6 Habits To Keep You Calm

Hello, Psych2goers. As the school season starts, how are you feeling? Excited? Nervous? Here are some ways to stay calm if you ever feel anxious at school or at work. Disclaimer: Not all of them work for everyone. It’s normal if you don’t resonate with the following habits.

1. Breathing exercise

A common way to stay calm is taking periodical deep breaths. One of the breathing exercises that many of us can do right now is called box breathing. After inhaling, it is suggested to hold for 4 seconds. Then, exhale for 4 seconds and repeat. Although the period can be changed from 4 seconds to 2 seconds, the goal is to potentially relieve the stress that someone may be facing (Norelli, 2021).

2. Imaginative thoughts

Another way to feel relaxed is to imagine a soothing scenario. For instance, it can be a beach with waves hitting the sand. Once we start to imagine the background, we can proceed by thinking about the things we will hear, see and experience in that scenario with our senses. Focus on the scene as long as you can and take deep breaths while doing so (Norelli, 2021).

3. Meditation

The act of meditation teaches individuals to pay attention to the present moment as they meditate, such as the feelings and the thoughts they are processing in their mind. Meditation includes activities like yoga and Tai-chi. It educates individuals not to be too harsh to themselves while confronting stress. Group and instructors’ support may be more advantageous as well (Hoge et al., 2013).

4. Exercise

Exercise isn’t only beneficial to our physical health, but mental health as well. Aylett, Small and Bower (2018) compared low-intensity with high-intensity exercises among participants with anxiety for two weeks. High-intensity exercises involve treadmills and jogging. Whereas low-intensity exercises involve walking and stretching. In general, high-intensity exercises did provide a better outcome for the participants who experience anxiety.

5. Limit sweeteners intake

There are many types of sweeteners in the market and some may not necessarily help us to stay calm. For instance, aspartame is shown to associate increased stress levels in mice. As for humans, it is likely linked with anxiety. However, the amount of investigated sweeteners are restricted in the studies, such as Equal, NutraSweet and the ones present in Diet Coke, it is unknown whether other types of sweeteners give a similar outcome, like Stevia (Norwitz, 2021).

6. Decrease caffeine consumption

Most of us do consume caffeinated drinks in our routine, they are usually coffee, tea and energy drinks, but having too much of something can become detrimental to our health. In one study, it is discussed how over-consumption of caffeinated drinks can impact students’ lives. Not only do they experience headaches, but also overworrying and the sense of worthlessness (Jahrami, 2020).

Conclusion

How do you like those points? Which ones will you use to relax? Feel free to share your thoughts!

References

Aylett, E., Small, N., & Bower, P. (2018, July 16). Exercise in the treatment of clinical anxiety in general practice – a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Health Services Research. https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-018-3313-5#citeas.

Hoge, E. A., Bui, E., Marques, L., Metcalf, C. A., Morris, L. K., Robinaugh, D. J., Worthington, J. J., Pollack, M. H., & Simon, N. M. (2013, August). Randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation for generalized anxiety disorder: Effects on anxiety and stress reactivity. The Journal of clinical psychiatry. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3772979/.

Jahrami, H., Al-Mutarid, M., Penson, P. E., Al-Islam Faris, M., Saif, Z., & Hammad, L. (2020, April 10). Intake of caffeine and its association with physical and mental health status among university students in Bahrain. Foods (Basel, Switzerland). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7230284/.

Norelli, S. K. (2021, July 26). Relaxation techniques. StatPearls [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513238/.

Norwitz, N. G., & Naidoo, U. (2021, February 12). Nutrition as metabolic treatment for anxiety. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.598119/full.

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