Do you find yourself having moments of clarity, where feelings or memories slip into the forefront of your mind?

The other night, I woke up in the night thinking about a moment from years ago. A vivid memory of moving out of my Mother's house sprang to mind.

These are moments where you stop to think about the emotions involved in your life.

For the past few years, I've heard the term 'emotional intelligence' bandied about. It's a term that leaves much to be desired. Are there any issues in your life where your emotions are unclear? "I don't know how I feel" seems to be something you hear fairly often from people.

What do you think having a high level of emotional intelligence means? Does it matter?

It's a shame this thread went un-noticed, but to answer your questions, I've always felt my emotions were rationally and correctly placed. I have never regretted this fact and am well off at the moment.

I try not to dwell on matters as "I'm not sure how I feel." I'll think about it for a day then know what to do by a night's passing. It's very important to have faith and confidence in yourself more than anyone else you know.

yesturday i felt different....i dont know its like i've been slightly depressed for a long long time and yesturday i felt like my old self. i was very happy and in a great mood.

today im not sure how i feel but i now know that i need to make some changes in my life...hopefully i will feel like i did yesturday everyday.

It's very important to have faith and confidence in yourself more than anyone else you know.

I think this is one of the most important things in life. To be comfortable in who you are as a person. This way when you look back on a moment when you realise you didn't make the best decision, you know that at the time it was the correct thing for you to do. Regret is not a good thing to be carrying around in life.

Right now in my life, I am pretty low in myself, it's my fault I am here because of the decisions I have made. Just now, you could say I am pretty emotionally unclear. I don't know what to think or feel. The odd thing though, it was being so certain in what I wanted that led me to this point in my life.

I would take emotional intelligence to mean to have the confidence to follow your emotions to make decisions that affect your life. To some extent it matters. Like all things a balance should be found. You can't go around all your life following facts and figures to base your decisions on, nor the complete opposite.

I had a definate moment of clarity last night. I was trying to explain how to fix my girl and I's relationship. I suddendly knew my life philosophy and what I needed to do. I cried, it was so clear but it hurt to know that I might have to drop off my girlfriend on the drive to happiness.

Mmmmm yep had loads of them.......Its the ones that come back to haunt you that you need to worry about...........Mmmmmm yep had loads of them!

If I eat a bunch of shrooms or drop some acid, I have many moments of clarity.
Lately I've come to the conclusion that my fiance isn't the right person for me in life. I love her lots, but we have two different directions and I can't see a way of keeping us both happy. We aren't exactly compatible, even my penis is too big for her pussy. I call that a clear sign. I'm not sad about losing her, but actually quite happy about all the good times we've had together and the things we've learned from the experience. Somewhere out there is a smart, sexy, nymphomaniac waiting for me, and I'll sleep with as many women as necessary to find her. Maybe a career in porn will occupy me.

your clarity means nothing.

You can't understand emotion by thinking about them. you have to feel them.

I love that expression. Continue.

I would say that you just haven't had a confusing enough experience yet. Someday, something will happen that will just make you feel angry, sad, happy, and ashamed all at once. People tend to force themselves to make a choice and decide upon one major emotion when this happens, because they hate the feeling of confusion and being disoriented. Some people become angry (read: angsty) at the world, some people become depressed, etc. But it doesn't change anything, really.

Emotional intelligence? Eh...I dunno. Maybe, like how well you read other peoples' emotions?

you have to feel them.

That's the whole point, though. What if you don't understand what you're feeling other than the emotion is intense. Sort of like how anxiety can be good, but it can also be bad. You can be anxious to meet a girl for a first date or dreading a test result that you know isn't going to be good. If you can't tell which is which then you don't know how to deal with it.

I agree that you have to let your emotions be what they are, but figuring out how you feel is very important, at least in my opinion. Your emotions are one of the few things in this world that you have to deal with and can't change yourself, at least not in a direct conscious fashion. You can't think, "Oh, I'm going to be happy now" or magically pull yourself out of a bout of depression. But you can do things that you know will make you happy, and thus satisfy your subconscious, causing you to feel happy.

So I do think that it's important to have a pretty solid amount of emotional intelligence, because our emotions are very important, and largely indicators of the actions we should take in life.

