How to develop emotional awareness: 5 key ideas

This faculty has to do with the way we relate to our emotions.

Many people believe that the human mind is what gives identity to each of us, something that constitutes, in short, the essence of each person. But while it is true that each individual is different and that it is relatively easy to distinguish between the way different people are, that does not mean that the mind does not change. In fact, in the world of psychology change is the norm, not the exception.

Given that whether we want it or not, both we and the world we live in are going to go through a process of change, what we must do is not try to keep everything the same, frozen in time, but develop the necessary skills to adapt as best we can to the experiences we go through, even those that are totally new. In this sense, the concept of emotional awareness helps us to understand one of the most important and at the same time most forgotten aspects of the processes of change: the world of emotions and feelings.

What is emotional awareness?

The concept of emotional awareness is not easy to explain in one line, since it refers to the most complex component of the human mind: emotions. However, in short, it can be understood as the state in which we come to understand the patterns of emotional activation so that instead of passively attending to their first-person experience, we can make them work in our favor, depending on the personal development goals we have set for ourselves..

Thus, emotional awareness has to do with a set of skills that can be applied on a daily basis, both for oneself as an individual and in group phenomena through leadership. In turn, progressing in the mastery of these competencies is not exactly about learning theoretical knowledge, but about applying new dynamics and new approaches to our ways of relating to our environment. our ways of relating to our environment and to our own mental processes..

In short, emotional awareness arises as a consequence of experiential learning.

Examples of how to develop it

Below you will find several general guidelines that give an idea of the type of activities and habits related to the development of emotional awareness.

1. Questioning one's own motives

Much of what we do or think is not based on the motives and purposes that we usually have in mind when it comes to justifying what we do. This idea, popularized by Sigmund Freud but already discussed by others before him and which in recent decades has been validated by numerous studies of the bounded rationality line of research, has implications for how we relate to our emotions. Because we often create moral alibis that hide what really makes us feel bad or good about something.

So, to stop and analyze what psychological mechanisms are really behind many of our attitudes is liberating, because it allows us to It is liberating, because it allows us to act on the root of some predispositions that create problems for us in our daily lives.

2. Take advantage of the environment to regulate emotions

People are not islands; what they do and think depends on what happens around them. Therefore, we can modify the environment to enter into emotional states that help us achieve our goals.

3. Distancing oneself from one's own perspective

Although it may seem paradoxical, adopting a distanced perspective can help us to better understand what we are feeling. Being totally involved in an emotion does not necessarily lead us to a better understanding of what is happening; in fact, it can blind us.

4. Attending courses

It is possible to train emotional awareness by attending courses that contain content specifically aimed at training the competencies linked to this psychological facet.

The European School of Coaching, for example, offers a specialized training program, especially aimed at psychologists and coaches.. Its objectives include the task of recognizing and managing the emotions involved in everyday life, understanding the Biological processes behind them, and using the potential of our ability to modulate emotional states in ourselves or in other people who need help in this regard. You will find more information about this program by accessing the EEC's contact details by clicking here.

5. Learning to control time

There are times when it is better to postpone certain decisions, depending on how we feel. Knowing how to do this without it becoming procrastination is something that can be very useful to reach the best possible results in those projects we set ourselves.