Awareness of Emotions

18 Emotional Intelligence Examples That Self-Aware People Recognize - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

18 Emotional Intelligence Examples That Self-Aware People Recognize

Self-aware people practice emotional intelligence because they have the ability to experience, manage, and use their feelings to take positive action, including in social settings. They also are able to identify and positively deal with other people’s feelings, perspectives, and ways of doing things.

Here are some emotional intelligence examples that self-aware people will recognize:

  1. A person who is not threatened by emotions and doesn’t run away from or try to avoid them.
  2. A boss who is in touch with emotions and is able to use them to be a kind person at work and treat employees with care and compassion.
  3. A person who makes positive decisions regardless of the emotion they are feeling inside.
  4. A boss who is comfortable dealing with employees’ and co-workers’ emotions and is able to listen to them regardless of the situation.
  5. A man who is able to identify and manage his anger so that it helps him learn, grow, and treat himself and his family better.
  6. A man who is able to identify and manage his sadness so it doesn’t affect him and others negatively and helps him learn more about himself and move in a positive direction.
  7. A teacher who understands students’ emotions and provides support and comfort.
  8. A person in a leadership position who is comfortable with emotions and avoids doing things to hurt others.
  9. A father who encourages his son to experience emotions without getting in the way or trying to stifle certain ones.
  10. Any person who is able to identify and name the emotion being experienced and use it to do positive things.
  11. An individual who is able to be there for someone else when the other person is experiencing an emotion.
  12. A person who doesn’t let negative emotions affect how they treat others.
  13. An individual who doesn’t live in fear, sadness, or anger because they have learned how to identify, feel, and deal with emotions.
  14. A person who has worked through a difficult emotional history and emerged stronger and healthier.
  15. An individual who understands that emotions are normal.
  16. A person who uses emotions to live a balanced, happy life.
  17. An individual who feels good inside and knows what to do when negative emotions arise.
  18. A person who gets along well with others.

The key to being emotionally intelligent is to build self-awareness by consciously identifying what you’re feeling deep inside and then using the emotion in a positive way, whether it’s to learn or do something beneficial.

Practicing emotional intelligence takes time and effort but, when you do it, you’ll live a much happier life. What will you do to develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware People Know How to Be Emotionally Intelligent - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Aware People Know How to Be Emotionally Intelligent

People who lack self-awareness aren’t emotionally intelligent because they’re not willing or able to look deep inside themselves and keep working on being in touch with who they are and feeling things openly and constructively.

Increasing self-awareness and developing emotional intelligence doesn’t just happen, it takes a lot of deliberate effort. If you’re like the vast majority of people, you were raised or currently function in an environment that actively distorts, discourages, ignores, fears, or mocks emotions. That leaves you with less than ideal tools to deal with your own and other people’s emotions.

There’s a lot of drama going on but nobody knows how to make things better. Luckily, there’s something you can do about it. Here are some practical ideas on how to be emotionally intelligent:

  • Learn to name the four main emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, and fear.
  • Learn how to accurately identify these feelings when they are going on inside you.
  • Learn how to deal with or manage the emotions you’re feeling in a positive way.
  • Learn how to name the emotions other people are having and deal with or manage them in a positive way.
  • Learn how to use your emotions to live a happy, balanced life.

So, how do you learn these things? You practice them. For example: The next time you feel angry about something, stop and take five deep breaths, then take five minutes to simply feel what’s going on inside your body; don’t react or take action in any way, just feel what’s going on inside. Do this each time you feel the anger. Over time, you’ll become adept at feeling the emotion instead of reacting unconsciously to it. Once you’ve learned how to experience the emotion without falling apart, you can move on to taking action in a positive way.

The key to being emotionally intelligent is to be able to feel what’s going on inside you and use it positively, as well as being comfortable with other people’s emotions. When you possess emotional intelligence, you’re no longer simply reacting to what’s going on within and around you, you’re deliberately and wisely dealing with and managing the situation.

What will you do to increase your self-awareness and be emotionally intelligent?

Cheers,

Guy

Team Building, Self-Awareness, and Healing the Past to Move Forward - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Team Building, Self-Awareness, and Healing the Past to Move Forward

When people in a workplace, starting with leadership, possess self-awareness, they are able to practice effective team building and heal negative situations, memories, and other remnants from the past in order to move forward together successfully.

Many teams hang on to hurts from the past that get in the way of practicing effective team building. Although it’s highly beneficial to heal past hurts, it’s common for leaders and teams that lack self-awareness to pretend that they don’t exist and avoid dealing with them. When you heal the past you get rid of the junk that clogs up your workplace interactions. You get a chance to hit the reset button and move in whatever direction you want with your team.

I am not recommending that your group wallows in agony and despair. Your goal is to develop self-awareness, benefit from acknowledging the past, and then move forward. If you have some issue that affects your team’s functioning today why not do something to move past it? Once you resolve it you’ll be ready to grow without having that issue holding you back in any way. Here’s how you can get started working together on putting the past behind you.

