Emotional Intelligence- How Emotional Intelligence Can Affect Stress Levels

In 2009 The APA revealed that a majority of American adults report being stressed out. With today’s environment, it is really no wonder. This also means more of us are feeling the physical effects of stress, with up to 47% of adults reporting suffering from the symptoms of stress at some time. These may include fatigue, depression, problems sleeping, lack of motivation and others. People who have developed their emotional intelligence skills have found that they have been able to reduce their stress levels significantly.

It appears that emotional intelligence is connected to stress levels because stress is actually caused by emotions. If you think about it, it is not really the situation itself that is the issue, but how we emotionally respond to the situation. If we can control our emotions in a situation, it follows that we should be able to control the level of stress we feel from it. What does this look like? Well, it could be how you react to a situation when your boss asks you to work late and you have a previous engagement. At this point, you can choose to be mad, or you can accept it and move on. While not easy, the second option is much less stressful than the first.

If negative emotions are harmful, it stands to reason that positive emotions should be helpful. Our emotions trigger certain hormones to be released. While negative emotions trigger the release of the stress hormone cortisol, positive emotions release hormones that actually cause us to feel good. Very few people actually feel stressed when they feel good, which is yet another way to control stress levels with emotional intelligence.

It is not wise to wait until the end of the day to de-stress, and if you are able to use your strengthened emotional intelligence to take care of the issue, it really is not necessary either. The negative physical effect that stress has on our body builds up throughout the day from the small things that stress us out. This means that by the end of the day, the damage is already done. If we use emotional intelligence to reduce stress levels throughout the day, we are taking care of the problem at the source. There is no pilling of on stress, because the previous stress issue has already been dealt with. This is why using meditation, exercise, or some other stress relief method after the fact when everything has built up from the day may not necessarily be the best idea.