Climate Crisis. Political upheaval. Wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Blatant racism, sexism, and religious persecution. Inflation. Pandemics. Oh, and elections are coming!
This moment in time is fraught with significant challenges to our very humanity and triggers significant emotional reactions in most of us. These reactions are too often destructive to ourselves and others. How to restore or create and develop a sense of emotional intelligence is the essence of this series of posts.
We humans have what is called a triune brain, that is, our brains have three components. The oldest and most primitive is our reptilian brain, consisting mostly of the brain stem and much of the central nervous system. This brain gives us fight or flight and some other basic functions. The second brain, which developed atop the reptilian is the limbic brain, which brings us emotions and some more advanced, yet still pretty primitive, cognitive functions. Between these two elements, most of the rest of the animal kingdom live their entire lives. The third element, the human brain, consists of the frontal lobes and brings advanced cognition, reasoning, and language among other things.
Indeed, we in New Thought know how to use the power of emotions to direct our experience. When we do not use our conscious mind to direct and develop our emotions, they can lead us astray. When we do develop emotions toward a consciousness of self-love and expectations, they work for us instead of against us. This is the task for all of us – to learn to direct our consciousness toward love, compassion, and the highest good. Aging alone will not do this for us – as we can see with all the misery and damaging beliefs held by so many senior citizens today.
Regardless of one’s level of emotional development, there are stressors which can affect any of us. Today, we are called to respond to a variety of really big challenges where, often, those engaged with the challenges are emotionally attached to an absolutist position. In such an atmosphere of polarization, if you suggest a way forward which is not aligned with someone’s entrenched position, you may be attacked. Within such an atmosphere we are particularly vulnerable to fear-based messages which align with our beliefs about an issue. It is easier to see those with different beliefs as enemies who intend harm (whether they actually are or not).
We see this in our politics, where political and media operatives use divisive issues to tighten emotional control of their supporters and make those with different views appear to be the enemy. We see it in the current protests of the war in Gaza and in the reactions to them. We see it in discourse about trans rights, about racism, sexism, and more. We see it in more and more issues and challenges – it seems that everything becomes fodder for divisiveness. Divisive energy becomes more prevalent in more areas of life. These energies come from fear and often inhibit progress.
When you become entrapped by an emotional need which is triggered by a cause or a philosophy, the result is a diminished capacity to reason and see others through the eyes of compassion. The world becomes black and white, absolute, and no differences can be accepted. We may become mini-dictators or join a band of absolutists and separate from everyone whose opinion differs from our own.
No one wants to hear that their support for or against an issue may have more to do with their own psychological disposition than with the issue itself. But psychological and spiritual growth require exactly that kind of self-questioning on a continual basis. Am I seeing things clearly? What are my biases here? What are my emotional needs and triggers and how are they influencing me now?
The world is the way it is, we are not going to change it on our own. We must learn to live in it and to contribute to the good where we can. But we are captives to our unconscious beliefs, or our consciousness in metaphysical terms. These belief systems guide our conscious perception and behaviors whether we are aware of them or not. This is often a difficult but important lesson to learn, and a basic requirement for spiritual intelligence as well as for emotional intelligence.
Here, Holmes tells us to do our deep spiritual and psychological work, to align ourselves with the deepest aspect of what we are and to release the subconscious blockages, in the form of false beliefs, which inhibit that alignment.
Carl Jung and those who have continued to work with his principles have been immensely helpful to our understanding of how we human beings operate mentally and emotionally. As Jung noted in this next quote, the objective of emotional development is not to become free of emotion, or an automaton; rather it is to develop emotionally so that we express our positive and compassionate potential to a greater degree.
Emotion is essential to the expression of life, and the quality of that emotion is key to the quality of that expression. If we are to express our spiritual nature clearly and compassionately, we must develop our emotional intelligence as a foundation for spiritual intelligence. Then, we will be a match for the challenges facing us and we can create lives of great joy and contribution.
We will explore this further in Part 2. As always, your comments are welcome.
Copyright 2024 – Jim Lockard