Too much stress is bad. Whether that stress shows itself as anxiety, fear or uncertainty is of no consequence. When you are debilitated and disabled by these mental energies floating around in your psyche, you know that its high time to find some remedy.
In this article, I’ll go through ways and techniques in which you can overcome stress and win back your sense of calm which you so very much deserve.
Let’s get started!
The Good and the Bad: Eustress and Distress
In fact, we need a certain level of stress to get ourselves off our butts and do something. However, too much of that very same stress that motivates you can also come to torment you, both psychologically and physically.
Let’s take a closer look at these two types of stresses:
We call the ‘good’ stress Eustress and the bad one Distress.
1. Eustress: The One That Helps You Meet Your Goals
Have you ever gotten something from life that you’ve always wanted?
Like earning a college degree, starting a business, winning a game, and so on…?
That’s where eustress helped you.
Eustress is important as it drives you to do things that you’ve always wanted and it’s a necessary factor for optimal performance.
2. Distress: The One That Causes All The Problems
Ever felt helpless when you couldn’t meet your goal?
Like not having enough money to pay rent, losing everything you owned, getting fired from work, etc.
That’s where distress kicks in.
Distress is the kind of stress that keeps you up worrying about the inevitable at nights, eats away your personality and makes you paranoid.
And, it is the root cause of most problems.
11 Tips, Tricks and Techniques to Keep You Calm
Everyone faces a few distressing situations in their lives.
Think of it as a natural law imbedded into biology and nature. At some point in your life, you will be tested and it’s up to you as to how you’ll react.
So, what should you do?
Well, when faced with a stressful situation, you should always try to keep your head above water and tackle the situation as calmly as you can.
I’ve got a few tips and techniques for you. Let’s have a look.
1. Keep A Check on Your Senses
First tip is, when you find yourself in a stressful situation, simply stop wherever you are and take a good look at your body’s reaction to it.
Are your palms sweating? Is your face flushed? Is your heart rate up?
Stress is known to activate your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and you see the following symptoms:
- Your eyes dilate
- Face flushes
- Mouth dries up
- Heart rate goes up
- Your digestive system is ‘deactivated’
- And so on…
So, while you are in a challenging and distressing situation, you should take a note of how you feel to keep yourself in check.
After all, you should know that you’re stressed and your body’s unique reaction to stress in order to combat it!
2. Stop Everything and Take a “Timeout”
When you’re feeling stressed and seeing symptoms of it, try to take a break.
A time out of sorts.
Instead of reacting impulsively to the situation, you just take a break, gather your thoughts and take a few deep breaths. This one has probably saved quite a lot of marriages!
In other words, think before you act – even when you’re stressed out.
3. Relax Your Body
One of the symptoms of stress includes the tightening of your body’s muscles—you’ve got to be carrying all that stress somewhere!
And that’s when the progressive muscle relaxation technique can help you out!
Using this technique you basically relax your entire body and let go of the tension that you’ve been carrying in your body.
In fact, studies suggest that progressive muscle relaxation technique can help in reducing stress-related symptoms!
Here’s a video that’ll help you out:
4. When In Doubt, Take Deep Breaths!
A lot of fights can be avoided if both the parties just stop and take a few deep breaths.
Did you know that taking deep breaths increases the level of oxygen in your brain?
It’s true.
This, in turn, helps you in giving your emotions a much-needed break in times when it’s more necessary. This also helps you in making decisions that are not just motivated by decisions.
So, when you’re facing a stressful situation, always take deep breaths and make a decision!
5. Workout and Calm Yourself!
Did you know that after you work out your body secrets the “feel good” hormones?
They’re also known as endorphins that make you feel good about yourself during stressful times! So, when you meet a distressing situation, take a break and get a workout in.
This’ll surely be a great pick-me-up.
6. Think Positive, Stay Positive
When we encounter a stressful situation, we tend to start thinking negatively. And those thoughts, in turn, stress us out even more!
Like when your professor asks you to meet them after the class and you spend the entire class worrying about what wrong you did only to find out that they just wanted something else!
We’ve all been there, haven’t we?
So, instead of always thinking about the worst case scenario, you should rather think positive and attract good energy towards yourself.
This way, you also get to think of novel ideas to get yourself out of the stressful situation!
7. Sleep it Off!
Sometimes, the best thing you can do for your body is sleeping the stress off and dealing with it when you wake up.
I’m pretty sure this one has helped a lot of married couples!
When you sleep a problem off, you get to calm your body down. This means that you don’t make any of the impulsive and bad decisions you might have in the moments of stress!
8. Manage Your Expectations
Do you tend to set your expectations way too high?
That’s probably why you can’t keep calm in challenging situations! Try to bring your expectations down to a realistic level in order to keep your cool.
Of course, it’ll get better with practice.
9. Think Before Reacting
Impulsive actions are something that you’d probably regret in the future.
So, when met with a challenging situation, try to calm yourself down and think before you react.
After all, screaming at your boss will only get you fired and even more stressed!
10. So Long, Stimulants!
So, what can make a stressful situation worse?
Stimulants!
No, I’m not talking about drugs or pills. I’m also talking about the coffee you love to drink furiously or even tea.
These beverages can over-work your nervous system when consumed in excess, that is they make you more stressed than you already are.
So, swipe left on the coffee when you’re feeling a bit stressed.
11. Mindfulness & Meditation
If you really want to ramp up your stress management and equanimity skills, meditation or mindfulness could do wonders for you.
The mindful approach is indeed one of the more long-term stable ones.
If you’re a novice you might be wondering, what is mindfulness meditation?
Essentially it’s an ancient meditative technique that helps you overcome redudant mental distractions by paying full attention to the present moment at hand.
Don’t know how to start? Try this beginners guide for mindfulness meditation.
So, How Do I Remain Calm in Stressful Situations?
You lose your battle against stress if you give into stress on a daily basis as a unconscious habit.
Hopefully these techniques against stress we’ve gone through can help you stay calm, cool and centred.
It’s really hard not to give into stress, especially when you’re being tested in many different ways during day-to-day life. However you should keep in mind that life has always been like this, for everyone who’s ever lived. Life has tested us and will keep on doing that.
Found this article helpful? Let me know in the comments section!
I’m a nightingale singing sweet songs in the night!