A few weeks ago I was taking my son to school in the midst of a snow storm. As I pulled into the student drop-off at the high school, I noticed a woman who was getting into her car as I was waiting to move forward. I was about up to her car when she got in, and started to back out. There wasn’t really room for her to back out, so I pulled forward past her. Her rear lights went on and she started to back out just as I passed her.

Evidently, she must have thought that I should have waited for her to pull out. Moments later she pulled up next to me on the passenger side and began yelling, gesturing, and waiving her arms. I just sat there and smiled. I guess I should have thought better of doing that because my smile seemed to make her increase the extremity of her behavior. At that point she became so out of control that I couldn’t contain myself any longer and I began to laugh.

Immediately she took off and cut in front of me. Obviously very upset, she pulled out of the drop-off area, nearly losing control of her car. She stopped just short of rear-ending the person in front of her. As I drove home I considered her behavior and how often each of us might better keep from losing control of our emotions. Here are a number of questions that might help each of us heighten our awareness of our ability to maintain our cool.

1. What are you full of? I not asking metaphorically! We tend to store our emotions often allowing them to fill us up. If we are angry, frustrated, or severely agitated then those emotions tend to spill out of us in our interactions with others whether we want them to or not.
Whatever was going on with the woman in the snow storm, I will never know. Likewise when dealing with others who may react emotionally, we must admit that we don’t know what is going on with them even though we may not agree with their behavior. But in this situation I probably did something initially that caused her to react emotionally, then irrationality. If you find yourself becoming upset frequently, you need to recognize your behavior and try to surface the source of your emotional reaction—your thinking.

2. Do you become emotional when things don’t turn out like you think they should? We all have a preconceived perception of how things should look. When what we expect doesn’t occur, our expectations seem violated, and we may end up feeling angry, stressed or anxious. When such physical reactions occur, those that are emotionally intelligent are able to spot such situations and they don’t let their feelings get the best of them. They manage the situation toward a more effective outcome.

Continue to read more :- How Emotionally Intelligent Are You Really?10 Questions for Assessing Your Ability to Keep Your Cool