Staying calm while under pressure is a very difficult task for most people. After all, we live in a society where there is tremendous pressure to perform well on our jobs, meet our responsibilities at home, deal with personal issues, and try to take care of out health in the process. More often than not we try to keep up with the first three tasks and move health and exercise down on the list when this is the one aspect that can contribute significantly to staying calm under pressure.
If you can stay calm under pressure this will lead to clear thinking, sound decision making, and a healthier way of life. However, for most of us this is much easier said than done. Regardless, it is extremely important to find a way to relieve the pressure you feel because prolonged stress can lead to further health issues such as depression, anxiety, heart attack, and other major physical health problems.
Assuming that you cannot simply drop everything to reduce stress, you should set aside some “me” time to start developing an inner space of calmness and peace.
Here are some solutions for achieving this state of mind:
1Deep Breathing
Whenever you face pressure or a stressful situation your first reaction is to freak out and lose it which is not helpful in solving the situation at large. Instead, when you feel like you are going to lose control, step back or leave the situation altogether and retreat to a place where you can breathe deeply. Breathe through your nose and fill your stomach, hold it there and then exhale. Repeat the process a few times before you return to the situation.
If you make a habit of doing this every time you encounter a stressful situation where you are about to lose your patience, you will condition your body and mind to naturally stay calm under pressure. To enhance this process you can make it a practice to do deep breathing exercises on a daily basis which will help you to approach things with a different perspective.
2Hypnosis
Self hypnosis is a technique that is used to recondition your brainwaves and change the way you think about situations that stress you out. If practiced with consistency, self hypnosis places you in an altered state of mind to enable you to recondition your subconscious into a different way of thinking. With self hypnosis it is possible to change the way you think when you encounter stressful situations. This will allow you to remain calm while under pressure and make better decisions under stress.
If you are unsure about how to practice self hypnosis, there are many programs and CD recordings that will step you through the process and help you with different techniques for practicing different hypnosis techniques.
3Affirmations
There is a lot to be said for positive affirmations, contrary to what some may believe. For most, positive affirmation does not work because they simple say verbally what they want to happen in their life and it all ends there. True positive affirmation involves writing down and constantly visualizing exactly what you want in your life and how you prefer to respond under pressure. Writing it down cements the thoughts in your mind and if you practice this on a daily basis, you can condition yourself to think differently about situations that stress you out. It will also help you to begin to see things that you want out of your life and have not yet achieved. By choosing to react a certain way and practicing positive affirmations you can transform your life in any way that you want.
4Relaxation Techniques
Relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation can improve your overall sense of well being and benefit your psychological state of mind, which can help you stay calm under pressure. Techniques such as yoga help to relax your nerves, strengthen your body so it can manage stress, and help you to feel healthier and more mentally focused in general. It will also help you to face situations under pressure and deal with things in a more reasonable fashion.
5Diet and Exercise
We live in a society that is constantly on the go and our diet is no exception. Whether you realize it or not, diet can have an adverse effect on the way you feel and how you react to stress. If you look around you, there are fast food temptations on every street corner, not to mention on the end of every aisle in the grocery store where you can “grab it quick.” For this reason, our diet is filled with processed foods that contain preservatives and other ingredients that can alter the way we think and feel.
Make it a habit to shop in the produce section of the grocery store or avoid temptation altogether and visit your local farmer’s market. Produce is a lot cheaper and healthier and it is easy to prepare. Also, make it a habit to exercise at least 20 minutes 4 times a week. If you are having trouble fitting this in with your daily responsibilities, make it a habit to take the stairs or park your car farther away from your destination so you have to walk. Although these may seem like little steps, they all add up to the big picture which is staying calm while you are under pressure.
6Benefits of Learning to Stay Calm
Although learning to stay calm may not be easy at first, if you stick with it, you will start to see a big payoff when you begin to notice a difference in the way you feel and how you react to external forces in your daily life. If you talk to anyone who has been through it and practiced some of the techniques discussed here, they will tell you about their challenges with starting out and how it was all well worth it in the end to live a higher quality of life and have a more balanced mindset.