Someone who is living in ignorance or misunderstanding of how they feel about different aspects of their life is ignoring or misunderstanding those parts of life. I don't know about you all, but I want to understand my life.

Emotional intelligense for me means knowing when it´s appropriate and justified to be angry or sad. At least one aspect of emotional intelligense involves not blowing little things out of porportion. Somebody ripped you off a few bucks, or you´ve gained a couple pounds, or whatever - it means not letting what you feel about these things (ticked off, blue, whatever) it means not letting them turn into irrational anger or depression, which only brings the people around you down. That´s another aspect of it, having the intelligence to not upset other people with your own unnecessary negativity.

I would say that you just haven't had a confusing enough experience yet. Someday, something will happen that will just make you feel angry, sad, happy, and ashamed all at once. People tend to force themselves to make a choice and decide upon one major emotion when this happens, because they hate the feeling of confusion and being disoriented. Some people become angry (read: angsty) at the world, some people become depressed, etc. But it doesn't change anything, really.

Emotional intelligence? Eh...I dunno. Maybe, like how well you read other peoples' emotions?

Trust me, I've definitely had. Such as when I was in love with my best friend, when I know she liked me at one point as we made out for a whole night. Then she goes off and gets a boyfriend. I wondered for months about what to do, but then for my sake I told her I could not be her friend anymore and went my way. I grew so depressed and dependent on downers of all types. I messed up in school, and stopped caring about much.

Eventually I got a girlfriend just to prove to myself that I could. I got bored with her, never had any true feelings for her. I got another girlfriend after that, same thing... I felt nothing for her. So I just stayed single for a whole year, wondering if anyone will be able to make me happy again. And it wasn't until two years later after this whole ordeal that I found peace and happiness. Do I regret the decisions of abandoning my best friend? No, she abandoned me first after-all. I took it as a learning experience and grew up from it.

I think I've been through quite an emotional roller coaster. Being on the edge, knowing the one you love chose someone else over you. It's tough stuff. In the end, I blame the distance of 4 hours between us otherwise we would have happened. In the end, I learned she now regularly cuts herself and that she got fucked over by that guy. In the end, karma did what it does. Now she's the self-depressed, drugged junkie.

Don't think I completely abandoned her, after 6 months of not talking, we did. She missed me much, I only came back because I heard she was doing bad. But she messed up again, I can't tolerate it anymore. I told her she was dead to me and not bother me anymore right before she left for Spain this summer.

So trust me, I've had my harsh moments and I don't regret what I've done. All of this has made me into such a better person.

Trust me, I've definitely had. Such as when I was in love with my best friend, when I know she liked me at one point as we made out for a whole night. Then she goes off and gets a boyfriend. I wondered for months about what to do, but then for my sake I told her I could not be her friend anymore and went my way. I grew so depressed and dependent on downers of all types. I messed up in school, and stopped caring about much.

Eventually I got a girlfriend just to prove to myself that I could. I got bored with her, never had any true feelings for her. I got another girlfriend after that, same thing... I felt nothing for her. So I just stayed single for a whole year, wondering if anyone will be able to make me happy again. And it wasn't until two years later after this whole ordeal that I found peace and happiness. Do I regret the decisions of abandoning my best friend? No, she abandoned me first after-all. I took it as a learning experience and grew up from it.

I think I've been through quite an emotional roller coaster. Being on the edge, knowing the one you love chose someone else over you. It's tough stuff. In the end, I blame the distance of 4 hours between us otherwise we would have happened. In the end, I learned she now regularly cuts herself and that she got fucked over by that guy. In the end, karma did what it does. Now she's the self-depressed, drugged junkie.

Don't think I completely abandoned her, after 6 months of not talking, we did. She missed me much, I only came back because I heard she was doing bad. But she messed up again, I can't tolerate it anymore. I told her she was dead to me and not bother me anymore right before she left for Spain this summer.

So trust me, I've had my harsh moments and I don't regret what I've done. All of this has made me into such a better person.

I am in a very similar position to this. About 10months down the line from where it all began. I know all this crap will make me a better person and at some point in the future this will all be the past. A thought that is the only thing keeping me going sometimes.