Book: Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was such a quick but also very informative read on emotional intelligence. It used examples to clearly illustrate why EQ is important to each one of us. The first section outlines what it is, and how it’s different than IQ and personality, then it explains each aspect (there are 4) that make up the EQ. Then the book gives practical ideas to help the reader intentionally address each of the 4 parts of the EQ, to be more aware and to improve. I didn’t read too closely these sections since I had not taken an EQ test yet, but I had a general idea of where I could improve and found the ideas to be helpful. This is definitely something I want to look into more sometime!

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Sin and the Consequences of Sin

Just wanted to share because I was blown away. sorry it’s kind of a long rambling though :)

So Sarai said to Abram, “The LORD has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. (Genesis 16:2-4 NLT)

I read this and was thinking, how come Sarai was barren but Hagar became pregnant after the first encounter with Abram? Why did God make it so the person who was supposed to bear the child couldn’t, and the person who shouldn’t could? Isn’t that just allowing us to screw ourselves up?? I was thinking what God was trying to teach and show through this and this is what I’ve come up with using my limited imagination.

Sarai sinned by not trusting God’s plans, instead, she took matters into her own hands to get the child she wanted. How many times do we take matters into our own hands against God’s directions? This is what sin is. When we reach out to touch the fire out of our desire and choice, though we were told (out of love) not to.

So Sarai’s sin had consequences in that it added complexity to her once simple marriage. Now Hagar was also in the picture. Since Sarai used Hagar to get the child she really desired, I think that even if God had closed Hagar’s womb and did not allow this ‘sin’ to continue, Sarai may have just moved on from Hagar to another female servant to get what she wanted. I know I am guilty of this in my life. We have a tendency to do anything within our powers to get what we want. Perhaps Sarai would not have been repentant for her bad decision, and instead, remained dissatisfied that she still couldn’t get what she wanted and looked for other methods.

God cared about Sarai’s heart. So instead, Hagar did get pregnant and Sarai’s plans went smoothly as she desired, except everyone in the picture came to realize it sucked. Everyone involved was a little more hurt and dissatisfied as a result.

I believe this is the consequence of sin. Without the visible consequence, sometimes we don’t see or realize of our bad decisions/choices. Without burning our hands, we may not make the connection that maybe touching fire is a bad idea. Sarai had to learn the hard way. God wanted to teach her patience, and to trust in the Lord’s timing, instead of her own timing and manipulations.

What about Hagar? How come she had to suffer because of someone else’s sin? It wasn’t her fault since she was obeying her master. It is true that Hagar can be seen as the victim, and it probably sucked to be unloved by Abram, used by Sarai, and then stuck with an unwanted burden and responsibility (Ishmael). I’m trying to understand what Hagar was supposed to learn through this. Yeah God blessed Ishmael and said he will become the nations too, but if I were Hagar, I wouldn’t care about being the mother of nations. I’d rather not have been forced into this mess!

One thing I can think of is that Hagar had a special encounter with God as a result of this terrible idea. We don’t know whether Hagar knew God before she was introduced in the story, but later in the same chapter, while she was running away (how often do I do that, ha!), when she felt so hopeless and alone, God intervened and showed her hope. Through that special encounter, Hagar met God and resulted in continuing to raise this child Ishmael. God’s promise of Ishmael becoming a nation was fulfilled, and also God turned a terrible and unnecessarily painful experience into one where Hagar found peace and hope.

So, maybe, when I think about all the terrible things going on in this world, more than asking God with a condemning “whyyyyyyy?????”, I should realize it’s because we are Sarai and Hagar. We suffer because we make bad decisions instead of listening/waiting on God and have to suffer consequences to learn from them (Sarai). We also suffer because of other people’s bad decisions, and we may be complete victims – but God lets it happen so that we may encounter him in our hopelessness (Hagar).

I know I have been both Sarai and Hagar in my life, so I can also say that indeed the Lord is good and mighty. Good in the sense he always wants the best for his children – even if it means burning our hands in the short term to teach us to not play with fire. Mighty in the sense that he somehow is able to coordinate all of these lessons and encounters for each and every single one of us…in a way that is relevant for us. I can’t even help myself to think through the consequences of my moment by moment decisions, so I can’t imagine what the infinite wisdom and understanding of God would even look like..

In absolute awe. And I pray that I will trust in HIS goodness and mightiness more, rather than depending on my own understanding!

Proverb 3:5-6…. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.

A to the men amen!!

What am I writing about??

I don’t know if you have noticed, but I have been sharing less personally on this blog. And I talk like I’m talking to someone, even though I don’t know if anyone is actually reading this, lol!

I think the reason for less of my usual word vomits is because I have started a private blog for that, where I literally word vomit my thoughts, emotions, plans, and categorize them neatly. Gosh I love blogs. So easy to keep my flying thoughts organized. :) This is helping me to sort through my thought processes, and hopefully it will help me to get to the heart of my issues. I realized that when blogging publicly, even if no one is looking, it’s hard to be flat-out, completely honest and opinionated without worrying about offending/hurting people. Ultimately, it’s more my intention to talk about ISSUES rather than specific people, anyway. And I think I’ve been pretty good about that – staying vague enough, but open enough to share the issue. However, I’ve decided that I need more than that to get to my heart and what is really going on in there – so, sorry, it’s all on my private one now.

