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COVID-19 and Emotional intelligence.

Fears about COVID-19 may be intense and can cause emotional tolls, and anxiety. It is normal for everyone to suffer from such kind of fear because of its novelty.

This pandemic has created challenges in our everyday lives not only economic crises but health crises too; specifically mental health illness.

Leading COVID-19 with Emotional Intelligence will ultimately convert those challenges into fruitful opportunities. If we look around we can clearly see the challenges faced by leaders, managers, businesses, even though students, and common people like us. Everyone is here trying to save their jobs, their businesses, their academics, and some are finding solutions to accept the new normal while some are fighting against anxiety, and emotional strain while being quarantined.

Coronavirus pandemic on one hand itself is a challenge but on the other it is providing us the challenge to convert that into an opportunity for our selves. It is giving us the abundance of time to think about ourselves, to be more self reflective, and to make our thought processes more positive and effective. In my opinion every situation have both positive and negative impact. It is on us how we perceive it. If our perception will rely on more of the negative side everything will become pessimistic.

Now the question arises how to deal with all these challenges positively and make our quarantine life productive.

The Answer is by building up Emotional intelligence.

What is emotional intelligence?

It is the ability to understand, use and control your own emotions in a constructive way to alleviate tension, interact effectively, empathize with others, resolve difficulties and defuse conflict. Help you develop closer relationships, excel in school and work, and achieve your professional and personal goals. It can also allow you to communicate with your emotions, turn purpose into action and make educated and optimistic decisions about what matters most to you. Emotional intelligence core components include

1-) self awareness

2-) self management

3-) empathy

4-) social relationships

These four components can be critically analysed and practiced for efficient leading in this pandemic.

Let’s talk about the first one that is self awareness; as we all are quarantined it’s a golden opportunity for us to self reflect and monitor ourselves. It’s an ability to sit and do self observation. Take a moment while we all are quarantined and reflect on our feelings and experiences that are crucial for optimistic decisions. Self awareness it self have three more divisions

1. Emotional awareness: recognise your emotions and their effects.
2. Accurate self-assessments: you are now completely free and is quarantined. Sit and note down your strengths and weaknesses . Write down your limitations and seek for the opportunities waiting for you.
3. Self-confidence: self confidence is the key to success. It is because if we are confident we are not shy and always attentive to opportunities. So then gradually we Look out at your self-worth and potential. Try doing new things, schedule your activities. By doing new stuff you may actually discover your new abilities that you would haven’t thought about. Quarantine time is all about self love, self reflection on your emotions and behaviour, and discovering your abilities and worth. Such a precious gift from our beloved pandemic!

Second is self management. Managing our emotions and letting them not to cripple is the essential thing in this pandemic. Coronavirus pandemic is itself is a distressing situation while sitting in quarantine and accepting the new normal can be very difficult. Most of the people are dealing with anxiety just because they cannot go out and have fun. People are not accepting the new change which is why ultimately most of us are going through temporary depression. So it’s very important for us to remain adaptable and flexible in every situation. We all need to step out from our comfort zone and from the state of disequilibrium that includes anxiety for not accepting the hashtag new normal , fear of this deadly disease, anger for not going out. Let’s make ourselves capable and trained in this pandemic on how to be more adaptable and flexible to certain circumstances and Believe me this will help in every stage of life.

Third component is empathy; it refers to the ability to understand how other people are thinking or experiencing the situation. How they are feeling, what are their thoughts and how challenges are hitting them. Further more, COVID-19 pandemic has done severe damage. Some one has lost the job , someone has lost their loved one, someone is being the victim of COVID-19. It’s our responsibility to be empathetic towards them. Let’s just become more compassionate to people who are tested positive for corona and also for the people who are frontline hero’s. They need our support and care so that they can easily fight against this deadly disease. Practice empathy by understanding what other person might be feeling, understanding their perspective and then try helping them. In the need of crises we all need someone who could listen and help us to come out of that situation. Be that someone if you’re fortunate enough to be surviving this pandemic with ease

To sum up the whole; last but not the least is maintaining social relationships. Building networks and ability to find common ground and build rapport is very essential. In regard with pandemic let’s just work from home, FaceTime or have online lunch and dinner with family and friends. make apps such as zoom, google classrooms as our best friends. Let us manage relationships in proficiency by staying at home. This pandemic is a great chance to build emotional intelligence because it is not something innate in you but it can be acquired.