Developing your emotional intelligence (EI) is an integral part of being healthy in life. It’s important to recognize that we are all born with a certain degree of EI, but as we grow up, our levels decrease.

If you feel overwhelmed or depressed after leaving work, then it’s time to do something about your emotional fitness.

You can start by changing how you respond to situations, and then moving onto strategies to improve your overall level of EQ.

There are several theories about what makes someone have high levels of EQ, so which one(s) fit for you will depend on your personal strengths.

That said, there are some things that seem to help most people develop their EQ — namely, practicing them. So, here are some ways to train your emotional skills.

Want to 10x your business's website traffic?

Look no further! Juice.ai puts your business in charge of its content strategy and gets you targeted clicks to your website. Check it out now!

Disclaimer

The content in this article was created in association with The Health Programme, a company who sell a 6 week programme called ‘Train Your Brain’. Tegan and I were given access to the training free of cost for writing this piece, however, The Health Programme did earn a few rewards from clicking on links and purchasing products during the read. We only recommend products we believe in that add value to your health and wellness.

Just like with any new skill, investing in your mental well-being will take time, so don’t expect perfect results right away.

Find your own happiness

It is easy to get distracted by passing thoughts and emotions, but not knowing how to control your mental state can be disastrous.

If you find yourself in a bad situation that has nothing to do with others, then it is very important to take time off to reflect and figure out what made you become unhappy in the first place.

This way, you will know why you are constantly reacting in the same way, and hopefully fix the cause before it escalates into something more serious.

For example, if someone makes you feel hurt or angry, try to think of reasons beyond their actions.

Is this person always rude towards other people? Does he/she enjoy being nasty about things?

Maybe they lost a friend because of them, so they don’t like being around people. You could also consider whether their behavior fits their personality, and if there is anything similar about yourself.

By thinking about the possible causes, you will realize that most situations won’t matter much unless you put yourself in theirs. This will help you keep your mood stable.

On the other hand, if someone does something nice for you, make an effort to say thank you and appreciate what they did. Don’t just repeat the words back, though – believe in what they said and use it as a starting point to talk about the topic that you have been trying to understand.

Become aware of your emotions

A major part of emotional intelligence is being able to recognize your own emotions. You’re not actually training yourself to manage your emotions, but rather learning how to identify them.

By understanding what you're feeling and why, it can help you control your behavior and reactions to things. It also helps you connect with other people more easily because you are aware of their moods and feelings.

It's important to be aware of your emotions at all times. By the time kids get home from school, they've usually dealt with most of their emotions, so they may not know how to identify them.

The way to improve your emotional awareness is by practicing, practice, practice! Doing this will take some time, but it will pay off in fun ways.

You'll find that as your emotion recognition skills grow, your mental health will too. Plus, there are many different techniques for improving your EQ. Try one or several to see results.

Make managing your emotions a priority

A key part of emotional intelligence is being able to control your own emotions. You’d like to think that people who have lots of friends are happier than those with less, but research shows it’s the other way around!

Studies show that when you don’t have much social support, you feel lonelier and more stressed out, which can make you feel even worse about yourself.

So how can you improve your emotional quotient? By learning how to manage your emotions!

You’ll find it helpful to recognize and understand your feelings, and then learn how to reduce or eliminate them in healthy ways. For example, instead of letting anger build up, you could take some time to calm down before taking action.

Practice meditation

Meditation is a practice that has many benefits. Not only does it increase your emotional intelligence, but studies show it can also reduce stress levels, improve sleep quality, and aid in relaxation.

There are several types of meditations you can do. The most common ones include mindfulness-based practices, Buddhist mediation, yoga, chi gong, and transcendental meditation (or TM).

Mindfulness exercises focus on paying attention fully to what you're doing at the moment. For example, if you're washing the dishes, then you would pay full attention to how the water is moving down the plate, how lather you create by rubbing the sponge across the dish surface, and how the soap works to clean the pot or glass.

This way of practicing meditation helps develop self-awareness and control over your thoughts and emotions. It may even help reduce anxiety and depression due to its effects on the neurotransmitters in your brain.

Practice daily for around ten minutes to get the best results. You can start with just twenty minutes per week, working your way up from there.

Teach others about you emotional intelligence

One of the most important things that people with high emotional intelligence do is teach other people how they feel.

This can be very difficult for someone who has low emotional intelligence to understand. Because they don’t know what makes them feel angry or hurt, they cannot explain those feelings to someone else.

If you want to improve your own emotional intelligence, then must learn how to recognize and manage your emotions in front of other people.

You will also need to educate yourself about emotional issues in general so that you are aware of why certain behaviors are appropriate and inappropriate.

And lastly, you should work on being more compassionate and understanding of other people’s emotions.

Be honest with your emotions

The second element of emotional intelligence is being able to be aware of your own feelings and identify what is causing them.

This can be tricky, however! When you are feeling angry or hurt, it’s easy to assume that everything around you must have done something to make you feel that way. It's also very difficult to separate your own thoughts about someone or something from all the other confusing thoughts going through your mind.

By this stage, though, you've already learned how important it is to learn how to manage your own moods and emotions. So, try not to get too worked up over anything for just one minute. Instead, take some time to think about why you're feeling a certain way and address any underlying issues.

Connect with your feelings

We are living in an increasingly emotional era, one that is fueled by media, technology, and culture. This makes it very easy for people to be influenced by their emotions.

In our hectic lives, important relationships can get neglected because we do not have time to focus on them. Work can become more about getting through the day instead of doing good work.

We may feel overwhelmed or stressed out, making us turn to things that make us feel better such as drinking alcohol or taking illicit drugs. Overcoming these types of distractions requires investing in new programs, courses, and therapies.

But aside from health issues, mental illnesses are rampant due to lack of self-awareness and empathy. People with depression and anxiety suffer for no reason and sometimes find themselves unable to help others which only adds to their stress.

Self-awareness is a key element in improving your emotional intelligence. You must understand yourself so you know how to motivate yourself and what kinds of behaviors are effective.

You also need to recognize when you are being overly influenced by someone else’s emotions. It is difficult to maintain strong relationships if you cannot identify your own strengths and weaknesses.

Connecting with your emotions means knowing what you want and why. For example, if you wanted to learn a new skill then you would think about all of the reasons why this would benefit you.

Develop your emotional self

A large part of being successful in this world is understanding how to manage your emotions.

We’re constantly exposed to messages about emotion, both through media (television shows, movies) and advertisements, as well as conversations with people around us.

These messages influence our perception of the world around us and have an effect on what we feel like doing. For example, if you watch a lot of television dramas, you may come to believe that life is mostly bad and there's little hope for improvement.

On the other hand, watching romantic comedies can inspire love and happiness in your daily life. The same goes for movie scenes that focus on success or failure, teamwork, etc.

The stories that people tell themselves matter. What you tell yourself about life impacts not only your own outlook, but also your actions and behaviors.

With that said, here are some tips to help you train your emotional self.