Using Emotional Intelligence to Enhance Your Life
Emotional Intelligence helps you to connect with your thoughts and feelings so that you can react to situations with intention. Defined as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically, emotional intelligence (EI) is very important to your overhealth.
Have you ever experienced a time when you lashed out at a colleague or family member, and afterwards, you wished you had not said what you did? These situations arise, most often, in times of stress; when the body will not tolerate discomfort, and your mind will do anything to resolve the physical tension. This means we react unfavourably.
As we can see, Emotional Intelligence and self-awareness go hand in hand. Knowing your emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drivers, values, goals, and impact on others is fundamental to determine what kind of response or behaviours you want to adopt in a specific moment. Emotional Intelligence is your ability to adequately choose your response in order to:
Build trust-based relationships as individuals who see and shift old patterns limiting them from connecting with others.
Resolve challenges before they become a problem and become better active listeners.
Be available and able to have difficult conversations.
Discover how to shift to and maintain balance of self to create a calmer way of being.
Using Emotional Intelligence to enhance your life:
Having a sound Emotional Intelligence can improve your daily life in the following areas:
Personal relationships
Advance your career
Make better life choices
Be emotionally resilient
When you have a practice of cultivating awareness of how you feel, you navigate with that inner guidance system. This system is what will help you to lead and live that balanced life, and this is why it is so important for your overall health. Afterall, a life without stress is a much happier and healthier life.
How to learn, or change Emotional Intelligence:
Learning to build Emotional Intelligence is all about mindset! And the first thing you need to be able to do is to recognize your own emotions (self-awareness). Dig deep and ask yourself “what am I really feeling?”
Notice the energy or discomfort intensifying in your body when you are triggered within a situation. As this occurs, practice relaxing your shoulders and start slowing and deepening your breathing.
This will allow you to:
Feel emotions as they arise
Notice your thoughts
Determine if your thoughts are aligned with your values (or just old, unhelpful messages)
Choose an appropriate response for the situation at hand
As always, be kind to yourself: these skills take time and practice to master! It takes time to acquire a new way of being when responding to triggers. Often, those old patterns of thoughts and behaviours have ingrained in us and used for so long!
There is no secret or shortcut to learning a new habit of responding to triggers. Here are the keys to your success:
Repetition
Consistency
Patience
Persistence
Perseverance
REMEMBER: Progress over perfection.
Receive support on your EI journey
I feel so grateful I was able to find the help I needed to stop the fight of showing up as my true self. I got the tools I needed to better cope with triggering situations and thoughts so I can finally live an authentic life!
And the beauty of it now is that I now get to help other women to do the same. And THAT is my ‘’WHY’’ …
… to support women like you navigating their life in a more emotionally intelligent and authentic way.
I’d love to show you the other steps to take to obtain a healthier, calmer and balanced life. Click Here to start the conversation for free.
Much Love,
