How to Improve My Emotional Intelligence Skills

Emotional intelligence is your ability to understand and manage all of your emotions in a way that is constructive. Emotional intelligence is an important aspect of daily life. It helps you find success, achieve goals and build strong relationships. Emotional intelligence skills can be developed and strengthened at any time throughout your life. Emotional intelligence cannot be learned on a literal level; it must be learned on an emotional level.

Instructions

• 1

  Reduce stress. One of the key steps to improving your emotional intelligence is to reduce your stress. If you are under a high amount of stress, you will have a hard time reading a situation accurately. Find ways to reduce stress and calm down. Listen to soothing music, or start meditating. If you have some spare time, try practicing a calming hobby like yoga or Tai-Chi.

• 2

  Connect to your emotions. After you are able to reduce your stress, you will have a much easier time connecting to your emotions. The key is to have an awareness of your emotions in the moment that they are occurring and to recognize how your behavior is influenced by these emotions.

• 3

  Develop effective nonverbal communication skills. Many times, what you say is less important than the signals you send out to others. After you are able to connect to your emotions, develop a connection with your nonverbal communications. People want to know that you are listening and that they have been heard. Make sure that you are showing them this. Try to maintain eye contact with people, and start talking with your hands more. Pay close attention to how others communicate non-verbally.

• 4

  Incorporate more fun and laughter into your life. Challenges will arise in your life; it's only natural. But when you can ramp up your play and laugh quotient to deal with life's difficulties, you will be able to handle them more easily. Laughing is a great way to reduce stress and increase your happiness. Try to change your outlook on life; remember that the glass is half-full, not half-empty. Carve out some crucial "me" time to do things you enjoy; this will help you to improve your outlook.

• 5

  Remain positive. Conflict is an inevitable part of life; however, how you deal with conflict will affect your life. You can resolve conflict in ways that are healthy and constructive. When you can use the steps for improving your emotional intelligence effectively, you will be able to handle conflict in a much more positive manner. Never resort to yelling, and always calmly reason through things. The most important thing is that you refrain from getting angry.