I personally believe (and this is from my own experience) that developing your emotional intelligence is an integral part of creating more vibrancy in your life. Emotional intelligence impacts and influences the success of anything, but especially relationships and careers. When we go to the place of putting emotional intelligence into our personal equations, it can be somewhat daunting. So, how do we, as Wise Women, create space for emotional intelligence in our lives? 1. Start with OBSERVATION. There are two things: a) How do you feel? Are you being triggered by an old memory or the actual situation? Paying attention to the way we feel creates a safety net AND helps us know ourselves. b) How are you behaving? No judgment necessary – just an honest assessment of your behavior. 2. Step up and take responsibility. – The blame game creates emotional immaturity and kills relationships. – No one “makes you” do anything. – OWN how you feel and how you behave. This is liberating – we don’t need to “feel” responsibility for anyone else, just ourselves. 3. RESPONDING is different than REACTING. Responding is a CONSCIOUS thing, while reacting is knee-jerk and unconscious. Choose to react, and if it’s a conflict of some kind, ask questions to get to the bottom of the matter. 4. Empathy takes practice! Try it – you may not have walked that way, but you can imagine it somewhat. But be careful of hijacking someone else and making it about YOU! 5. If you don’t know how you feel, take a break and allow for processing. |
