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What is Emotional Literacy?
There are five main aspects of emotional intelligence to develop in order to become emotionally literate. These were identified by Daniel Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence , and they relate closely to the ideas in the Nurturing Programme. They are:
- Knowing our emotions
Self-awareness - recognising a feeling as it happens - is the first stage. We can eventually learn to stay aware, simply noticing the emotion rather than being overwhelmed by it, however turbulent we may be feeling at the time. This takes a lot of practice!
- Managing our emotions
Handling our feelings builds on our awareness of them. It's helpful if we have ways of reassuring ourselves when we're feeling anxious, calming down when we're angry, soothing ourselves when we are upset, and so on. Every feeling has its value and significance - they're signposts to what's going on in our lives. The ratio of comfortable to painful feelings determines our emotional well-being.
- Motivating ourselves
Harnessing our emotions to help us identify our goals and reach them helps us to achieve our aims. If we are kindly in charge of our emotions, rather than being overwhelmed by them, we can also take charge of our actions. We can guide our behaviour positively, and also resist the lure of instant gratification - in other words, we develop self-discipline.
- Recognising emotions in others
Empathy, the ability to be sensitively aware of what another person is feeling, is the most important 'people skill' of all, and essential for satisfying relationships. Children who are treated with empathy and respect will grow up to be empathic and respectful towards others.
- Handling relationships
Building on empathy, the art of relationships is based on skill in coping with emotions in others while also managing and expressing our own effectively - having good communication skills. Emotionally skilled people are great to be with because we enjoy their rapport. People who have these skills are easy to trust with our feelings, and learning these skills ourselves enhances all our relationships.
Emotional literacy and the Nurturing Programme
These five elements of emotional literacy reflect the key principles of the Nurturing Programme. Self-awareness and empathy are two of the Four Constructs, the building blocks of the Nurturing Programme. The Programme explores many ideas for managing our emotions; learning these skills improves our motivation and helps us to feel good about ourselves - building self-esteem, which is another of the Four Constructs. All of these have a positive effect on relationships.
The Nurturing Programme promotes emotional health in adults and in children. Everyone is born with emotional intelligence - it's a capacity wired into the brain. How this capacity develops is a person's emotional literacy, and this depends on the kind of relationships they have, initially with the adults caring for them. Emotional literacy leads to emotional health; emotional health helps us fulfil our potential in every aspect of life.
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