Every sort of intelligence signals an ability to navigate well around a particular set of challenges. When we say that someone is clever but add that they have made a mess of their personal lives, or that they have acquired an astonishing amount of money but are very tricky to work with, we are pointing to a deficit in what we call Emotional Intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence is the quality that enables us to negotiate with patience, insight and temperance, the central problems in our relationships with others and with ourselves. It can manifest in partnerships as a sensitivity to the moods of others, a readiness to grasp what may be going on for them beyond the surface, and to enter imaginatively into their point of view. It shows up in relation to ourselves when it comes to dealing with anger, envy, anxiety and professional confusion. Emotional Intelligence is what distinguishes those who are crushed by failure from those who know how to greet the troubles of existence with a melancholic and at points darkly humorous resilience.

This one-day workshop is designed to equip us with the core skills of Emotional Intelligence. We learn:

Why our minds have a hard time understanding themselves.

How to map and understand our anxieties.

How to make sense of the hurts and resentments we carry.

How and why we characteristically respond to frustration.

How much we like ourselves.

How easily we trust others.

What our true identities are.

Emotional maturity doesn’t have to remain a vague pipe dream. It is, when we approach it more closely, reached by a number of coherent steps and insights that can move us beyond our habitual state. To develop emotionally involves:

Learning to understand and sympathise with ourselves.

Taking proper stock of our childhood influences.

Communicating our flaws and eccentricities to others in good time.

Interpreting others beyond what they have directly said to us.

Recognising the hard edges of reality without being destroyed by them.

Accepting our needs for consolation and assistance.

Achieving a necessary degree of confidence.

Being able to detach ourselves from turmoil and take pleasure in local circumstances.

Knowing how to fruitfully despair without giving up on existence.

This one-day workshop brings together the best of The School of Life’s Self curriculum into a single high-intensity session. You can explore our full curriculum here.

(Please be aware, Improving Your Emotional Intelligence contains material from the following individual classes: How to Develop Self-Knowledge and How to Be Sociable).

TIMETABLE

9.30 – 11.00 Welcome

11.00 – 11.30 Morning Session

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

15.30 – 15.45 Afternoon Session

17.00 - Workshop Ends, Q&A