What is Emotional Literacy?
There are five main aspects of emotional intelligence to develop in order to become emotionally literate. These were identified by Daniel Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence, and they relate closely to the ideas in the Nurturing Programme. They are: • Knowing our emotions Self-awareness – recognising a feeling as it happens – is the first stage. We can eventually learn to stay aware, simply noticing the emotion rather than being overwhelmed by it, however turbulent we may be feeling at the time. This takes a lot of practice! • Managing our emotions Handling our feelings builds on our awareness of them. It’s helpful if we have ways of reassuring ourselves when we’re feeling anxious, calming down when we’re angry, soothing ourselves when we are upset, and so on. Every feeling has its value and significance – they’re signposts to what’s going on in our lives. The ratio of comfortable to painful feelings determines our emotional well-being. • Motivating ourselves Harnessing our emot