1.  Think of something that happened to the team that still affects everyone to this day.

2.  Acknowledge that it exists.

3.  Write down how it affects each person currently.

4.  How would the group be different if this issue were not in the picture?

5.  What is each member of the team willing to do to move beyond the issue?

Your answers to these ideas will help you start a dialogue and create a starting point so that you can move forward without the the past weighing you down. You’ll also all work together more happily without the stuff that was holding you back.

What will you do to increase self-awareness in your workplace and build strong teams that heal the past?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Family Functioning - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Family Functioning

Self-awareness is a major component of healthy family functioning because, the more people understand themselves, the easier it will be for them to get along with each other and interact positively. We’ve been led to believe that families are about order, control, hierarchy, respect, tradition and other words that put people in boxes rather than encourage them to be themselves and live joyfully. People in restrictive families are often asked to do things like:

  • Keep secrets.
  • Sublimate their own identity to fit the group.
  • Follow rules, no matter how unreasonable or arbitrary.
  • Be in constant conflict and call it love.
  • Occasionally do nice things for each other.
  • Have no effective problem-solving or conflict resolution mechanisms.
  • Talk only about approved subjects.
  • Blindly defer to people who may not know what they’re doing.
  • Only express approved emotions.
  • Negative behaviors are tolerated.

These types of actions are common in many families but don’t lead to celebrating individuals and helping them discover who they really are deep inside. When family members possess a high level of self-awareness they likely promote behaviors such as:

  • Talking openly about difficult subjects.
  • Building one’s own identify and being accepted.
  • Worrying less about rules and more about critical thinking.
  • Treating each other with kindness and empathy.
  • Consistently doing nice things for each other.
  • Understanding how to fix problems and resolve conflicts.
  • All conversation topics are valid and important.
  • Everyone is equal.
  • All emotions are welcome.
  • Positive behaviors are the norm.

There is a vast difference between the type of interactions that result from the first list and the second. The higher your level of self-awareness is, the more likely you are to move away from power and control to encouraging everyone to be his or her amazing self without restrictions or conditions. What will you do to improve your family functioning?

Cheers,
Guy

Self-Aware People Are Kind, Sensitive, and Creative - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Aware People Are Kind, Sensitive, and Creative

I love connecting with kind, sensitive, creative people who value self-awareness because they tend to spread positive vibes that help build a happier, more compassionate and enlightened world.

So, why would anyone want to be this type of person? Because it leads to greater joy and fulfillment. Kindness means behaving in a way that demonstrates empathy and care for something or someone else. It’s a peaceful state of being that creates harmony. Sensitivity means dealing positively with your own feelings and being attuned to others’ emotions as well. Creativity means that you have the courage to think differently and challenge conventions. When you mix these three qualities you have a person who possesses self-awareness and is able to live a deeply satisfying, positive life and have a beneficial impact on his or her environment.

Imagine a world where people treat each other with kindness, are sensitive to their own and each other’s feelings, and create beautiful things. It’s a very different state of being than what we’ve been led to believe is the way things should be (competitions, strife, jealousy, brokenness). Having self-awareness means that you’re able to rise above pettiness and self-centeredness and behave in ways that benefit the greater good.

What will you do to practice self-awareness and be a kind, sensitive, creative person?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Seeing the Big Picture - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Seeing the Big Picture

A lot of people think that working on their self-awareness is a selfish pursuit but they may be missing the point. When you deeply understand why you think or act the way you do, you move from being someone who lives unconsciously to someone who understands the implications surrounding their thoughts and behaviors. For example: If you get mad at friends or family all the time, you’re behaving in a way that is specific and limited, whereas if you take the time to think about what you’re doing and how you can move in a positive direction, you increase your ability to see things from a wider perspective.

You can choose to live life based only on what you think, feel and do in the moment but you’ll be much happier and fulfilled if you pause and think about all the other options available to you. What will you do to use your self-awareness to see the big picture?

Take care

Guy

Self-Awareness and Critical Thinking - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Critical Thinking

If you’re actively working on increasing your self-awareness then you’re familiar with critical thinking, the process by which you determine whether something is true or false. When you’re able to use facts to determine whether something is valid or not, you’re better equipped to deal with any situation that comes your way and live a happier life. Let’s look at the difference between an individual who doesn’t think critically and one who does:

Person 1

Someone says something to this person that scares her. She can’t figure out what to do and doesn’t know how to assess what’s true or false about what she’s being told. Because she doesn’t understand the topic at hand, she draws conclusions based on visceral feelings, suppositions, or hunches rather than facts. Unable to ascertain what’s really going on, she remains uninformed and fearful.

Person 2

This person has been told the same thing, initially feels scared, but has the presence of mind to evaluate the topic. She does some research to determine what is true or false about what she’s been told based on demonstrable and verifiable facts. She is able to view the issue in context and asses its likely impact on her life. She reacts appropriately based on the information she’s collected.

You’ll be much more likely to live a meaningful and balanced life if you take the time to determine what’s actually true or false about any given topic or situation. Some people leave things to emotion, chance, or superstition; you can choose to take a dispassionate look at the issue and deal with it based on demonstrable facts. How will you use your critical thinking skills?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy