How can you practice active listening and emotional intelligence daily?

A great way to practice active listening is to remove distractions. Put your phone away and turn off or turn away from other distractions like computer or TV screens. Active listening is about demonstrating to someone that they have your attention. Removing distractions will help you focus on what they are saying and connect with interest and understanding.

Every time I have the energy to dive into what's happening on the emotional level, I ask myself: "What do I feel now and what was the reason?". I used to brush off the itchy experiences because I wanted to move forward and "forget the unimportant mundane details", but actually there is much learning, growing, and letting go, and if the mundane details feel itchy, they are in fact important. Usually, when I get the gut feeling that "something is/felt wrong", I try to dissect what is happening, get advice from someone I trust, do a reality-check with a colleague, or speak with a mentor. Every time I spend some time to understand the itchy thingie better, I feel rested as a result, and I learn from the experiences I encounter.

Getting started with active listening - emotional intelligence (EI) involves self-awareness and ongoing development. Start with understanding what active listening is. It's about more than just hearing what someone is saying. It involves being present, concentrating, understanding, seeking clarification, and responding in meaningful ways. Active listening also involves tuning into non-verbal cues such as body language and facial expressions. EI starts with self-awareness. Reflect on and take inventory of your strengths, weaknesses, emotions, triggers, and habitual behaviors. EI also involves being able to regulate and manage your own emotions. Tools such as pausing in the moment, deep breathing, and reframing can help foster calm and focus.

Active listening and emotional intelligence are interconnected because one reinforces the other. As we know, emotional intelligence is two-fold: the person himself, and the person you interact with. The person needs to understand his emotions and then be able to control them. As well as understanding the emotions of others and the ability to respond to them. Therefore, active listening is the process of being able to control oneself and be patient in listening to others and interacting with them, which gives the opportunity to understand them well, so that our response to them will be interactive and successful.