10 Ways To Enhance Your Emotional Intelligence

First, let’s talk a bit about what exactly we mean by Emotional Intelligence. It’s the unique ability to control, perceive and evaluate emotions in oneself and others as well and at the end to use that information appropriately. Its importance is growing much in today’s world. For instance, recognizing emotional intelligence in oneself may help to regulate and manage his/her emotions; while recognizing the same in others can indeed lead to success and empathy in relationships, both professional and personal.

Here is a list of 10 ways to enhance your emotional intelligence:

Ways to Enhance Emotional Intelligence

1. Become more self-aware

It’s a well established fact that ‘To be able to understand and aware of others’ emotions; first you need to be well aware of your own emotions!’ Thus, self-awareness is one of the core areas of emotional intelligence. You can become self-aware of your emotions with the help of various forms like mindfulness and meditation, recording feelings in a notebook and increasing the emotional vocabulary or through joining a course too.

2. Express your thoughts, feelings and beliefs

By knowing how to express your own emotions; you can definitely help yourself in managing those emotions. You should have assertiveness i.e. you should appropriately share your thoughts, beliefs and feelings with the right people at the right time and place.

3. Discover your inner passions

The majority of the people tends to go about their work doing what they have to do from day to day. But how many of them are really happy and excited about their work? So find and do that work about which you are passionate with the right amount of planning.

4. Know your strengths and weaknesses

Some people have a tendency to think that they are good (or else best) at everything they do; while some think they can’t do a single thing good by underestimating their strengths. So, typically a SWOT analysis is a must so that you can probably know your areas of strengths and weaknesses along with the upcoming opportunities and threats.

5. Walk in the other person’s moccasins

Empathy is rightly considered as the extremely powerful emotion. Many leaders, media personalities, politicians and even philanthropists are high in empathy. Increasing the ability to empathize may help in getting closer to others and thus helps in winning the support as well.

6. Manage other person’s emotions

Managing the emotions of the people around you is one of the best and an impressive skill you could have. It’s a two step process; firstly you have to increase your empathy and secondly you would have responded in the same way you would want someone else to respond to you in the same situation.

7. Be socially responsible

There is no doubt that social responsibility is one of the highest levels when it comes to emotional experience. Indeed, it demonstrates that you really have feelings and care about others. And being socially responsible doesn’t mean personal gain; rather it’s all about what you can contribute to the society by helping other people.

8. Manage your own impulses

Along with self-awareness; impulsiveness helps in building another pillar for emotional intelligence. Managing impulses is basically a three step process in which distractions have to be found out and then analysis have to be done. And based on the analysis, coping strategies should be built.

9. Be more flexible

Everyone has their own routines and ways of doing things. So, being emotionally intelligent helps you to know when to stick to and also when to switch to the emotional attachments.

10. Be happy

On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you? An emotionally intelligent person tends to be happier than others. It’s not just because of the good things which happen to them. But they are happy because their happiness comes from inside out as they manage their emotions very well. Also, always remember it costs nothing to you to spread happiness and what you always receive in return is priceless!

Hopefully, you will develop and enhance your emotional intelligence by inculcating the above suggested ways in your life in the best possible manner.

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