Empathic, emotionally intelligent work environments have a good track record of increasing creativity, improving problem solving and raising productivity.

Empathetic people are superb at recognizing and meeting the needs of clients, customers, or subordinates. They seem approachable, wanting to hear what people have to say. They listen carefully, picking up on what people are truly concerned about, and respond on the mark.

The Harvard Business Review recently had an article called 'The Human Moment,' about how to make real contact with a person at work: ... The fundamental thing you have to do is turn off your BlackBerry, close your laptop, end your daydream and pay full attention to the person.

The amygdala in the emotional center sees and hears everything that occurs to us instantaneously and is the trigger point for the fight or flight response.

While there I began to study the Asian religions as theories of mind.

Empathy and social skills are social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence. That's why they look alike.

If you are doing mindfulness meditation, you are doing it with your ability to attend to the moment.