Harvard Emotional Intelligence Class

Chapter 20 How Emotional Intelligence Affects Your Life (3)
A person with Type A behavior is often demanding, irritable, and pushy, so they easily feel tense and anxious. Type A behavior has two main components, one of which is a tendency to want to accomplish a lot in a little time, which makes people with Type A behavior demanding and irritable; hostility.Because of this, people with Type A behavior are constantly distracted by trivial matters.At work, these people tend to be aggressive and work very hard.After get off work, these people are also busy with various affairs.If people with this behavioral trait are students, they often place an unbearable academic load on themselves as well.

People with Type A behavior are prone to various cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, etc. at a young age.However, it should be pointed out that only some of the behavioral characteristics of type A behavior may be related to cardiovascular disease. Hostility, anger, fault-finding, and suspicion in Type A behaviors all contribute to cardiovascular disease, while impatience, ambition, and hard work do not directly cause cardiovascular disease.People who have Type A behavior and like their behavior style tend to be more capable and healthier than the average person, including top managers and professionals in many companies.Successful people with Type A behavior not only have a high need for achievement, but are also often very optimistic.People with a high need for achievement tend to have lower blood pressure, which reduces the likelihood of a heart attack.

2.Negative emotion (pessimism)

Another major contributor to stress is negative emotion.Negative affect refers to the tendency to experience negative emotional states easily.More specifically, people with negative affect tend to experience a variety of negative emotions, including tension, restlessness, worry, and sadness, along with negative behaviors, including anger, contempt, withdrawal, guilt, and self-esteem. feel dissatisfied.People with this negative trait tend to be overly concerned with the apparent gap between ideal and reality.A situation that may be stimulating and challenging to others becomes stressful to a pessimistic person.

A number of recent studies on job stress have shown that the trait of negative affect is less stable than previous studies had suggested.One explanation is that negative affect is somewhat influenced by the environment.However, if you have been negative in the past years of your life, you may be more susceptible to the negative effects of stress in the future.

3.impaired sensory control

Perceived control refers to the ability of individuals to realize that they can control the negative effects of situations.A summary analysis of more than 100 studies pointed out that those who believe that they have a high ability to control the negative impact of the situation tend to have fewer physical or psychological symptoms when they are under stress, and they tend to have relatively higher job satisfaction and relatively better job satisfaction. work performance.Conversely, people who perceive themselves to be less able to control the negative effects of a situation tend to suffer more during times of stress.

4.low work efficiency

Symptoms of low work performance are:

(1) Possess an incorrect attitude towards work pressure, and prefer a job without any pressure. Over time, people become loose and tired, and they will not be able to bear a little pressure.

(2) In the face of inevitable stress, lack of effective stress management plan, do not try to eliminate or change the factors that cause excessive stress, cope passively, and even give up on themselves when the pressure is too high.

If stress is not managed effectively, it can cause long-term damage, such as chronic diseases that affect normal work.Stress management refers to the process of transforming stress into a positive influencing factor, which refers to both preventing stress and mitigating stress.However, there is no clear division between the methods of preventing stress and reducing stress. For example, exercising can not only relieve stress, but also cultivate a healthy lifestyle to prevent stress.Stress management uses a variety of methods, ranging from very specific techniques such as practicing the relaxation response to more general principles such as adopting a healthy lifestyle and eating a healthy diet.Here, we'll cover 5 self-help stress management techniques.

1.Recognize your own stress signs
To manage stress you must first have the ability to recognize stress.Try to identify your own unique stress response. When these symptoms occur, please record the time and intensity of these symptoms with pen and paper. Even just recording these symptoms can reduce the frequency and intensity of these symptoms.This act means you are beginning to take control of your health.

After clearly identifying the symptoms of stress, the next step is to figure out what you were thinking and feeling before those symptoms occurred.

It is very important to learn how to eliminate these unproductive worries.When you get caught up in these negative thoughts, try saying "stop" over and over in your mind.At first, perhaps repeat the word "stop" 50-100 times a day.

