About emotional intelligence

About emotional intelligence
The concept of emotional intelligence begins to take force in the mid-nineties with Daniel Goleman, from the publication of a book that contains the same title. Although in previous years we were talking about it, this new concept, which takes into account the influence of emotions, begins to take shape; bringing a completely new vision of intelligence. In this article on Transkerja.com, we will talk about emotional intelligence.

Definition of Emotional Intelligence

Emotions begin to be considered determinant both in the evolution and in the complete development of the person, in their ability to cope and adapt to daily life in a satisfactory manner, in their ability to establish resources and beneficial skills in their relationships with their environment.

The verification that there are certain areas in the brain responsible for processing emotions becomes one of the main pillars of emotional intelligence.

Currently we know that although the emotions may have a primitive origin and, apparently, an irrational functioning for being an impulsive and automatic response, we can consider them as intelligent and therefore trainable, controllable and modifiable as well as the rest of human abilities.

Emotional intelligence is, therefore, the ability that we all have or can develop to effectively manage emotions and generate, from them, beneficial motivations for the person.

There are many applications of emotional intelligence in people's daily lives, undoubtedly their training can be very beneficial in many situations that can allow us to adapt much better to all kinds of problems we continually have to face, preventing as much as possible the harmful effects of negative emotions and adopting a positive attitude towards life. In this way, we will be able to deal much better with the challenges and objectives that we can impose on ourselves, in addition to enhancing personal and social well-being.

Goals

• Know what emotions are and how to identify them, both positive and negative ones.
• Identify our emotions and those of others.
• Be able to detect how we express each of our emotions and learn to control them.
• Develop certain social skills, such as empathy and assertiveness, as a way to regulate our emotions.
• Develop skills to self-motivate, set challenges, self-reinforce and adopt a positive attitude towards life.
• Provide theoretical and practical knowledge about emotional control techniques (relaxation, stop thinking, solving problems, cognitive restructuring, confrontation and coping problems ...).

What is emotional intelligence?

The human capacity allows us:

• Have a positive attitude towards life.
• Perceive, know, understand, express and regulate our emotions by managing them properly.
• Detect and manage feelings both their own and those of others.
• Understand, express and manage these feelings with empathy and assertiveness.
• Above all, it allows us to adapt effectively to both our inner and outer world, making appropriate decisions through motivation, interest and enthusiasm to face and face problems or situations...

It includes a set of skills that can be learned and structured around five basic dimensions:

1. Knowledge of one's emotions
2. Self-control capacity
3. Self-motivation capacity
4. Recognition of the emotions of others.
5. Emotional control of interpersonal relationships.

Emotional Intelligence enhances social competence, through empathy and emotional control, by increasing the sense of effectiveness in the actions that are undertaken (Salovey and Mayer (1990).

When is emotional intelligence developed?

Emotional Intelligence develops throughout our lives, with each of the experiences we are acquiring, day by day, minute by minute, second by second ... We never finish learning and this serves for emotions and feelings.

To develop emotional intelligence is fundamental...

• Identify our emotions through behaviors, feelings and thoughts.
• Recognize them in others, through language, tone, appearance, behavior ... and learn to enhance all that may be useful and beneficial to others and ourselves.
• Training in skills that allow us to communicate, have, maintain and enjoy interpersonal relationships.
• Develop tolerance and resistance to daily frustrations.
• Use resources and useful tools that allow us to develop the process of emotional self-regulation.
• Learn to prevent and resolve personal and interpersonal conflicts as well as risky behaviors.
• Enhance self-esteem, self-motivation, effort, tenacity and perseverance, recognition and rectification of errors, problem solving, self-reinforcement, safety, perception of control...

What is the purpose of emotional intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence is the rudder that allows us to navigate adequately and effectively to the events of life.

