Many people think that being emotionally intelligent means to control your emotions, but this is not what the term actually implies. To be more emotionally intelligent than someone else means to understand how other people feel and use that information to make better decisions or influence them.

By understanding why another person might be feeling a certain way, you can manipulate or influence their behavior in positive ways. This is called emotional intelligence (or EI for short).[1] People who are highly emotionally intelligent show greater sensitivity to and knowledge of emotion. They may also demonstrate higher levels of empathy, which refers to knowing what makes others happy or unhappy.

There are many theories about why some people seem to have higher EQs than others. Some believe it’s due to genetics, while others suggest early experiences play an important role.[2] Whatever the cause, research shows that high EQ is clearly something most people want!

Emotional intelligence has been linked to a variety of different qualities in life including job success, happiness, and health. It’s also considered a worthy goal because achieving it doesn’t require much money or special training.

But before you start trying to develop yours, there are two things worth noting. First, like any skill, practicing emotional intelligence takes work. And second, just because you don’t yet know what strategies work for someone else doesn’t mean they aren’t effective for you.

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Factors that affect your emotional intelligence

Another important factor in determining how emotionally intelligent you are is how well you control your emotions. It’s understandable if you don’t feel like it at times, but being able to regulate your emotion takes a lot of work and practice.

That doesn’t mean letting yourself be overwhelmed by whatever situation you find yourself in, however. If you can recognize a pattern with what’s causing you to become angry or upset, then you should take steps to avoid that thing so your feelings will not get the better of you.

You also need to acknowledge and accept your own weaknesses when it comes to managing your emotions. When you do this, you’ll realize that you aren’t as bad as you thought you were, which helps you move past feeling bad about yourself.

It may seem hard at first, but practicing emotional regulation will help you achieve your goal of becoming more aware of your own emotions.

How to be emotionally intelligent

Being aware of your emotions is one of the most important things you can work on as a person. It’s also something that comes more easily to some people than others.

Some people are always looking at their phones, or talking about silly stuff because they don’t know what else to do with themselves. They feel like they have nothing inside them and so they empty out by doing other things.

Other people seem to carry around too much emotion in them and it makes them look even more uncomfortable than they already were before.

Neither of these situations help anyone achieve true emotional balance.

By being aware of your own feelings you will eventually find a place where you learn how to deal with them. You’ll figure out how to put yourself back into control when feeling overwhelmed and angry becomes too much for you.

This article will go into more detail about some ways to improve your emotional intelligence.

Ways to improve your emotional intelligence

Developing your EQ is not like learning another language, where you can watch a few videos and you’re done!

It takes work in the area of psychology that studies emotion regulation every day.

You have to consciously strive to use emotions for good instead of bad and learn how to recognize and manage your own emotions.

This article will go into more detail about some ways to boost your emotional intelligence and help you be happier.

Taking control of your emotions

A key part in being emotionally intelligent is learning how to regulate your emotions. This can be done by either suppressing or enhancing certain feelings, changing how you perceive situations, thinking about past experiences that helped you deal with emotional material, using strategies for coping with stress, and/or doing things that help you feel relaxed and comfortable.

Many people learn early on not to show too many emotions, but this only helps some types of emotions. Releasing negative emotions like sadness or frustration into talk or action often times makes them worse later when you try to contain them.

Learning how to regulate emotion takes practice, so don’t expect yourself to do it immediately. Take small steps towards developing your emotional intelligence every day!

Good luck out there sweetheart. And remember, you are never alone here at The Balanced Body. We're always here to help you work through anything life throws your way.

Understanding your emotions

A big part of emotional intelligence is understanding your own emotions. This can be tricky, as there are many different types of emotion that we experience every day.

Some people may feel more focused on external things like happiness or sadness, but also have some internal feelings that they cannot identify.

It's helpful to recognize what type of emotion you're experiencing so that you can understand it better.

Research has shown that people who are emotionally intelligent are able to control their initial reactions to situations by thinking about how they could change the outcome of the situation.

Skills for being emotional intelligent

So what are some skills to be emotionally intelligent? What types of behaviors contribute to emotional intelligence and how can you improve them?

First, let’s look at what makes someone seem emotionally intelligent at times. These traits include:

Knowing when to be angry or upset with someone

Knowing when to laugh after something funny has happened

Being able to recognize and acknowledge other people’s emotions

It is important to note that although these things make someone appear more emotional in control, it does not mean they are not feeling anything inside.

Running on pure emotion tends to take away from the quality of your life, so try to limit yourself to only using those feelings as cues to do something.

For example, if you want to buy a boat, then you should feel like you need one, but you shouldn’t just randomly go out and spend money on it without thinking about whether or not this is really something you wanted to do.

Likewise, before you get into an argument, ask yourself why you are arguing and think about ways to solve the problem instead of throwing bombs and accusations.

Practice self-awareness

One of the most important emotional intelligence (EI) skills is called self-awareness. This is also referred to as “knowing yourself” or being conscious of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

With enough practice, this skill can have major benefits in every area of your life. It will help you be more aware of your emotions so you can better understand them, manage them, and use them for good.

You’ll also learn how other people feel around you which can strengthen relationships and prevent conflict.

Self-aware individuals are sometimes described as having “self-control” because they know when to put off an action that needs to be done later. They may also recognize a bad situation before getting into it, limiting potential negative consequences.

But beyond those effects, research shows that high levels of EI are linked to higher happiness. That might sound weird, but think about it: If you’re happier, you’re likely to do things that make you even happier!

So why not try practicing these skills? Even if you don't believe there's much you can improve, at least you'll know what you're working with.

Learn to be assertive

Being able to control your emotions is an important part of being emotionally intelligent.

People who are emotional do not seem to learn from experience as quickly as people with less emotion in them. This can have disastrous consequences when they try to apply what they learned earlier to new situations or things that go wrong.

By learning how to contain your feelings, you will also learn how to manage your anger, frustration, sadness and other negative emotions.

You will also learn how to use these experiences for something good by applying lessons from this situation onto next one. For example, if someone does something hurtful to you, you could use this information to avoid such behaviors in future so others don’t feel attacked and discouraged.

This would include limiting their access to you or even quitting on a project because you felt bad about it.