A calm mind is something many of us seek during moments of frustration and anxiety. When something unexpected comes our way, we can only hope that we’ll handle it with grace and dignity. In reality, we end up feeling like we’re running around like a chicken with our head cut off. It’s a cute mental image, right?

If we are not in a calm state of mind, we are more likely to react irrationally and perhaps regret our actions later. Stressful situations put us into fight or flight mode, which means that we might take our frustrations out on another person, start crying uncontrollably, or simply shut down and ignore our problems.
Knowing how to stay calm in moments of frustration and anxiety is important to reduce this negative reactivity and help you become a calmer, more collected person. In this post, we’ll cover three techniques that can help you feel more calm and in control during stressful moments!
How to be a calmer person
Watch the video here or read the full post below!
1. Give yourself a mental break
The first thing to do if something comes your way unexpectedly and throws you off is to remove yourself from the situation instead of immediately responding. Doing something that gets you out of your current headspace is a good way to get perspective on the situation.
Often we feel so overwhelmed because we think we need to respond or react to something right away, but this only adds to the stress. Instead, take a moment to look objectively at the situation before rushing into anything. Whether that’s going for a walk, meditating, watching funny videos, or listening to music, distract yourself so that you can come back to whatever’s stressing you out with clarity.
Related: A Simple Mindset Shift To Calm Anxious Thoughts
2. Don’t act upon every thought
Another way to reduce reactivity is to practice meditation. Those of us who are overthinkers or worriers tend to resist meditation because we assume meditation involves stopping our thoughts. In actuality, meditation helps prevent you from reacting to your thoughts. When ideas and thoughts are floating through our heads, our instinct is to react to act upon them right away or add them to our never-ending to-do lists.
Meditation teaches us to let our thoughts come without the pressure that we need to act on them. To be honest, most of our thoughts are not worth acting on anyway. If you’re interested in getting started with meditation, I shared how to make it easier using this app.
3. Get in touch with your senses
The next time you’re in a stressful situation and you feel like anxiety is taking over, try a simple grounding exercise to bring awareness to what’s going on around you. One of my favorite exercises for this is the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 grounding method. Simply focus around you and bring attention to:
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can touch
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
This is a great technique to distract you from the stressful situation and bring your focus to your surroundings and the current moment.
What calms you down during stressful times?
I hope these three tips help you the next time you need a moment of calm in your life! The most important thing you can do to be a calmer person is to pause when you start to feel overwhelmed or stressed out. Simply create awareness around those moments instead of trying to fix them immediately.
15 Responses
What a fab post, I love the 5,4,3,2,1 grounding method and will definitely be giving this a go!
Peta x
http://www.pe-ta.com
Isn’t it such a great tool? Glad you found this helpful, Peta!
This is such an excellent post and something I really need to work on. One thing that helps me calm down when I’m stressed is focusing on a task that won’t allow my mind to travel to that situation again and once I can have a more distant perspective on the situation I can actually think about it.
Rita | Tea & Curls
That’s a great technique, Rita! Thank you for sharing! <3
Oh I love the 5 step grounding method. I’m going to have to try it sometime this week when work feels like too much. Thanks Catherine for these tips!
Thanks, Gina! Hope you’re well xo
These were such helpful tips, Catherine! The grounding method is something I’ll definitely have to give a try. I usually just take a moment to focus on my breath when I’m feeling stressed out, and while it’s usually temporary, it does help to ease my anxiety. Thanks for sharing!
Mia | http://www.verymuchmia.com
The breath is so important (and often forgotten!). Glad you liked the post, Mia! xo
Thanks for the very helpful tips, it’ll be great to remember these the next time I am faced with a stressful situation.
Eme | http://www.peoniesandpassionfruit.com
Glad you liked these tips, Eme!
Thank you for this, as I am sitting in a hospital with a family member recovery from a surgery, this sure helped as I have been feeling very overwhelmed and worried. I have tried a few ways to try to relax but this sure help!!!
Ah Shannon, that is never an easy thing to deal with! I hope they are recovering well, and I’m glad this post helped while you were dealing with overwhelm <3
I found this very helpful and the one thing I can always count on to make me feel better is my pets
Oh yes, pets can help so much with stress relief! I’m glad you found this helpful, Nora!
Thank you for this! I love the tips and the information very helpful. Quick question if you don’t mind. I wake up everyday with a lot of anxiety I’m not sure how to calm myself when I first wake up. Hope this makes sense thank you!