Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Seminar
Nov. 7th & 8th
EQ Quotes from students:
“I just decided years ago that I’m not going to trust people, so I don’t.”
“I wish I could hear my mom say that she’s proud of me. She’s never told me that.”
“People tell me that they love me, but I don’t believe them because I’m not worthy of their love.”
“I need to be a better listener to my friends, so they know that I really care for them.”
I never would have believed that after just two days together that students would be sharing with us such deep and intimate aspects of their lives. In Russia, this just never happens. Relationships and trust take time; a lot of time. But by the grace of God over the course of a weekend we found ourselves connecting with students on a heart level and experiencing a depth of relationship that was truly unique.
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This is what the EQ seminar was all about.
For two days the 61 people in attendance looked at what it means to be emotionally intelligent and why it is so important. We found that in order to build healthy relationships, to find success in life, we need to know how to manage our emotions intelligently. We discussed how we can better know ourselves and our emotions, how we can be effective listeners, how we can handle conflict and navigate stress. And to top it all off, we each started our own personal development plan. This plan is the start to more than change, but it is a start to transformation.
But transformation must come at a deeper level. To see true, lasting change we must get down to the issues of character. Our character determines our EQ. But deeper than that we see that our character is based upon our beliefs and values. We must examine those if we are going to grow in our EQ skills.
For some students they began to see this clearly for the first time. Dima realized that in order to understand the emotions of others, he needs to learn what it means to trust them. Vitaly learned that he’s a perfectionist because he’s constantly striving to do good in order to gain validation and acceptance. Lena has never understood what true, unconditional love is all about.
Fortunately, the seminar was just the beginning of the journey that we know get to take with these students. By experiencing the seminar together and getting to a heart level we have gained a level of trust and intimacy with these students that can often take years to gain. From here we get to continue to meet with them, to strengthen our friendships, to help them see change and to walk with them in their journey to truth and life.
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