Being Able to Stay Calm Under Pressure Is Not Just About Having a Natural Personality Isn't A Natural Trait But It Is Also An Acquired Skill That Can Be Developed And Refined Through Repetition. In the Current Fast-Paced World, People Are Presented With All Kinds Of Different Types Of Pressures Including Work-Related Deadlines, Social Responsibilities, And Unforeseen Obstacles.

How You Respond In These Situations Ultimately Determines Your Performance As Well As Your Overall State Of Mind. Psychological Research Suggests That All Animals Will Experience A Natural Survival Mechanism When Faced With Heavy Stress.

Understanding Stress Response

This Response Before Responding To Quickly By Increasing Your Heart Rate; Perceiving More Clearly; And Releasing Hormones That Create Stress. When Needed, The Body Uses These Hormones To Help It Respond In Times Of Crisis But, In The Everyday World, They Create A High Level Of Stress.

The First Step To Managing Your Stressful Situations Is By Knowing What Triggers Your Stress And How To Manage Your Stress From The American Psychological Association. The ability to identify patterns enables an individual to keep a calm reaction rather than a knee jerk reaction.

Triggers That Generate Pressure

  • Fear of Failure
  • Not Meeting Self/Other Expectation
  • Uncertainty About What Will Happen
  • Approaching Deadlines

Often these triggers will come together and create a more intense experience than they truly are. The knowledge of these triggers will reduce their power.

Reframing Pressure

Instead, you could see pressure as an opportunity/challenge and not just a negative thing. After you have placed this new way of thinking into practice, it will become automatic for you to maintain calmness and focus at times of extreme pressure.

The Benefits of Controlled Breathing

One of the easiest and most effective ways to remain calm when you are under a large amount of pressure is through controlled breathing. Breathing has a direct connection to the nervous system and it is one of the fastest ways to relieve stress.

People tend to take short, rapid breaths when they are feeling anxious, this increases their stress level. Controlling your breath will help provide you with a reverse response to this increase in breathing.

Breathing and Relaxation

When your breathing slows down, your body receives messages that will cause a state of relaxation by lowering your heart rate, this creates a sense of control during stressful moments. Organizations such as the Mayo Clinic have shown that breathing exercises will improve mental and physical health.

Simple Techniques to Breathe

  • Deep abdominal (belly) breathing
  • 4-4-4
  • Count breaths for concentration and focus

There is no need for expensive equipment and any of these breathing techniques can be accomplished quickly (within a few minutes). The long-term benefit of performing these techniques multiple times a week is that you build the neural pathways in your brain which strengthen the ability of these techniques to be effective.

When and How to Breathe

Practice of these techniques build awareness, allow you to take your focus away from anything that may be causing you stress, and return your focus on the ‘here and now’. With time, breath control becomes the natural answer to stress; it is a tool to reset you quickly when you find yourself under extreme tension.

Training the Mind to Be Present

Overthinking is one of the major ways to overwhelm someone under stress.

Simple Habits

  • Be aware of how your body feels
  • Don’t do two or more things at once
  • Try to take a few short, simple mindful pauses throughout the day

How to Break the Overthinking Cycle

With this space, you can choose to respond to what you are feeling rather than being controlled by your feelings. This will lead to improved communication and clearer thinking when under stress.

Emotional Awareness

  • Recognizing physiological indicators of emotional stress
  • Acknowledging predisposed patterns of emotional response
  • Observing actions without judgment

Through time, individuals acquire increased control over their emotional responses, specifically during periods of emotional discomfort.

Responding vs Reacting

The difference between responding and reacting is significant; with reacting being an automatic response while responding is a consciously chosen response. Having an opportunity to pause and reflect will produce a superior decision-making process.

The mere act of pausing for 3-10 seconds will dramatically enhance the response choice during times of significant emotional stress. Developing habitually practicing this skill will establish increased emotional stability.

Grounding Techniques

Grounding techniques are simple tools for refocusing in the moment during times of added emotional stress. When there is buildup of pressure, the brain can have racing thoughts leading to higher levels of anxiety.

As an example, National Health Service recommends grounding techniques as a basic method for creating a reduction in anxiety and regaining control of one's emotional state.

Quick Grounding Methods

  • Pushing your feet into the ground with force

These methods utilize the senses and refocus away from a present moment perception of stress to the present. Through repetitive practice these techniques become even more successful.

Preparation and Mental Rehearsal

Mental Rehearsal

  • Thinking through possible obstacles that could occur
  • Practicing how you would respond calmly to those obstacles
  • Concentrating on the actions that lead you to have a successful outcome

This procedure allows your brain to have a memory of the event prior to you actually experiencing it, resulting in a lower level of anxiety. Professional athletes and public speakers utilize this method to build their confidence and reduce their anxiety levels prior to their performance.

Long-Term Emotional Regulation

Individuals can develop their bodies and minds to stay calm in any circumstances by taking a long-term approach to staying calm on a consistent basis. The foundation of long-term emotional regulation is consistency.

By creating small, daily habits one can develop their sympathetic nervous system and develop the skills required for maintaining calmness when faced with stressful events. Through the consistent implementation of these daily habits, you can reduce your overall level of stress.

Expert Insight

There are many experts, including professionals from Harvard Health Publishing, who suggest that by utilizing long-term emotional regulation, your emotional resilience and mental clarity will improve.

Daily Habits

  • Limiting excess stressors

Summary

Staying calm under pressure is an important skill; however, anyone can develop this skill with the proper tools and commitment. It is important to recognize that staying calm in stressful situations is not an indication that you should avoid stress altogether.

Understanding what causes stress in you and learning the many skills of slowing your heart rate through learning to breathe deeply and grounding your breathing and preparing yourself are important. Therefore, with time, each of these tools will become second nature to you.