Mental Health
Five Practical Tips to Remain Calm and Composed in Challenging Times
How can we manage our anxiety and protect our mental health?
“Stay calm and serene regardless of what life throws at you.” — Marcus Aurelius
Introduction
The pandemic has been adversely affecting our lives in all parts of the globe. As a result, increased anxiety and fear have been a global phenomenon from health, social, psychological, and economic perspectives. Stress, anxiety, and fear are the root causes of both physical and mental health.
Like many people, I also experienced the psychological effects of the pandemic during my 14-day mandatory lockdown. Despite my years of experience in coping with chronic stress and anxiety, I felt anxious at certain times. However, using a few simple techniques, I managed copying with anxiety more effectively and prevented them from growing further.
In this post, I share five simple, natural, and powerful techniques to reduce our stress and calm our anxious minds. I also observed the use of these techniques in people around me who used them successfully. We can use these techniques in our personal and professional life.
1 — Observing Anxious Thoughts & Behavior
Anxiety is inevitable in uncertain times. All of us experience it as part of our living conditions. However, if anxiety is unchecked and grows, we may face some psychological and physiological issues.
The amygdala, the brain’s monitoring system, produces stress hormones when we feel anxious about known or unknown situations. The most prominent one is cortisol, as I discussed in this article. The purpose of the amygdala is to alert us to threats and keep us safe from real danger. However, the amygdala also creates alerts for imagined dangers. Therefore, an overactive amygdala is a known cause of anxiety.
The amygdala acts faster than the thinking brain. It has fast neural connections to the nervous system, endocrine system, and other organs.
A powerful way of calming the amygdala is using our thinking brain intentionally. Therefore, observing our thoughts, sensations, and behaviors can quieten the amygdala.
2 — Accepting Situations & Emotions Unconditionally
Acceptance of situations gives us a fresh perspective on reality. This is the second step to mindful living. Mindfulness starts with observing our situations and accepting them as they are without judgment.
After accepting the situation, we may start understanding the symptoms and root causes of the problem.
Acceptance means being realistic and staying in the reality zone. By accepting the situation, we get a chance to understand the conditions and find viable solutions. Denial is the opposite of acceptance, which delays solving our problems.
Denying and suppressing our negative feelings can be detrimental because those feelings are messengers for us to take corrective actions.
3 — Clearing the Mind with a Watchful Approach
Some anxious behaviors form due to a cluttered mind. We have thousands of thoughts in a day. If they are not observed and understood, they turn into toxic emotions due to the activation of the amygdala.
As mentioned in my previous articles, excessive release of stress hormones can increase our anxiety hence creating negative emotions and causing undesirable behavior.
By deliberately clearing our minds, we increase our focus and attention on reality. Improved focus and attention help us calm the anxious part of the brain. Rumination is a known cause of anxiety.
One of the proven ways to clear the mind is being aware of our breath and controlling it with focus and attention. Traditional meditators have used mindful breathing for centuries.
There are many helpful breathing techniques. For example, just observing each breath for a few minutes can significantly reduce anxiety by calming the amygdala.
In addition to breathing, I also found mindful walking as an excellent tool to clear the cluttered mind. Moderate exercises like walking and yoga are known as anxiety-reducing tools and have been recommended by therapists.
4 — Practicing Self-Compassion and Self-Love
We are the worst critic of ourselves. Some of us get very self-judgemental and magnify small mistakes and turn them into significant issues.
Self-compassion is a powerful coping mechanism for chronic stress and anxiety. By showing compassion to ourselves, we can reduce our stress and calm our anxiety.
In addition, self-compassion helps us have empathy and be compassionate to others, so we become less judgmental. As a result, we accept the behavior of others with more tolerance and keep them in the proper perspective.
Another related concept to self-compassion is self-love. Loving ourselves unconditionally despite our mistakes puts us in a better psychological situation. Besides, self-love leads us to love others too.
People with self-compassion and self-love can solve problems effectively, reduce cumulative stress faster, and thus better cope with tense situations. In addition, by loving ourselves and being self-compassionate, we can increase our self-confidence.
5 — Counting Blessings and Remaining Grateful
Gratitude allows us to recognize blessings in our lives. When we are grateful, we recognize, acknowledge, and appreciate good things in our environment and interactions.
Gratitude also gives us an optimistic approach to life. From my observations of centenarians, grateful people are more optimistic. When we have optimism, our anxiety calms. But conversely, the pessimistic approach makes us anxious.
Recognizing and acknowledging even the most minor things giving us pleasure can help us reduce anxiety. Jennifer, Maggie, and Olivia are three friends who used this approach successfully.
One of the techniques I use is quickly jotting down a few blessings in my life during anxious times. This simple approach gives me breathing space and changes my focus from negative to positive in a very short time.
Conclusions
All of us are prone to the effects of anxiety unless we manage it deliberately. Anxiety is natural. It is similar to hunger, thirst, and sleep. It is part of our survival system.
However, each of us is unique and feels anxiety in various ways. We cope with anxious situations using different approaches based on our conditions, nature, and lifestyle.
Humanity always faces anxious times. The recent pandemic is an example of these challenging times affecting our health, social conditions, and economies.
Fortunately, there are proven techniques used by many people successfully. Therefore, I shared these natural and practical techniques, which many of us can use as a coping and prevention mechanism.
Anxiety and fear are related, but they are also different. For example, anxiety usually occurs due to generalized internal or external responses such as imagined threats, whereas fear is felt as a real danger. Therefore, I only focused on anxiety in this article.
Some of us may need professional assistance and intervention in exceptional and chronic situations such as medication and therapy. However, I believe that a mindful approach to life situations can significantly reduce stress, anxiety, and even fear to some extent. Moreover, a mindful approach is valuable in both the short term and the long term.
These techniques are, of course, common sense for many of us, but we might neglect them when we face challenging situations. Therefore, the best approach would be to make them habits to leverage these skills when needed and build our capacity to manage anxiety.
Remaining calm and composed with a mindful approach in challenging times can be an excellent approach to a happy and healthy life.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and joyful life.
If you enjoyed this story, you might also check my personal stories sharing insights of other people in my circles.
Please note that this story is not health advice. I shared my reviews, observations, and perspectives for information purposes only. If you have related diseases, please consult your healthcare professionals.
Related Mental Health and Psychology Articles
Unbearable Feeling of Anhedonia: How Can We Enjoy Life Again?
Emotional Stress As Larger Part Of The Iceberg In Energy Deficiency
How Not to Be Cracked by Toxic Emotions and Chronic Stress at Work
The Importance of Self-Compassion for Physical & Mental Health
The Role of Sex & Emotional Intimacy In Reducing Chronic Stress
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