Increase Wellbeing Practicing Self-Compassion
Be compassionate… not just to others, but starting with yourself.
Read MoreCategory: EQ Life
Emotional intelligence is transformational — learn insights and strategies for using the power of EQ in your personal relationships and for yourself!
3 Tips to Turn Turbulent Emotions into Resources
A deluge of violence and trauma in our headlines leaves me feeling… a thunderstorm. How can emotions fuel wellbeing in the face of this onslaught?
Read MoreHow to Be a Great Leader: Harnessing the Power of Noble Goals
Want to know how to be a great leader? It all starts with knowing your purpose, your why. This article can help you find yours.
Read MoreHow to Be More Optimistic: 3 Vital Questions
Want concrete tips for how to be more optimistic? You are in the right place. Ask yourself these 3 questions in challenging situations.
Read MoreThe Enthusiasm of the Desperate
Read MoreHow to Understand People: Ask, Listen, and Get Real
Do you want to know how to understand people more easily? A starting point is a wide-spread lie we tell others — and ourselves. Here’s how to connect on a deeper level.
Read More20 Outstanding Books on Emotional Intelligence
Here’s a wonderful collection of books about emotional intelligence, including six key concepts for every parent to share with children (and books to do so!)
Read More2 Simple Steps to Overcome Anxiety with EQ
Read MoreWhat’s Your Body Telling You?
Listening to What Our Bodies Are Telling Us – By Beth Offenbacker, PhD Have you ever been unsure how you feel about something? As I’ve gotten older, I find sometimes I live more “in my head” than sometimes I want to. And as someone with a brain preference for Rational data (see the Brain […]
Read MoreStepping Out of the Shadow of Perfect
How can we counter the shadow of perfectionism? Increasing self-compassion and empathy will free us to be our best.
Read MoreNot just SMART goals, setting CLEAR goals for success
Have you been making lists each day but not making progress? Most goals are missing and essential component: emotional intelligence. Power up your goal setting with EQ. By adding the CLEAR method for setting goals to your SMART goals routine, you’ll boost your effectiveness. With CLEAR methodology you can use emotional intelligence in goal setting […]
Read MoreFeeling Stressed? It’s a Laughing Matter
Stress is on the rise – especially after the recent election. Fortunately, a bit of emotional intelligence will help you dissolve stress the fun way: Humor! Here’s how to use emotional intelligence to fuel laughter to manage stress. When Was the Last Time You Laughed? The terribly stressful events of recent weeks–I write in the […]
Read MoreHow to Teach Children Emotional Intelligence for a Better World
When feelings run hot, how can we use emotional intelligence to fuel our commitment for positive change… and support children to create a better world?
Read MoreSupporting Children’s Rights through Strong Relationships
Mutually respectful relationships are a foundation for human rights. So how can children & adults use emotional intelligence to strengthen relationships?
Read MoreHow to Make Stressful Change Sticky: Focus & Reflection
Want to be successful in stressful change? Don’t lose focus, use stress to connect people & lock reflection into the process.
Read MoreStress-Free Life: 5 Wise Principles
Life is full of stress. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an instruction manual? Here’s 5 things that should be in it.
Read MoreHow Do I Control Emotions Better?
It’s one of the most frequent questions in emotional intelligence workshops worldwide. How can I get better at controlling my feelings? The language of this question reveals a bias that there are bad emotions requiring control – which means exerting power to subdue. Here’s a simply radical shift in perspective: How can I get better at harnessing […]
Read MoreDaniel Goleman on the Dalai Lama’s Vision for Good
“Real change will take place when individuals transform themselves guided by the values that lie at the core of all human ethical systems, scientific findings, and common sense.” –the Dalai Lama If you could encourage people to make just one small change to transform the world, what would you ask them to do? Daniel Goleman […]
Read MoreA Curious Case For Boredom
Tired of feeling bored? Finally we can understand the reasons behind the feelings of being trapped, restlessness, lack of challenge, and lack of purpose.
Read MoreStressed for Good: Surprising New Science about Stress
Stress kills… or does it? In the light of new neuroscience, maybe it’s time rethink stress – which might just save your life.
Read MoreEQ Stories: Coaching a Career Change
EQ Stories are profiles of people whose lives have been helped by emotional intelligence and Six Seconds’ coaching model. This story is from Six Seconds’ Marilynn Jorgensen, Master Coach/ICF Trainer. Why is emotional intelligence coaching so powerful? “Bill” is a senior leader who needed EQ: ” I was moving up in my career and yet […]
Read MoreDon’t Settle for Happiness: Make Life Worth Living
How do you increase happiness, and is that a useful goal? What do we mean by happiness anyway? Using emotional intelligence we can go from ‘happy’ to ‘thriving.’
