Photo by Ian Keefe on Unsplash
Have you wondered why we felt so anxious whenever we need to do a presentation in front of everyone? Have you felt before the sudden adrenaline and stress whenever you need to finish so much stuff and the deadline is tomorrow?
I think we all experienced these, but have you ever wondered why some people manage to pull themselves and be able to overcome those fear and anxiety. It is even more amazing when someone seems so relax despite all the reasons to be anxious.
I have deep dive into this idea of how other people are able to regulate those emotions and be able to stay calm even in the midst of external chaotic triggers.
First, let us understand why we feel anxious or panic on a given situation.
WHY DO WE EXPERIENCE PANIC?
Your heart is pounding. You can’t catch your breath. You feel consumed by fear and may even think you’re dying — even though you’re really in no danger.
Your body’s “fight or flight” response is behind these intense physical symptoms. Normally when you encounter a threat — whether it’s a grizzly bear or a swerving car — your nervous system springs into action. The hormone adrenaline floods into your bloodstream, putting your body on high alert. Your heartbeat quickens, which sends more blood to your muscles. Your breathing becomes fast and shallow, so you can take in more oxygen. Your blood sugar spikes. Your senses get sharper.
Based on my research, panic is mainly our body’s response to “fight or flight”, whenever we felt any threat our nervous system automatically reacts.
Our adrenaline activates and we suddenly have the rush on our blood which acts as the defense mechanism of our body. Our brain releases cortisol which is one of the “stress hormones”, this hormone allows our body to consume more glucose and control blood pressure.
Whenever we feel anxious or stress our body usually have high cortisol this is our body’s way in handling such situation.
BENEFITS OF BEING CALM
1. Improves concentration
There is no doubt that you can focus more if you are calm rather when you are stressed and can’t regulate your emotion. Staying calm mean you can focus more on the solution rather than the problem. Often times stressed causes mental block which significantly destroys your focus.
2. Boosts your energy level
Staying calm changes your perspective of life. Practicing how to stay calm involves a lot of affirmations and positive thinking which ultimately gives a positive perspective towards life. In the long run, this boosts your energy level.
This allows you to do more activity as compared to someone who seems to always have depleted their energy.
3. Develop Intuition and Character
By being calm and a positive thinker, you tend to boost your character and personality in an optimistic manner leaving a positive impact on people who are part of your life, around you or the ones with whom you communicate and helps you boost your sixth sense and intuition.
4. Increases creativity
Being calm means you will have more chance on focusing on your creativity rather than being too clouded with emotions and problems. It allows you to see the bigger picture which we normally don’t see whenever we experience stress or fear.
5. Improves health condition
Stress takes a toll on the body. Different symptoms can be a result of being stressed. Some symptoms that can be caused by stress include headaches, low energy, digestive problems, muscle tension, blood pressure, racing heart, to mention a few. All these can be avoided by staying calm and not letting the stress get to you. The mind and the body are connected. Thus, the stress in the mind will lead to different health conditions while a calm mind will give you vibrant health.
HABITS TO DEVELOP CALMNESS
1. Breathe deeply for 10 seconds
Whenever you have this sudden burst of emotions may it be from fear, anger or anxiety, try doing deep breath for 10 seconds. Deeply inhale and exhale, this helps you relax and think clearly, allowing you to think more of logical actions rather than just reacting towards your current emotions.
2. Don’t take things personally
I think this is one of the skills that if you are able to master to you will feel more confident and sociable. Thinking that anything that what others will say to you is not personally about you but more so who they are.
We are often hinder by our own thoughts and emotions that sometimes we take things negatively and reacted outright without even thinking if such stuff is worth our time and effort.
Whenever someone says bad thing about you (especially when you are stressed), try to laugh and just think that it wasn’t about you but more so of the values of the person badmouthing you.
This will significantly impact how you react on a more logical way rather than by just allowing your emotions to control you.
3. Be grateful
Build the habit of gratification, this allows you to significantly improve your self-esteem and self-control. People who are grateful are more grounded about themselves, thus considered to be more relax and won’t get annoyed easily.
In addition, the feeling of gratitude replaces the emotions such as fear and anxiety.
4. Meditate every morning
Meditation is one of the simplest task that has tons of benefit. However, building this habit takes a lot of commitment. Meditating about your thought allows you to have clear thoughts especially during your stressful moment.
Final Thoughts
There are more ways how being calm can help you. We must understand that this is a skill that anyone can master. We just need to be intentional and build the habit around it if we wanted to acquire it.
Being calm means being in control, this helps us regulate our emotions. If you can control your emotions and yourself, you will slowly see how easily you can control your life. Be always calm and see how it can change your life.
Vir Glarea 