2.Eliminate or modify stress triggers

The most effective way to manage stress is to eliminate or change the triggers that cause you stress.An important value of sedatives is that they calm people enough so that they can deal constructively with stress-inducing events.An effective method of dealing with stress-inducing factors is: find out the cause of the problem, fully explore the solution, evaluate various alternatives, choose the best solution, and then implement it, etc.

Of course, one's assessment of real problems may not be accurate, so self-analysis is always limited.If a person feels stressed because of a small problem at work, then he should calm down and analyze it carefully.Maybe he will find that the problem is not at work, but that his own financial crisis has made him feel so stressed that a little interruption at work will become unbearable for him.Therefore, this person should increase income and reduce expenditure to solve his financial problems.Once the pressure in life is resolved, the problems at work can be dealt with with a more peaceful mind.

3.Build a support network

A support network is a group of people who can listen to you and provide emotional support.These people (or someone) can help you through difficult times, and they can make you feel kind, warm, and accepted, which can reduce stress.And, even the very act of talking about your feelings can be an effective way to release stress.The way to build a support network is to make yourself a good listener first, so that when you need to talk to yourself, someone will listen.

4.Practice everyday techniques to reduce stress

Learning to relax yourself in simple ways is an important way to effectively reduce the tension caused by various pressures.Here are some ways to reduce stress on a daily basis, and if you can practice these methods, you may not need to use drugs such as sedatives to calm yourself.

(1) Take a nap when facing stress: Naps are considered to be one of the most effective ways to reduce and prevent stress.

(2) Go with your emotions: If you're angry, disgusted, or confused, accept those emotions; suppressing your emotions increases stress.

(3) Take a break from high-stress situations to do something small and constructive, such as washing the car, getting a haircut, or emptying the trash can.

(4) Ask someone to massage, because massage can relax tense muscles, speed up blood circulation, and make people quiet.

(5) Ask your colleagues, boss or friends for help.

(6) Concentrate on reading, surfing the web, exercising, or hobbies.

(7) Create a peaceful home environment and take a break every day.

(8) Take a day off to rest.

(9) Get some little things done, no matter how small, and the feeling of getting things done releases some of the stress.

(10) Stop and smell the flowers, make friends with a child or young adult, or play with a kitten or other small animal.

(11) Strive to do a good job, but not blindly pursue perfection.

(12) Do handwork and do some happy little things.

(13) Find some fun, such as cartoons, movies, TV shows, or humorous websites, etc., even joking with yourself.

(14) Try not to drink caffeinated and alcoholic beverages, drink fruit juice and water; pick up a fruit instead of a can of beer.

(15) Practice relaxation response techniques

The relaxation response is the body's response when your breathing slows and your heartbeat slows, your blood pressure drops, and your metabolism slows down.There are many ways to stimulate this response, such as meditation, practice, or prayer.When you learn to relax your response through practice, you don't just fight and run when you're stressed, but you calmly and constructively find ways to solve the problem.

The ability to bounce back from setbacks is an important characteristic of successful people.Resilience to setbacks, the ability to withstand stress and bounce back, is critical to health.Life always goes through all kinds of ups and downs and ups and downs. Losing a loved one, losing a home due to a fire, breaking up a family, or losing a job can all take a toll on an individual.Having the ability to bounce back from these setbacks can help a person stay healthy and even improve one's health in the long run.

Resilience also includes the courage to never back down in the face of challenges, which is also part of emotional intelligence.From an emotional intelligence perspective, resilience refers to having fortitude and the ability to remain optimistic in the face of setbacks.People with good resilience tend to be self-confident as well, and are also better able to handle stress.

Here are some tips that will help you improve your resilience:

1.Curious, like to ask questions, explore reasons, full of experimental spirit.

2.Get used to learning from your own and other people's experiences.

3.Has a great sense of humor and can laugh at himself.

4.Has a strong flexibility and adaptability to change.

5.Don't shy away from problems and face difficulties squarely.

6.Listens and empathizes well with others, including those with difficulties.

7.Be able to quickly recover from negative emotions, pack up your mood and continue on the road.

8.Can find value in accidents or bad events.

(End of this chapter)