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
