Last Updated on October 9, 2022 by Editors Desk
Main highlights:
- Emotional intelligence
- Empathy
- Alexithymia
Emotional intelligence
Perceiving, managing, and assessing emotions are all parts of emotional intelligence or EI. Some academics contend that emotional intelligence is a skill that can be developed, while others contend it is a personality trait.
It’s important to be able to express and control your emotions, but it’s also important to be able to recognize, analyze, and respond to the emotions of others. Consider a scenario in which it was impossible to comprehend a friend’s sadness or a classmate’s rage. This understanding is known as emotional intelligence, and some authorities even contend that it may be more important than IQ in determining a person’s overall success in life.
The ability to control and manage one’s emotions is a necessary component of emotional intelligence, in addition to awareness of one’s own emotions and their effects on others.
This does not entail hiding one’s genuine emotions and ultimately “locking” away one’s emotions. It just means holding off on expressing them until the proper moment and setting. The key to effective context-based emotional communication is self-regulation. Reactions frequently happen unconsciously.
The easier it is to switch from an immediate reaction to a thoughtful one, the more in tune one is with their emotional intelligence. It’s critical to keep in mind to take a moment to relax, take a breath, gather oneself, and take the necessary steps to control one’s emotions. In order to respond to strain and adversity more correctly and consciously, this could mean anything to oneself, such as going for a stroll or speaking to a friend.
The three main components of emotional intelligence are:
Self-awareness: Self-awareness is the capacity to recognize and comprehend your emotions as they arise and change. It is incorrect to categorize emotions as either good or bad. As opposed to that, consider whether they are acceptable or inappropriate.
Self-regulation: Self-regulation is the ability to control your emotions in a healthy and suitable manner after becoming aware of them.
Self-management abilities have to do with how well you are able to control your emotions at any given moment or under any given setting. Self-control is a key component of this, but other factors have to do with your actions, such as whether they are viewed as “good” or “virtuous” or not.
Motivation: Motivation is the last personal skill in the emotional intelligence spectrum.
Self-motivation encompasses our individual desire to advance and succeed, dedication to our objectives, initiative or readiness to act on opportunities, as well as optimism and fortitude.
Key abilities in this area include self-motivation and time management. Avoid placing excessive demands on yourself and develop assertiveness instead of simply responding “yes” to requests from others.
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to see things from another person’s perspective, as opposed to your own, and to comprehend their thoughts and feelings in a given scenario. In contrast to sympathy, it involves being moved by the ideas and sentiments of another person while still maintaining emotional distance.
Many people struggle to develop empathy on their own. Our hectic culture rarely tempts us to stop and make a connection with someone. Therefore, we must make a deliberate decision, but the more we engage in acts of empathy, the more naturally it comes to us.
The 5 key elements of empathy are as follows:
- Understanding Others
- Inspiring Others
- A service-oriented mindset
- Making Use of Diversity
- Political Sensitivity
Empathy Comes in Three Forms
Three different types of empathy have been found by psychologists: cognitive, emotional, and compassionate.
- Understanding someone’s thoughts and emotions in a very rational sense rather than an emotional one is known as cognitive empathy.
- Emotional contagion, another name for emotional empathy, is the act of “catch[ing]” or being emotionally aware of another person.
- Understanding another person’s feelings and providing the necessary assistance are examples of compassionate empathy.
Here are a few indicators of empathy deficits.
- Unable to regulate emotions and highly critical of others
- Unaware of the emotions of others
- Accuses people of having excessive sensitivity and reacting excessively to minor issues
- Refuses to acknowledge errors
- Acting insensitively
- Has difficulty sustaining relationships
- Cannot manage difficult circumstances
- Is always noticing perceived slights
Although empathizing with others may not always be attainable or even simple, we can strive for it by developing our interpersonal skills and using our imagination.
According to research, those with empathy have more fulfilling interactions with others and overall better health.
Alexithymia
People occasionally struggle to express their thoughts and feelings in words. They don’t really want to; rather, they just don’t know how.
Alexithymia, the medical word for this condition, is characterized as the incapacity to perceive emotions and all of their nuances and textures. Alexithymia makes it difficult for a person to comprehend the subtleties of what other people are feeling and thinking, as well as their own self-experience.
The psychotherapist Peter Emanuel Sifneos first used the word alexithymia in 1973 to refer to patients who had a number of symptoms in common with psychosomatic disorders. These patients had a marked inability to name their emotions, define them with suitable terms, and distinguish emotions from arousal-related physiological sensations. A scarcity of fantasies and a thinking style that was mostly focused on outward occurrences, as well as a startling avoidance of focusing on interior feelings, were further characteristics of these patients.
Below are a few instances for people who have alexithymia:
- Difficulty distinguishing between various emotions
- Limited knowledge of the origins of sentiments
- Inability to communicate one’s emotions
- Difficulty interpreting others’ facial cues
- Stiff or restricted imagination
- Limiting way of thinking
- Intolerance of bodily sensations
- Detached or unsure relationship with people
Treatments for Alexithymia:
Journaling
Expressive art
Reading novels
Group psychotherapy
Hypnosis and relaxation therapies
The inability to recognize and express emotions is known as alexithymia, which is not a condition in and of itself. Alexithymics have trouble understanding and expressing their own emotions, as well as understanding and reacting to the emotions of others.
Although numerous measures can be used to recognize its symptoms, alexithymia has no official diagnosis.
Currently, medical practitioners do not advise or prescribe treatment for alexithymia because it is not a condition. To prevent symptoms or problems from getting worse, patients might seek therapy for co-occurring conditions, such as depression or PTSD.
