Start with Self-Awareness

Do you experience sensations in your body that you're not quite sure of what they are??Do you have feelings that creep up on you and take you by surprise?

Well, stick with me because this week, we will continue our conversation around Emotional Intelligence by helping you to realise that it all starts with self-awareness.?

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been looking at this wonderful intelligence called Emotional Intelligence.?

You and I looked at the fact that Emotional Intelligence is the ability to be aware of the emotion that you are experiencing, in the moment, and then use that information to manage your response to it. It's not about managing the emotion, ignoring, suppressing, or trying to change it. It's about being able to control what goes on in your brain so that you can then come out with resourceful behaviour.?

This week, we want to start looking at the competencies.?

Last week we learned that there is a quadrant of self-awareness, and then there's a quadrant of self-management.?

Let's go through the first quadrant of self-awareness, where it all starts.?

It starts with going from that unconscious incompetence, where you don't know what you don't know, to having direction because of clarity in what it is that you're actually experiencing, and what it's trying to tell you, so that you can move forward with that information.?

Self-Awareness has three elements: emotional self-awareness, accurate self-assessment, and personal power.?

Let's start with Emotional Self-Awareness.?

Emotional Self-Awareness is the ability to know right here and now, what's going on.?

You ask yourself:?

“What is this sensation that my body is using to get my attention?”

“What does it mean?” And,

“What is it that it's telling me?”

When you have that level of awareness, it enables you to do the other part, and that is to navigate the emotion.?

So, emotional self-awareness is firstly about being present to be able to notice that you’ve actually experienced the emotion and being able to realise that this is something that you can look for an understanding in your day-to-day.

It is being able to stop and ask the question: "What is this emotion?” And being able to do that using the logical processes of your brain. When you ask “what” questions, you are lighting up the neural pathways that will help you to determine what emotion you are actually experiencing.?

It's not about knowing: “Why am I feeling this way?”

If you start the question with a "why", it will take you down into another conversation that will ignite that internal dialogue of uncertainty — all those fears and all the different things that you could make them mean that are going to send you off the rails.?

So, being able to notice the emotion you’re experiencing right now, then being able to give it a name. You cannot navigate an emotion if you don't know which one it is.?

To develop Emotional Self-Awareness, you need two things…

(Click the link below to read the full article)

READ FULL ARTICLE?

Grant Herbert (aka The People Builder) describes himself as an ordinary guy, with an outstanding wife and 5 amazing kids, who has a passion to help people escape the performance trap and regain their authenticity in every area of life. He is a VUCA Leadership Mentor, Sustainable Performance Coach, Master Coach Trainer in Social and Emotional Intelligence,?and the founder of People Builders.

Visit?www.grantherbert.com ?to find out how you can connect.