Decode Your Feelings: A Data-Driven Guide to Emotional Intelligence

Feel like emotions get in the way at work? Discover how decoding your emotional data can boost decision-making, communication, and focus.

Have you ever thought emotions are dumb and useless? Or wished you could cut emotions out of your life entirely? If so, you’re in good company. Many of us have been taught, either explicitly or implicitly, that emotions are bad things that should be ignored or controlled. Luckily, our knowledge in emotions and the function they serve has vastly increased over the last few decades. In fact, it is now widely recognized that EI is a critical skill at work and in leadership.

So, what are emotions? And how can we increase our intelligence in them? In short, emotions are our body’s way of communicating important information to us, such as what we need, what is important to us, what our values are, and what action (if any) we need to take.

In essence, emotions are raw data. One part of increasing EI involves learning how to analyze and convert this raw data into more meaningful information that we can use to live, work, and love better. Here are some tips to help get you started in analyzing your emotions:

Find the right level of emotional arousal. When emotions are either too intense or too muted, they become difficult to decipher. It’s like having too much “noise” in the data or not having enough data to analyze.
Become more mindful of your emotions by slowing down and reflecting on your feelings. You can ask yourself: What am I feeling? Where am I feeling it in my body? It may also help to track your emotions more diligently to see if any patterns emerge.
Label the emotion(s). If you’re having a difficult time putting words to your experience, try brainstorming what you’re feeling by labeling your emotion with different emotion words and see which one fits.
Increase your awareness of the situation that is eliciting the emotion(s). If you are having a hard time understanding what you are feeling, get a better understanding of the situation that brought on the emotions. We can gain a lot of meaningful information by putting our emotions into context.
Clarify your values. Values are like an internal compass that guide us to what is important and meaningful in life. As such, our emotions may sometimes signal to us that we are aligned or misaligned with our values. If you are clear on your values, you will be better able to decipher your emotions.

If we can start to pay more attention to what we are feeling, then we can use this data to drive decisions.

Dr. Natalie Ferreira is a Clinical Psychologist at Laksman Doell Psychology. She has a passion for helping individuals to increase their emotional intelligence at work and in relationships, so they can lead more enriched and fulfilling lives.