Proverbs 16: 32
He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
Human emotions are erratic and can often cause significant damage if left unchecked. Negative emotions could be detrimental to our health, career, success, profession, relationships, and decision-making capabilities. Furthermore, emotional intelligence can affect your performance, health, mental health, and social intelligence. There is, therefore, a need to manage these emotions and create a positive outcome. Developing high emotional intelligence is an easy way to gain control over your feelings. The skills required for high emotional intelligence (self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship management) can be learned throughout life.
Also, in our walk and dealings with God, we need to develop a high emotional intelligence because His ways are higher than ours. God’s timing is different from ours, and He does not necessarily do things the way we expect most of the time! For instance, when dealing with a delayed answer or promise, a natural human response is disappointment, frustration, or anger in some cases. If these emotions are left uncontrolled, they begin to affect our relationship with God and the people around us. Thus we need to ask for the grace to control our feelings and manage the unpleasant emotions that could quickly drive us down the lane of disharmony with the world around us!
On a final note, developing high emotional intelligence would help us build resilience – which is a much-needed skill in this world of adversity. Most resilient people often mention that managing negative emotions contributed significantly to their ‘bounce back’ from life’s challenges! So, emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in surviving hardship, difficulties, and adverse circumstances. However, it all starts with self-awareness – recognizing feelings of anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, joy, gratitude, etc., and their influence on your thoughts and actions. Are you emotionally intelligent? It’s never too late to start working on it.