Best Calming Techniques To Empower You

Unfortunately, feeling stressed and overwhelmed has become a part of today’s chaotic world. Thus, understanding calming techniques is crucial to living a well-adjusted life.

Many of us lead lives filled with copious amounts of angst. We worry about productivity, deadlines, challenging bosses and co-workers. Dubiously, at the end of the day, we bring the stress home, where it continues to rule our thoughts and minds, even at night while we try to sleep!

Meanwhile, our spouses and children need our attention. Friends are calling with invitations, and elderly parents are ever-present with their own needs.

Then, we do it all again the next day.

Sound familiar?

In this post, we’ll examine coping strategies, learn effective ways to calm ourselves, and understand what we must do to manage the stress in our lives.

Types of Coping Strategies

According tosciencedirect.com, there are five coping techniques for dealing with adversity. They include problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, social support, religious coping, and meaning-making.

Understanding one’s coping technique allows one to respond more efficiently to a stressor. If one recognizes an unhealthy initial response, the individual can determine a more effective means of action. So, let’s discuss each strategy in more detail.

Problem-Focused Coping

Problem-focused coping is directed at problem-solving or acting to change or adapt to the issue. It involves taking constructive action to tackle problems. It’s also one of the most effective coping strategies.

Individuals using problem-focused coping strategies typically have a strong sense of self, feel in control, possess positive self-confidence, and adopt a proactive, optimistic, and self-guided approach to managing stressors.

Therefore, calming strategies involve action-based solutions for combatting stressors. Such as forming and carrying out a plan to attack the problem. Other methods include solution-based discussions with individuals and finding healthy, alternative ways of dealing with negative issues.

Emotion-Focused Coping

Emotion-focused coping is based on managing emotional distress caused by the crisis. This includes wishful thinking, self-blame, emotional and physical distancing, and positive examination. People use emotional coping when they feel the situation will not change and must be endured.

Individuals who typically rely on emotion-focused coping strategies sometimes use drugs or alcohol. This coping method is less healthy than problem-focused coping, often preventing those in need from seeking healthier support systems.

However, this technique can be quite effective if one positively examines how personal behavior further compounds the problem and then makes positive changes to adjust.

On the other hand, it’s all too easy to get bogged down in the abyss of anxiety and depression. But this only makes stressors zoom larger. Therefore, it’s best to redirect one’s thinking and self-isolating behaviors into more positive coping measures.

If this proves difficult, it is always more effective to turn to social support, counseling, or forming a positive action plan.

Social Support

Those seeking social support look to others for emotional assistance or advice in relieving stress. It’s important to note that confiding in others after traumatic events yields better outcomes.

Therefore, choose your confidante wisely. Having a trusted mentor, teacher, or wise friend who empathizes with and supports you can be one of your most effective calming techniques.

Religious-Coping

Religious coping contains elements of all three previously mentioned strategies. This strategy seeks to conserve or transform meaning in the face of adversity. While religious coping is usually associated with positive outcomes, belief in a punishing God or feeling unfairly treated usually leads to poor outcomes.

Studies show that we tend to see the higher power in the same vein as we view the father who raised us. Therefore, belief in a loving higher power who leads us from darkness into light increases the effectiveness of this coping strategy.

But believing in a supreme power that is uncaring or wishes us harm makes us feel powerless and angry.

Meaning-Making

This coping strategy involves seeing a stressful situation’s positive or meaningful aspects. Asking, “Why me?” is associated with poorer outcomes. But, understanding how a problem fits into one’s life and then successfully dealing with it allows for personal development and growth.

This doesn’t mean one escapes pain. Instead, one grows more potent because of it.

An example of meaning-making coping is an employee recently laid off. He views this as the kick in the pants he needs to seek his dream job, and then he forms a successful online business.

Now that we’ve reviewed the different coping strategies, you’ve likely seen yourself in one or two. This helps you seek healthy coping measures in the future.

Calming Techniques For Coping With Stress

Now, let’s look at several ways to implement self-calming measures. In the heat of the moment, these techniques decrease initial anxiety so that you can think more clearly.

• Use breathing techniques to calm yourself. Breathing mindfully provides instant calm for minds and bodies.
  • Breathe in quietly through your nose for four seconds. Eyes and mouth are closed.
  • Hold your breath for seven seconds. Suck in your belly as far as possible.
  • Exhale forcefully through your mouth with a “whooshing” sound for eight seconds.
  • Repeat several times.
• Close your eyes and slowly count to 10. This calming technique removes your mind from the stressor and lifts your mood.
• Phone a friend for moral support. Touching base with someone you love provides a calming influence. Also, laughing releases endorphins, which improve mood.
• Snuggle with your pet. Just 10 minutes of quiet time petting your furball reduces stress hormones and promotes calm.
• Listen to calming music. Play relaxing music and lie back to enjoy the soothing rhythm. However, singing and dancing along also releases endorphins.
• Exercise: Practice yoga, head to the gym, or grab your dog for a walk. Try riding a bicycle or Zumba! This releases more endorphins!
• Spend time in nature. Go for a hike, visit a farm, or spend time with animals. Birdwatching and fishing are also relaxing.

• Think of somewhere else. Imagine yourself somewhere far away. Try the beach or the mountains. Maybe drinking wine while in Tuscany.
• Meditation is an excellent activity for feeling at ease.
• Journaling relaxes the mind and puts things in perspective.
• Do something completely different. Start a new hobby, take an impromptu trip, or go out with the girls.
• Pamper yourself. Get a massage, manicure, pedicure, or facial. Or take a nap.
• Eat a healthy diet. Avoid caffeine and drinking too much alcohol.
• Get plenty of sleep. A tired brain isn’t able to cope with stress.
• When additional help is needed, see a counselor. A mental health professional can help you evaluate your options for dealing with difficult situations and guide you in finding the best solution.
• Smell lavender. Lighting a lavender candle or a long soak in a lavender bubble bath promotes relief from stressors. Aromatherapy, especially the scent of lavender, is effective for easing a worried mind. Other calming scents include chamomile, rose, and citrus.

Wrap-Up For Calming Techniques

When faced with a stressful situation, the first thing to do is evaluate how we feel about it. Acknowledging our feelings and admitting how the problem affects us is crucial.

Secondly, implement calming techniques that ease initial anxiety so we can effectively reason.

Thirdly, a plan of action for dealing with the stressor must be evaluated.

Sometimes, additional assistance may be needed. This post is in no way intended to replace professional help when a problem requires the expertise of a licensed healthcare professional.

Surprisingly, stressors can be good when they help us develop and grow. Think about what you’ve learned from difficult situations in your past!

You can and will get through every challenging situation! The strength needed for perseverance is inside you.

But it’s up to you to find it.

References

batonrougeclinic.com

mind.org

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