During our lives, each one of us has experienced moments of considerable stress, whether it be in our work, studies, human relationships, among others . How do we deal with these moments?
There are probably situations in which it is easier to be calm and solve the problem assertively, in others we think that "there is no other solution but to be aggressive", being able to choose how to react in these situations is what is known as emotional intelligence.
What is emotional intelligence? According to Martín (2018): "it is the capacity for the acceptance and conscious management of emotions, taking into account the importance of all the decisions and steps we take during our life, even if we are not aware of it." (p.7)
Therefore, emotional intelligence is a process that is involved throughout life. One of the characteristics of being an older adult is that due to the bio-psycho-social changes, the way of living of the person varies, for example: from working in their jobs to enjoy their retirement, this generates that the older adult has opportunities to perform activities that before did not.
This can generate tension in some older adults, as it is to be expected, the change causes fear or discomfort in some people; this situation could generate that their reaction to their family and friends is not as usual.
What to do as family members in this situation? The first thing is to have empathy and understand the process that the older adult is going through. Being able to understand this is vital to be able to communicate our thoughts assertively to our older adult.
The second is to be able to show our support to the older adult, to mention what we feel and think about a certain situation. And third is that the person understands that there are alternatives to say things.
If there are times when we feel too upset to be able to give an assertive response, the best thing to do is to take some time to breathe and reflect, and then speak more calmly. Another way is to understand that there are ways to say things.
It is always advisable to mention the strong and positive points first and the "bad" things to mention them as aspects to improve, for example: it is not the same to say "you are a person who gets into things you don't care about, I don't want to talk" to say: "I really appreciate your interest in helping me with this situation , could we talk about this another time?
Emotional intelligence is an art and fortunately we can all develop it throughout our lives, and it also gives us many benefits such as being able to relate better with other people, to solve problems assertively, to better reflect on our thoughts and emotions, to understand the reason for the behavior of others towards me, and therefore acquire greater peace of mind.
Finally, reflecting on how we react to problems can prevent us from having more problems, it is just a matter of making this a habit and having them in constant practice. Do these recommendations work for you? We want to know your experiences through our social networks.
Bibliographic references:
Martín, E. (2018). Inteligencia emocional. Editorial Elearning, SL.
