Why do we need Emotional Education? A Note from the Editor in Chief

We're back to summarize this complex topic of why we need Emotional Education.

If you look at the world nowadays, there is a lot of corruption going on and we have high leading politicians, high leading economist where there is a lot of exploitation. Some people have a lot of money, others don't even have enough to eat, also when you look at the different countries.

And then you go into the Spiritual realm - and you might think: "The spiritual people are the good people." But then you find out, that there is the same corruption with money, with sex and with exploiting other people like anywhere else.

The root of all of this is the lack of Emotional Integrity, because they are still "needy" as they haven't found that true state of spiritual happiness or bliss - what you would call "eudaimonia" in Ancient Greek Philosophy.

Emotional Education for healthy relationships

So, we should educate the people from a very young age, not by teaching them, but rather by showing them how certain actions make them FEEL.

In this way, step by step, in the way you first learn the numbers in maths before you combine them; or you first learn letters before you build words and then sentences, in the same way you can build a system for Emotional Education, where you learn to FEEL your emotions and feelings and name them to build healthy and strong relationships.

Healthy relationships are the basis of EVERY personal or professional relationship

This includes our Ethics (what is right and what is wrong) as our emotional health is the basis of natural ways of being ethical.

Aristotle, the famous Ancient Greek Philosopher, was already aware that the "sense of honor" lies within every one of us and it needs to be cultivated from a very young age on.

Only the people with the highest degree in those subjects of Emotional Education can lead a company or a society - the others don't. We have to be very strict here.

Emotional Education for healthy leadership

In Germany for example 1 is the best degree you can have in school, 6 is the worst. We have to discuss, if a leader should have a 1 or at least a 2 in Emotional Education & Ethics, but maybe we should stick to a 1.

If they don't succeed in those subjects, no matter how good they are in economy or how good they are in engineering or any other ability they might have - they can't be our leaders. Because if there is a lack of Emotional Integrity we cannot give them leading positions. You can see nowadays how leaders act like little children and what damage this causes to all of us, including the environment.

We live in a very imbalanced world and we need to create a world of justice and love, therefore we need leaders who have embodied those values.

And this idea goes actually back to Ancient Greek Philosophy. Plato for example said, that only Philosophers can lead a society. Why did he say this? This is the reason and this leads to Emotional Education. The philosopher mastered his needy and selfish nature and can think and act for the whole. He mastered his passions, "I want this", "I want that", "I need that car", "I need that woman", "I need that man", and so on. The philosopher in his true sense has overcome is character defaults and therefore doesn't corrupt himself or others to feed his wounded emotional parts. So, basically it is putting back the idea, that you do not only need to educate skills, but also educate the character.

This idea was held high in the traditional guilds and craftsmanship. You cannot separate the professional education from the moral education. What does this mean? Richard Sennet wrote about it: If you are a goldsmith, you make beautiful jewelry, you are a genius in creating that art of goldsmithing - but, you lie about the material, you lie about the price - you are done in the traditional guild. Because if you haven't mastered your morals, you haven't mastered your profession either, which means you haven't mastered your emotions, which means you haven't mastered what is right and what is wrong. If you think, you are superior to the worm, you haven't mastered your emotions and you haven't understand life.

Emotional Education in my understanding is NOT thinking about your emotions or controlling them, it is about FEELING them. This leads to a new world paradigm and state where we feel and thinking comes naturally out of that healthy emotional state.