The ability to know one’s emotions can be seen as something of a superpower. Having emotional intelligence entails the ability to recognize our emotions and how they affect our behaviors and decisions. Practicing emotional intelligence helps our relationships with ourselves as well as with others. There are numerous studies that show that people who have high levels of emotional intelligence perform better at their jobs, have healthier relationships and are happier overall. In contrast, those who had low levels of emotional intelligence had negative impacts on career development, poor relationships with others and difficulty handling change. So how can we cultivate emotional intelligence?
1) Self Awareness: The skill of looking at one’s self and being conscious of our emotions, feelings, thoughts and behaviors. This is not easy to practice because it takes introspection. It is a learned skill that helps us to feel like we are in control of our emotions and not the other way around.
2) Self-regulation: Self-regulation involves taking those observations that we see during our practice of self-awareness and putting forth the effort to fix or change the thoughts, behaviors and actions that need fixing. Self-regulation allows us to think before we act, and that is a sign of high emotional intelligence.
3) Empathy: During this process, we need to practice empathy in order to better understand others and sympathy to better understand ourselves. This takes patience and love. Being able to put ourselves in the shoes of others is vital when cultivating emotional intelligence because then we are able to better understand how another person feels.
4) Relationship skills: When a person is more emotionally intelligent, it is easier for them to form lasting relationships with others. They are able to relate better to others or accept their differences in a manner that is not offensive. Emotionally intelligent people tend to thrive in their relationships.
Just like with any self-improvement journey, cultivating emotional intelligence takes kindness and patience as well as perseverance. Doing the work to become emotionally intelligent has multiple benefits, but the most important one is that it will help you to become the best version of yourself.
“When awareness is brought to an emotion, power is brought to your life.” – Tara Meyer Robson
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