Anxiety and stress are a common part of life, something that everyone experiences at one point or another. However, if you are unprepared for a nervous reaction, you are unfit to handle it and therefore it can consume your daily tasks. To deal with this, you must first understand what nerves are:

Nervousness occurs when you are overwhelmed by something or someone triggers you into feeling stressed. You may experience symptoms such as short breathing, sweating, shaking, dizziness, and more. If this occurs regularly or throughout many days, you likely have serious issues with anxiety. Nervousness and anxiety can be controlled in similar ways, such as breathing exercises, altering your focus, meditation, physical activity, and getting a healthy balance of sleep, food and water.

Breathing exercises are perhaps the most common coping mechanism for nerves. When you are stressed and overwhelmed, your breathing tends to quicken and your brain lacks the oxygen it needs, which is why dizziness is a side effect. There are many ways to practice breathing such as square breathing, the 4 7 8 technique, and simply focussing on your breathing. Square breathing is a frequently used technique to calm yourself down quickly and easily in the face of nervousness. All you have to do is simply breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds and hold for 4 seconds, then repeat. Once you feel calmer, you can allow your breathing to go back to normal. Similar to this technique, 4 7 8 breathing uses a similar style to help with nerves. For this technique, breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds and breathe out slowly for 8 seconds. This technique is slightly trickier and is easier to do when you are less panicked. Another way to practice breathing is to focus on your breathing. Try closing your eyes and simply notice the patterns of your breathing. Through focussing on this, you are distracted from the fear that is causing you to stress and are rather focussing on calming yourself down.

Altering your focus is also an easy way to calm nerves. When you’re stressed, you tend to focus on the negative of what could happen or of a specific thing that is causing you to feel overwhelmed. Some ways to alter your focus are by reading, talking to friends or family, doing something you love, practicing a hobby, etc. Anything that takes your focus off of the thing that is causing your nerves will help to calm you down.

Meditation and mindfulness are becoming a popular and frequently used technique to calm down and centre yourself. While slightly different, meditation and mindfulness have the same intent of keeping you grounded and focussed on something. There are countless guided meditations on YouTube and on apps that you can easily listen to. Mindfulness is very similar but can also be calming activities such as doodling.

Physical activity has been proven to improve mental illness and to reduce stress. Endorphins and serotonin are chemicals that are released when you participate in physical activity. When these chemicals are produced, they have a positive effect on your mood and therefore decrease stress and anxiety. Many people find that running especially helps with nerves as you are in control and can let your frustrations and anxiety out.

Getting a healthy amount of sleep, food and water is important for the function of your mind and body. Sleeping gives you the energy to function throughout the day, as do food and water. If your body is lacking the sleep and energy that it needs, your mind will slow down as well and it can create worse nerves since you’re overtired. Which foods you put into your body also have an impact on your mental health. Eating healthier results in less nervous and more positivity. Drinking enough water also provides both energy and a happier, more stable mind.

Overall, there are so many ways to calm your nerves. If you find yourself panicked or stressed about a present or upcoming event, try one of these coping mechanisms as they are sure to help you calm down.

If you have concerns about your health in general, tell your parents or talk to your Doctor for proper medical guidance.

References:

https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-calm-down#7

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324417.php

https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/exercise-and-mental-health