Emotional intelligence refers to the way a person perceives, understands, express, and handles themselves in any situation. You must have heard of it, but you may not know how to assess it even in yourself.
It is important to know about all the different aspects of your personality so that you can maintain your mental health and improve your social behavior. Emotional intelligence, at a glance, is what influences your reactions, your instincts, and overall social behavior.
If you want to control your reactions and work on the skills you deem important, you have to know first where you stand at the time. Only then you will be able to improve yourself. And that’s where emotional intelligence comes in.
Here are some important factors that signify how emotionally intelligent you are:
You Think before Reacting
Emotional intelligence is how you react in the face of unwanted circumstances. People who are emotionally intelligent are able to regulate their feelings. They can weigh the situation and then react accordingly.
Those who cannot control their negative feelings are likely to face difficulty in social functioning. This difficulty can often translate themselves into feelings of depression.
People with major depression usually have difficulty understanding and handling their emotions. Moreover, evidence suggests that people with lower emotional intelligence are likely to have more depressive symptoms, even when they are not clinically depressed.
You take Difficult Situations as a Challenge
If you consider unwelcoming situations as a challenge, it is likely that you have high emotional intelligence. Just like a popular saying goes, emotional intelligence means not that you keep your cool when life is giving you lemons, but also make a lemonade out of it.
For example, you just lost your job. Your reaction can be either of self-pity, resentment. Or you can start mulling over opportunities that await you. These reactions determine how emotionally intelligent you are.
You Can Refine your Emotions
At times, your feelings overwhelm and get the better of you. But, if you have high emotional intelligence, you may be able to modify and refine those feelings.
Moderation is the basic requirement when it comes to managing one’s emotions. If you know how to keep your emotions in moderation, you are an emotionally intelligent person.
For example, an average rise in anxiety levels can enhance cognitive performance, but too much anxiety can block, even shutdown any prospect of sensible thinking in a crisis situation.
You are Empathetic
Empathy means the ability to put oneself in others’ shoes. This characteristic of emotional intelligence is crucial, especially in the workplace. The ability to sympathize with a person, if he/she is yelling at you is what makes you emotionally intelligent.
These are some of the reasons why emotional intelligence training has become a common practice. This training mainly focuses on management and expression of emotions that relate to communication and job performance.
Source: World Economic ForumÂ
