Being There

Emotionally Talented people have been emotionally competent long enough to become unconsciously competent. They are naturally warm and respond constructively to emotions without having to think about what to do.

Emotionally talented people are kind, sensitive, and generous. They love others and allow others to love them. They are excellent listeners, well-intentioned, sincerely helpful, hardy, and especially empathetic.

Emotionally talented people are either gifted with a special aptitude for interpersonal skills, or they learn emotional competency at an early age and practice it all their lives. They seem to know exactly what to say or do to bring out the best in each of us, comfort us during times of distress, and quickly reach a rapport even with total strangers. These are the warm, gracious, and charismatic people among us who often excel at counseling professions and soothing personal interactions.

Getting There

Conscientiously practicing the skills described below will help you move from the emotionally competent stage to the emotionally talented stage.

Recommended Study:

• Practice Emotional Competency conscientiously at every opportunity, in every interaction.
• Work to increase your empathy for all others, especially people you find different or difficult.
• Take action to understand, preserve, and protect human rights for all.
• Learn from and emulate emotionally talented people you know and admire.

Recommended Reading:

Reading these books will begin to improve your emotional talents:

• Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion, by the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman
• Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, by Daniel Goleman

Moving On

Continue to practice your emotional talents as you work toward compassion.

Context:

The figure links to the states that neighbor this one. This can help orient you to this state both horizontally, showing the action and cognition states at this level of development, and vertically showing the emotion levels before and after this one.