Emotional Capacity and How to Improve it?

Emotional capacity is a measure of how well you overcome limiting beliefs, how easily you adapt to challenging situations and the quality of your relationships. Talents, discipline, or values all eventually fall short in taking us to our destination in life if we don't have high emotional capacity.

Why is building emotional capacity important?

Many of us are unaware of the ways we keep limiting ourselves. It requires conscious effort in deciphering what holds us back and how we can break free of such limitations to reach our full potential.

Building a high emotional capacity opens up possibilities in front of us to explore, evaluate our mindset, and become more accepting of difficult feedback. It allows us to convert adversities to opportunities and helps us strive toward achieving new heights every day.

Building emotional capacity also allows us to surround ourselves with the right people who want to see us grow and become successful. When we become adept at adapting to adversity, we attract the right people and right relationships.

8 ways to improve your emotional capacity

We discuss 8 effective ways in which you can start investing in your emotional capacity.

Build a positive attitude

Invest time and energy in building a strong and positive attitude, one that is contagious yet not to be underestimated. Be flexible with it and adjust your mood with that of people around you, a skill you can master only if you are listening and paying attention to how people speak and behave.

Use assertive communication techniques

Assertive communication is a way of communicating your opinions and views that is neither too aggressive nor too passive. Learning the art of building emotional capacity requires you to invest time in communicating your decisions and needs in the perfect tone and manner.

Don’t just hear, listen!

Instead of just waiting for your turn to speak, turn a good ear and pay attention to what people are trying to convey as they speak. You may even be able to catch some non-verbal signs they send out. This prevents misunderstandings and shows that you respect other people’s opinions.

Do not react, respond!

The best way to stop reacting to situations and comments is to give yourself the time to go over them, analyze them, and then decide on an appropriate way to deal with them. This ensures that you do not react inappropriately, make a wrong decision, or make a big issue out of something that’s rather petty.

Know how to respond to critique

Taking critique well and utilizing it constructively is an emotional skill that emotionally intelligent people have mastered. Do not get offended or defensive about your work when you receive criticism. Instead, focus on who is criticising, the inconveniences they might be facing, and what the areas of improvement and resolution are.

Practice mindfulness

Practicing self-awareness and being mindful of your surroundings can not only help you gauge people, but also help you better regulate your emotions, improve your attention span and productivity, and help you form better and stronger relationships with people around you.

Become an empath

Empathy is a personality trait not everyone possesses. However, we can all try putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes time and again. This will not only enable us to better connect with people and respond appropriately in certain circumstances but also help us build helping behaviors.

Polish your leadership skills

If you are a natural leader, it’s a cherry on the cake. If you’re not, you can still work upon self-awareness, command over handling situations, and eagerness for learning to nurture leadership qualities in yourself.

Let's end this!

Once you start working on these steps, you’ll start becoming naturally adept at regulating your emotions effectively while also building mental and emotional resilience.