Emotional intelligence is a broad concept that involves the ability to understand yourself and others.

New research shows that defining and understanding your emotions becomes a key factor in managing them.

As your emotion vocabulary expands and deepens, so will your ability to adapt to life’s challenges.

The ability to understand your feelings and those of others is critical to mental health and relationships. Captured by the concept of emotional intelligence, this ability can help you succeed in ways that “book smarts” cannot.

Sally has risen up the career ladder in her field despite not having all of the necessary academic credentials. People like her and want to be with her. Even during times when the stress levels on the job are rising to almost insufferable proportions, Sally seems to make people feel better. Eventually, through her leadership, they overcome adversity. What is it about Sally that gives her this almost magical quality?

Labeling Your Emotions is the First Step to Regulating Them

A new study led by Laureate Institute for Brain Research’s Taylor Torres and colleagues (2026) focuses on people’s ability to regulate their emotions, which “encompasses any cognitive or behavioral action taken to modify an emotional state” (p. 1). These actions may be applied not just to yourself, but to others. Sally showed this ability by managing both her own stress and that of her coworkers.

Emotion........

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