how would you react when you hear your
friend's sister receives a 4.0 cgpa in
her exam
probably she's smart but let's say you
watch a tourist not leaving a tip for
the restaurant staff while traveling in
another country do you react the same
way and what about when someone talks to
you about their emotions and explains
why they feel the way they feel
this way our book smart street smart and
emotionally smart comes into the picture
Oxford dictionary defines book smart as
being highly knowledgeable about
academic subjects but only knowing a
little about real life people and
interactions on the other hand some
people might refer to Street smarts as
common sense or having tact it's also
known in the scientific Community as
social intelligence
psychologist Edward thorndeck explained
that social intelligence is
understanding other people managing them
and acting appropriately in social
situations being emotionally smart is
when you are aware of your emotions and
can control and express your emotions
while also being capable of managing
interpersonal relationships with empathy
with the right habits you can become
academically emotionally or socially
smarter with that said here are five
habits that will help you to become
smarter
curiosity doesn't kill the cat is your
mind always searching for answers to
these questions
made it does it work
so you have a curious mind and always
feel the need to dig deeper beneath the
surface research published in the
journal neuron concluded that curiosity
is linked to better memory and learning
capacity the reward circuit in the brain
becomes active when you're curious
you're more likely to learn and retain
information when the reward system
interacts with your hippocampus a brain
region responsible for forming memories
curiosity makes you passionate and
interested in a subject
so memorizing information about it
becomes easier mental exercises
reading is to the mind what exercise is
to the body scientist Stuart Ritchie and
colleagues conducted a study of
identical twins ages 7 to 16 where they
discovered that differences in Reading
during their childhood years influenced
their intellectual development in other
words when you read more you'll improve
your reading skills and can learn more
complex knowledge reading does not only
make you academically smart but it can
make you emotionally smart as well in a
2013 study psychologists David Kidd and
Emmanuel castano demonstrated that
reading literary fiction helps readers
understand other people's emotions
better each twist in turn allows readers
to delve into the minds of others and
think critically about them empathy
creative thinking and vocabulary are all
developed through these mental exercises
write your feelings if writing it is
this dash at the paper of a phrase The
Sweep of a brush as the question
Virginia Woolf asked herself back in
1923 and she wrote in her Personal Diary
one fascinating thing about this English
author was that she chronicled her
writing process on a regular basis she
loved to document her feelings and
thoughts while she was working on a
novel emulating this daily habit
practiced by Virginia Woolf helps you be
conscious of amazing things while
emptying negative thoughts out of your
mind according to researchers kit Klein
and Andrea Boles writing your experience
as an adrenal improves your working
memory capacity when you write you're
constantly driven to think about recent
life events and their outcomes as you
try to express them logically researcher
James penbaker also explained that
through journaling attention is paid to
emotional experiences which may increase
the understanding of your emotions when
you Journal you can express your
emotions in a safe self-directed
environment enabling you to become more
aware of how you feel and think listen
to silence as you meditate a dreamy
voice from the podcast guide you
whatever thoughts come and go in your
mind simply observe them as if from a
distance mindfulness meditation
emphasizes being aware of what you're
thinking while being in the present
moment a study conducted by
neuroscientist Sarah Lazar and
colleagues has proven that long-term
meditators had more gray matter in the
frontal cortex a brain region that makes
executive decisions and is involved with
working memory working memory affects
many cognitive functions such as
understanding language reasoning and
problem solving and what's interesting
50 year old meditators had the same
amount of gray matter as 25 year olds
become a people Watcher organizational
psychologist Ronald Riggio says that
people who are Street Smart know how to
play various social roles being
observant of social interactions and
subtle social cues will help you
understand unspoken social norms in a
community pay attention to how others
behave and what they say to help you
read the other person's thoughts and
feelings also develop the habit of
watching how people of different
cultures and ethnicities interact so
that you can also be culturally aware
and sensitive
keep in mind that being smart is not
restricted to doing well academically
smartness also means you're attuned to
your social environment and the feelings
of those around you be proud of the
progress you make as you cultivate these
habits to become smarter whether your
goal is to be more emotionally sensitive
or navigate better in Social
environments you're truly capable and
remember you matter