Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize one's own feelings and the feelings of others. It also includes the ability to distinguish between different feelings.
We can increase our Emotional IQ by practicing in our own family, in social environments, work settings, and school settings. We can help our kids learn and understand their feelings as we talk more about them. We can help them understand the feelings of others as we ask thought provoking questions that help them consider another person's feelings and experience.
Zoom meetings, virtual classrooms, and remote lessons have made practicing and developing our Emotional Intelligence very difficult. We are missing the subtle social cues that happen naturally during in person meetings. During these virtual appointments, we are not able to read each other's body language and facial expressions the way we do in person. This can be due to computer connection difficulties or delays. We are lacking the ability to exercise our Emotional IQ because we are not practicing these skills with people as much as we used to. Checking in with our own emotions is a lot more difficult when we feel as though we need keep it all together in order to maintain our jobs, house, parent and teach our kids.
Initially, we thought that the changes due to the pandemic were going to be short term, kind of like a sprint. Now, that we understand it might be a marathon, we all need to find ways to check in with our emotions and work on increasing our Emotional IQ during these times.
The best way we can teach our kids is to learn it first for ourselves. Talk therapy and a daily journal can be helpful to increase our understanding of our own emotions. Once we can do that, we can start to understand our own emotions and the emotions of others.
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