I actually emailed a pastor to see if I could benefit from counseling. First of all, I’m okay – I’m not suicidal or anything like that. I just think I need someone  to help me sort out my feelings and thoughts. You know that feeling when things just don’t make sense? Sometimes I feel uncontrollably happy, or sad, or angry… and it just doesn’t make sense. Logically, my brain is working and telling me what I should say or how I should respond to a situation/circumstance, but it can never control how my heart is feeling inside. And I think that’s why sometimes I laugh and I cannot stop – and people think I’m crazy! And then other times tears come out and I don’t know how to stop! It’s a little crazy because I thought the roller-coaster hormonal teenage years were behind me (which reminds me, I didn’t suffer from acne attacks during my teenage years, but now it’s a HUGE battle for me it’s driving me insane!! Am I 10 years behind or something?!) If I base it on my emotions alone, I really think I am borderline bi-polar. But I don’t think I am. I think maybe I’m just really sensitive – where the smallest change in a normal day affects me to the extremes. Wait, is that bipolar?

Well anyway. During my Ethiopia trip, my leader kept talking to me about my pride – and how I like to keep things in, and that’s pride, because I’m still depending on myself. I’m still trying to do it on my own. He said he feels like I’ve been suppressing things my whole entire life that it has become my default, and I’ve never learned to really DEAL with things. I think that’s when I started really thinking about my life. Do I not remember things because I have a bad memory or did I somehow block it out? I don’t want to sound like I went through a traumatic childhood, because I really didn’t! I’m just saying, though, I want to come face to face with my problems – and.. the first step is to find it! I know it’s in my heart somewhere…but my mind is too strong that it confuses deceives even myself.

So, what am I going to talk about on this blog?? I don’t know. I’m just going to go with the flow, and talk about whatever when I have an urge to write. I really love this blogger – she’s a stay-at-home mom who blogs about everything ranging from her crafts, photography, her kids, and just life in general. I especially love this particular post. I totally agree. As much as I love the targeted niche blogs (ie. personal finance, humor, organization, design), I think I love personal blogs so much more. This blog isn’t about anything in particular, but it is about everything interesting/important to me. It’s not an excuse to be self-absorbed, but personal blogs allow the readers to get a feel for who the blogger is and what she is about. I love that. Maybe it’s my sociologist/social psychologist brain speaking, but I really love learning about other people’s stories. :D We ALL have a voice – and the blogging community is a great platform, why not talk about what is important to you!

Crazy.

I was watching Planet Earth, and this part about one of the species of fresh water lake flies really surprised me.

They spend a long time under deep water like a larva to ‘mature’, then they surface and are transformed into flies – only to mate. The scene looks like smoke coming up from the lake. Once they mate, they drop their offspring into the water to start the cycle again … and then they die.

WHAT!? What is the purpose of this? What is the significance of their existence? They have no interaction with any other species whatsoever, and doesn’t produce or create or do anything except breathe, grow, transform, mate, die. Most living things in this world don’t even know it exists, and yet, there they are…doing their own thing. Crazy!!

Here’s a shortened version of this section in the documentary of them mating.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

It has been a really strange month for me .. feels productive, yet, stagnant.

Anyway, I AM EXCITED to share that I finally finished reading the Bible! Ya. It has been a goal like every year for awhile now, but finally, finally (after pushing back timeline 5+ times since July), I can say I’ve finally finished cover to cover! It’s crazy, because the beginning was harder – but the last few books of the New Testament… wow everyone should read it, because it’s so intense!!

In other news, I finally made the observation and have to come to accept the fact that I eat more (junk) food when I’m stressed/unhappy. Some of my friends have no appetite when they’re stressed, and I guess I wanted to be like that too – what a natural alternative to dieting. I know – you shouldn’t do it. Don’t do it! Don’t stress yourself to be thin, because that shouldn’t be the point. But anyway, it wouldn’t even work for me because I realized I work the opposite way. I binge eat. Even though I am stuffed, and full (beyond full), my mouth is still craving something…mmm food. Okay. So, I have to stop using food to escape now that I’ve realized this. sigh.

Also, Facebook has been getting on my nerves these days. It’s getting more and more cluttered. I don’t like that. I need to go on that thing less, and focus on living more! I know I’ve shared about my bad tendency to use Facebook to judge my friendship before.. I guess I’m still struggling on that one.

Lastly, I really like this video below. Reminds me that I want to love Jesus more, not self-righteousness.

“religion says do, Jesus says DONE” – my fave part!

Fresh Sugar Rose Lip Balm

Guess what I just spent $22 on?

Lip balm.

ha.

I was walking around the mall to do some returns, and then I wandered into Sephora because my lips were so chapped from the dry winter weather. I was actually looking for the eos Summer Fruit Organic Lip Balm Sphere that I had read about on Amazon.com. Instead, the girl introduce me to Fresh Sugar Rose Lip Balm.

I think I fell in love with the packaging first. It’s so pretty…light metalic pink. Okay and that’s irrelevant, but I swear that’s how they get you! Anyway, she gave me a sample and it melted on my lips and I knew I was SOLD before even looking at the price.

She went on about the ingredients and I didn’t understand much except here’s what I liked:

• moisturizes & HEALS lips
• SPF 15
• slightly tinted – BUT can pass as natural
• no harmful ingredients

Okay yeah, I will probably look for cheaper alternatives next time, but I gotta say, it works and I don’t regret the purchase at all. My whole theme this year is learning to love – and that includes showing some love to my poor chapped lips. :)

If you’re interested, here is a product review with more details on the ingredients from someone more knowledgeable.