Life is full of stresses and strains, and it’s easy for stress to build up leaving us feeling overwhelmed or anxious. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed in stressful situations, I’ve got some tips to help you stay calm.
Some situations are inevitable, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them or control them. We can however, control how we react in such situations. Stress effects us all regardless of age, job or gender, but there are a few things we can do to try and calm ourselves to make the stressful situation a little more manageable.
Breathing
It might sound ridiculously simple and obvious, but controlling our breathing is said to be the most effective technique in reducing anxiety or anger quickly. Learning breathing exercises to try and calm your body and mind can be really beneficial.
When we’re feeling anxious or angry, we tend to take shorter, shallower breaths which then sends a message to your brain enforcing the fight or flight response, which can only intensify our stressful feelings. Longer, deeper calming breaths will help to calm your brain, and reduce the need for our fight or flight response.
Focus
Whenever you have negative thoughts and feel yourself becoming more stressed or worked up, try and focus on something completely irrelevant to the situation you’ve found yourself in. It could be a time or place you remember feeling happy and calm, or it could be something you’re looking forward to, to try and diminish your negative thoughts and anxious thoughts.
Reach Out
Never feel afraid to ask for help or advice, especially if you feel overwhelmed or stressed. Talking about our stresses or worries can reduce the stress you feel, and whomever you speak to might be able to offer some helpful advice on how to deal or resolve the stressful situation. Like the saying goes; a problem shared is a problem solved.
Challenge Your Thoughts
I am really bad at overthinking every single situation, thinking of every possible scenario for absolutely everything. It’s seriously tiring, and it’s easy to catastrophise which isn’t healthy. When you’re worrying or feeling anxious due to a stressful situation, take a step back and challenge your thoughts.
Is this likely to happen? What’s the worst that can happen? What can I do should the worst happens? By trying to rationalise your worries, it will really help to see things a little more practically. Try thinking about how you can turn the negatives into positives, and not think about the worst case scenario as it’s not productive, and can only leave you feeling worse.
Hi! My name is Gemma, and welcome to Miss Makeup Magpie, a UK based lifestyle blog sharing varied content to cover all genres.
