When reading this article, I immediately drew a parallel to the amount of news we are subjected to. The piece argues that those individuals with a greater ability to read others' emotional state, are vulnerable to increased levels of stress and that their increased awareness of how others are feeling can cause them to have disproportionate feelings of hopelessness and depression.
In the modern age we are spoon fed a conveyor-belt of up to the minute news from around the world. It's only due to great developments in technology that I can look at my BBC News App this morning and become aware that two UN security experts have been found dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a US General has admitted culpability for an air strike that killed 200 people in Iraq and an outbreak of meningitis has killed 140 people in Nigeria. Guardian journalist Rolph Dobelli claimed 'that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body' and that it is ultimately bad for you, therefore you should give up on reading it. I disagree in part with this view as I feel it is more about how you filter this information, how you process it and what you choose to do with it. I think it is important to increase your understanding and awareness as much as possible to give you a more informed outlook on life and the decisions we make, simply refusing to be aware of news stories is an inhibitor and will hinder opportunities to learn, develop and progress.
It is exactly the same as emotional intelligence and ultimately why I disagree with the totality of the Scientific American's statement being that 'too much emotional intelligence is bad for you'. True, we can be affected by others emotions due to empathetic contagion, however emotional intelligence is not just about having awareness. Daniel Goleman's research shows that it is also about the management of those emotions not only in yourself but also with those you have relationships with.
The tactics, techniques and tools we provide at Applied Influence Group will not only increase your understanding and awareness of the emotional state of those around you, but also assist you in performing when you are in a grip of an emotion. This will ultimately increase your ability to communicate, negotiate, resolve disputes, reduce stress and ultimately make a lot more informed decisions.
Whether it be absorbing news reports or developing better emotional recognition, increasing awareness should not be viewed as a bad thing, the focus and the challenge for us all is deciding what to do with that information.
If you'd like to learn more about our services please email me via kyle@appliedinfluencegroup.com, or visit our twitter page (@appliedig) and (website http://www.appliedinfluencegroup.com).
Recognizing when a friend or colleague feels sad, angry or surprised is key to getting along with others. But a new study suggests that this awareness may sometimes come with an extra dose of stress. This and other research challenge the prevailing view that emotional intelligence is uniformly beneficial to its bearer. Psychologists Myriam Bechtoldt and Vanessa Schneider of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management asked 166 male university students a series of questions to measure their emotional smarts. For example, they showed the students photographs of people's faces and asked them to what extent feelings such as happiness or disgust were being expressed. The students then had to give job talks in front of judges displaying stern facial expressions. The scientists measured concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol in the students' saliva before and after the talk.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/too-much-emotional-intelligence-is-a-bad-thing/#
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