Most people lose their calm every once in a while. Emotions can be powerful and overwhelming. The great thing is that you can actually learn to control them and feel lighter and happier throughout the day, and throughout your life.
Here are 14 keys to calm down when you feel annoyed, angry, nervous, stressed out, or when things seem to fall apart and you’re on the edge of a breakdown.
Let’s take a look:
1 – Take 8 deep and slow breaths. Focus entirely on your breathing while you slowly breath in and out. Behold the transformation.
2 – Take a step back. Take a moment to observe the situation as if you were looking from a distant. Don’t be the person or victim that’s caught up in the middle of the situation but look at it from a bystander’s perspective and see how your frame of reference will change.
3 – Slow down, pause and delay your response. Force yourself to not react or respond immediately. If possible wait one or two minutes or at the least 10 to 20 seconds. Watch your initial response fade away and realize it’s ill-advised, then think, contemplate with calmness, keep an open mind, and see how smart and effective your response after the pause will be.
4 – Get out of the house, the car, the building, wherever you are. Get outside. Your mind works differently in outside environments. Fresh air and nature has a profound impact on your system and makes you feel calmer and see things clearer almost immediately.
5 – Repeat a peaceful mantra to yourself. Say quietly to yourself “I am calm, focused and at ease in every situation.” Visualize yourself being calm. Be kind to yourself.
6 – Focus and act on things you can control, and stop focusing and worrying about things you can’t control.