Enhancing Interpersonal Relationships through Emotional Intelligence

Have you ever heard people utter such statements as “He/she lacks emotional intelligence?” Others would say it as “They lack emotional maturity.” The big question that often remains unanswered is “What is emotional intelligence and how is it important to us?”

We will delve into the concept of emotional intelligence in-depth to appreciate why everyone needs it.

We will look at:

• Definition of Emotional Intelligence
• Elements of Emotional Intelligence
• Importance of Emotional Intelligence

Definition of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is also known as emotional maturity. It refers to the ability to manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions of people around you.

Elements of Emotional Intelligence

There are at least 5 elements that form emotional intelligence.

They include:

• Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is your ability to perceive and understand the things that make you who you are as an individual. These include your personality, actions, values, beliefs, emotions, and thoughts.

Self-awareness will help you know the things you can and can’t handle. This can help you decide better. You will not allow yourself to be in spaces or associations that you can’t deal with. Your choices are better when you have a high degree of self-awareness.

• Self Regulation

Self-regulation is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with a range of emotions. The responses must be socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible. It encompasses the ability to let spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed.

Self-regulation in action involves taking a pause between a feeling and an action. It also involves taking the time to think before taking an action.

We all need self-regulation in abundance. It will spare us a lot of pain. It will also prevent regrets that come with the frenetic rush in moments of emotional outburst.

• Motivation

Motivation has to do with an internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behaviour. It is the reason for behaving in a particular manner.

It is often understood as a force. This force explains why people or animals start, continue, or end a certain behaviour at a particular time.

Understanding the forces that drive your actions can help you be better at the good things you do. On the flip side, you can reduce your undesirable actions by keeping their stimulators away.

• Empathy

Empathy is the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions.

The ability to empathize with others helps us understand why they behave the way they do under certain circumstances.

It helps us to apply the golden rule:

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12, NKJV).

• Social Skills

Social skills are any competencies that facilitate interaction and communication with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways.

Socialization is the process of learning social skills. Lack of such skills can cause social awkwardness and anti-social behaviours.

Importance of Emotional Intelligence

After an in-depth understanding of emotional intelligence, we can all agree. Emotional intelligence is a necessary quality in our interactions. This is especially because we are woven together in the great web of humanity.

People are emotional beings and this explains why do or don’t do things in a certain way. We can’t control people but we can control how we are affected by them. Oftentimes this is not an easy thing to do.

We all at some point struggle to control our own emotions. Yet, it is only our own emotions that are in our hands. How hard then it is to control other people’s emotions?

People will always surprise us and push our patience to the edge of the precipice. We must protect ourselves from chaotic flow from others. We must also protect others from the chaotic flow emanating from us.

Conclusion

Emotional intelligence is a skill we all need. it covers various areas of our lives including self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Mastering these qualities will make you better at dealing with issues and handling people.

[Emotional Intelligence Test]