It’s the holiday Season. Do I always have to be happy?
For some, the holidays are full of excitement and wonder. Spending time with family and friends, searching for the exact right gift for special people in your life, holiday gathering with food and memories and the occasional Hallmark Movie that is guaranteed to have a beautiful ending. At the same time, we still have doctor’s appointments to attend, bills to be paid, not enough money to meet the expenses and the list of regular day life events that can go on and on. In fact, this past week we have attended two memorials for close colleagues, and another is being planned. Life is full of events that can impact our emotional well-being and this week the focus of The Zone will be discussing how our emotional intelligence can assist us with navigating the ups and downs that we all experience, even during the Holiday Season.
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand, use and manage your own emotions in positive ways. Its impact can be to reduce stress, communicate more effectively in empathizing with others and it can assist with overcoming challenges and defuse conflict. It also helps to build stronger relationships at home and at work, whether in-person or remote. Overall, it can assist with connecting with ones’ feelings and turn intentions into actions and make informed decisions.
Effects of Emotional Intelligence
Increase in Quality of Performance
Enhanced Physical Health
Healthier Mental Health
Honest Relationships
Greater Social Intelligence
Developing our emotional intelligence is a life-long endeavor, unique to each of us. However, there are some basic general areas that we can identify to provide a good starting point and then move on from there.
Developing Emotional Intelligence
Stress Management
Mindfulness
Build Social Awareness
Emotional Awareness
Relationship Management
Observe Role-models
For an excellent article that offers more specifics, please checkout:
50 tips for improving your emotional intelligence www.rochemartin.com
Key Takeaways
With practice it’s possible to develop or strengthen Emotional Intelligence.
Enhanced Emotional Intelligence is related to higher performance and overall psychological, physical and social well-being.
Enhanced Emotional Intelligence assists with the management of stress.
Best Practices
Take time to observe your emotions over the next few weeks.
Acknowledge your emotional triggers.
Take time for reflections and mindfulness.
Things to Limit
Thinking ahead of yourself.
Overloading yourself so that you do not have the capacity to connect your emotional self with your doing self.
Not paying attention to nonverbal communications.
Quote of the Week
“As more and more artificial intelligence is entering into the world, more and more emotional intelligence must enter into leadership”
~Amit Ray
While it is not possible to be happy all of the time, even during the holidays, it is possible to build on our emotional intelligence throughout our life so that we can genuinely enjoy ourselves.
Be well,
The paraDocs
Check our Welcome Greeting on YouTube
The paraDocs are Dr. Francis L. Battisti, PhD, Psychotherapist, Distinguished Psychology Professor and former Executive V.P and Chief Academic Officer and Dr. Helen E. Battisti PhD, RDN, CDN, Chief Nutrition Officer, at SpNOD, Health Promotion Specialist, Research and Clinical Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and former Assistant Professor.
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