Give your child the gift of emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is important if you want to achieve success and lead a happy, fulfilling life. Read on to know how to instil emotional intelligence in your child.

Emotional intelligence, also known more commonly as EQ, refers to a person's ability to understand, use and manage his or her emotions in positive ways. It can help a person get rid of stress, communicate more effectively, empathise with others, positively face challenges and defuse any conflict. It can also help you nurture relationships, do well at school and work and be successful in professional life. If you are an emotionally intelligent person, you will always be in tune with your feelings. It also boosts mental and physical health. Basically, it is based on four attributes, self-management, self-awareness, social awareness and relationship management.

If EQ is so important for succeeding in life, shouldn't we be teaching our children to be emotionally intelligent too?

Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children

Just like the saying that charity begins at home, EQ should start at home too. The starting point for developing EQ is by becoming aware of your own emotional strengths and weaknesses. It is also about your ability to handle different emotions. This quality is naturally present in everyone, but it might need some polishing in some.

Children often don't know how to deal with different emotions and might express it through tantrums, constant crying and anger. The first step, though a slightly difficult one, is to teach them how to handle these varying emotions.

Here are some tips for raising emotionally intelligent children

Children tend to learn and copy from their parents. So practice emotional intelligence. Set a good example in front of your children. Provide them with examples of how you personally handle everyday situations. It can be anything from being stuck in traffic for an hour or dealing with a tough boss.

Teach them how to be empathetic to others. Give examples. Teach them to remember to show empathy, in front of them, to someone they know too.

Help your child understand and deal with the many feelings and emotions that might come up on a daily basis; it could be anything from the joy of meeting their best friend after a long weekend to the fear of attempting a difficult test.

Make your child understand that you are always available to have a conversation in the face of any ordeal. You could even schedule one or more slots during the week to catch up on the week's happenings.

Teach your child the importance of pausing. Children and many adults can be impulsive and that can lead to many wrong decisions and inappropriate reactions to certain situations. So, teach them how to pause and take a breath before saying or doing something, just to make sure that they are taking the right action.

When trying to raise an emotionally intelligent child, don't forget to drop in praises at the right occasions, respect your child's decisions and choices, encourage them to be more social at school and outside and make sure you spend time with them reading books or playing their favourite games, to create a mutual bond of understanding.

Benefits of teaching children to be emotionally intelligent

Studies have shown that children who are emotionally intelligent may get better grades, have a better ability to understand and cope with emotions, calm themselves on their own and even understand others well. Their high EQ might also help them build stronger friendships, succeed in school and in their future workplaces and enjoy a better quality of life.

Since emotional intelligence seems to have so many benefits, it might be wise to consider incorporating it into your own lives and to your children's' to have an overall better life for all.

Text sourced from zliving.com