*The views expressed in the blog are those of the author.

Emotional Intelligence harmonizes the cognitive and emotional minds.

When it comes to happiness and success in life, emotional intelligence matters just as much as intellectual ability.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Emotional Intelligence is the most important influencing factor in high level of academic achievement and help you succeed at school and work. EI is the key to physical and mental health, enable us to respond to others with empathy and guides our interpersonal interactions and build strong relationships. It can also help you connect with your feelings and turn intention into action.

Intelligent handling of the emotions that come with crisis is crucial. An emotionally intelligent person can handle any crisis, big or small, better than someone without EI competencies.

While social distancing and washing hands are effective means to fight this contagious virus, emotional intelligence is the weapon to overcome emotional turmoil. We must unite to overcome the negative consequences of this pandemic with a positive spirit and an empathetic attitude. We need to prepare ourselves for new normal, life after lockdown, we must all use our emotions wisely, because after all, emotions are also contagious. Emotional intelligence is at the core of being able to make these behavioural shifts.

The four domains of Emotional Intelligence — self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management will help you achieve these behavioural shifts during the time of COVID-19.

Self-awareness—spend some time on your own feelings and thoughts. Being aware of your own feelings puts you in charge, not your emotions.

Self-management–Based on your self-awareness try to analyse your behaviour, are you able to moderate your behaviour that are most helpful to you and your near and dear ones. Without self-control, you will be in the mercy of your feelings

Social awareness–If you have a sense of social awareness for all the happenings around you, impacts of this crisis on business or people, you’ll be much more likely to succeed in handling it without missing something important. You need to read people and situations around you.

Relationship Management– When crisis strikes, it is essential to manage relationships with people around you. It is the ability to inspire others, manage conflicts, fostering teamwork etc.

By Ms Bably Sinha,
Counsellor 

*****************************************