Have you ever been so mad, scared or frustrated that you might even have called yourself “out of control”? If so, you may have very well been experiencing an ‘emotional hijack’. Let me explain.
When we are feeling attacked, the brain kicks in to protect us. Physically. There is an almond-shaped piece of the brain called the amygdala. (Greek word for almond) When the brain senses a threat, the amygdala kicks in to give us the ability to run, to fight off the opponent, or stay absolutely still so the attacker can not see us. When this happens, our primitive instincts take over and our intellectual skills are pushed down. It’s as though the amygdala hijacks the rest of the brain, suppressing logical thought.
This was very useful back in the day when we were chased by things that wanted to eat us. Our lives, and our brains, have since evolved. In today’s world, similar threats show up when we think we are being attacked, whether it’s physically, mentally or emotionally. We react to rejection, embarrassment and humiliation the same way we did to saber-tooth tigers. Our body goes into fight, flight or freeze mode. The funny thing is, the brain does not discern the difference between threats that are real and those which are imagined. Let me say that again. The brain doesn’t know the difference between what is actually happening and what we make up in our heads! We can spin stories in our mind about CONTINUE READING…situations we don’t want to have happen and the body responds as though what’s happening in your imagination is real. Have you ever had a thought and had your body react to that thought? Case in point.
In 1997, Mayer & Salovey defined emotional intelligence as “the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth.”
Daniel Goleman further developed the idea of emotional intelligence (“EQ”) and created a model for us to understand and integrate the concepts to have better relationships and better understanding of self. This model is incredibly helpful for business owners to not only understand and manager their own emotions, but to better understand and manage relationships with others.
Would you like a simple tool to measure your emotional intelligence? Contact me and I will send you an ‘EQ Assessment’ that will give you a lifetime of tools to work with.
