Emotional Literacy The First Step To Emotional Intelligence

Emotional literacy is the ability to put emotions in to words. It is fair to say once you have put what you are feeling in to words you have identified this feeling now you can make an action upon it.

The context that emotional literacy is often referred to is that of children at school but it is by no means an issue of the classroom, it will affect everyone especially in the workplace, at home and throughout life. If you can empathize with a person identify what they are feeling as words you are automatically closer to that person, if they are happy you can connect with them and be happy too.

As your emotional intelligence develops from only being able to identify what you are feeling you will find that by noticing similar characteristics of emotions in other people you can work together much better. Such an instance of this could be of someone fidgeting or tapping fingers while you are talking to them. Your emotional literacy will tell you they are bored, maybe you have previously recognised this in your own behaviour. Now you can take the action to change the subject or use other methods to engage their attention. Here you can start to see the power of just taking the first step in improving your emotional intelligence.

One act of improving your emotional literacy is simply to improve your vocabulary get to know the words for your emotions here are some words you can use;

• Positive emotions

Comfortable, accepted, acknowledged, appreciated, loved, lovable, desirable, happy, aware, satisfied, supported, encouraged, optimistic, respected, safe, secure, peaceful, relaxed, motivated, focused, free, independent, confident, competent, capable, proud, worthy, deserving, excited, energetic, fulfilled, validated, connected

• Negative emotions

Uncomfortable, rejected, ignored, unappreciated, resentful, bitter, unloved, hated, unlovable, undesirable, angry, sad, hurt, unaware, confused, unsatisfied, frustrated, unsupported, thwarted, obstructed, discouraged, pessimistic, hopeless, disrespected, insulted, mocked, afraid, insecure, tense, frustrated, bored, lethargic, unmotivated, lost, trapped, controlled, forced, obligated, dependent, needy, nervous, worried, scared, incompetent, inadequate, dumb, stupid, guilty, embarrassed, ashamed, unworthy, undeserving, inadequate, depressed, numb, empty, needy, invalidated, disconnected, isolated, lonely

Emotional Literacy – Positive & Negative Emotions

As you can see we’ve listed more negative emotions than positive ones, firstly because the English language has more words for negative emotions, but also because  negative emotions make the most difference to your emotional literacy. Say someone isn’t treating you properly, they are using you and not giving you the respect you deserve; if you can identify how you feel about this you will immediately feel empowered. By stating to yourself, ‘I feel disrespected’ and ‘I feel unsupported’ now you know this you can take action, assert this to the person and hence gain their respect.

Discover how to develop your emotional intelligence and your use of emotional literacy to make an impact on your personal and working life in our free report….

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