Ep 8: Emotional Intelligence, Credible Websites, & Sleep Weight Connection

Breaking Thru Health Barriers

Episode 8: Show Notes

In today’s episode we will be discussing emotional intelligence, how to find credible health-related websites, and the sleep-weight connection.

Part 1: Emotional Intelligence

Let’s get started with a discussion on emotional intelligence. It wasn’t until about 4-5 years ago that I even heard of this subject. Since then I keep seeing it pop up everywhere I look. A good place to start is to define this term.

Definition

A Psychology Today report states that

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It is generally said to include three skills:

1. Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;

2. The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;

3. The ability to manage emotions. This includes the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person.

It is sometimes also called emotional quotient (EQ), similar to the intelligence quotient or IQ.

Merrian Webster defines IQ as a number used to express the apparent relative intelligence of a person.

We’re all born with varying levels of intelligence. Likewise, we each have a different degree of emotional intelligence too.

Measuring EQ

You may be wondering if we can measure a person’s EQ, like we measure a person’s IQ and the answer is YES!

There is a book called Emotional Intelligence 2.0 written by Travis Bradberry, and Jean Greaves that presents an explanation of Emotional Intelligence, offers you the opportunity to take an online test to determine your personal score. Then the book goes into several sections that provide strategies for improving your EQ. Yes, that means you can get better in this area, you’re not just left the way that God made you in this area, improvement is possible.

EQ Improvement Strategies

Emotional intelligence is commonly defined by four attributes. And each of these areas has potential for improvement. And you can find information in books and online (and certainly with professional counselors too) that will help you become stronger in these areas.

1. Self-awareness – You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.
2. Self-management – You’re able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.
3. Social awareness – You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.
4. Relationship management – You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

Improvement Example

Let’s look at an example of a low relationship management score. Our nonverbal communication influences our relationships. When I get irritated about something that being said that is upsetting or incorrect, I get a feeling like I need to get out of my skin. My upper body and shoulders start to twitch and I frequently need to adjust them.

If someone sees me start to move around like this, they may start to become uncomfortable too. They may start to sense that they are bothering me. It certainly is not likely to create a sense of peace and calm. It may even end the conversation or progress we are making.

Once I become aware of this tendency. (Which I did after my husband pointed it out). I can mentally talk myself down, relax, and control my movements better. I might try doing some controlled breathing exercises too.

Why Does Emotional Intelligence Matter?

Intellectual intelligence (IQ) isn’t enough on its own to be successful in life. While your IQ can help you get into college, your emotional intelligence (EQ) will help you manage the stress and emotions when facing your final exams. IQ and EQ exist in tandem and are most effective when they both are elevated and building off one another.

Next Steps with EQ

If you’re interested in learning more about your personal EQ, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 book linked in the resource section in the online show notes. I know firsthand that many libraries have copies that you can borrow. But, you will need to purchase a new copy in order get the access code needed to take an EQ test.

You’re also welcome to search online and read over the tips and suggestions that others have posted for your viewing pleasure!

Dr. Terri’s Heath Tip & Challenge of the Week

Today’s health tip is about “Finding Credible Health Resources” online.

Using a search engine to find information is very helpful. But, you also can’t believe everything you read. You need to be able to determine if a resource is valuable and believable or not.

Health on the Net

One great way to figure out if a website is credible is to look for the HON code. You can read all about this on the Health On the Net Foundation website http://www.hon.ch/. In fact, this organization is celebrating its 20th year, and many of you may never have heard about it.

They have several types of services that they provide. Some resources are for individuals, some for health professions. They even have a search engine, that will only bring up sites that have received the HON stamp of approval. I’ve included a link and a picture of the code on my website for you to check out.

Certification Principles

In order to obtain the code, there is an application process and if your site is approved, you get certified. In order to be certified, your site needs to meet 8 principles. The principles include

• Authoritative– it is from a medical professional.
• Complimentarity – it complements doesn’t replace your healthcare provider.
• Confidentiality – it doesn’t disclose any private patient information.
• Attribution – it gives proper credit to any references that are use.
• Justifiability– any claims are supported by research.
• Transparency – no one is trying to hide. Contact information, email, phone, address are provided.
• Financial Disclosure– any sources of funding will be made available.
• Advertising Policy– they follow the policy.

Challenge of the Week

Go to the HON search engine and enter a topic you are interested in. And see how many credible health resources come up.

I entered Zika Virus and got over 6 million hits in about 50 seconds! Wow, rather than searching the entire world-wide web, this helps you focus on high quality material!

Part 2: The Sleep Weight Connection

Earlier this week I posted a blog post called A Lack of Sleep Can Sabotage your Weight Loss Plans, if you haven’t read it yet please do. While I was doing research for this topic, I came across several things that I had not heard before. I want to share a few of those things with you today. I created an infographic (available on both the blog & the podcast pages of my website) which displays the key points.

The main point I wanted you to be aware of is that lack of sleep does impact your ability to lose weight. While sleeping enough, won’t help you lose weight, sleeping too little can sabotage your efforts.

There are 3 main ways it causes you problems.

1. Brain– The frontal lobe doesn’t fully wake up. And it’s needed for decision-making, thinking, studying, planning, and other higher level functions. So when it comes to deciding whether to eat broccoli or cheesecake, a tired brain is likely to make a bad choice!
2. Hormones- Sleep deprivation causes changes in ghrelin, leptin, cortisol, and insulin. You can read more of the details in my blog post, but suffice it to say, you’ll be hungrier, not satisfied as quickly, and your body will have a tendency to store more fat, all because you didn’t sleep well enough.
3. Behavior– Lastly, without enough sleep you’ll have a lack of energy. Who wants to exercise when they’re tired? Not me! I’m more likely to want to take a nap or do something sedentary when I’m tired. That certainly isn’t going to burn many calories.

Those are some of the highlights of how a lack of sleep can mess up your weight loss efforts. You can read more at the blog post that I mentioned earlier. The take-away here is that it’s really important to make adequate sleep a part of your healthy living plan.

Resources

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you consider yourself an emotionally intelligent person? In what ways would you benefit from some improvement strategies?
2. Have your ever heard of the HON code? Make a point to go to the website today and check out a health topic.
3. How’s your sleep lately? Do you need to find ways to get more of it? If so, what’s one thing you can do to help yourself make a positive change this week?

Ways to Connect with Me:

Subscribe, rate, and review “Breaking Thru Health Barriers with Dr. Terri Wenner” in iTunes so you never miss an episode. Always feel free to drop use the contact form on my website to send me your comments and questions.

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