How to Calm Nervousness Quickly
Almost every individual has found themselves wondering how to calm their nervousness in a certain situation. That’s because everybody experiences nervousness, and feeling nervous is a normal bodily response. While the reasons behind our feelings may be different, the sensations are usually similar: sweaty palms, elevated heart rate, and “butterflies” in the stomach. Although they are responsible for unsolicited changes in the body, stress hormones such as adrenaline are actually designed to help us perform at our best. It is only when these symptoms become disproportionate to the relevant situation or affect our ability to function well that nerves may hinder rather than help.
If you are feeling nervous in a time-sensitive situation and want to keep symptoms of stress at bay, learn how to calm nervousness quickly with these tried and tested suggestions.
Accept Feeling Nervous
If you find yourself wishing you knew how to calm your nervousness, try simply accepting it. Letting the feeling run its course when it arrives can help it to pass more quickly. Ironically, resisting feeling nervous can increase its persistence, and is often what triggers a panic attack. Resistance also stops you addressing the sensation front on, preventing you from exploring new ways to process it. As a result, you may continue to fear its onset.
Breathe
When we are feeling nervous, anxious or stressed, we tend to take quick, shallow breaths. This reinforces the message to the nervous system that the body is under stress and should remain in a fight-or-flight state. If you are exploring how to calm nervousness quickly, focus on your breath.
Long, deep breaths can disrupt the fight-or-flight response and help your system calm down. Once your breathing is more regular, aim for longer exhales than inhales: inhales speed up the heart rate while exhales slow it down. You can also close your eyes and visualize a calm version of yourself as you breathe – the imagery alone can help stop you feeling nervous.
Change Your Position
You can also try switching up what you’re doing if you’re stuck on how to calm your nervousness. If your arms are tightly folded, spread them wide and gently stretch your chest skywards. If you’re sitting still, stand up and move around. Try splashing your face with cold water or, if possible, heading outside for some fresh air. Changing your sensory experience can help your brain and body switch out of the anxiety state.
Redirect Nervous Energy
Those considering how to calm nervousness quickly often try to repress the sensation. However, feeling nervous generates energy that needs to be processed, not supressed. If possible, kick into a short burst of activity, whether that’s washing dishes, jogging on the spot, or shaking out your wrists and hands.
Put a Positive Spin on It
It may sound difficult, but if you’re running out of ideas on how to calm your nervousness, shoot for positivity. In reality, feeling nervous has similar sensations to feeling motivated and excited e.g. an elevated heart rate. Just as football coaches rev up their team before they hit the pitch, try giving your nervous energy a positive slant in the form of an affirming pep talk, with phrases such as “You’ve got this”, “I’m prepared and ready” or “I bet this will be fun”. If you’re struggling to believe it, remind yourself that you’ve likely felt nervous before and no one realized or – even better – you were still praised for doing a great job.
Arrive Early
If applicable to the situation, such as convening for a meeting or a presentation, arrive early. When exploring how to calm nervousness in live time, it helps to take the stress of being late off the table. Familiarizing yourself with your surroundings can help you relax and feel more in control. Have a glass of water on hand too: it will help to both encourage normal breathing and prevent your mouth getting dry.
Practice and Prepare
While this isn’t always possible in time-sensitive circumstances, being well-prepared can help you identify weak spots in your train of thought and give you a mental rehearsal of the actual event ahead of time.
Have Someone You Trust on Hand
A few supportive and non-judgmental words from someone who cares can be a lifeline when you’re feeling nervous. Asking a friend or significant other to be on standby, even if just to shoot you a quick text is an effective addition to your “how to calm nervousness fast” playbook.
While we don’t usually enjoy feeling nervous, remember that it can signify positive things, such as you caring about your job or taking your responsibilities seriously. If you often worry about how to calm nervousness quickly, it may be time to address your overwhelm with a healthcare provider.
