Emotional intelligence when doing professional work and when cleaning...

There is one thing more beautiful than a clean shiny window which needs long sticks, flexible hands and body to clean it. It is the tiny raindrops which kind of glisten on the nice shiny window with everything looking and sparkling nicely.

For about 15 minutes though.. because as the raindrops dry the little specks of dust which form the core of the beautiful

And if you are managing depression, cleaning windows and walls which you know will be dirty again at some point in time. some sooner than others, will take longer.

A man I did work with praised my emotional intelligence. I thought he was joking the first time, but he was serious . The assignment ran late and I was cursing  all the time I had planned to rest, and to recuperate and to clean and so got shorter.

I am glad he did not hear the curses. It was not his fault really. He wrote

"The emotional intelligence, commitment to work excellence and professional style you exhibited during those tough periods of this project are exemplary and were key to the success of the project "

As I was working on the cleaning project, I tried to figure out how to do things differently.  I decided to start with the nastiest window - the one above the stove, rather than finish with it because by that time I would be fed up and I would just do it kas kas.

The grime is thick and I thought .. why not use the oven cleaner. It must be the same grease and so. The oven cleaner said be careful, Hazard sign and so, and use gloves etc etc.

I was conscious of my emotions as I said, look it aint gun kill me in just one go.. and ignored all warnings. It was a joy to see most of the grime come off. I wondered about my insides.. if there is any residue from that grime too.

The oven clearer softened some of the paint too.. and when I passed my hand through the bars..

I did not notice the residue.. of the sticky pasty stuff above the wrist.I wondered if  a tiny bit of oven cleaner on my skin would clean it off, but fortunately I did not pursue with that.

soap powder and a hard brush cleaned it off..

There are some small bumps remaining which add to the bruises and other scars from the battle with the dirt.

There were emotional scars from the assignment and the delays.. the stress was subliminal. I got through the cleaning and tried to imagine it as exercise. Body was tired every evening.. except of course , sleep disappeared around half way into the night.. I thought that with the tired body and so I would just drop off.

Emotional Intelligence probably requires some analysis of the other things which are chasing away sleep.

At some point in the cleaning, I stopped. I am not sure what happened by my mind shut down for a bit and I had no will to continue cleaning. I think there was still angst as to why the hell am I doing this now instead of October, etc etc.

I must have managed to use emotional intelligence to process that... to get on with the here and now.

There is more to be done.. but major stuff is done.. there are some things I will be doing like covering up some eyesores instead of removing them .. but I initiated a temporary crash to avoid a meltdown

I did an emotionally intelligent thing though and said.. take a break.. you are not going to get it done.. while also struggling with my other self saying.. come on, you can do it.. keep going,, finish it.. finish it finish it finish it.