Every Christmas day around the globe we stand united by a simple message: let there be peace on Earth. We say our prayers, send out our benevolent wishes, and then go back to same old ways, while hoping for better results. Is that an intellectual or an emotional decision?

Here are 3 examples of the all-too-familiar story:

1. Most of the violence in the world is because of religion. But, I ask, is religion an intellectual or an emotional choice?
2. We have conflict and wars because of people’s greed for money and power. But is greed for money and power an intellectual or an emotional choice?
3. I’m upset/angry/sad/disappointed because it’s just impossible to talk sense into my partner/ neighbor/stranger/the world and so forth. Is being upset, angry, sad or disappointed an intellectual or an emotional response to a particular situation?

Before we proceed, let’s examine the most fundamental question of all: WHO ARE WE?

This is a huge subject to which I have dedicated 35 years of research, and condensed my findings into 5 books. But for the purpose of this article let’s keep the dilemma simple and define “who we are” as follows:

We are PHYSICAL (the body)

We are EMOTIONAL (the heart[i])

We are INTELLECTUAL (the mind)

We are METAPHYSICAL[ii] (the so-called spirit).

THE QUESTION that immediately pops up is this:

Can we hope to learn, grow and prosper, individually and/or collectively, by addressing only “parts” of who we are? More specifically, can we ever have peace on Earth without addressing the emotional aspects of our being-ness?

To answer this question let’s return to our original dilemmas.

• RELIGION: Religion is a decision based on faith (not fact) but influenced by our love or fear of God. Conclusion: Religion is an EMOTIONAL decision.
• GREED: Greed is a need, which is based on our DESIRE FOR MORE. Why do we need more? Because we feel insufficient being who we are. In other words, we FEAR what will happen to us by not being enough, and we LOVE the idea of being more. This means GREED is an EMOTIONAL choice.
• Being upset, angry, sad, disappointed, or in any other disturbing state or dilemma, is most likely an EMOTIONAL response to a given situation.

The phrase we are looking for is EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Oxforddictionaries.com describes it as “the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.”

This got me thinking. Who are the highly placed people in world societies? Who are the leaders in any chosen field or profession? They are intellectuals with academic degrees, and/or people with substantial personal experience, and/or individuals with great personal influence, who are the considered to be experts in their particular fields of knowledge. They run our governments and corporations, define our education, economics, and social policies, and influence just about every aspect of our lives. But who monitors and ensures these people are responsible individuals and emotionally fit for their positions?

NOBODY.

In short, our system of education and selection of leaders does not explicitly demand, nor ensure, that highly influential individuals be also responsible and emotionally balanced or mature. The emphasis is on political tactfulness, financial backing and academic degrees, combined with status, personal connections, fame, charisma, and other external qualities.

A few days ago I watched the news where a prominent politician from a European country was being interviewed. The newscaster asked the politician what were his hopes for an agreement on a major European policy. The politician smiled and casually replied, that “conversations in Brussels begin with plenty of reason and goodwill, but then emotions set in and it becomes increasingly hard, if not impossible, to reach agreements.” I was waiting for the newscaster to respond by voicing her concerns about the involvement of Ego in matters of great national and international importance, and the necessity of so-called “emotional intelligence” in people holding positions of great power. But instead, the newscaster just nodded in agreement and sympathized with the politician.

Is this it? We must tolerate dysfunctional behavior because lack of emotional intelligence is an acceptable flaw of being human? What the f***?

Here’s the sad reality. Standard schools and academic education place great emphasis on information gathering or “knowledge of data”, but pay less or NO attention to actually understanding the CAPACITY of that which is being taught, or how and why knowledge must be responsibly and efficiently applied. We have made a gigantic leap from Hunter-Gatherers to Information-Gatherers, but our relationship between the understanding of the world, compared to the amount of data we are accumulating, is being destroyed. In other words, we are replacing our understanding of the world with digital algorithms and thus losing control over data. 

In most modern societies, promoting brain intellect is treated as all-important, while teaching emotional intelligence[iii] and spiritual growth is largely ignored. As a result, we have people in positions of power and greater influence, including highly educated experts, experienced politicians, or other dominant figures in our societies, who exhibit traits of emotional immaturity, irresponsible behavior and weakness of character. Put simply, their “emotional capacity” is appalling and bearing potentially disastrous consequences.

What is the one trait that is synonymous with the world’s most inspirational leaders, among them Socrates, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, and more lately Pope Francis and Malala Yousafza? This trait is called strong emotional intelligence.

On the other hand, what trait unites the world’s most notorious dictators i.e. Mao Zedong, Jozef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Kim II Sung, Idi Amin Dada and many others? It’s lack of emotional intelligence. In fact, most personal, local, national and global human-initiated dysfunction is a result of low emotional intelligence.

But, I hear you say, why don’t we TEACH “Emotional Intelligence” at schools? One would think this would be an obvious solution. No such luck. Are we a society incapable of straight thinking? Is straight thinking – as we like to call it – solely an intellectual process, or does it involve emotional intelligence?

IN SUMMARY:

Emotional intelligence is present in everything we sense, think, say and do. It is an integral and most powerful element of the SELF and it presides over our knowledge or ignorance, needs, desires, and judgment. Growth in emotional intelligence leads to increased awareness of the world and promotes spiritual growth and wisdom. While body and intellect will slowly but surely be replaced by AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IA (Intelligence Amplification), emotional intelligence and spiritual wisdom will continue to differentiate us from the machines. In view of this, we urgently need to redesign our educational systems to reflect this truth. In short;

“we are a flow of awareness, determined by our physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual dimensions and therefore it is critical for our individual and collective prosperity that we establish the “RIGHT” balance between all four aspects of Who We Are.”

FINAL NOTE: Rewind your life to your childhood days and imagine going to a school, where you would examine and be educated about real-life emotional challenges, and given tools to overcome them in a calm and efficient manner, such that enabled you to consistently add value to your life and to responsibly contribute to the society.

Imagine your teacher explaining that you are a truly special individual, who has been selected to experience life in a way that nobody has ever experienced it before you. The reason for this is that you are a unique child of Nature, one of a kind, and therefore infinitely precious!

Imagine being told that YOU are life; a combination of EMOTIONS, MIND, and SPIRIT, all packaged neatly into a shell we call the BODY.

Imagine being told that YOU ARE the most sophisticated organism in the known Universe, and your school and the teachers have been trained to transform you into a powerful wizard, a master of your destiny, and capable of leading the world and achieving any goal that you desire.

Imagine a system of education totally dedicated to helping you discover the truth of the world and of who you truly are. Would getting such an education have made a difference to the life you are leading today?

All this is possible. For you and for your children. We must simply put emphasis upon learning about Who We Truly Are, and allow our hearts and spirit to take their rightful place alongside our mind and body.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY, and may peace be upon us and the world.

#Christmas #Education #Emotional Intelligence #WhoWeAre

[i] Heart, a metaphorical expression denoting emotions and feelings

[ii] Metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, identity, time, and space; Abstract theory with no basis in reality https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/metaphysics

[iii] Emotional intelligence, the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/emotional_intelligence