Strong Female Leaders

By Freelance Contributor | Strong Female Leaders | Reading Time: Five Minutes
Being self-aware is important for developing emotional intelligence. It helps you deal better with stress, improve overall mental health, and engage better with team mates. If you are looking for ways to improve self-awareness and emotional intelligence, scroll down and take a look at some recommendations.

How to Improve Self Awareness Emotional Intelligence?

1. Reflect on paper.

Self-awareness is defined by how well you understand your limitations, thoughts and values. To master this, you can't simply remind youself to be more self-aware; instead, take a proactive approach. One method to try is, at the end of each day, write down the events that happened and the emotions that were attached to the events. Then, review and draw a pattern for the events that made you feel light and the events that made you feel heavy.
Seeing the patterns helps you better-understand your emotional responses. You can't change the way you feel but you can identify the triggers for those emotions.

2. Set self-awareness alarms.

You can't constantly monitor your emotions. You are too busy. However, you can set alarms that remind you to check yourself once in a while.
Throughout the day, set self-awareness alarms. When each one goes off, take a minute to assess how you feel and decide if you need to cool down with a break, continue what you are doing, or communicate with someone.
You can also use the alarms to check your behaviors. What were your actions? How did you respond to criticism? Why did you behave the way you did?
However minute in effort, the tiny alarms work together to build a more emotionally intelligent you.

3. Identify your triggers.

Our emotions are reactions to triggers. If you know who and what triggers you to react in a certain way, you are closer to being more self-aware.
Triggers come in various forms, including people, words and phrases, body languages and voice inflections. Whatever triggers you have, identify them and find ways to deal with them calmly. Planning ahead is key to managing your emotions well.
Also know that it is okay to take time to get it right. Emotional triggers are not only hard to identify; they are hard to deal with. As long as you keep trying, you are bound to get it right.

4. Be aware of your appearance.

Do your eyebrows raise when you are surprised? Do you make a fist when you are angry? Do your cheeks turn red when you are embarrassed? The mind-body connection is undeniable. Most likely, your body reacts to situations before your emotions are aroused. If you notice yourself with negative body language, correct rightaway. Try a subtle combo of smiling, taking a deep breath and expanding into a power pose. With positive physical change, your attitude should change too.
Another way to create positive emotions is to look your best. Dress in more fashionable clothes, get a nice haircut and jazz up with accessories. Your performance isn't dependent on your looks, but when you look good, you feel good, and that motivates you to present yourself better to the world.

5. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Self-awareness and emotional intelligence are not like trophies and certifications. In other words, you will continuously make improvements. The good news is a journey like this gets easier the more you practice it. Even if you haven't quite gotten the grasp of it, keep practicing. Use every moment in life as an opportunity to do better in career and personal life.

Parting Thoughts

We all have our strengths and limitations. Being highly aware of them builds confidence and trust in ourselves. With improved self-awareness, we become more decisive, take action when needed, execute with clarity, live more purposfully and communicate more authentically. Like any other journey in life, it is not easy but incredibly rewarding.