amygdala taking control of us, our behaviors and our actions. Feelings are a response more than a reaction. 

So emotions are automatically felt, whereas feelings are consciously thought!

Oh Emotions!!

 

Emotions! What really are they and why are they so up and center in our lives?

The truth is that emotions are an inseparable part of human lives and aren't something you can ignore. But does one really understand what emotions really are? Let's discuss...

If you were asked to list out the emotions that you feel in a regular week, you'll be surprised to find that you may be able to list out a paltry list of very general emotions. And its not just you! Most people would sail in the same boat as you. 

Our experience with emotions has been a pretty long one and we know what these emotions do for you and to you. However, when listing them specifically we often fall short.

The reason that we are unable to identify emotions apart from these general ones is because we are really unable to identify the intensity in which we experience those emotions and identifying what to call them. So we end up listing - happy, sad, angry, afraid, ashamed, and so on...

Being able to identify emotions or being aware of one's emotions is just one part of the entire process of "Being Emotionally Intelligent", and beginning from now, as we end this year, I will try to demystify the concept of Emotional Intelligence and help you understand the importance and significance of it, through this series of articles

I'll leave you with the components of Emotional Intelligence, to think about before we begin the journey - 

So, in a nut shell, Emotional Intelligence is defined as our ability, 

1. To be Self Aware of our Emotions

2. To Manage our Emotions

3. To Understand People

4. To Manage our Relationships

More on the way!!