How To Handle Stressful Situations In A Calm Way

Stressful situations can invoke your body’s fight or flight response. Unfortunately, because stress gets such a bad reputation, we can mistakenly believe that we’re not in stressful situations just because they’re happy occasions.

It's not just upcoming assignments, meetings with supervisors, or arguments with loved ones that get our pulse thumping and set our nervous system on high alert. Aspects in life like a job interview, buying a new home, becoming a parent, planning vacations, or being promoted to a management role can all be stressful.

Knowing how to handle stressful situations calmly can help you enjoy the good things more and manage the bad things better. For any situation, it’s important to understand the signs of stress and learn relaxation techniques. 

Signs of Stress

As you’ve probably heard by now, stress is a natural part of life. In fact, stress is your physical and emotional response to any event that causes you to feel scared, nervous, frustrated, or angry. There are many stressors in life, and it’s vital that you learn to manage your stress to reduce the effects of stress on your body. 

Chronic stress can put your health at risk. Keeping a check on your stress levels can help mitigate that risk. You may only have a little stress in your life, but it’s still important to know the signs of stress. Here are some symptoms to look for that may indicate you’re experiencing too much stress:

• Irritability
• Muscle tension
• Increased heart rate 
• Weakened immune system
• Changes in mood
• Belly issues 
• Skin conditions
• Regular headaches
• Changes in weight
• Changes in your cognitive abilities

You can do your best to avoid stressors, but because stress is such a natural part of life, there are going to be some stressors you can’t do anything about. 

Arming yourself with relaxation techniques to implement throughout your everyday life can help you be more prepared to handle stressful situations calmly with a positive attitude. Let’s look at some relaxation techniques.

Relaxation Techniques

There are relaxation techniques you can make a part of your everyday life. Then, when stressful situations arise, you’re always as well-prepared with the resources you need to manage them calmly. Here are some easy habits to add to your life to make it easier to relax, even when times are stressful.

1. Yoga

Yoga is an ancient practice, and there’s a reason that people still do it today. One reason that it’s so great for people who are experiencing a lot of stress is because it helps promote relaxation. Yoga can enhance your mood, and it can promote a sense of well-being. 

The controlled breathing in yoga can help calm your body and oxygenate your muscles, thus reducing the tension you’re feeling throughout your body. Yoga can help lower your heart rate and teach you the mental discipline you need to feel peaceful and calm, even under stress.

One of the best aspects of yoga is that it requires little to no equipment, and you can practice it almost anywhere. At the end of a stressful day on a business trip, you can use this relaxation technique in your hotel room to help you recenter before the next day.

2. Meditation

Meditation is a practice that can help train you to focus your mind. The mindfulness you develop from the practice of meditation can be carried with you throughout the day. The awareness you learn can help you assess stressful situations, and learning to direct your thoughts can help you reshape the way you look at them. 

Like yoga, meditation has ancient roots, and it is still used today for its effectiveness. Meditation can also be practiced anywhere. You don’t even have to leave the stressful situation or wait until you are alone. You can use deep and focused breathing techniques to calm your body, and you can focus your thoughts to help quiet your mind.

3. Regular Exercise

When you think of exercise, you may not instinctively view it as a stress reliever, but exercise actively reduces the hormones your body produces during stress like cortisol and adrenaline. Exercise also works to stimulate the body’s production of its natural painkillers and mood elevators, the brain’s chemicals known as endorphins. 

Exercise can take on many forms. Increasing physical activities in any way can help you achieve the stress-relieving benefits of exercise. It’s important to find something you enjoy to make exercise a consistent part of your daily life.

Exercise may be the way you can literally and figuratively run away from your problems for a while, and it may be just what you need to quiet the stressful thoughts at the end of the day and get a better night’s sleep. 

4. Daily Supplements

When you are dealing with stressful situations in your life, most of us want the solutions we implement to be easy, fast, and effective. You have enough to think about, so you want something that can help calm your mind without adding too much to your to-do list.

Complete Calm De-Stress Gummies can help support your efforts to incorporate relaxation techniques into your daily life while also being a simple, tasty treat that you can enjoy once each day. You can feel the calming sensation almost immediately, and that can offer real appeal when you’re stressed. 

However, like most relaxation techniques, you benefit more if it’s consistently a part of your daily life.

The Complete Calm De-stress gummies can be an easy addition to your day with active ingredients that help support your emotional well-being, like Persian Saffron extract, Rhodiola extract, and the daytime terpene blend. 

You can focus on dealing with the stress of the day with the support of other active ingredients like Lion’s Mane extract and lemon balm extract that help improve your cognitive performance.

At the end of a long day, you can also struggle to fall asleep. You can treat yourself again with the Complete Calm Sleep Gummies, with or without melatonin, and the gummies can assist in your nightly routine to calm your mind and help you enjoy an improved quality of sleep. 

After a good night’s rest, you’ll feel better prepared to greet the day and the challenges it may bring.

5. Spend Time With Your Pet

Sometimes, from your workplace to home to your other, people can be major sources of stress or factors in the stressful situations you face. Spending time with your furry friend or friends can help calm your body and your mind. Our pets are our companions. They typically offer cuddles and good listening ears.

Occasionally, pets can be comedic relief, and many people feel like their pet is there for them when there is no one else there for them. If you don’t have a pet, you can visit animals at your local shelter. 

They enjoy your company, and you can enjoy the stress relief of petting an animal and spending quiet time with something that embodies living in the present.

6. Improve Your Time Management Skills

If we’re honest with ourselves, some of the stressful situations we find ourselves in are our own doing. Pressing deadlines, running late for work, or not having enough time in your day to take care of yourself can all be a direct result of poor time management skills.

Time management, because as they say, “Time waits for no one,” is the practice of planning, prioritizing, and balancing your tasks to ensure that you have enough time to complete each task without feeling overwhelmed or burned out. 

Learning to manage your time may take some practice, but as you incorporate new time management skills into your daily life, you’ll develop habits that make life itself feel more manageable.

When you allow yourself enough time and set boundaries to avoid overcommitment, you free yourself from the stressful situations you create for yourself. Maybe your workload is the result of saying ‘yes” to too many things. 

Learning to manage your time can also help you recognize task delegation and ask for help when you need it. Controlling your time can help you be better equipped for the situations you can’t control.

7. Journaling

Journaling is another beneficial relaxation technique. Sometimes stressful situations can fill our minds with too many negative thoughts. We begin to feel like it’s too loud in our minds. Journaling is a constructive way to quiet your mind by getting the jumble of thoughts out. 

There are many ways to journal, and finding the way that works best for you is key. You may enjoy the classic feel of paper and pen, or you may enjoy the easy use of keeping it all digital. You can opt for guided journaling that helps you think, or you may rely on the free, personal therapy you give yourself just by speaking your mind in a private forum. 

Whatever journaling method you choose, you can rely on it as a daily method of stress relief and to increase your positive thoughts, and like many of the other techniques, it can be done practically anywhere.

Summary

Stress is a part of life for everyone, so knowing ways to manage that stress and handle stressful situations should be a part of your life too. Incorporating relaxation techniques into your lifestyle makes it easier to handle stress, and it makes it much easier to shed the daily stresses for a while and just be calm. 

Incorporating things like yoga, meditation, daily supplements, regular exercise, journaling, and time management skills can all be valuable soft skills that arm you against the stressors that may otherwise wear on you.

Sources:

Stress and your health | medlineplus.gov 

Chronic stress puts your health at risk | mayoclinic.org 

Yoga: Fight stress and find serenity | mayoclinic.org