Emotions inform our thinking and decisions, the quality of our relationships, our physical and mental health, and our creativity and everyday performance. What we do with our emotions is especially important. The goal of my presentation is to (1) inspire a new mindset around the power of emotions to transform our lives, (2) describe five key underlying emotion skills, known as the “RULER” skills, which help us to better understand our own and others’ emotions, and (3) provide innovative strategies for developing emotional intelligence so that emotions help, rather than hinder, our well-being and success.

Marc Brackett, PhD, is founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine at Yale University. His grant-funded research focuses on: (1) the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationship quality, and mental health; (2) the measurement of emotional intelligence; and (3) the influences of emotional intelligence training on children’s and adults’ health, performance, and workplace performance and climate. Marc has published 125 scholarly articles and has received numerous awards, including the Joseph E. Zins Award for his research on social and emotional learning and an honorary doctorate from Manhattanville College. He also is a distinguished scientist on the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development and on the board of directors for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).