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How to develop emotional awareness: 5 key ideas

How to develop emotional awareness: 5 key ideas

March 29, 2024

Many people believe that the human mind is that which 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 a world and it is relatively easy to distinguish between the way of being of different people, that does not mean that the mind does not change. In fact, in the world of psychology change is the norm, not the exception .

Since we want it or not both us and the world we live in, we are going to stop by 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 ourselves to the best possible to the experiences through which we pass, even those that are totally new. In this sense, the concept of emotional awareness it helps us to understand one of the most important and at the same time forgotten aspects of the processes of change: the world of emotions and feelings.


  • Related article: "The 8 types of emotions (classification and description)"

What is emotional consciousness?

The concept of emotional awareness is not easy to explain in a single line, since it refers to the most complex component of the human mind: emotions. However, in summary, it can be understood as the state in which emotional activation patterns are understood so that instead of passively attending to their first-person experimentation, we can make them work in our favor, depending on the personal development goals that we have proposed .

Thus, emotional awareness has to do with a set of skills that can be applied on a day-to-day basis, both for oneself and for individuals, as well as group phenomena through leadership. At the same time, to progress in mastering these competences does not have to do exactly with learning theoretical knowledge, but with applying new dynamics and new approaches to our ways of relating to the environment and our own mental processes .


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

Examples on 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 consciousness.

1. The questioning of one's motives

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


So that, stop to analyze what psychological mechanisms are really behind many of our attitudes it is liberating, because it allows us to be present at the root of some predispositions that create problems for us on a day-to-day basis.

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. Distance from one's perspective

Even if it is paradoxical, adopting a distanced perspective can help us to better understand what we feel. The fact of being totally involved in an emotion It does not have to lead us to know better what happens; in fact, it can blind us.

4. Go to courses

It is possible to train emotional awareness by supporting courses that contain content specifically aimed at training the skills linked to this psychological aspect.

The European Coaching School, for example, offers a specialized training program, aimed especially at psychologists and coaches . Among its objectives are 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. appearance. You will find more information about this program by accessing the contact information of the EEC, by clicking here.

5. Learn to control the times

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


6 Steps to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence | Ramona Hacker | TEDxTUM (March 2024).


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