Building Emotional Intelligence

Written By Leland Lewis

Our emotions have a major impact on how we view and experience the world around us. They can determine how effective we are when doing different tasks along with how we communicate. The good thing about emotional intelligence is that it can be improved and this is mainly done through a concentrated effort. Today we want to look at some effective ways we can build this and why it's worth doing.

Understand How You Feel

Having a sense of self-awareness along with understanding how you feel is crucial for building emotional intelligence. Sometimes we might act before thinking about things. Doing this can lead to a lot of unnecessary and avoidable stress. This can be worked through if we take the time to slow down and recognize why we feel the way we do. Even something as simple as asking yourself how you feel can help you verbalize your thoughts and make it much easier to process them. If we feel anxious we can ask why we feel that way. Sometimes it’s because our other needs aren't taken care of. Other times it’s because of how something else is affecting us. Regardless of what it is, taking the time to understand it can make a world of difference in processing these emotions. We can't take action unless we know what is causing us distress and emotional intelligence is built on the foundation of stability.

“Having a sense of self-awareness along with understanding how you feel is crucial for building emotional intelligence.”

Having An Outlet

Everyone needs some form of an outlet for their emotions. Some of the most common forms of this include having something creative and something physical to do when we need to process these feelings. A good creative outlet allows us to express ourselves in a safe and constructive manner free from judgment. This is especially important for building emotional intelligence since it reminds us that our feelings are valid. Even commonly misunderstood feelings such as anger have their place and doing something creative can help us channel that in a healthy way. A physical outlet is also necessary to help our emotional intelligence since it can let us work on our confidence as well. Doing vigorous exercise can help us get outside of our heads and into the activity we're doing. This teaches us the value of being present while letting us sort through our feelings in the meantime.

“Everyone needs some form of an outlet for their emotions.”

Spend Time With Others

Applying emotional intelligence can be done in many ways. A good method of making sure that our efforts are working is by spending time with others. Seeing how we feel with those around us is a good indicator of how well we're doing emotionally. It can help us be more aware of our own feelings along with those around us. Most importantly though, it's one of the most effective ways of building empathy. This is crucial for emotional intelligence since it's not just our own feelings we need to be mindful of. Given that we live in a social world we need to be diplomatic and considerate of how others are doing. The more we are with others the more we can understand them and this can in turn help us understand ourselves.

Leland Lewis
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