“Doctor, we only have seconds, which patient gets the kidney?” Interesting Q from the couch, critically important in real life.
When it’s your own ass on the line, or a loved one’s, feelings quickly overwhelm thinking — fight, flee, freeze, or fawn — compromising mindfulness.
How do you maintain perspective and float a little outside such situations? How do you avoid getting triggered, like you were just watching a show. What thoughts help you remain calm when the boss is upset with you? Do you have a safe internal space for that? Ideally, such a state of mind, listening, open and present to the needs of others, catalyzes understanding, even amidst conflict.
Emotional intelligence means remaining calm under pressure or threat, feeling neither defensive nor agitated, but clear minded and informed by the senses, including and maybe especially, feelings.
Practical Ethics is one set of tools to build such skills, as are meditation, flow states, exercise, improv training, and a hundred other strategies. since each of us, and every community, company, and government, has its own “ethic” — the toolbox needs to match the need.
For example, to create and sell products, your toolbox must balance speed with safety, quality, and cost, all while (hopefully) mitigating unintended consequences. When skiing or driving, avoid the trees using mindfulness techniques. Mistakes are expensive, attention is mandatory.
Extreme athletes focus attention as acutely as possible. And they assiduously repeat the routines, habits, and practices that have worked before — their ethical toolbox.
Furthermore, ethics support adaptation. What’s your state of mind as you watch other people’s ethics? How might watching TV end up helping you navigate your own crises?