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Bringing Emotional Intelligence Into Daily Life

Emotional Intelligence has gained profound importance in today’s world. At a time when we look towards effective methods of workplace management and enrichment of personal relationships, there is a pertinent question of finding a lasting solution. This article addresses this issue, and helps readers understand how to bring the practical concept of emotional intelligence into daily life and sustain its effects to bring about a positive and everlasting change.

Emotional Intelligence is a relatively new concept in psychology. It can make a great difference in the way various matters are perceived because it determines the way we handle ourselves and others.  Handling emotions is important and is possible only when there is self-awareness involved. Without it, we would lack the insight of how feelings – be it positive or negative – affect us and everyone we interact with. The negativity affects our physical energy, mental clarity and emotional balance, thereby reducing our personal effectiveness. We end up feeling angry, defensive and even hostile. We lose focus of our goals, fail to realize the impact of our emotions on others and generally feel messy at the end of the day - everyday.

What you can do to systematically bring emotional intelligence to your daily life

Here is a systematic procedure you can follow to ensure that you begin and continue to think in an emotionally intelligent manner. The core objective is to recognize your emotions so that you know what to deal with, and how to deal with it.

• List out typical situations at home or work in which you encounter negative emotions like sadness, fear, anger or frustration. For instance, you may feel angry when your child spills coffee onto your clothes on the morning of an important meeting. Or you may feel frustrated when your efforts at work are not being recognized. Perhaps you feel sad when you think that you need to work over-time on your spouse’s birthday. By identifying the situations that produce negative emotions, you will realize what triggers it. This is an important step towards dealing with emotions and keeping negativity at bay. When you are stressed – What is it that stresses you out? The answer to this question will help you to achieving the first step in busting stress
• Recognize and name the emotions you feel at the various instances of your daily life. Positive emotions also need to be considered – such as spending time with friends, listening to good music, or spending time with a loved one. Note them down in a diary and explain how you felt in each of these positive/negative triggering instances.
• Make a note of whether the emotions you experienced are classified under low energy or high energy emotions. By doing a daily recall of events, interactions and activities, the next step would be to write down how long you stayed in that particular emotion. The best way would be to chart out this step in the form of a daily chart.

As you develop your EI skills, you will notice how you remain lesser in the negative energy zone and move towards the productive zone of positive energy. This method is a very useful technique especially for those of you who find it difficult to recognize your emotions.

Consistent use of this method will help bring in a systematic improvement through the recognition of positive and negative emotions, as it increases your self-awareness – an important factor to bringing emotional intelligence into your daily life.

Source:

http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/abstract.aspx?tag=content%3Bcol1&docid=387245&promo=100511

http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Emotional-Intelligence---Emotional-Self-awareness---The-First-Step/434847#ixzz0j8m1uGrj

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This article was authored by Pramila Mathew, M.Ed, MBA, an executive coach who helps individuals, groups, teams and organizations find the right solutions in the workplace. MMM Training Solutions conducts soft skills training and executive coaching anywhere in the world. We guarantee the effectiveness of our training.

You may reprint this article by requesting permission from: pramila.mathew@mmmts.com