When it comes to success, we’re often led to believe a high IQ is required, but what about a high EQ, or emotional quotient?
Emotional intelligence may actually be more important for reaching our goals, becoming successful, and providing strong leadership than intellect alone. In fact, the majority of high performers have been found to score high in emotional intelligence and a higher EQ has also been connected to a higher salary.
The good news is that while our intellectual ability to learn plateaus our emotional learning abilities do not—we can hone in on skills and practice them to change our neural pathways and create deeper emotional understanding for ourselves and others, at any age. Through the power of neuroplasticity, these practices eventually become second nature and part of our automatic emotional reactions.
Meditation is one of the most accessible ways to start increasing our own EQ. By increasing self-awareness, improving empathy, reducing fear, boosting logic, and enhancing internal and external relationship management, meditation can make us more emotionally intelligent and therefore more successful.
If you missed last week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, I met with author and EQ expert Dan Goleman to talk about why our level of emotional understanding is so impactful in our personal and professional lives and how we can improve it through meditation.
Dan is a wealth of knowledge in this field and his thoughts on compassion and kindness are sure to make you think twice about your own emotional standing. I hope you’ll tune in to find out how to take your wellbeing to a new level with greater emotional intelligence.