How To Stay Calm in Stressful Situations

If you know how to stay calm, your ability to manage your emotions can remain calm and in control under pressure and this is a direct link to your performance in life.

Stress can cause physical and mental health issues if prolonged. Stress is an necessary emotion. It is difficult to take action until we feel a level of emotion. Performance can peak under heightened activation. As long as the stress isn’t prolonged, this will not cause any issues.

The onset of stress entices the brain into growing new cells responsible for improved memory only if stress is intermittent. If the stress continues into a prolonged state, it suppresses the brain’s ability to develop new cells.

Short term stress can keep the brain alert and you can preform better this way in many cases. Over time, a human’s brain has evolved and increased in complexity. We have developed the ability to worry, which creates frequent prolonged stress. Long term stress increases risk of heart disease, depression, obesity, anxiety and cognitive performance.

Once you have learned coping strategies you can be in control, which in turn, lowers stress levels regardless of what’s happening around you, ensuring that the stress is intermittent and not prolonged.

HOW TO STAY CALM

Strategies to Stay Calm:

Appreciate What You Have

Take time to contemplate what you are grateful for. This will improve your mood and reduce stress hormones. Working daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude will lead to improved mood, energy and physical wellbeing.

Don’t Ask “What if?”

Asking “What if?” will only fuel your stress and worries. The more you spend time worrying about possibilities, the less you will be focusing on taking action that will calm you down and keep the stress away. Asking “What if?” will only take you to a place you do not want or need to be.

Stay Positive

By practicing positive thoughts, you will make the stress intermittent. Focus your brain’s attention on something that isn’t stressful. To stop your brain wondering, you need to consciously select positive things to think about. Positive thoughts will refocus your attention. When you brain is filled with negative thoughts, think about your day and identify at least one positive thing that has happened, even if it is only small. If you have something you are excited about coming up, concentrate on that.

Disconnect

Take regular time off the grid. Force yourself to have time without your phone or email and even have a 5 minute meditation during work. Give your brain a break from stress.

It is difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work by detaching yourself from work-related communication. It will be refreshing to take these breaks. This will reduce stress and mentally recharge you.

Limit Your Caffeine Intake

Drinking too much caffeine will trigger adrenaline. Caffeine can put your brain and body into a hyper aroused state of stress.

Sleep

Sleep increases your emotional intelligence and helps you to manage stress levels. When you sleep, your brain recharges. You will wake up alert and clear headed. Your self control, attention and memory are reduced when you don’t get enough sleep. Lack of sleep raises stress hormones.

Say Goodbye to Negative Self-Talk

Stopping negative self-talk helps you to better manage stress. Don’t give your negative thoughts more power. If you find yourself believing the negative thoughts, write them down and get them out of your brain. You will become more rational and clear headed when you can evaluate your negative thoughts in this way.

Reframe Your Perspective

Your own skewed perception of events will fuel stress. You can’t control your circumstances but you can control how you respond to them.

Don’t dwell on something. Take a minute to put the situation in perspective. Find positive thoughts. Take note of the negative thoughts that that are of no use to you. List the specific things that are going wrong for you. Listing them will help you see that the stressors look much more limited than you initially thinking in your mind.

Breath

The way you breathe is important. If you practice being in the moment and focusing on your breath, you will begin to train your brain to solely focus on the task at hand and take the stress away.

Take a couple of minutes to focus on your breath when you are feeling stress. Find somewhere with no distractions and just sit, breath and be in the moment. This will prevent your mind from wondering.

If this is a struggle for you, try concentrating on counting your breathes.

Use Your Support System

Try not to tackle everything on your own. Ask for help. To be calm and productive, you need to recognize when you need help when you are feeling overwhelmed.

Identify the people in your life that can be there for you to assist when you need them or to just talk to about your worries. This will provide an outlet for your anxiety and stress. With a new perspective from another person, you can mitigate your stress and strengthen relationships with the people closest to you.