How To Train Your Mind To Be Calm In Stressful Situations

Have you ever done things under pressure? Have you made mistakes? Have you encountered stressful and critical situations? What do you do in these situations? Does your behavior in those stressful situations help or harm you?

Occasionally, we are presented with unfamiliar situations in which we don’t know how to respond. And, under pressure, we tend to react impulsively or not respond at all. Not many of us are happy with the results and feel exhausted by the overthinking, self-sabotage, and negative thoughts about ourselves. I believe our mind plays a huge role and training it will help us keep calm in these stressful situations.

Below I am suggested a few ways you can use to train your mind so you can stay calm, get perspective, and respond appropriately to those stressful situations…

1. You are not the victim. When things don’t go as expected we tend to blame ourselves. Doing this adds more stress as you are feeling pity for yourself and frustration. Just know that not everything is under your control, unexpected situations happen and the only thing that you are in charge of is the way you respond to them.
2. Rest. When we are dealing with a huge amount of stress, either it is an overload of work, a huge to-do list, or anything that takes up a lot of time and space in your mind…it is important to take a break and rest. When we sleep we are recharging our brains. We are giving space for all the important information to store in and once you are awake things seem lighter. There are studies that show how a lack of enough sleep makes us feel even more stressed and feelings of fatigue.
3. Mindfulness. Practicing meditation or any other practice that includes sitting in silence and being the observer of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors…allows us to see things with perspective. The more we learn to be still and notice what and how we think, feel, and behave will help us identify what is going on internally in stressful situations. Our mind will find an inner calmness as it is able to see things through the different perceptual positions. This will allow us to find new ways to solve problems taking into account the different point of views.
4. Positivity. The more we practice jumping into positive thinking and finding the positive things in the stressful moments, the more positive we will see and easier it will get to deal with. I like seeing it as two pathways, and by focusing on the good, the easier it will get for us to follow the positive pathway, meaning that more positive and good we will find along the way. By focusing on the positive side to things we are somehow unblocking the pathway that will help us see things with the perspective we need so we can get the best outcomes from the situation.
5. Be active. Some of us tend to freeze when we are under pressure or are dealing with an intensive, demanding and stressful situation. It feels like your mind is blocked and cannot make any decisions. It is important to stay active physically, spiritually, and mentally, so you can do something about the situation. Take a walk, read a book, go for a run…take time off to get your mind off the stressful situation and come back with renewed energy.
6. Reframe the story. I strongly believe that a stressful situation becomes even more stressful depending on the story we are telling yourself. By practicing mindfulness, gratitude, and other techniques we are able to see what we are telling yourself about the situation. When we are able to see things with perspective and notice that on many occasions we are intensifying and magnifying a situation by our thoughts, we can choose to reframe the problem and create a new story. How would you rather want the situation to look like? This new story will help get a better vision, hence, respond better to the stressful situation.