The Definition of Emotional Intelligence
Everyone seems to agree that your intelligence quotient, your IQ, is an important measure of cognitive ability. It is often used as a way to measure your potential for success on job applications, college applications, and in social settings. This leaves me wondering what emotional intelligence is and why it isn’t held in our society with the same level of relevance and validity as IQ. According to a survey done by the World Economic Forum, called The Future of Jobs Report, only 35% of respondents reported that they knew about emotional intelligence (referred to as EQ).
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and regulate your own emotions, while also being able to recognize, understand, and influence the emotions of others. It seems straightforward. Right? Let's be real. Recognizing and understanding the various emotions and energies that move us through each day can be complicated. It's like having a chaotic car ride where your emotional responses are in the driver’s seat, and you’re speeding off any which way without any destination. To use emotional intelligence, you must learn how to kindly ask those emotional responses to take a back seat while you relearn how to drive to a destination. This requires expanding self-awareness, practicing self-regulation, developing empathy, and learning dynamic emotional literacy.
The Benefits of Emotional Intelligence
It's important to note that developing emotional intelligence is very worthwhile. Having a high EQ can improve every area of your life like love, work, and money. You know, the good stuff. It's really as simple as this: if you can't understand yourself and others, you simply cannot improve certain areas of your life.
Emotional intelligence leads to better communication, more trust, and fewer conflicts in interpersonal relationships. Couples with a high EQ have been shown to demonstrate more love and affection, which is sweet. A high EQ is also associated with overall increased mental health, reduced harmful stress, and maintaining a healthy body longer. If you are a leader, EQ allows you to connect with your team, understand their needs, and inspire them more effectively. Understanding your inner nature and that of others truly sets you up for success.
How to Build Emotional Intelligence
Now, let’s talk about how to start building your emotional intelligence. You’ve probably seen similar advice before, however, the important thing here is to find out what methods work for you. Here are three researched and proven methods to develop EQ:
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1) Mindfulness-based practices like breath awareness and body scans significantly improve emotional regulation, a core component of EQ, after about eight weeks of consistent practice which is typically 10–20 minutes daily.
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2) Yoga and movement therapy develop the components of emotional intelligence. Practicing yoga with focused breathing for 12 weeks, two to three sessions per week has been shown to increase emotional awareness, bodily awareness, and self-compassion.
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3) Trauma-sensitive somatic methods, like self-hugs, practiced by long-term trauma survivors, have been shown to create improvements in emotional intelligence. Typically, benefits start appearing after six months of practicing a total of 30-60 minutes a day.
How Emotional Intelligence Empowers You
Emotional intelligence isn’t an exclusive skill set; it's available to all of us, no matter where we are in life. Breath is accessible, mindfulness is accessible, and somatic movement is accessible to each one of us. The actions you take may seem small at first, yet I hope this article demonstrates that even small actions can have a huge impact on your emotional intelligence. Raising your emotional intelligence can bring you joy, peace, resilience, and success, and can transform your life.
