“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~ Antione de Saint-Exupery
Enhance Emotional Literacy
Definition: Accurately identifying and understanding feelings.
Importance: Emotions are chemicals, a form of neurotransmitter, that provide data about yourself and others; emotions are a feedback system delivering information that drives behavior and decisions. Emotional literacy is the capacity to access and interpret that data.
Enhance Emotional Literacy is one of the core competencies of “Know Yourself” in the Six Seconds Model of Emotional Intelligence.
Emotional literacy helps you notice, name, and understand feelings. This provides critical information about you (and about others), which gives you insight into the core drivers of behavior. This understanding is also key to managing your reactions.
Video
What are emotions and where do they come from?
Recommended Tools
EQ for Families: Emotional Literacy Workshop: Help parents and caregivers increase emotional literacy — the foundation to emotional intelligence. This program, “The Power of Feelings: Parenting with Emotional Intelligence,” will help them communicate with their children, recognize and manage emotions, and increase self-awareness.
Emotional Literacy Museum: The Emotional Literacy Museum is a self-directed learning experience teaching about the physiology of emotions, emotional regulation, and emotional literacy.
Mixed Emotions Cards – a beautiful deck of “tarot-like” cards of feelings (labeled with feelings and synonyms)
eMotion Cards – evocative, playful moon face illustrations of emotions (open-ended without labels)
Biodots – a simple reminder that emotions are part of our physiology
Bingo Emotions – classic “bingo” game played with emotions (in English & Spanish)
Feeling Faces – photos of real people and data about how survey respondents evaluated each picture
Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment with debrief which provides feedback about the way you’re currently using your EQ and how to improve in this area
EQ for Families: Emotional Literacy Workshop – Help parents and caregivers increase emotional literacy — the foundation to emotional intelligence.
Articles about Emotional Literacy
Harnessing Emotional Intelligence: How Sara Canna Supports Employees and Transforms People’s Lives at the World Health Organization (WHO) (9/25/2024) - Emotional intelligence is more than just a buzzword—it’s a transformative tool that can reshape how we navigate challenges, build relationships, and thrive in demanding environments. Discover how Sara Canna brought EQ to the World Health Organization, empowering employees to manage change, stress, and personal growth. ...
Emotion Science from Inside Out 2 – EQ Education News (7/10/2024) - What do you think and feel about the emotions in Inside Out 2? Let's unpack the science and how you can use the film to keep developing emotional intelligence skills for you, your faculty and students. ...
Is Boredom Bad for Kids? Emotional Intelligence Education News (6/12/2024) - Let's unpack boredom and how emotional intelligence can help you with tips to support bored children (and keep your cool!). Keep reading for EQ research and resources you can use for you, your faculty and students. ...
The Neuroscience of Chai: Overcoming My Own Obstinance (1/15/2024) - Why do we sometimes take risks to learn, but other times we're so determined to stay "right"? Zooming into the neurobiology, in a sense we have a tug-of-war between the striatum and the amygdala, between opportunity and risk. It's just like trying Chai for the first time on the steamy streets of Kuala Lumpur. ...
Emotional Insights for Leaders: What Is Overwhelm Trying to Tell You? (11/28/2023) - Practical tips and activities to turn feelings of overwhelm into clarity and productivity - for you and your team. ...
Emotional Insights for Leaders: Compassion and How to Use it to Build High Performing Teams (10/24/2023) - In this installment of the Emotional Insights for Leaders series, we look at an emotion that is critical for success: Compassion. ...
Getting Off the Trouble Train (7/30/2023) - "Have you ever found yourself in the middle a situation and you know it will to turn into a big mess? You can feel it slipping out of control… and yet you keep going. It’s as if you’re being pushed along this track; you know it’s going to lead to trouble, but it seems like there’s no choice." ...
Smarter About Feelings (7/28/2023) - When I was a kid, no one taught me about emotions. They're so powerful! And such a big part of our lives... here are the most important ideas every kid (and adult) needs to know about feelings. ...
Enhance Emotional Literacy (7/13/2023) - Emotional literacy helps you notice, name, and understand feelings. This provides critical information about you (and about others), which gives you insight into the core drivers of behavior. This understanding is also key to managing your reactions. ...more emotional literacy articles on our site
Other Resources
HBR blog on recognizing emotions http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2012/05/do-you-know-what-you-are-feeli.html
Paul Ekman’s Emotions Revealed
Chip Conley’s Emotional Equations
- Enhance Emotional Literacy - July 13, 2023
- Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions: Feelings Wheel - March 13, 2022
- Technology Loneliness: EQ Tips from Daniel Goleman - October 24, 2020
The greatest maturing skill I ever gained was to learn have the ability to notice, name and understand my feelings.
Being able to identify and understand the emotions we experience it allows us to know more about what makes us tick and in turn have a positive impact with our relationship with others too. Building better relationships with ourselves and others. Just by doing the EQ Associate I have learnt so much already about myself
My son has recently been diagnosed with emotional literacy what can i do to help him he’s 11
Hi Clair – Not heard of this diagnosis… but hopefully there are ideas on this page to help. To develop emotional literacy at that age, I suggest playing a lot with the Think, Feel, Act cards: https://products.6seconds.org/product/think-feel-act-cards/
Maybe whoever provided the diagnosis could take a look tell you if this is a good idea for your son?
🙂
i wish I could SEE THE EMOTIONS CHART?
please redo it much LARGER??
Susan, do you mean the “flower” in the Plutchik Model? Try clicking to view the article, it has a large version.
🙂
Good stuff; want more.
Know recognize what goes on inside of us, in every cell of our body, through the understanding of our emotions is the first step for we connect better with ourselves. Know that our electromagnetic field is connected to the electromagnetic field of others, helps us to recognize our attunement with others and to create more empathetic, benevolent and noble relations.
In the short video, Josh states that we are not just tuned in to our own emotional signals, but the signals of others. This made me think about how we will sometimes say that the energy level of the room is low or high. A strong leader is in tune with the energy level of his/her colleagues and is able to use that recognition to monitor and adjust his/her leadership approach.