Daniel Goleman defines emotional intelligence as our ability to successfully recognize and manage our own feelings and to healthily respond to the feelings of others. As implied above, I believe the quality of our emotional intelligence is reflected in the degree to which we accept all of our feelings without automatically dissociating from them or expressing them in a way that hurts ourselves or others. When we are emotionally intelligent we also extend this acceptance to our intimates. One of my clients calls this the hallmark of “relationships.”
