SEARCH INSIDE OF YOURSELF 

On the second day of my EMBA orientation, our second course for the day was titled Search Inside Yourself (SIY), an Emotional Intelligence course, to be taught by a couple named General Tunde and Yinka Reis. Now this caught my attention as I wondered why a course would be titled SIY and I listened intently as General Tunde started speaking. 

He started by sharing that the course was ‘Mindful Based Emotional Intelligence’ backed by Neuroscience. He explained that in today’s world of so much data, the potential for distraction was huge and we spent 47% of our time mind wondering. This made us unable to give our attention and focus on one thing at a time. At that point, Mrs Yinka Reis asked us to close our eyes and pay attention to our breathing, then keep our focus on how we were breathing. After the experience, she explained that what we just did was a tool of attention. 

They went further to explain that Emotional Intelligence otherwise known as Emotional Quotient was trainable. They then gave three benefits we would gain from developing our Emotional Intelligence and they are: Outstanding Leadership, Stellar Performance and Overall Well-Being.  These benefits stroke a cord in me as these were amongst the areas I was seeking to develop myself in. So what did this mean for me? I felt I was in the right place at the right time, learning what I needed to learn. I took my attention back to the course as they continued to explain that we can move to being more aware from autopilot. Traits of autopilot include: Attention being in the past or future and not present, distracted, less aware, act based on habit patterns and assumptions. They also shared the following theories and practices of mindfulness. 

• Between stimulus and response is a space in which lies the power to choose our response. In that response lies our growth and freedom. Our natural tendency can make us react impulsively however we can choose how to respond.
• One can tap into a calmness of mind and take decisions from a clearer place. One can choose not to be angry.
• Mindfulness is paying attention to what is happening in the present moment, in the mind, body and external environment with an attitude of kindness and curiosity. 
• Mindfulness can be cultivated through meditation, and can be seen as new language and superpower.
• The neurons in our brain fire towards a thought and firms the way we think. We can be intentional about changing the way we think by focusing on new thought.
• Whilst attention is the act of directing the mind to an object, meta-attention is the ability to be conscious of when your attention has wondered. You can increase your ability for meta-attention by practice. 

We then went into practicing meta-attention. First we focused on our breathing, then we were asked to noticed if we got distracted and then asked to reorient our attention and focus back on our breathing. This we did for about 5mins. For a second I realized my mind had wondered to what I needed to do after the class and when I heard Mrs Yinka Reis ask us to identify the distraction, my mind came back to class and I tried focusing on my breathing again. 

We were then asked to share our overall experience and thoughts about the exercises and theories shared. I raised my hand and when called upon to speak, I mentioned how I had received a very ‘unfriendly’ email a week ago and if I was aware of this practices, I would have been more successful in handling the issue. That said, I was excited about my new knowledge and tool and equipped to get back to work on Monday with a more positive disposition, and would be deliberate in the choices I make in how I would response to whatever challenge I face in the course of work. 

Others spoke about their experience in the exercises and their learnings and the class ended on a positive note. I guess we are all now ready to chose differently and act different in our different works of life. This marked the end of Orientation, and the next time we would connect as a class, would be to start brush-up classes to prepare us for the courses ahead.