What is Emotional Intelligence? How can your feelings have intelligence? To understand emotional intelligence, you must understand what emotions truly are. Emotions are basically impulses to act. Every type of emotion has a specific biological impact and are signals of met or unmet needs. The amygdala is the part of the brain that handles your emotions. One fascinating thing about the amygdala that I feel could be connected to PSTD and depression is that it imprints in your memory moments of emotional intensity, which is why humans seem to remember bad events easily. Damage to the amygdala can cause serious impulse control problems and weak emotional regulation which is also extremely important. Now that you know a little biological information about emotions, we can talk about the skills you need in order to have strong emotional intelligence. The four basic skills you need are as follows:

• Self-Awareness- Knowing your own emotions and what they are telling you.
• Empathy-Recognizing others' emotions and what they may mean.
• Coping/Self-Regulation- Knowing how to manage your emotions.
• Listening- Knowing how to manage others emotions.

With these four main skills, we can create a healthier mindset and be able to handle emotions and maybe not fear our emotions so much (Fear is a huge emotional struggle as well). If we understand emotions and learn how to cope with them, our certain, perhaps negative, behaviors following our emotions could be worked on and improved upon.

One way that professionals in the psychology world deal with this is by utilizing what is called Dialectal Behavior Therapy (DBT) created by Dr. Marsha M. Linehan, who for a long time of her life struggled with severe depression and had a very unstable mental state early on. DBT is a treatment to allow focus on people’s emotions through mindfulness meditation and Zen, which is a technique people use to concentrate on their breathing, be aware of their emotions and let the emotions come and go without any act on them. With this and some other elements she took from other behavioral therapies, DBT is now a huge part to a variety of Psychotherapies. I have gotten first hand examples of DBT groups at my internship and I can say that it truly does teach the clients how to deal with their emotions and their thoughts. The trick to coping with emotions is understanding the emotion and what maybe could have triggered that emotion. I now want to give some ways to then deal with emotions through healthy outlets. There are many things someone can do to positively cope with their emotions. Some include:

• Writing (Which is personally what I use and it has helped me truly deal with my feelings because it forces you to acknowledge how you feel head on).
• Exercise- Walking, biking and running.
• Meditation/Prayer
• Listening to music
• Reading
• Being with supportive and positive friends

There are so many other ways to deal and cope with emotions. The secret is to do things that are positive and that you find pleasure in. We all have emotions, they are not scary, and they are actually beautiful and have fueled the world to do good things. Do not fear your emotions, they are all valid, just try understand and be mindful of them so you can cope with them in a healthier way.