Emotional intelligence

Daniel Goleman is discussing his famous impulse control test at a San Francisco lecturer and has the entire audience attention. He say that emotional stability is more important than IQ. In a test called "Marshmallow Challenge" he show that it's true

In this experiment, a group of four_year_old children were called to a room and a man gave them a Marshmallow and said they could eat it or wait for man to come back and get two Marshmallow

Some of the children cover their eyes, played games or sang to keep their though off the Marshmallow but others ate the Marshmallow within seconds

It's diagnostic power, Goleman says. A dozen years later the same children were tracked down as adolescent and tested again

The ones who had resisted eating marshmallow were more competent then the others. They were less regress under the stress, or become rattled and disorganized when pressured and embraced the challenges. They were confident and dependable

Children that grabbed the Marshmallow were more likely to be seen as shying away from social contracts, to be stubbo and indecisive, to be mistrustful or prone to jealousy

In fact Goleman explains, it is all because of lone neuron. That bypasses the neocortex_the area of the brain where rational decision are made and goes straight to the amygdala. The more emotional memories involving temper, fear pill up, frustration, the more the amygdala can hijack the rest of the brain

But if the emotions stored in the brain are those of restraint, self_regulation, empathy, hope and optimism, than we become endowed with an emotional intelligence that serves us for the rest of our lives

The bad news, says, Goleman, the University of Vermont said" decline in emotional aptitude among children "across the board" children today are more vulnerable than before. What he called a massive "emotional malaise".The good news is emotional intelligence can be taught not only in the home, perhaps in school

Savory chocolate....