Growing Emotional Intelligence through Yoga eBook
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the capacity to recognise your emotions, to have the ability to make healthy choices based on those emotions, and the resilience or intelligence to keep growing in a positive way.
Emotional Intelligence is a key factor for a successful and happy life
Emotionally intelligent children communicate effectively with each other, giving them an advantage in achieving their goals, and at the same time supporting the emotional needs of others.
Emotionally intelligent children don’t depend on others to solve their problems, and they accept personal responsibility for how they feel.
Emotional Intelligence acknowledges that all feelings are valid, even the angry ones; it is what you choose to do with those emotions that builds emotional intelligence.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a combination of postur es and lifestyle.There are many postures practised in yoga which support strength and flexibility, but the greatest aspect of yoga is its ability to develop mindfulness and character.
The yoga philosophy is to love and accept yourself and others, just as you are. Yoga encourages non- judgment, peace, mindfulness, and caring for others. Each posture in yoga is designed to support the emotional connection to self and others. For instance, your class may be doing yoga, and in the last few minutes move into peaceful pose. There may be a child in your class that does not usually experience peace, but for a few moments will experience peace. He or she has an opportunity to ‘wire’ peace into their nervous system. Through persistent acknowledgement each time the child demonstrates peace (if only for a moment) the self- belief of peace grows stronger. There will come a time when this child knows what peace is, how to get there, what it feels like, and will acquire the ability to self-regulate to peace.
Each yoga posture has many virtues, and each virtue can be developed through yoga. My books and articles are focused on how to practise simple and fun yoga postures, and how to acknowledge the character benefits of each one.
Character development doesn’t have to be boring or serious – many postures are noisy and fun. Lion pose for example, includes a loud roar! Children love it. On a physical level Lion pose improves kneeflexibility, but on an emotional level, Lion pose releases the voice, and supports a timid child into speaking up.
I was teaching a new class and mentioned the benefits of postures to their teacher. She said, ‘Well that’s amazing, because the two children who refused to do Lion pose are my two timid children.’