The daily challenge of dealing effectively with emotions is critical to the human condition because our brains are hard-wired to give emotions the upper hand. Here’s how it works: everything you see, smell, hear, taste and touch travels through your body in the form of electric signals. These signals pass from cell to cell until they reach their ultimate destination, your brain. They enter your brain at the base near the spinal cord, but must travel to your frontal lobe (behind your forehead) before reaching the place where rational, logical thinking takes place. The trouble is, they pass through your reptilian brain first then your limbic system along the way—the place where emotions are produced. This journey ensures you experience things emotionally before your reason can kick into gear.
The rational area of your brain (the front of your brain) can’t stop the emotion “felt” by your limbic system, but the two areas do influence each other and maintain constant communication. The communication between your emotional and rational “brains” is the physical source of emotional intelligence.