Significance of Emotional Intelligence in Coping with Suffering

Page: 309-313
Pooja V. Anand (Department of Psychology, Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi, Delhi)

The contemporary world with its various challenges has brought about a lot of suffering for the people worldwide. One of the recent and gravest examples of this is the suffering induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. This suffering is further aggravated due to our overemphasis on logic and rationality and relegating emotions to the background. This has led to ignoring emotions and their crucial role in our life. In addition, there is a faulty categorization of emotions into positive and negative and giving utmost importance to positive emotions and neglecting negative emotions. The overemphasis on positive emotions is one of the key features of the movement of positive psychology as well as one of its most scathing criticisms. The construct of emotional intelligence has renewed interest in emotions and their crucial role in our life. Emotional intelligence with its emphasis on understanding and managing emotions can play a significant role in dealing with suffering, especially suffering brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.