Over the past decade, emotional intelligence (“EI”) has become one of the most popular concepts in psychology. It is described as the ability to recognize your emotions and how other people affect you, and to control how you feel about things.

Some experts believe that it can be taught and improved through training. More and more educational institutions are incorporating EI into their programs, and employers have noticed an increase in job applicants with solid levels of EI.

However, there are still some skeptics who doubt its effectiveness. Some claim that it is just a way for overachieving students to give themselves higher test scores and avoid tackling difficult material!

Regardless, researchers agree that improving your EQ is important. In fact, a recent study found that people with high EQs tend to stay in happy relationships longer than those with lower EQs.

So while it may not make you happier today, investing in your EQ could help you achieve your dreams and enjoy life more. If you want to improve yours, here are eight ways to do so.

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1. Stop denying your feelings

One of the biggest reasons why people say or do mean things to others is because they don’t like what they see in the eyes of someone else.

They get annoyed by something their friend said, or think that person isn’t smart enough to understand the concept of math, and so they put down his/her knowledge.

Practice talking with your friends

A good way to test out your emotional intelligence is by practicing what we call close friendships. This can be with people of the same age, different ages, or even online friends!

By having these relationships, you will learn how to read other people’s emotions, if they are happy, sad, angry, etc. You will also learn how to identify their mood swings and whether they are in a good state of mind.

This practice of emotion recognition applies to professionals as well, so if you ever need to do job interviews, this comes more naturally for you, then it might show that you have some EQ.

Your friend could be going through something difficult at work, or maybe they got promoted next to you and you may feel jealous. Either way, you would know how to relate to them on a personal level and what makes them smile or cry.

Tell people about your EQ

Even if you don’t consider yourself to have very strong emotional intelligence, you can still put some effort into telling other people how you feel and why it is important to them.

By educating others on what makes someone feel good, you show that you are aware of their needs and want to help them fulfill those needs. This also creates an environment where they will feel comfortable seeking out help because they know there are resources available for them.

Everyone experiences emotions differently, which is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to understand another person at times. By being able to recognize these different emotions and learn how to respond to them in a productive way, you will save lots of hurt and confusion for everyone involved.

It is not easy developing your emotional intelligence, but spending time working on it is definitely worth it. You will find that people view you with more respect than before and work more efficiently as well.

Find a mentor

Finding a mentor is a great way to develop your emotional intelligence. As mentioned earlier, a mentee can be anyone from a coworker to a friend to someone with more experience.

Finding a mentor can also help you identify potential areas of weakness in your emotional IQ. By learning how this person functions, you get insight into their weaknesses and what things are important to them.

By having these insights, you can determine if and when it’s appropriate to ask about those weaknesses or show signs of that strength.

That said, don’t look for any obvious weaknesses! If your colleague doesn’t seem very talkative then chances are they’re not.

Take an EQ test

Having emotional intelligence (EQ) is like having a second personality. You are not aware you have it until you are asked to acknowledge it. Then, you realize that everyone does have it to some degree.

Most people consider themselves more intelligent than other people but when we look closer there’s always someone who knows more than us. This person may be your next boss!

By testing for EQ, you can determine if you have it or not and whether you need to work on it.

You will take an online test at www.quintiles.com/eqtest. There are ten questions and each one is worth five points. The time limit is set at six minutes so make sure you don’t spend too long thinking about each question.

The better your score the higher chance you have of being promoted. We recommend doing this test twice to get a clear picture. Even if you aren’t looking to change jobs soon, these tests help you understand yourself and your emotions better.

Learn to be more assertive

Being able to recognize your own emotions and learn how to control them is an important quality for professionals. When you are aware of what makes you feel angry, sad or happy, you can work on changing that feeling into something different.

By learning how to manage your emotions, you’ll find yourself less stressed and distracted in situations that may make you lose your cool.

On the job, emotional intelligence helps keep relationships strong by helping you understand others and being able to motivate them to do their jobs. As employers, they look at whether you could handle stressful situations and if you showed empathy towards other people.

You will need to be able to identify your feelings and then describe them using appropriate vocabulary. For example, describing your anger as “bad” instead of “shit” will help focus it onto something productive.

Practice meditation

A good way to develop your emotional intelligence is by practicing mindfulness or mediation. Both of these practices focus on you being aware of what you are doing at this moment.

Mindfulness means paying attention to what you are doing right now, in the present moment. You can do this through yoga exercises or simply sitting down and just focusing on how your body feels and what area of your brain you are using.

Meditation is going into a quiet space and just thinking about nothing for some time. The length of time depends on what kind of meditation you want to learn so that you can be able to stop quickly if needed!

Both of these types of practices help you to reduce stress and increase relaxation. And since we’re talking about careers, reducing stress could mean offering more self-confidence before an interview, staying positive after a bad day at work, etc.

Your career will always have some level of stress attached to it, which is why developing your emotional intelligence is important.

Learn to laugh at yourself

A lot of people get really stressed out about things that don’t go their way, or they get frustrated when they can't seem to change something that is no longer working for them.

But what most people lack in control of is their own emotions.

By not controlling your emotional responses, you are sending all sorts of signals to others around you - messages that you do not have control over your life, that you are unhappy, that you cannot handle situations, and so on.

And while it may be helpful to occasionally lose your temper, it will only hurt your relationships if repeated often.

So how do you learn to control your emotions?

First, you must recognize that your emotions come from thoughts. If you stop thinking, your emotions will as well.

This is why practicing mindfulness — being aware of what you are doing at this moment – is an integral part of developing self-awareness.

Be authentic

Even if you don’t feel like putting your best self forward, do it anyway because that will only hurt your chances of being hired in the future. If you’re not feeling very happy at this moment, try talking about what has you down today and how you’ve been struggling with certain things for the past week.

By bringing up your struggles openly, people may be able to help you work through them and put those feelings into perspective.

Likewise, if you’ve got something going on that’s making you happy, tell someone about it!

People can provide much-needed support and motivation which will have positive effects on you both mentally and physically.