How intelligent you really are

Nowadays, self awareness is a trendy expression, very often attributed to spirituality. We declare ourselves self aware of our role in the whole mighty Universe, when in fact self awareness is nothing else than knowing ourselves and being aware of what we are feeling at the moment. We also argue that we are one with the Universe that is one with us, but, even if this may be true, it still  has nothing to do with self awareness. Let me make a little light about self awareness. 

Self awareness is only one component of emotional intelligence, which has to do with the ability of being aware of our own emotions and the way we can manage them as well as inspiring emotions in others.  There are however other parts that constitute our own emotional intelligence. Self regulation (the ability to manage our own emotions in order to help rather than hinder) for example is as important as self awareness. Then there is motivation (the ability to use our preferences in moving towards goals); empathy (the ability to recognise emotions in others) and social skills or those aptitudes necessary in negotiating and teamwork. All these form our own systems of emotional intelligence. 

If emotional intelligence is based on self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills, you may ask yourselves what do IQ tests really measure. The answer is simple: our own cognitive ability or more than likely our own logical intelligence.... which is just a part of our intelligence by the way. If you read "Frames of Mind", you would already know that, according to Howard Gardner, there are multiple forms of intelligence or even multiple intelligences (musical, spatial, linguistic, kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal). 

So if you refer to our coordinates and role in the Universe, accentuating the spiritual side of things, you may refer to the spatial intelligence and definitely not to self awareness, which by the way could not exist in the absence of self assessment and self confidence. 

I would challenge you to decide if would you would rather be self aware, therefore emotional intelligent, or get higher sores in IQ tests... or perhaps both.... why not? 

Yours, 
Brigitte

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