• It allows us to control our feelings and our emotions
• Aimed all towards a common goal.
• It helps us identify and appropriately guide our emotions, feelings and thoughts.
• It contributes to generate and boost self-esteem.
• Provides autonomy, security and perception of control.
• Power and stimulate interpersonal relationships.
• Improves personal performance, school, work, physical, and mental health...

Why and why do we need emotional intelligence?

• Obviously, the Emotional Intelligence is not going to solve our problems as if it were a magic wand but it will help us to manage better.
• Emotional Intelligence is not going to prevent us from arguing with our colleagues or our friends, or our children doing everything we ask and want, but undoubtedly "YES" will help us reduce psychological burnout and allow us to face better the difficulties that may arise in our life.
• Emotional Intelligence will allow us to acquire resources and emotional skills to handle both “positive” and pleasant emotions and "negative" or unpleasant emotions, because both are necessary.

The essence of emotional intelligence is to have our emotions working for us but never to put them against us!

Are women more emotionally intelligent than men are?

• Women have always been considered more emotional than men have.
• The traditional stereotypes of women showed that "women were much more excited", "they were more intuitive and perceived much earlier than men what other people were feeling", "they gave more thought to things", "they talked more of their problems and communicated more easily their things "," were more expert than men in terms of emotions and emotional intelligence "...
• Studies show that in fact "YES" there are differences in emotional intelligence (and logically these differences have to do with the emotional socialization that has been transmitted to us), but it is also true that these differences are becoming more and more diluted, as emotional education is becoming increasingly androgynous.

What are emotions?

• An emotion is an affective state, it is a rapid and intuitive alteration of our state of mind that we experience, almost without realizing it, before certain situations, stimuli or thoughts that start from the environment or from our own interpretations of it.
• Emotions are natural reactions that allow us to adapt to certain environmental stimuli, are automatic and involuntary impulses, are reactions to certain events that lead us to act automatically and subjectively, and often unconsciously and irrationally.
• Emotions can be both positive and negative. Negatives such as hatred, anger, pessimism ..., maintained over time, affect our mood and seriously damage our emotional health.
• The positive ones like joy, satisfaction, pride, and happiness ... allow us to be more emotionally intelligent and to adapt much more easily to any situation.
• The emotion produced gives way to moods that we call feelings. For example after a sudden emotion of sadness due to bad news (death of a loved one, natural disaster, accident ...) appear feelings of helplessness, frustration, decay, helplessness ... to feel that we cannot do anything, the state The mood derived from emotion is prolonged in time, resulting in the feeling that turns out to be much more lasting than the emotion itself.
• An emotion entails a subjective reaction that will depend on people, depending on their own interpretations or personal experiences.
• Emotions are behind any process related to thinking (attention, perception, motivation, desire, concentration, memory ...) and this allows us to make a subjective estimate of everything that surrounds us.
• The emotions act in a complex, automatic and often without a rational control of them producing desires, needs, anguish, fear, rejection, disability, helplessness ... with respect to the world that surrounds us and with respect to ourselves.
• Emotions are accompanied by cognitive changes (thoughts that respond to the interpretation that each person makes in each situation) organic changes (physiological and endocrine, of innate origin and influenced by experience) and behavioral changes (behaviors that are going to be different depending on of the unleashed emotions).
• The natural reactions (sweating, breathing problems, facial changes, muscle changes ...) allow us to put ourselves on alert to certain situations that indicate a real or imagined danger, a threat, a frustration ... or quite the opposite, satisfaction, joy, optimism…

Emotions can help us solve problems when we learn to differentiate between positive and negative states, and above all, when we learn to control them and take advantage of them!

What are emotions for us?

Psychologically: they enhance or alter attention, concentration, increase or reduce certain behaviors, activate associations, influence our way of seeing and interpreting the world...

Physiologically: they provoke somatic responses including cardio-respiratory and digestive alterations, affect facial expressions, muscles, voice, activity of the Central Nervous System and Endocrine...

Conduct ally: they serve to establish our position with respect to the environment; they impel us or move us away from certain people, stimuli, objectives, actions, ideas...