What is emotional intelligence?.
The reason the human species has survived was because primitive man had the ability to make decisions, often within milliseconds, to differentiate the situations in which he could obtain prey from those in which he happened to be the potential prey.
Despite the evolution of the human species, there is something that has not changed since modern man:
• Constantly and without being aware of it, he analyzes the degree of danger of the place where he is and the level of threat or reception of the people around him.
• Judge other people from the first impression.
• Make decisions based on these perceptions.
These capacities are emotional, so there is no doubt that emotions are essential behavioral mechanisms that help us react quickly to unexpected events and allow us to:
• Evaluate the emotions of the people around us.
• Feel the context (“the atmosphere”) in which we find ourselves.
• Make decisions quickly.
• Communicate non-verbally with other people.
We could say that emotional intelligence instantly alerts us to the proximity of a danger. This speed is possible thanks to the existence of an area of the brain that we will call "emotional brain", to differentiate it from the "rational brain" (neocortex) where, as it were, reasoning and logic reside.
For there to be a balanced behavior, adequate communication between both brains (the logical and the emotional) is essential. The intervention of the emotional circuit is essential for effective thinking, both to make intelligent decisions and to think clearly and obtain the results that are desired. Feelings guide us in the right direction to get the best out of the possibilities that cold logic offers us.
We will call Emotional Intelligence to the ability of the human being to correctly evaluate the environment in which he is, interpret the role of the other people who interact with him and the value of himself, not only as an individual but also in the interrelation with that environment.
Unlike logical mathematical intelligence (expressed by the IQ), emotional intelligence develops throughout life, with the experiential experiences of each individual and can also be developed by exercising it. For that there is Ontological Coaching.
What is the use of developing emotional intelligence in athletes?
An athlete constantly appeals to his emotional intelligence, as primitive man is constantly making decisions in thousandths of a second and the result of his game depends on those decisions, in these decisions different aspects count:
• Rational aspects: such as 'understanding the game' with all its technical-tactical-strategic aspects.
• Bodily aspects: such as physical training, diet and rest.
• Emotional aspects: such as goal-achievement orientation, competitiveness, identification of sport and personal values, self-worth, teamwork, leadership, empathy, control of negative reactions and emotions, etc..
What is the philosophy of Ontological Coaching in sport?
From Ontological Coaching we interpret the human being as a coherence between his body, his emotions and his language (what the human being says to others and what he says to himself).
We speak of coherence because we understand that, although the three domains are clearly differentiated, they are also strongly related.
Each emotion corresponds to a corporality and a specific language. It is enough to watch on TV the statements of the athletes when they win or when they lose and we will see that coherence in their bodies, emotions and in what they are saying. Moreover, many times we can intuit the result of a match by the previous statements or by the corporality of the team or the athlete when they go out onto the field.
The emotions
Emotions are triggers for action, when a person perceives something that generates an emotion, the brain, moved by that emotion, produces chemical substances that make the person act accordingly, for all emotions there are particular substances.
Fear, for example, causes the brain to prepare the body to flee; anger, to fight and thus each emotion causes a disposition to different actions. These substances produced by the brain are called neuropeptides and serve as food for body cells.
Emotions are particular to each person, that is to say that before a certain event, a person may feel fear, another challenge and another indifference. These emotions are triggered according to the assessment that the individual makes of what is happening, we will call that assessment judgments.
These judgments vary with each individual and are related to the way that person has of observing the world. Trials are ways of interpreting and assessing what happens and also people.
This way of observing the world is the key to the emotional world of the person, from there it judges what is good and what is harmful for it, what it considers possible to achieve and what it understands is impossible and directly influences the results they can get. This way of observing is not only constituted in people but also in human teams and organizations and generates a collective emotional state that can enable or prevent the achievement of the desired objectives.
The results are a direct consequence of the type of observer that the athlete is being, of what he understands that he can achieve and what he understands that it is impossible for him, this way of looking at his world and of judging directly influences his emotionality and can become in a vicious circle (I judge that I cannot, consequently I act in such a way that I cannot, therefore I show myself that it was true that I could not, which generates that emotionally I feel defeated and that I think that I possibly cannot achieve results that I could before, which causes me to act accordingly and not achieve it, etc.)
When the athlete is in positive emotionalities, the circle is reversed, that is, it becomes a virtuous circle, which enables the achievement of increasingly important and extraordinary goals.
Let's go back to the judgments, as we said, they are evaluations therefore they belong to the person evaluating and not to what is evaluated, this is easy to distinguish when the judgments differ within a team, but when these judgments are common to all or at least less to the majority, they tend to be taken as immovable truths, as properties of the person or the fact or the thing that is being judged.
When that happens in a team it limits it, and when it happens with the people of the team or those who are related to it, it pigeonholes them and limits both their actions towards them, as well as their actions towards the team. Many times people begin to act according to the role assigned to them, according to the judgment that is had of them.
Ontological Coaching proposes to intervene in the way of observing the world that athletes have in such a way that they can generate the results they want.
This process is not logical, it is not learned through studies or explanations, it is an experiential process that profoundly transforms athletes and teams, aligning them with their objectives and enabling more effective relationships.
It is to begin to take charge of "our own", to recognize ourselves in what we can, in what we believe we cannot and in what we do not know we can…
When we become aware that “taking an action” is not the same as “waiting for something to happen”, when we realize that when we start to take the first step the world opens up leaving us a place, something begins to change…
It may seem difficult… it may seem a bit complicated…
What if it starts to seem possible?
