Building Emotional Intelligence As A Student
By Oderinlo Faoziyah
Emotional Intelligence is also known as EQ. It is as important as Intelligence Quotient (IQ), which is our intellectual ability. Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage, understand, and interact with our emotions and those of other people. An emotionally intelligent person can take charge of situations under pressure that could override their best intentions. A reasonable number of people have little or no knowledge about emotional intelligence, let alone try to build it.
Do you wonder why some academically brilliant people are socially inept or aren’t doing well in their relationships? This set of people have a high intelligence quotient (IQ), but low emotional intelligence (EQ). It’s fine to say your intellectual ability got you enrolled; emotional intelligence is what will keep you going if you must get the best out of what you signed up for. Emotional intelligence has to be in place to complement your intellectual ability to yield an outstanding result.
Particularly as a student, being emotionally intelligent would help a great deal, because such students are better equipped to deal with negativity and manage positive emotions that might disrupt learning. Highlighted below are the importance of building a high emotional intelligence as a student:
- Healthy relationship among peers and tutors: An emotionally intelligent student has a bigger chance of building bonds. Such a student finds it easy to relate well with people, form study groups, approach people concerning areas that aren’t so clear, as well as initiate and contribute to meaningful discussions which would in turn ease the learning process.
- Overcoming distractions: It’s no news that focus is at the forefront of learning. There are lots of things capable of distracting students. Some students can’t cope with combining academics with extracurricular activities, though not all students are aware of this, some feel they can, while in the actual sense, they can’t manage both. It’d sure affect them in their academics. A student with a great understanding of him/herself would know what works for him/her and refrain from things that can distract, unlike one who doesn’t.
- Good grades: Students who can manage their emotions are more likely to get good grades because there’s no doubt that such student would be able to manage negative emotions like lack of concentration during a boring topic, exam anxiety, an unfriendly tutor, and negative emotions that come with learning, which makes them more focused and interested in whatever they are being taught.
- Friends or company: Friends are people who make the journey easier and help relieve stress. However, other people could make the journey a bit tough by stressing one or doing other negative things. A person who understands other people’s emotions would know how best to select friends. Thus, making friends who help and make growth easy.
- Easy Understanding: A student who is capable of understanding and influencing other people’s emotions would find it easy to understand other people’s standpoints, especially when dealing with courses like Philosophy, History, and Theatre arts where there are different roles to play. It’d be much easier to recognize a character’s motivation and feelings.
- Sound Health: Emotionally intelligent students tend to have lower levels of anxiety and depression. They are socially active, as well as physically sound. Their mental, physical and emotional health are always in check, which makes them have an all-round healthy life.
The journey to developing a high emotional intelligence isn’t a cumbersome one, however, it isn’t something to be acquired within a flash. It is an evolving skill that starts with empathy and it takes determination to build up. Being intentional about it is more like making headway to possessing a high EQ. It develops as we grow, and there are also helpful courses to make the journey easy.
