Surely it has happened to you of being in a situation that generates a lot of stress, like a fight or an exam, and losing control over what you think, say and do. This happens to everyone, and although it may not seem so, it is possible to control stress and your body, to remain calm and face the situation with the best possible posture.
How? Here are some tricks to achieve tranquillity in any stressful situation. Take them to practice when you are calm, to make sure you understand them well, and then, when you find yourself in that undesirable situation, you will know how to achieve your serenity.
- Interrupt What You Are Doing
One of the best ways to calm yourself down is to stop interacting with what stressed you – be it an activity, a person, a situation. Interrupt what caused you stress and get away from this for a while until you recover inner tranquillity.
You can try to count to 10, breathe deeply 5 times, before facing again to what stressed you. For example, if you find yourself arguing with another person, you can apologize for about 5 minutes to change the scenario, breathe, and calm down. In this way it will be easier to resume the discussion and resolve it without much stress.
- Concentrate On Your Senses
The stress is a response to a threat our bodies. That is, when we feel threatened, our body responds by releasing the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortical, among others. It is then that our body begins to change, and prepares to defend itself against the “threat”. However, often that threat is simply an argument or an embarrassing situation, in which it is not worthwhile to put yourself in the “fight or flight “mode.
To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to concentrate on those moments of stress in the physical responses you experience to identify them and then prevent or control them. Several studies have shown that the process of being aware of our stress can help us control these responses in our brain that then become automatic.
- Take A Deep Breath
Surely it has happened to you to find yourself in a stressful situation and feel difficult to breathe. This is because when our body enters the “fight and flight” mode that I mentioned earlier, our sympathetic nervous system can have a considerable effect on our breathing.
Therefore, it is important to focus our concentration on breathing and to breathe deeply. This will allow the level of oxygen in our body to level out and, as a result, give you the feeling of relaxation and tranquillity necessary to face any situation.
- Relax Your Muscles, Stretch
Stress also contributes to the muscles contracting and this could further increase the tension of the person and generate a series of unpleasant contractures.
Now, it is possible to prevent this by performing a series of exercises to relieve tension. The exercises are called “progressive relaxation of the muscles” and focus on tensing and relaxing the muscles little by little.
- Listen To Music
The music can help calm you and release stress. You can listen to several compositions of classical music or melodies that are made with the purpose of relaxing. These are usually the most effective options! but you can also choose your favourite songs.
So, what did these techniques look like to relax and calm you down in any stressful situation? Before answering, you’d better put them into practice!
