David Walton

Cognitive intelligence – the ability to think rationally, act in a purposeful way and manage your environment. It’s your intellectual, analytical, logical and rational skill set.

and rational skill set.

Social intelligence – the ability to understand and manage situations which involve other people.

Self-awareness is about understanding ourselves and knowing what pushes our buttons and why.

Self-awareness is about understanding ourselves and knowing what pushes our buttons and why.

being in the ‘mindless’ state of automatic pilot opens you up to other problems. You can become prone to old habits and behaviours, perhaps leaving people feeling you aren’t interested in them. Events and situations around you can trigger old feelings and sensations which become barriers and make your mood worsen.

Self-awareness helps you to operate in a conscious, non-judgemental, switched-on way.

when they are angry they control it but deal with things in a straightforward way, letting others know how they feel.

Assertiveness is about getting things done and engaging others to help but at the same time acknowledging that others’ needs and goals are important.

behaviour breeds behaviour’.

over the last fifteen years has been that we are able to make our brains actually grow. It happens through a process called neurogenesis in which brain cells or neurons grow and proliferate, migrating to where they may be needed. Pathways or routes of interconnecting neurons develop through daily use – in the same way that a path down a bank might be developed when it is used daily by an animal going about its business.
Every time new knowledge is acquired, the connections communicate differently and, through repetition, become faster, more efficient and instinctive. The ability of our brains to develop in this way is described as ‘synaptic plasticity’. So the good news is that we do change.