Are You Emotionally Intelligent?

Do you try to be mindful of how you feel? Or identify how you may act based on your feelings? Understand the effect of how situations affect your feelings and the feelings of others? Do you find yourself trying to control how you feel? Do you have regard for how your actions affect the emotions of others? In other words, do you care how you will make someone feel based on what you say, don’t say, do, or don’t do? Do you make attempts to identify or understand the emotional state of others or at least ensure that you will not contribute to their psychological decline?

Theoretical and Psychological Definition of Emotional Intelligence

The APA Dictionary of Psychology defines emotional intelligence as put forward by U.S. psychologists Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer as the “type of intelligence that involves the ability to process emotional information and use it in reasoning and other cognitive activities”. According to Mayer and Salovey’s model, emotional intelligence has four abilities. These are:

1. The ability to perceive and appraise emotions accurately.
2. To access and evoke emotions when they facilitate cognition.
3. To comprehend emotional language and make use of emotional information.
4. To regulate one’s own and others’ emotions to promote growth and well-being.

Importance of Emotional Awareness/Intelligence

1. Safer world
2. Better relationships
3. Building of trust
4. Happier families
5. More lasting relationships
6. Fewer misunderstandings
7. Healthy and productive workplace
8. Healthier and happier You

Increasing Your Emotional Intelligence

1. Manage your negative emotions-be aware of how you feel, look at things from different perspectives and control or regulate how you respond.
2. Be mindful of your vocabulary- be aware of how you feel, what you want to say and the impact that it will have on others and then use a vocabulary that will not bring across negative emotions.
3. Practice empathy-focus on others and how they feel and understand why they may be feeling that way.
4. Know your stressors-be aware of what brings out negative emotions in you, and how to control such stressors and respond appropriately.
5. Bounce back from adversity-negative situations or encounters will always happen. The key is to be mindful of this and always be prepared in the best way possible and at least know that you can recover from the challenge.

What type of impact did your behaviour have on the feelings of the last person you interacted with?

How are you feeling now and what caused you to be feeling this way?

Sources

https://dictionary.apa.org/emotional-intelligence-be

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2018/05/29/5-ways-to-develop-your-emotional-intelligence/?sh=2574e5c76976

© 2022, Stacy-Ann Campbell. All rights reserved.