Read MoreSolving the Biggest Problems: Daniel Shapiro on Emotional Intelligence and Negotiation
How to effectively resolve conflict? “Emotional intelligence is essential,” says Daniel Shapiro, Harvard International Negotiation Program.
Read MoreThe Way You Are
Is there a way to be unconditionally loving, and also to hold high expectations? As parents, can we love our kids “as they are” AND help them be better?
Read MoreThe Paradox of Giving Yourself
It may seem like a paradox, but people who focus on giving feel and do better… and so do businesses.
Read MoreFeel the Power: Flexing EQ
The use of power is central to our interactions as leaders, coaches, parents, and change agents. To be more effective, emotional intelligence will help us understand and tune up our own use of power and the ways people react to that. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of different forms of power. All of these “work” in some sense. If they generate certain desired there are “benefits.” At the same time, each produces unwanted side effects, called “costs.” What are some of the forms of power that you have, and that you exercise? What happens when you exercise these different forms of power? What price do you pay for each such use?
Read MoreAre We Wired for Empathy?
The neuroscience of empathy is fascinating and offers practical lessons for leadership and life. Our brains are wired for social connection through Mirror Neurons, which cause us to experience what we perceive.
Read MorePhysiology of Emotion, Exercise, and Change
I was recently talking to a group about the fact that we can choose how we feel. “But didn’t you say emotions are an automatic biological response?” Yes, in fact, I did… but don’t we have choice about our biology? I remember years ago interviewing neurobiologist Debra Niehoff about the way some people seemed […]
Read MoreAddressing 21st Century Issues with Emotional Intelligence: A conversation with Daniel Goleman and The Six Seconds EQ Network
Read MoreExercise or Die? Emotional Intelligence and Health
For the past 20 years, my most rigorous exercise has been carrying my laptop around the world. Still, when I went to the doctor for a checkup (finally), I was surprised and dismayed by my blood pressure. [This article was first published 12/21/2005 — the good news: I’ve come to like exercise!] Over the years […]
Read MoreRight Speech by Eknath Easwaran
Karen McCown, Six Seconds’ Founder, handed this article to me several years ago. It’s stuck with me as a powerful set of guidelines for being impeccable with words. The children, Patty and I have discussed the “three gatekeepers” often over the last years; we started when the kids were 4 and 6 years old and […]
Read MoreAssent, Dissent, Descent
Recently… I told Emma (8-year-old daughter) she needed to get dressed to go. Instant protest, heel-dragging, power struggle. Yet we were going to do something she wanted! I observed a new cross-functional team starting up. The person assigned to schedule the first meeting asserted, “Since no one else wants to, I will chair the team.” […]
Read MoreAlone in the Parade
The drive to connect, to be accepted, is both glorious and brutal. It drives us to care and connect — and to engage in self-destructive behavior in a desperate bid to fit. The “thinness” of digital connection can’t actually be fixed by quantity — just as one can not get a healthy meal by eating a LOT of junk — but the thinness may drive people to want more.
Read MoreThe Princess with the Glass Heart
by Anabel Jensen, Ph.D. When I was very small — probably about seven — I read a fairy tale about a princess who was born with a glass heart. In the story, this princess grew into a lovely young woman. Early one day, feeling joy at the sight of the first crocuses or daffodils or […]
Read MorePhysics of Emotion: Candace Pert on Feeling Good
“Emotions are literally changing the chemistry of every cell of your body,” says Dr. Pert, “and affecting the world outside your body.”
Read MoreBeyond Survival: Guilding Adversity With Hope
Anabel Jensen, Ph.D. It was two days after Christmas, 1998, and my son, Caleb, and I were sitting in front of a roaring fire with cups of hot chocolate (mine had a bunch of tiny marshmallows) and we were reviewing and reminiscing about previous Christmas days — those memories that made us laugh or cry. […]
Read MoreFight or Flow Part Two: “Water Is Stronger”
This second half of “Fight or Flow” explores the alternative to the kinds of “hitting back first” reactions discussed in part one. To constructively engage with emotions requires reframing the way we think — and feel — about feelings. It’s always amazed me that these heavy stones can move — float — on a cushion […]
Read MoreFight or Flow Part I: “Hit Back First”
Why do we react – explode – shut down… and how can we use insights from current neuroscience to be less reactive?
Read MoreChoosing Optimism: An Interview with Martin EP Seligman, Ph.D.
What is optimism? Can it be learned? How? Martin Seligman is one of the preeminent experts on optimism and a founder of positive psychology. This interview explores many of the key ingredients for creating a happy, fulfilled life and introduces the concept of positive psychology. Josh: The tool that you introduced at the Nexus EQ […]
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