Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a specific skill set that helps one understand other people more deeply. They can sense others’ emotions, easily perceiving what one’s going through. Emotional Intelligence is a skill that often doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. However, if practiced correctly, it can benefit you in many ways, whether in your personal or professional life. Understanding an individual’s emotions isn’t easy. That’s why it’s called “Emotional Intelligence.” Let’s take a look at a few of the benefits EI can have.
1. Self-Awareness
To successfully understand other people’s emotions, you need to identify and comprehend your own first. You can’t possibly think you can examine what other people are going through or how they feel if you don’t know anything about your own emotions. To have a high EI, you must sit back and think about your own feelings. Give yourself the time and attention to be more aware of your mind. When you’re successful in comprehending your emotions, it’ll enhance your self-awareness.
2. Emotional Regulation
We often tend sometimes to act out when we face a situation that upsets us. Now, this generally is normal but not healthy. Acting out in impulse always ends up in regret. When we calm down, we think about going back in time and changing the way we behaved. Since time travel isn’t made possible yet, what you can do in the meantime is control your emotions. Emotional Intelligence helps you to become more in control of your own feelings and reactions.
3. Improved Empathy
Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes isn’t always easy. We might think we understand what the other person is going through, but that’s rarely the case. However, being emotionally intelligent can help you understand others better. It increases your empathy, leading you to provide them with a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on. Whether the emotions are positive or negative, you’d still be in a much better place to recognize and understand others’ emotions, in order to react accordingly.
4. Heightened Motivation
When your Emotional Intelligence rate is high, you feel more motivated than before. This is because you’re more in control of your emotions. You get to decide how you should feel on a particular day, in a particular situation. Negative emotions are something that tends to take over our minds rather quickly. However, being emotionally intelligent also helps you determine if it’s wise or unwise to feel this way. For example, instead of sulking after a rejection, use it as a lesson and do better next time.
5. Social Skills
Emotional Intelligence has a direct impact on your social skills as well. That’s because it generally makes you better at communication, as you would know what to say and when. In addition, being emotionally intelligent enhances your social skills as you feel more confident about yourself and around others. You become more self-aware about your and others’ emotions, allowing you to approach people around you, leading to smooth and easy interactions. These benefits help you navigate your life rather easily and often tend to take you out of complex situations where impulse behavior is often the result of raw emotions taking over.
