Boosting Your Emotional Intelligence

Learning about the emergence of emotional intelligence as a unique field of inquiry; the three leading theories used to describe and understand EQ; building the EQ Skills Tracker, a running library of what one learns about their own emotions.

Quantifying EQ is a newer and more complex endeavor than measuring IQ; how one can measure their EQ; what the results really say; the four most highly regarded EQ assessment tools; how they each rate with respect to validity and reliability.

Learning to manage emotions requires an understanding of how they are generated; the steps in this process and resulting feedback cycles as described in the Modal Model of Emotions; whether this model explains good or bad emotions.

Whether emotions affect the physical body, or changes in the physical body cause emotions; learning which parts of the central and peripheral nervous systems contribute to the experiences recognized as emotions; looking at cognition to improve EQ.

EQ affects one's most intimate relationships; the impact of EQ does not stop there; learning how one's emotions affect every aspect of their life, including professional and social relationships, cognition, decision-making and physical health.

When speaking to someone in person, one picks up clues about that individual's emotional state; addressing self-perception; perceiving and identifying one's own emotions; the EQ skills that can help one improve their understanding of themselves.

Understanding the primary emotions and their associated thoughts and behaviors; learning how to perceive and correctly identify emotions and their triggers; exploring the complex relationships between emotions classified as positive and negative.

At times, people feel that their emotions are in charge and they are just helplessly along for the ride; it does not have to be that way; antecedent-focused and response-focused emotion regulation strategies; how to employ them for one's own benefit.

As a famous joke goes, no one has ever become calm because another person orders them to calm down; whether there are ways to influence another person's emotions and consequent behaviors; the power of EQ skills used in communication with others.

Research shows that while genetic makeup does play a role in EQ, it is also significantly impacted by how one is parented and socialized as a child; and that it is always possible to improve EQ through purposeful training despite one's circumstances.

Why Social-emotional Learning is taught in more than 30,000 schools across the U.S.; a close relationship is not the same as cause and effect; exploring popular SEL programs and their goals and strengths; why outcomes are so difficult to measure.

The experience of being in certain social situations one wishes they could forget, such as an awkward first date; learning how to use EQ to improve social intelligence and strengthen social relationships in every aspect of life.

The quality of a baby-caregiver relationship; EQ training can teach one how to successfully express and perceive emotions, which are necessary for adult intimate relationships; how to understand "habits of heart" and make appropriate adjustments.

Conflict exists between individuals and distinct social groups; conflict is a part of life; emotional and social intelligence skills can help people find common ground and address personal and community issues.

EQ skills can have a positive impact on groups of people working toward a common goal; EQ skills aid personal interaction among workplace teams; EQ skills are shown to facilitate creativity, excitement and enthusiasm in employees and leadership.

Since 1995, work stress in the U.S. has increased by 300 percent; in many cases, the use of EQ skills such as somatic quieting and improved concentration and focus can help; whether love could be the newest way to lessen workplace stress.

More than 60 percent of respondents to the Global Human Capital Survey report that leadership training programs yield only some value at best; learning how EQ skills training is helping many business leaders better accomplish their long-term goals.

Being aware of EQ skills in all aspects of workplace culture; actively managing workforce culture is not just a "feel good" for employees; why companies that manage their culture experience above-average 10-year revenue growth than those who do not.

The nervous and hormonal systems that cause physiological responses to stress; how they are related to chronic disease; research shows that improving EQ skills can help mediate these reactions in the body, possibly leading to safer stress responses.

Heightened emotional experience could potentially be helped by EQ skills; how Dialectical Behavior Therapy and the relatively new Emotion Regulation Therapy address certain common elements and skill deficiencies in a variety of distress disorders.

How difficult it can be to change a significant behavior such as smoking; being ahead of the game by considering the role emotions play in behavioral choices and motivation; learning how to improve self-efficacy and develop a plan of "SMART" goals.

The role of emotions in managing a diagnosis of a chronic disease; research reveals additional relationships between EQ and health-oriented behaviors; exploring how EQ can affect the management of alcohol use disorders and cardiovascular disease.

The experience of leaving a medical appointment feeling angry, frustrated or even insulted; learning how to improve one's healthcare interactions by better understanding and monitoring their emotions as well as those of their healthcare provider.

Whether technology helps or hurts EQ; the difficulty of perceiving emotions when communicating on electronic platforms; advances in facial recognition, physiological response monitoring and other software offer futuristic options to improve EQ.