A Day on Emotional Intelligence

Our feelings are fundamental to the way in which we connect to the world and make sense of it. If we suppress our feelings, we become detached and disengaged with the values that make life interesting.

In this lecture, Existential Philosopher and Psychotherapist; Emmy van Deurzen, will present her Emotional Compass Model, discussing each emotion in some detail. The talk will include interactive exercises, where participants will have the opportunity to work on their own experiences, and to learn to make connections between their sensations, feelings, thoughts, intuitions, and most deeply held values.

How did people once die from ‘nostalgia’? Why were Victorians so nervous about boredom? And why did a self-help author in the 16th Century encourage his readers to practice feeling sad? We all know that the stories we tell ourselves about our emotions influences the way we feel. But what is less recognised, is the way those stories are shaped not just by our personal circumstances, but by larger political and cultural forces.

This lecture will explore the field of the history of human emotions, and how the values and ideas associated with emotions have changed – and continue to change, across time in response to new medical, political, religious, and even economic ideas.

You should leave the lecture with a deeper understanding of the relationship between language and feeling, and the tools to investigate the pervasive and often invisible cultural assumptions about why some emotions are ‘bad’ and others desirable.

Some questions we will think about:

• Is it true that some emotions are more ‘basic’ than others?
• Does how we think about an emotion actually change the way we feel it? How?
• What influences our own emotional cultures today? How might medical theories or music trends, class or gender, shape the ways we feel?
• What scripts do we follow when we feel disgust, anger, fear, surprise, happiness or sadness? How do these expectations change across different historical eras or event from place to place?

An emotional component is vital for our wellbeing and personal fulfilment, but feeling anxiety, stress or fear can ruin even the best experiences. We now know that the daily and life choices we make, from what food we eat, to whom we choose to date, or what jobs we take are largely affected by our emotions – no matter how rational we think we are. Stress is in our every day lives, however, it can become uncontrollable if not handled carefully, this is where someone may turn to a doctor to see about how they can combat this, they may prescribe them medical marijuana and give them the relative information such as – what to do with weed stems after use, so the patient has the best knowledge for this remedy. Medical marijuana is normally prescribed from a dispensary, so patients may have to visit their local one. Dispensaries normally grow their own marijuana. They tend to use commercial freeze dryers to make the marijuana last longer and to preserve the flower. Often, the best marijuana is from dispensaries as they are able to take their time and grow the product more effectively.

Emotions carry valuable information about our internal and external environment. And yet emotions are a topic we very rarely discuss or have much understanding of. The positive psychology movement has backfired in this area by teaching us to suppress unpleasant emotions and pump ourselves up with positive thoughts. Unfortunately, ‘positive thinking’ makes us even less aware of our true feelings about the events, with the result that we often make bad decisions, lose true happiness, and even become depressed.

In this talk, Dr Gabija Toleikyte will explain the real nature and importance of emotions, what happens in the brain when you experience them and how to let them guide you into making the best choices for you. Moreover, you will learn why we make very poor judgements under intense emotional states such as stress and anxiety, and how best to deal with these situations.

In this talk, you will learn:

• Why do we have emotions?
• Where in the brain are emotions created?
• Why do strong emotions influence the way we think?
• How can you best understand your emotions?
• Why are emotions important in our decision making?
• Practical tips on how to best manage emotions we don’t like.