Emotional Intelligence for Authentic Recovery
At Yahlight, we understand the crucial role of emotional intelligence in the recovery process. Learning how to identify and manage your emotions and also understand the emotions of others are skills we can help you develop.
Exploring the Meaning of Emotional Intelligence
A journal article, “A New Layered Model on Emotional Intelligence,” published in Behavioral Sciences, discussed the meaning of emotional intelligence. This source defines emotional intelligence or EI as the following:
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, and use emotions positively to manage anxiety, communicate well, empathize, overcome issues, solve problems, and manage conflicts. According to the Ability EI model, it is the perception, evaluation, and management of emotions in yourself and others [67]. Emotional Intelligence (EI), or the ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions, is a relatively new concept that attempts to connect both emotion and cognition [68].
The ability to interact with other people effectively rests on the skill of communicating clearly. Identifying and managing your emotions is what makes that process possible. As mentioned above, emotional intelligence can help you to solve conflicts and overcome problems. Since life is continuously giving us issues to deal with, if we know how to regulate our emotions we can be better prepared.
Emotional intelligence plays an important role in the relationship you have with yourself. Learning how to identify an emotion when it arises is a crucial component of working through distressing situations. Knowing what to do when you experience a difficult emotion will help you to move forward without complications. As you can imagine, investing time in learning how to improve emotional intelligence will prove to be time well spent.
Also, as you begin to understand your own emotions, understanding the emotions of other people becomes easier. You will be more likely to relate to others based on their expressions, tone of voice, and the situation at hand.
Emotional Clarity in Recovery
The ability to identify emotions is a vital skill in recovery. Often, we don’t know what we are feeling and can’t identify our emotions accurately, we might even end up numbing or distracting ourselves from a feeling we don’t want to experience. This can make it difficult to know what we need and then get our needs met.
Emotional clarity can help you to decrease the pain of emotional distress. When you can identify your emotions you can discover freedom from confusion or unwanted reactions. You will gain the ability to hold with compassion a wide range of emotions. One way you can learn how to identify your emotions is with a deck of 54 Emotional Clarity Cards, created by Tonyah Dee. These cards will lead you to new levels of clarity, authenticity, and positive life enhancing energy. https://yahlight.com/product/emotional-clarity-cards/
Gaining emotional clarity in recovery has many benefits. An article, “Emotional Clarity and Attention to Emotions in Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Social Anxiety Disorder,” published by the Journal of Anxiety Disorders discusses studies of emotional clarity in individuals with and without anxiety. This source found that emotional clarity significantly lowered stress levels.
Identifying emotions in recovery can give you a sense of power. When you don’t understand your emotions, it may feel like you are not in control. This can feel frustrating and defeating. At Yahlight, we want to help you find emotional clarity so you can feel the power you have within yourself to recover.
Emotional Intelligence and the Healing Process
We know that emotional intelligence is a piece of the puzzle that will help you heal and stay recovered in the long term. Old emotional wounds often need to be healed in order to gain freedom in the present. Healing has to happen in the whole person, physically, emotionally and spiritually. At Yahlight, our holistic treatment modality is Christ-centered, which you can learn more about by visiting our About Us page.
Throughout the healing process, you may find that managing your emotions is easy some days and more difficult other days. It is important to remember to remain non-judgemental, patient and kind to yourself. On difficult days when emotions feel more uncomfortable or more difficult to manage, we suggest turning to your higher power. We believe meditation and prayer provides power, and God as you understand, can guide you. Please visit our Christ-Centered Meditation and Prayer page to expand your recovery journey.
Knowing Your Truth and Expressing Emotions
We understand that you may be afraid or resistant to expressing emotions. You may have never learned the skill of identifying or communicating your feelings. However, accepting and knowing who you are, which includes knowing what you are feeling, leads you to an honest and authentic life. We want to help you know your truth by strengthening your emotional intelligence. We know suppressing your emotions may feel like a safer option. This only works short-term, so we want to help you learn how to express your emotions clearly. This will allow you to live honestly and to live authentically.
Expressing emotions is a normal part of daily life that can help you to connect to yourself and to people. Having emotional intelligence can help you to form new relationships which are important to long term recovery. Learning to appropriately express your emotions and know how to work through them to get your needs met will help you to move forward and expand your well being. Sometimes, people worry that when you start expressing emotions, it will be too much to handle. You may notice you feel better after expressing emotions because you finally allowed yourself to release them. You might just be surprised at how resilient you are.
Emotional intelligence can bring emotional clarity and help you in many other ways while you heal and recover. You can start working with me today to continue healing.