Better Emotional Intelligence with Mindfulness

It is impossible to truly be happy, manage or understand happiness without a good foundation of emotional intelligence. Mindfulness requires that you are mindful of your emotions and therefore emotionally aware. With mindfulness you will improve your emotional intelligence which will help you further appreciate your own happiness along with all other emotions you experience.

We are all born with different emotional intelligence levels similar to intellectual intelligence. As with intellectual intelligence, emotional intelligence can be nurtured, cultivated and improved, most notably through practising more mindfulness. An emotionally aware individual has learned to accept who they are and that everyone handles emotions differently and are unique.

You physically experience emotions and they partly exist as part of your survival instinct. Anxiety usually manifests itself as a tingling in your stomach while anger will usually manifest as an increase in breathing and heart rate. Your emotions are continuously changing all the time as your experience of the present changes and emotions generally don’t last very long.

Emotions happen to you naturally and you can use your mindfulness skills to observe which emotions you are experiencing at any given moment. Generally emotions are perceived as unpleasant, pleasant and neutral and they will likely induce negative or positive feelings in your mind. Mindfulness allows you to observe and accept the emotion you are experiencing without avoiding or reacting to the feelings it induces. Emotional intelligence is a large and interesting subject and certainly worth further investigation once you get deeper into mindfulness.