How to improve your EQ

Emotional intelligence matters just like intellectual ability in human beings. Everyone needs to understand this and practice regularly rather than being ignorant about it. If you follow this practice regularly your life will be filled with happiness and success.

Get to know what is Emotional Intelligence:

Emotional intelligence ( also known as Emotional Quotient EQ) has been defined, by Salovey and John Mayer, as “the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them approximately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.

Why is emotional intelligence so important?

A person cannot become successful just because he is smart, he becomes successful by having balance in his intellectual ability(IQ) as well as Emotional Intelligence. You probably know people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially inept and unsuccessful in career and in relationships. Intellectual ability (IQ) is not going to give success in life. Yes, IQ helps you to get good grades and get you positioned in great schools and colleges. But EQ will help you to deal with situations practically, thus makes your emotional state really strong that you will be ready to face the world.

Effects of Emotional Intelligence:

• Your performance at school/college/work: Many companies now rate emotional intelligence as important as technical ability. High emotional intelligence will keep you motivated as well as the people around you.
• Your mental health: when your EQ is strong, you have a more clear perspective towards daily challenges. You will have control over your emotions and stress. Helps in reducing your anxiety.
• Your relationships: Having a good level of EQ is needed to maintain relationships better with people. By understanding your emotions and how to control them, you are able to express your feelings much easier as well as you can understand the other persons’ emotions.
• Your physical health: Uncontrolled stress can lead to increased blood pressure, suppress immunity, and many more affecting physical health. Therefore it is really important to keep a check on your emotional intelligence which in addition helps you to reduce stress thus improving your physical health.
• Your social intelligence: Better EQ makes you understand other persons’ interest in you, helps you understand people better, helps you to differentiate your friends and foes. You will be clear-headed when it comes to socializing with people, you will be well prepared to handle any kind of situation.

How to improve your Emotional Intelligence:

It is completely okay if you don’t have a good level of emotional intelligence. You can improve your EQ whenever you want in life. Read and understand the upcoming pointers and explanations. I am sure you will have a better understanding of ways to improve your EQ.

Reflect on your own emotions:

Don’t hold back your emotions to yourself. Express what you feel without worrying about what others think. Never stop your emotions, you will never know when and how your behavior will change if you hold back your emotions. If you don’t express you won’t know what you are actually feeling. You will understand your emotions better and can have control over it when you express them freely.

Try communicating in a direct but still respectful manner:

When you express what you feel directly, you really need to look after what words you are using and in what manner. Expressing emotions directly might be harsh sometimes but with the use of right and respectful words, the other person won’t find it inappropriate or unrespectful

Accept criticism. Ask what you can learn rather than resist:

I know it feels great when people appreciate your talents/works. But you must have the audacity to listen to your critics patiently. Understand what your critic is trying to tell you and see whether you can learn from it to improve your life.

Press the “pause button”. Take a moment before reacting:

Never take hasty decisions in life, likewise never react immediately. It is not so easy to control your reactions, but he who knows the art of patience can do that. Take a moment to process what happens and then react accordingly.

Practice maintaining your positive attitude regardless of others:

There’s a quote “the moon doesn’t care if the dog barks at it”. People really need to remember this always. You must have a positive vibe even if others are not. Never think negatively even if each and everyone surrounded talks negatively. Having a positive attitude makes your life peaceful.

Respond rather than reacting to conflict:

Reacting and responding are two different things. The reaction is an action taken in response to something. Whereas, A response is some words or actions that happen as a reaction to something else. When a conflict occurs you need to take a moment before reacting and analyze what’s happening and how you can solve it without creating a fuss out of it and then respond.

Practice self-awareness:

Managing stress is the first step to building emotional intelligence. Being able to connect to your emotions — having a moment-to-moment connection with your changing emotional experience — is the key to understanding how emotion influences your thoughts and actions. You cant practice it overnight. Practice in the little things of your daily life.

Explore and understand the “why”:

There are situations in life where it is important to ask yourself the question “why”. When it comes to emotional intelligence, the question “why” matters in almost everything. If you don’t ask yourself you will never learn things and understand them. In situations, you have to ask why is this happening?. I'm sure you will get the answer if you think about it with patience.

Empathize, empathize and empathize:

You should understand what the other person is going through. Do not just think about yourself, think about the other person too. Sometimes it is important to connect with the other persons’ feelings and understand them. Then you can think about how you can help them in that situation.

Practice always:

Keeping these pointers in mind and practicing it in daily life is important. Consistency is the key. Doing these just for a day is not going to improve anything in your life. Practice them every day. You will increase the level of your emotional intelligence.

Conclusion:

Follow these to see an improvement in your EQ. By now you must have got to know how EQ plays a role in our life. Don’t be ignorant when it comes to EQ. You will be able to manage yourself better.