24 Emotional Skills That Can Improve Your Life

There are many types of emotional skills (also sometimes referred to as emotional intelligence). By building these emotional skills — skills like emotion regulation, empathy, and kindness — you can more easily increase your happiness and well-being. Check out the variety of emotional skills below to learn how you can build these skills and improve your life.

Positive Thinking

This emotional skill involves the ability to see the good, the bad... everything in a more positive light.

Self Confidence

This emotional skill refers to having positive views of yourself and your own self-worth.

Happiness Planning

This emotional skill refers to having a solid and effective plan for how to achieve happiness.

Resiliency

This emotional skill involves being able to quickly recover and thrive in the face of difficulties.

Personal Development

This emotional skill involves being able to successfully progress towards you goal of improving yourself.

Ability to Stop Worrying

This skill involves to being able to stop worrying about real or perceived events.

Empathy

This skill refers to being able to put yourself in other people's shoes and feel what they are feeling.

Ability to Be Grateful

This skill refers to being thankful for the people, things, and experiences you have.

Reappraisal Ability

This skill refers to changing the way you feel about a situation by changing the way you think about it.

A Positive Attitude

This skill involves to being able to find the positives or see the silver lining in negative situations.

Relationship Skills

This skill is about being able to have emotionally positive interactions with other people.

Kindness

This skill is about being able to treat people from all walks of life with kindness.

Planning Ability

This skill is about being able to organize your life in ways that help you build the other skills.

Ability to Grow

This skill is about being motivated to continue to improve and develop the self.

Sense of Purpose

This skill refers to being able to figure out and pursue what gives you a sense of meaning in life.

Self-Expression

This skill is about being able to show and share your true, authentic self with others.

Ability to Regulate Your Behavior

This skill refers to being able to resist  unhealthy behaviors to cope with your negative emotions.

Ability to Overcome Avoidance

This skill is about being able to approach, versus avoid, new or scary life experiences.

Self Empowerment

This skill is about being able to make your own decisions and live your life as you see fit.

Assertiveness

This skill refers to being able to communicate your needs effectively so that they can be met.

Emotion Regulation Skills

This skill refers to being able to manage and control emotions in ways that optimize well-being.

Emotional Clarity

This skill involves being clear about which emotions you are feeling and why you are feeling them.

Ability to Tolerate Feeling Rejected

This skill involves being able to maintain positive self views even in the face of social rejection.

Ability to Stop Rumination

This emotional skill involves being able to stop repetitive negative thought processes.

Non-Judgement 

This skill refers to being able to accept your emotions non-judgmentally.