Active Minority

Earlier, we identified Emotional Intelligence with certain abilities; as individuals it is our responsibility to embrace and realize our own private and personal feelings, in the attempt to manage and control them while motivating ourselves toward hard work, perceiving details, understanding and reflecting humane emotions and feeling for others, as well as the ability to handle and gain control over our personal relationships.

I came to an end by pointing out an important aspect in building our emotional intelligence, that has a great deal of troubling implications, and where many parents do not realize that emotional intelligence is formed during the first years of their child’s life, and that the effects of successful parenting in providing the proper environment, tools and flexibility has proven to develop children’s awareness levels.

Given the quality of a surrounding environment and interactions experienced by children, certain brain functions and neural signals are activated, and where neural signals and communications are strengthened with such motivational activities. Thus, having brain functions grow and develop. But when a suitable and a healthy environment is not provided to allow the growth of those functions in brain cells, they will become use-less and die, and often, that happens to children living the first years of their life in separation or unhealthy environments, unsuitable for their brain cells to grow healthy as a result to their families or communities lack of foresight to such matter.

Certainly, the brain does not only save or store information or specify children futuristic abilities, but also store all the emotions and feelings accompanied with events experienced by children, and has the ability to formulate the level of capabilities in interaction and how to handle and control them in a part of the brain called (Amygdala).

Scientific studies show that, a group of interactions and feelings experienced by children in their first days and not only years, constitute and originate a group of emotional lessons accompanying them throughout their lives as a strong and stable reference, and is well-established with their surroundings and the people around them, with its importance, influence and origin, but it is difficult for individuals to understand or analyze it, because it was already stored in the brain at early stages with primitive tools “unable to speak or analyze”. And that’s why when emotions evolve, the first impulse an individual does is an expression and or a reflection to those buried emotions, which at times can be mind boggling (experiencing awareness with such impulses) finished with an automated quick reaction, which is a process called (Brain Hijacking) in psychology.

Dr. Joseph Le Doux, a neurological scientist in New York University, is one of the first people to discover the important role of (Amygdala) in relation to the formation of brain actions, he explained how this ‘gland’ can control our actions at the time where the conscious mind is thinking to take a decision, and that is because neural signals are transmitted from this ‘gland’ first and fast, just before going to the conscious mind (Neocortex) which enables it to respond quickly before the conscious mind (that conducts an analysis of the actions in a rational studied way, suitable to the signal or event).

This is why this gland can react by its own without the assistance of the conscious mind, such reactions are emotional feelings that burst from people without any role from their conscious minds.

It was also found, that this gland grows rather rapidly in the stages of the mind formation of ‘the fetus’ until almost completed by the time of birth, unlike the rest of the brain, its functions are similar to that of a camera or a video recording everything that eyes scan consciously and in some cases, subconsciously, then stores it to form a psychological reference to the child of today, the men or women of tomorrow! that is why a psychologist would affirm the saying “give me the first 5 years of a child’s life, I give you a man”, expressing that, what defines our personalities and abilities is formed throughout the first handful of years of experiences in our life.

Communities not fortunate enough to have a proper education system that supports child creativity, will be shadowed with ignorance weaving over their children, unaware, unable to understand or realize. Noting that children can understand thousands of words before reaching the age of 5 years old, using only a small variety of them, as they speak ahead.

We all know that the most important influence on children’s lives are their parents, for they are their opposing mirror and window to life, if they opened that window and let the light in, their children’s hearts will light, if they shut those windows, preventing them to see the world, only through barriers and walls, throughout their lives…