Article last updated on January 19, 2022
Staying calm no matter what is something everyone should strive for. When things go wrong, it’s important to remain levelheaded and not let emotions take over.
It’s important to remember that stress can affect our health. It can cause us to feel tired or even sick.
If we are stressed out, we might also be more likely to make bad decisions or have a hard time controlling our anger.
So how do you stay calm? Here are the top 10 ways to help you stay calm no matter what.
1. Take Control Over Your Breathing
Breathing grounds you, resets you, recalibrates your thinking and gives you energy.
When you get stressed, slow down your breathing.
Take deep breaths when you notice your mind racing with thoughts about the situation.
This will help slow your heart rate and lower your blood pressure. Deep breathing helps relax your body and calms your nerves.
Try this: Sit in a comfortable position and inhale slowly through your nose for four seconds. Hold your breath for another four seconds and then exhale slowly for eight seconds. Repeat this process three times.
The goal here is to take in enough oxygen to increase blood flow to the heart, lungs, and brain. This will help improve mental clarity and focus.
While others may find this difficult at first, once they get used to it, they will see their mood improve.
Just imagine how people behave when they are anxious and nervous. They tend to talk faster, move around more, and breathe more shallowly. But not you. You will always be able to control your breathing.
2. Focus On The Positive
Something that we tend to take for granted is being grateful for the amazing things we have in our lives. We often forget to appreciate all of the good things that happen to us throughout the day, week, month, and whole year.
When you think about the positive aspects of life, you will naturally feel better.
Staying calm no matter what and focusing on being positive is not that common. Especially if you are facing a stressful situation.
But by focusing on the positive side of life, you will start feeling happier. You always have a choice of what you want to focus on. So choose wisely.
3. Get Some Exercise
When you are in a stressful situation, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. That’s why it’s important that you exercise regularly.
Exercise releases endorphins into your system, which makes you happy. Endorphins are chemicals that give us feelings of happiness and relaxation.
Exercise also lowers cortisol levels, which is a hormone that causes anxiety.
If you don’t already exercise, now would be a great time to start. Try walking, running, swimming, biking, dancing, yoga, weight lifting, etc.
Personally, I like to lift weights and ride a bike.
I cannot stress enough how much exercise has helped me during my stressful situations.
Exercise helped me build a stronger character, have more grit, and gave me confidence.
4. Eat Food For Focus
Junk food can actually make us feel worse instead of better. When we eat junk food, we release dopamine into our brains. And you become addicted to having a short-cut for your dopamine spike.
Basically, you become lethargic, lazy, and unmotivated.
So, instead of eating junk food, try eating healthy foods so you are not dependent on some external vice to achieve happiness.
When you don’t eat well, you won’t be as focused because you will think about food instead of what actually matters.
And if you don’t have the ability to focus, you won’t have the ability to stay calm.
How do I eat healthy and stay calm if I’m in stressful situations all the time?
Organization and self-discipline. There’s no sugar coating here. You must be brutally honest with yourself and see the long-term consequences of not prioritizing what is most important, and that is your health. There are hundreds of diets you can find, but for most people, it is not a problem with having some special diet, it is just a lack of organization and habit formation.
5. Slow Down Your Thoughts
Sometimes, we need to stop everything and take a break from whatever we are doing. We can do this by slowing down our thoughts.
It doesn’t mean that you should sit still and stare blankly into space. It means that you should slow down your thinking process. This helps you gain perspective and put things into context.
The most important thing to remember here is that it’s about being mindful and in control of your thoughts.
A sense of calm comes from being aware of what’s going on around you.
You may be wondering how you can slow down your thoughts. Well, there is a way.
You just have to practice mindfulness meditation techniques or you can simply focus on breathing exercises because they are easy to incorporate into your daily ritual.
There’s no need to focus on some special breathing techniques to slow down your thoughts and stay calm. You simply need to recognize when you are breathing shallowly and then slowly breathe through your nose.
How do you stay calm in the face of adversity?
Adversity is inevitable. But it doesn’t mean you have to let it get to you. Keeping calm no matter what is possible with the proper mindset and self-care. Be grateful for what you already have. You may not have everything you would like, but you have enough to get by. Don’t worry about what you don’t have. Focus on what you do have and what you can improve on. Take pride in what you have achieved, rather than dwelling on your shortcomings. If you do feel sad, try to remember that life has ups and downs. We all go through tough times. But we also experience wonderful moments. So focus on the positives. Your attitude will influence your happiness and health. It will help you cope with challenges.
6. Set Your Standards
We all have standards. So you might as well set your standards higher than usual.
Why? Because when you raise your standards, you will automatically get more out of your life.
