Hi friends,

Today’s topic: the relationship between emotion and logic.

It is an important relationship, and most importantly, it is a permanent one.

We see personally successful people repeatedly making high quality decisions. They are consistent with making intelligent decisions.

How?

Well, they have become masters at balancing emotion and logic. They know how to tap into the parts of the brain, which help them optimise their outcomes.

You can do this too. It is simply just about practice.

We are emotional beings, but we also need to make logical decisions. This is so that we can increase the chances of good things happening for us.

Intelligent thinking is the ability to think critically.

But good critical thinkers have higher emotional intelligence.

So, how does it all work together?

Firstly, let’s clear up what we are talking about…

What is intelligence?

Thinking intelligently is the mental ability to learn, understand, and apply knowledge effectively in various contexts. Intelligent thinkers are able to think critically, are creative and solve problems with adaptability.

What are emotions?

Emotions are our feeling-responses to stimuli in our environment. They give us clues on how to adapt to our environment and they guide our behaviour.

Emotional intelligence

To become an intelligent critical thinker, awareness of our emotions is fundamental. This part of higher-order thinking is called emotional intelligence (EI) and a lot of research has gone in to understanding it.

Emotional intelligence is our capacity to use emotional knowledge to assist our reasoning, and to enhance the quality of thought before we make decisions.

Bad decisions are often the result of two things:

1.    Using emotion as the sole lens to assess the right thing to do

2.    Invalid logic to support our thoughts and decisions

Doing the above, is not intelligent thinking. BUT it is the thing that most people do all the time.

Most people struggle to harmonise the interplay between emotion and logic during the thinking process. Except, because being human entails experiencing emotions, we need to learn how to be logical with our reasoning.

Smart people place their emotions on the table and lay them out for close analysis.

Why do we have these thinking problems?

Simply because most of us have not been taught HOW to recognise the role of our emotions as well as WHAT to do with them.

Consequently, we succumb to reactionary responses and exacerbate our problems…unnecessarily.

While such responses served us well in ancient tribal settings by triggering swift reactions to threats, in today's complex and information-rich societies, they pose significant challenges. It hinders our ability to navigate diverse conversations, ideas and situations.

Basically, it is the cause for most of our problem relationships.

Emotions become involved when a conversation, idea, behaviour, or opinion resonates with our emotional side. The challenge lies in determining the role of that emotional response and how to address it effectively.

Do not let your emotions do the talking.

Perception and emotion

For instance, our emotional experiences, particularly those from childhood and formative years, shape our perceptions. While biology and psychology also come in to play, for today, we will focus on the environmental stimuli which influence our ideas about how we see the world.

Identifying the origins of strong biases can be quite simple. We connect our strong reactive emotions to experiences in our past which may have caused them to become ingrained.

The people who will do this, are those who are ready to be honest with themselves and face the past.

For instance, if someone endured bullying from a particular person or group in their formative years, they may retain negative perceptions of that type of person or group that person belongs to into adulthood.

Or if a person grew up around caregivers who repeated certain negative behaviours causing negative emotion, if we have not healed, these become the experiences through which we assess all things.

It does not mean all people in that category are that way, but your biases make you lean towards a certain perspective causing prejudice and harsh emotive judgement.

If these perceptions remain unresolved, the bias can persist over time.

Additionally, if we do not address these problematic perceptions, they will cause us to behave self-destructively.

How to navigate reasoning with emotion effectively:

So, how can you balance emotion and logic?

First, hone the skill of recognising whether your emotions are clouding your reasoning abilities.

You will know you are having an emotional reaction to someone or something, because your heart might start racing, you feel hot, irritated, annoyed, angry or upset. Your voice may start to shake, or you become nervous. In these occasions, you must pause, and take the time to regain composure.

Understanding the underlying meaning behind your emotions is crucial.

When you are having an emotional response, stop, do not react. Be patient, take time to think. What you may say or do in the thick of your emotions are usually totally different to what you will choose to do a few hours later.

So, Tip 1.

When you feel angry, sad, irritated, annoyed, just stop and think through why you may be feeling like that. If you find yourself blaming the person who triggered you, be brave in your pursuit of why this triggered you. Ask yourself:

Why am I triggered by this?

Why might I be emotional about this?

Is it logical or not?

Emotional intelligence entails knowing when to incorporate emotions into your thoughts, and when to exclude them.

Research suggests that individuals with higher emotional intelligence are less likely to be swayed by emotional words, and sharply focus instead on the actual meaning.

You can do it too:

Enhance your emotional perception by paying attention to non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and gestures. This aids in making informed decisions and thinking intelligently.

You must re-frame your perception. Start today. With practice, you will learn to be emotionally intelligent and think intelligently.

Over time we will re-visit these topics as there is a lot more, but we do not have time to fit it all here. If you have any questions or feedback for me send me an email!

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Until next Sunday, take care.

Dr. Esha.