Emotional Intellect

Have you ever heard of Emotional Intelligence? Essentially, it is the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions within oneself and in others. Identifying emotional intelligence can help you regulate and manage your emotions, and recognizing emotions in others can lead to empathy and success in your personal and professional relationships.

Some researchers claim that it is an inborn characteristic, while others think that you can improve it with proper guidance and practice. “It all starts with learning how to listen to your feelings. While it may not always be easy, developing the ability to tune in to your own emotions is the first and perhaps most important step.” As a guide try the following:

Understand and express your own emotions. People with this ability know how they’re feeling before others do.

Have -

a good sense of why you have certain feelings most of the time.

a good understanding of your own emotions.

an understanding of what you feel.

Perceive and understand the emotions of others around you. This ability means that you are sensitive to how others are feeling.

You -

always know others’ emotions from their behavior.

are a good observer of others’ emotions.

are sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others.

have good understanding of the emotions of people around me.

Regulate your own emotions. Regulating your emotions means that you are able to keep them under control, especially when you’re feeling distressed.

Say -

I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them.

I always tell myself I am a competent, stable-minded person.

I always encourage myself to do and behave my best.

Use emotions to maximize performance. Directing your emotions toward constructive activities allows you to use them to your advantage.

Repeat -

I am able to control my temper and handle difficulties rationally.

I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions.

I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry.

I have good control of my own emotions.

Fundamentally, being able to gage your own emotions might be a challenge. More of a challenge is being able to regulate your emotions; but if you can stop and think before you act out and ask yourself how you feel and why you feel this way, it might give you just enough time to gain insight into which emotions are driving your behavior. Learning what triggers your emotions can ultimately help you understand and control them.

Having the capacity to reason about your emotions is a great skill to enhance. If you have high emotional intelligence, you can solve a variety of emotionally-related problems accurately and quickly. “People with high emotional intelligence can accurately perceive emotions in peoples faces. Such individuals also know how to use emotional episodes in their lives to promote specific types of thinking. They understand the meanings that emotions convey.”

Let’s work on growing our emotional intelligence and see what kind of difference it will make in our lives. ~ Doc Mel :-)

Reference: Psychology Today posted by Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D. & Norman Rosenthal M.D.