Teaching your Teens the Art of Emotional Intelligence

We are always surrounded with different people belonging to different backgrounds, having different dreams, different goals and different mental level, but still we manage to maintain a good relation with them. Do you know why? It is because of emotional intelligence. Every single person is different from the other, not just in terms of finger prints or body structure, but also in terms of liking and disliking, mental capabilities, interests and much more. It is our emotional intelligence that keeps us connected with people whether they are our parents, friends or others. Unfortunately, not everyone is gifted with this skill which is why parents are highly suggested teaching emotional intelligence to their children, especially teens as they are about to enter their practical lives in the next few years when they will need these skills the most in order to be successful in everything they do.

Important Tips for Parents

If you want to make your children confident enough to deal with all types of emotional situations in their life efficiently and effectively, you will have to change the way they think and perceive different emotions instead of just asking them to take an emotional intelligence test. If you are looking for an easy and simple way of honing your teens’ emotional intelligence, you must consider using the tips discussed below.

Encourage Teens to Share Their Feelings

Most of the teens keep their feelings just to them which is why they fail to develop emotional intelligence despite taking the emotional intelligence test. Parents must encourage their kids to share their feelings with them. At first, your kid may get confused while giving a name to his feelings, but they will gradually learn it. Tell them that they may have two or more feelings at the same time like feeling of anger and betrayal etc. Some teens confuse their actual feelings with any other feeling which is quite normal. In this case, it is your responsibility to teach them about different types of feelings and the best way to do so is by giving them a practical demonstration. Share your feelings with them openly as teens follow their parents. This practice will automatically help them to assign names to different feelings.

Teach the Art of Controlling Emotions

When you think that your teens know enough about different emotions then your second step should be to teach them the art of controlling different emotions. This is certainly the most difficult step, especially in the case of teens as it is the age when the kids always remain on fire but then again it is also the best time to learn emotional intelligence. Showing emotions is good but doing something wrong under your emotions is very bad and this is what you have to teach your kids. Following are some tips to teach the art of controlling emotions:

  • Ask the kids to leave the place when they feel extremely angry
  • Thinking about the happiest day of life or thinking about any past family vacation may also help in controlling sadness
  • Talking to a friend or family can be extremely beneficial
  • Experts say that smiling also positively affects emotions

 

Develop Emotional Stability

Last but not the least; parents must develop emotional stability among their teens so that they may not take wrong life decisions under the effects of their emotions. Teens are vulnerable, their mood changes in seconds. They may be happy now, but they can be sad in a minute just because of some mean comment from a friend. Your role here is to make your kid an optimist, not a pessimist. Teach him the art of thinking positive no matter what the situation is. This will help him control his emotions and take decisions wisely. Here, it is important to mention that just a few words of motivation like “I am proud of you” or “you have done a great job” will help a lot in managing emotions.

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