Happiness, Complexity, and Emotional Intelligence

Are happy people necessarily more complex people? To understand this counter-intuitive idea we need to begin with the importance of social capital. What exactly is social capital? It's described as an informal network of mutual aid and information exchange that keeps communities thriving. Crucially this network can act as a potential buffer against stress and alienation.

The irony: those who are happy are least susceptible to stress, and thus to anger. "Social capital" turns out to be a major benefit of practicing emotional intelligence. To know oneself and to control oneself lead to greater opportunities for happiness as well as being the foundations for emotional intelligence.

Anger management techniques, such as positive self-talk (essentially being your own coach) help to strengthen these abilities. Journalling on a regular basis can also help us figure out where difficulties lie. As far back as Aristotle, people have recognized that self-care, self-control, and self-awareness form crucial bases for happiness.

In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam finds that happier people are more socially connected. This requires social awareness and relationship management—and also form a basis for emotional intelligence.

Maintaining meaningful social connections in a modern life that is ever more disconnected requires creativity and a willingness to embrace the more complex lives that go with holding down a career, commuting, being involved in family, and being a part of one's community.

Complexity leads to involvement and demands solidly developed skills of emotional intelligence. To some these seem to come naturally. Others require practice and growth, often times through executive coaching or an anger management class. But the dividends of greater happiness and less stress come to those who work for it.

Anderson Tools Found Helpful in Schools

Training school social workers to lead "talk therapy" sessions during the school day can help teens and pre-teens recognize and begin to overcome mild depression, anxiety and anger problems, research is showing.

Researchers reported results from 45 students who received individual sessions, and 60 who participated in group sessions, with three social workers at two middle schools and one alternative high school in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The therapy sessions were conducted by school social workers who were trained to provide a modified form of a well-established and proven talk-therapy approach called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT.

Several standardized measuring tools showed significant improvement nearly across the board after students completed the multi-week program. Signs of improvement included better mood and cognitive skills among the depressed students, and decreases in angry feelings toward teachers and improvements in problem-solving ability among those who received counseling for anger issues.

Anderson & Anderson, trusted worldwide provider of anger management and executive coaching services, uses interventions based on the same cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that was used in this study. CBT has proven a powerful tool in many areas of behavioral medicine, including the treatment of depression and anxiety, as well as anger and stress management.

The Anger Journal techniques presented in both Anderson's adult and adolescent workbooks exemplifies CBT's approach to helping people rethink their automatic responses to triggers and stressors, and replace them with more effective behaviors.