How To Calm Down Quickly

If I said I could teach you a simple technique that could relax you quickly, effectively and no one needs to know you’re doing it would you be interested?

This breathing technique can be used to help you relax and gain composure for a variety of situations. Some examples are:

1. To lower general stress levels
2. To overcome nerves before public speaking, or an interview or performance
3. To stop panic attacks before they start
4. When feeling overwhelmed or stressed
5. To manage anger
6. To help you drift off to sleep
7. To stop the pattern of compulsive eating
8. To replace smoking triggers

How Does It Work?

Have you ever noticed how you breathe when stressed, tense, anxious, worried or even panicking about something?

When we are stressed, anxious or nervous, we naturally breathe in more rapidly, from the chest, – it’s the fight or flight response kicking in to a potentially dangerous situation preparing us to be able to run or fight. And whether it’s a real danger or an imagined one – the physiological response is the same.

Have you ever noticed someone who is very relaxed who might sit down in a chair and give a long sigh of relaxation? When we are relaxed, we naturally breathe out more deeply. That’s the resting part of your nervous system activating – the opposite of hyperventilating.

Breathing out deeply, from the tummy, causes stimulation of the part of your nervous system responsible for relaxation. This is a basic law of biology and if you breathing in this way, your body has no choice but to relax.

It may take a few minutes at first but the body will respond, regardless of what your mind is thinking.

How do you do it?

To practice this technique, sit down and close your eyes and focus on your breathing.

Place your hand over your tummy to ensure you are breathing from your diaphragm (opposed to the shallow chest breathing of stress and anxiety).

Then spend a few of minutes, breathing in to the count of 7, then breathing out for the count of 11. You can hold at the end of the out breath too if it is comfortable for you to do so.  (Personally I don’t count any more– the key thing is that your out breath is much longer than your in breath.)

Easy!

By breathing in this way, you can find yourself relaxing, calming and able to see perspective on any situation.

Doing this regularly brings your general anxiety level down and you can also find yourself automatically breathing in this way should you find yourself becoming tense, stressed or anxious.

If you were to practice each day, it very soon becomes second nature to you to do it when you to calm down and before long, just one long out breath will be all that is needed.

ACTION: Practice this technique morning and evening for 5-10 minutes to give you an essential tool to cope with today’s hectic pace of life.

Don’t under estimate how this technique can help you in powerful ways to relax deeply but don’t take my word for it – have a go!

I’d love to hear how effective you find this technique – please do drop me a line and let me know!