Breathe In, Breathe Out: Best Ways To Calm Down In Stressful Situations
We’ve all been stressed out in our lives before. Sometimes it lasts a long time, for months even – as regrettable as that is. Sometimes it can last an hour, but so intense that it makes you wish to press undo.
Being stressed is normal because it’s so easy to do that in the society we live in. Should our society be better? Perhaps. Should our relationships work better? Also perhaps. But since, for now, this is a thing, then to make do it’s useful to figure some handy ways to calm down and get a grip in especially stressful conditions.
(Disclaimer: all of this information comes from my own experience, the experiences of my friends that suffer from anxiety, and from psychological pieces of advice I’ve read.)
Find Comforters
For some people, it’s plush toys, for some – gifts from important people, for others – kitten videos on YouTube.
Regardless of what the particular things you can think of are, all of us have items – or actions, or people – that make us feel like we’re at home. Think of them, clutch onto the item if you can, turn a video on, or call the person that calms you down if you can.
First of all, nobody will judge. Second of all, that’s what most people do anyway.
Train your breathing
Breathing exercises are generally helpful when it comes to issues of anxiousness. They help overall – in attempts to prevent panic attacks – and might help in stopping one that’s already in motion.
Deep breathing reduces your panic in a stressful situation, as long as you’re capable of taking control over your breathing. Some exercises would help with doing that more successfully.
Reach Out To People
The dumbest thing I’ve ever personally done in stressful situations where I’d feel panicked was running off from people and closing myself off in the bathroom until it went away a little (I sat there for a long time).
Not only will you calm down faster with someone else patting your back and holding your hand (or, at least, telling you that it’s okay over the phone), it is also foolish to think that people who care about you normally would stop caring or would judge you if they saw you in distress.
Besides, it might hurt their feelings too, if they found out that you’re scared of their reaction or mistrust them.
Reduce the Attack
Quite often, people are especially stressed out – regardless of whether to the point of a panic attack or just simply uncomfortable – by select stimuli. Some are stressed out by crowds, others – by loud noises. Other people – by public speaking.
Your best bet at calming down is reducing the stimuli. Run off into an empty alley and close your eyes for some time if you can. Look at the wall behind the people you need to speak to, not directly at them. Turn on some music if it’s the noise.
Make it less stressful for yourself, to the best of your ability. And try to figure out what exactly triggered you, so that you can avoid it (or, at least, prepare for it) the next time.
Smell Lavender
Smelling some lavender seems to help people. Be it a small bag of dried lavender or a small amount of lavender oil in your bag, it should help you calm down at least a little, so invest in some lavender; it’s not too expensive and, on top of everything, smells extremely good.
Fidgeting
Yes, yes, fidget spinners were a meme and whatnot; in reality, however, small fidgeting devices – stress balls, spinners, fidget cubes and many others – greatly help to reduce your anxiety because your mind focuses on the fidgeting.
Occupy your hands.
Obviously, “stressful situations” does not equal a panic or an anxiety attack, yet a lot of the remedies can still help you; besides, none of us are safe from panic attacks, despite whatever belief you might have.