This is because your brain gets used to high standards. So when you meet those high standards, it becomes easier to reach them again.
One thing that really changed my perspective on standards was coming to the conclusion that we, as humans, don’t really live up to our highest standards, but up to the lowest standards we tolerate.
If you don’t tolerate something, you don’t accept it. If you don’t accept something, you won’t let that happen to you.
Now, imagine your tolerance level is that you won’t be satisfied with yourself if you don’t achieve a certain body composition, peace of mind, or financial success.
These standards must be under your control, or I should say, the outcome is directly determined by how much effort you put in.
When everyone starts panicking, you remain poised under pressure. Define what that means to you and set a limit that you will not cross.
7. Shake Up Your Routine
Nothing works like a change of routine. It gives you a fresh perspective on things.
Routines are basically habits. Habits are hard to change. But once you start changing your habits, you’ll notice a huge difference.
Most people find themselves stuck in a routine. They do the same things day after day and expect different results.
But if you keep repeating the same behavior over and over again, you will eventually become the same person. And that’s not good.
So why don’t we create new habits? Why don’t we try new ways of doing things?
Because there is always something better than what we know now. There is always room for improvement.
It’s also very difficult to break old habits. When you are trying to break an old habit, you get so focused on the task at hand that you forget to look back.
But if you want to be a calm and confident person no matter what happens, you need to be a person that is capable of seeing everything clearly, even when you’re focusing on one thing only.
8. Don’t Seek a Reward, Become a Reward
A person that has a sense of calm confidence knows that they can handle anything that comes their way.
He doesn’t seek rewards. He seeks opportunities. Opportunities to learn, to experience, to grow and to improve themselves.
What does this mean? This means that you shouldn’t seek rewards from others.
Become a person worthy of receiving rewards as a by-product of your behaviors and actions.
You see, tough times require tough and valuable people. Your character is what matters.
Taking positive steps towards achieving your goals is what makes you feel great about yourself.
These goals will help you gain clarity on where you are actually going and who you are becoming.
And those kinds of goals will help you make decisions based on facts rather than emotions or some suppressed unmet need.
Then just imagine how great it is to stay calm and confident in any situation because you respect yourself.
9. Accept That Things Will Not Always Go Your Way
Don’t wait until you lose your temper and then regret it later. Don’t wait until you fail before you take action.
Don’t wait until someone else tells you that you cannot succeed. Don’t wait until someone else says that you have failed.
Accept that nothing is perfect. Nothing ever goes according to plan. If you want to be calm no matter what, accept that fact.
Accepting this truth will help you prepare for whatever may come your way.
The world is not playing by your rules. You are playing by your own rules in this world.
When you are driving a car, you will easily notice if you have a problem.
Imagine someone in front of you is driving slowly.
Do you think they are trying to annoy you? Or do you think that they are just being cautious?
Do you want them to obey your rules because “that is how it is supposed to be?”
If you are getting angry and your sense of peace is disturbed, put the mental break on and zoom out of the situation.
You can focus on yourself and your actions. If something doesn’t go your way, it’s OK.
10. Learn How To Say “No” Firmly and Often
Saying “no” automatically means you are saying “yes” to something else.
When you say “no”, you are giving up something else. And if you don’t give up something else, you won’t achieve your goal.
It’s okay to say, “I’m sorry, I can’t do that right now.”
It’s okay to tell someone that you are busy right now. It’s okay to ask someone to postpone their plans with you. It’s okay if you have to turn down an opportunity.
But you must also know when to say “yes.”
Don’t say “yes” to things that you don’t really want to do.
Say yes to things that you truly enjoy doing. Say yes to things that you believe in. Say yes to opportunities that you are excited about.
Most people will ask you for favors. They will ask you to do things that you don’t want to do.
And the more capable you become, the more frequently this will occur.
By stating “no” firmly and frequently, you will avoid these situations and be a calm, intentional person.
Conclusion
All in all, there are many ways to stay calm no matter what. But one thing is certain: You are choosing your attitude. There will be times when you get upset, frustrated, irritated, anxious, and so forth.
Just remember that it’s only temporary. What is permanent is the choice you make to stay calm no matter what happens.
To recap, the top 10 ways to stay calm are:
- Take Control Over Your Breathing
- Focus On The Positive
- Get Some Exercise
- Eat Food For Focus
- Slow Down Your Thoughts
- Set Your Standards
- Shake Up Your Routine
- Don’t Seek a Reward, Become a Reward
- Accept That Things Will Not Always Go Your Way
- Learn How To Say “No” Firmly and Often
There you go! Your mental health is important, so take care of it and be the best person you can be.
