Emotions matter. They influence all aspects of our lives - how we

“Emotions matter. They influence all aspects of our lives – how we live, work, and play – from the decisions we make and how we communicate. Emotions also influence our overall health and well-being.” – Rana el Kaliouby

In the dawn of understanding, before machines spoke and cities glittered with light, the ancients knew that the heart was not merely a vessel of blood but the throne of emotion. It was said that when the heart trembles, the world within a person trembles also. And so Rana el Kaliouby, a sage of our modern age, rekindles this ancient truth: that emotions matter — for they are not the whispers of weakness, but the pulse of life itself. To deny them is to walk as shadow; to understand them is to hold the torch that lights the path of wisdom.

From our first breath to our final sigh, emotions guide our choices. Love draws us together; fear teaches caution; joy lifts us toward creation; anger defends what we hold sacred. The ancients likened emotion to the sea: calm or tempestuous, ever shifting, yet shaping the shores of human destiny. When a leader speaks, it is not reason alone that stirs the people, but the fire of feeling kindled in the soul. When an artist paints, the brush follows not the hand, but the heart’s command. Thus do emotions influence how we live, work, and play, weaving unseen threads through every act of existence.

Consider the tale of Marcus Aurelius, emperor and philosopher. Amid the storms of Rome, he ruled with both intellect and empathy. His strength lay not in suppressing emotion, but in mastering its current. When betrayal stung him, he sought not vengeance but understanding. “You have power over your mind—not outside events,” he wrote. Yet beneath those words lay deep compassion, for he knew that to govern the self is not to silence feeling, but to guide it toward virtue. His reign endures in memory because his heart and mind marched as one.

So too, in our modern temples of glass and code, emotion shapes the unseen. A weary worker who feels unseen loses spirit; a leader who inspires awakens shared purpose. The flow of emotion within a team determines whether it thrives or fractures. Even the machine, born of logic, now learns to sense human emotion, for without it, it cannot truly serve humankind. Rana el Kaliouby, in her wisdom, reminds us that the dawn of emotional intelligence in technology is not to replace our feelings, but to reflect them with compassion, to make the digital age more human.

But emotions do more than move our deeds—they shape our health and well-being. A heart heavy with sorrow sickens the body; a spirit filled with gratitude renews its strength. The physicians of old, from Hippocrates to the sages of the East, taught that balance within the soul preserves the body. In our haste for progress, we forget that peace is not found in the noise of success but in the quiet understanding of ourselves. To live well is not merely to act rightly, but to feel rightly.

The lesson is clear: to master emotion is not to chain it, but to honor it. One must learn to listen when anger speaks, to soothe it with reason; to embrace joy without attachment; to meet sorrow as an old friend, carrying its lesson gently. The wise do not flee emotion—they walk beside it, learning its rhythm as a sailor learns the tides. Only thus can we steer our ship toward wholeness, through calm and storm alike.

And so, children of the future, remember this teaching: your emotions are sacred instruments, not flaws to be corrected. Attend to them as you would to a garden—nurture what uplifts you, prune what poisons you, and water all with the sunlight of awareness. Speak kindly, act mindfully, and let your heart remain open, for through that opening flows the very essence of what it means to be human. When you live in harmony with your emotions, your health, your purpose, and your destiny align.

Thus spoke the wise: to feel deeply is to live fully, and to understand emotion is to touch the eternal pulse of the universe itself.