How to Calm Anxiety
Feeling anxious from time to time is a part of life. Occasional anxiety is a normal response to uncertainty about the future, whether that is in the next few minutes, days, or even months. You could be dreading a serious conversation with someone, feeling stressed about a pending career change, or worrying about finances.
Whatever the source of your stress, if you want to learn how to calm anxiety, there are a number of effective strategies you can try.
Ride Out an Anxiety Attack
Anxiety can lead to panic attacks: sudden episodes of intense fear that cause strong physical reactions despite there being no threat. As frightening as these attacks can be, it’s important not to let them control you. Panic or anxiety attacks always pass, and the goal is to try ride out unpleasant feelings rather than distract from or avoid them. Doing your best to remain in the situation and address the sensation head on teaches you how to calm your anxiety – by discovering that nothing bad is going to happen. As the anxiety passes, focus on your surroundings and get back to what you were doing before.
Remember You Can Still Function Well with Anxiety
When anxious feelings arise, put self-criticism aside and tell yourself that it is okay to feel that way: your nervous system is simply activating in response to your circumstances. Remind yourself that you can perform very well with anxiety, and probably have in the past. When trying to figure out how to calm your anxiety, think back to a previous experience when you were overtly anxious and yet managed to do what you needed to anyway.
Make an Anxiety Appointment
General anxiety can take over your day, getting in the way of work performance and routine tasks. If you don’t know how to calm your anxiety and stressful thoughts are threatening to derail your plans, set aside a 15-minute time slot to address them. This will help keep anxiety from spilling over into the rest of your day while training your brain to put aside negative thoughts until you are ready to handle them.
Get Up if You Can’t Sleep
If you are wide awake in bed wondering how to calm your anxiety, get up. Any time you find yourself battling to sleep for more than 10 minutes, move into another room and write down your worries. Go back to bed when you feel tired, but repeat the process of getting up if your mind is still restless. It may take a few disruptive nights to train your brain, but this move can be an effective strategy for anxiety relief, helping your mind associate your bed with rest not stress.
Take a Social Media Break
If you’re in need of some anxiety relief, put down your phone. Scrolling through social media is not only addictive, it has been regularly shown to increase one’s negative feelings about themselves. It can also be viewed as an unrewarding or unproductive use of time, doubling its undesirable effects. Switch the time you spend viewing other’s lives online to something that brings you more joy, whether that’s reading, dedicating 10 minutes to a skill you’d like to improve, or using your internet browsing more fruitfully, such as watching YouTube cooking tutorials or following educational or inspirational role models.
Avoid Stimulants
Culturally popular stimulants like caffeine and alcohol aren’t for everybody, and they can be particularly harmful for those who don’t know how to calm their anxiety. While alcohol may initially appear to provide some anxiety relief, it has been shown to aggravate symptoms over time.
Take a Cold Shower
Although you may consider the idea unpleasant, many people wanting to know how to calm anxiety are turning to cold therapy. While access to a cold plunge or ice bath may be difficult, you can get the same anxiety relief benefits at home with a cold shower. Research shows this can boost dopamine levels and release endorphins – two chemicals renowned for their mood-boosting abilities.
Burn it Off
Sometimes the question you need to be asking is not how to calm anxiety, but how to burn it off. Feelings of stress sometimes require a more energetic output. If you’re too wound up for activities like deep breathing, try something high energy such as dancing to loud music, any aerobic exercise, or walking briskly outside in the fresh air.
Share Your Feelings with Someone You Trust
Avoiding unpleasant thoughts can make your symptoms worse. If you’re trying to address how to calm anxiety, talk it over with someone you trust. Also consider psychotherapy, which has a high success rate for those with anxiety disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been found to be particularly helpful, and although the benefits require multiple sessions to take effect, individuals often report feeling better after just one.
Almost a fifth of the American population is living with an anxiety disorder. Knowing that your symptoms are both common and normal can help you feel less alone. If your anxiety is long-lasting and affects your day-to-day life, you could have an anxiety disorder. Chat to your healthcare provider about treatment options.