Last week I was listening to a podcast by The Imperfects on Creating Emotionally Intelligent Humans.  This podcast got me thinking about the importance of Emotional Intelligence within school and work and how it supports us in meeting our personal goals.

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand, use, and manage emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.  It helps in building stronger relationships and helps connection to feelings and inform decisions.

We all can remember a time in our lives where we have been angry, frustrated and full of rage.  This might have been at a young age when someone smashed a large tower that we built or it could be with a situation at school or work which we felt was unjust.  Being able to manage these feelings is such an important skill to learn at school.  As a College, our Wellbeing programs are developed to support students in recognising their feelings and developing strategies to support them.  Emotional intelligence affects us in many ways including:

• Your performance at school: High emotional intelligence helps to navigate the social complexities of the school or workplace and leads to motivation for others.
• Your physical health: if a student is unable to manage their emotions, they will struggle in stressful situations which can lead to health programs
• Your mental health: uncontrolled emotions and stress impact on mental health
• Your relationships: expressing feelings and being able to communicate these effectively can forge stronger relationships
• Your social intelligence: being in tune with emotions helps develop connections with others

So how do we support our children building the vital skills to help them succeed and be more emotionally aware?

There are four skills to building Emotional Intelligence:

1. Self Management

When we face stress or challenging situations, this takes us out of our comfort zone and we become overwhelmed. Developing the skills to manage stress and stay emotionally present helps us to manage situations in health ways.

2. Self Awareness

Developing the ability to manage core feelings such as anger, sadness, fear and joy helps us to understand our emotional influences and actions.

3. Social Awareness

Recognising and interpreting the non verbal cues of others helps us to communicate better.

4. Relationship Management

Working with others is a process that supports emotional awareness and the ability to recognise and understand what other people are experiencing.

Mindfulness is one of the main strategies that we use at EAC to support students in managing their emotions.  By spending time in quiet reflection, it allows students to be in the present and stop worry about the past issue or future concerns.

I am still on my own journey with my children and myself to improve Emotional Intelligence but see it as an important skills for success in the modern world.

Ms Amanda Middleton
Director of the Secondary School