CEB is a groundbreaking program, bringing together Eastern contemplative and Western psychological techniques for improving your emotional intelligence through greater self-awareness, better management of your emotions, and enhanced social awareness and interpersonal skills. Emotional intelligence refers to being intelligent about your emotional life: more self-aware, better able to handle strong emotions, more sensitive to the emotions of others – and able to put all that together to develop more effective, satisfying relationships at home, with friends and in the workplace.
A study of schoolteachers who attended CEB in the USA (see www.cultivatingemotionalbalance.org) found significant increases in positive emotions, mindfulness, attentiveness to others, as well as better sleep, quicker recovery from emotional upsets and reduced depression, anxiety and compulsive thinking. The curriculum includes 42 hours of classroom training, given in 8 sessions over 8 weeks, and consists of:
- guided meditations, particularly focused on the cultivation of attention, mindfulness, loving-kindness and compassion;
- psychological practices for cultivating greater awareness of and management of your emotions, greater sensitivity to the emotions of others, and improved interpersonal skills.
These practices include:
- training in identifying facial expressions of emotion;
- theoretical training in the nature of key emotions such as fear, anger and shame;
- observing the way these emotional patterns play out in yourself;
- partner exercises for improving conflict resolution skills.
