How to Calm Your Fear Reactions
Practice calm biology., Focus on your breathing., Do something physical and positive that has tangible results., Look to your diet., Use Progressive Muscle Relaxation., Have a relaxing bath or shower.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Practice calm biology.
When your body senses stress, it responds with a “fight or flight” stress response.To short-circuit fear and turn off this stress response, you'll need to train your brain to send chemicals to counteract them.
Otherwise, fear and its hormones will keep you feeling crazed.
In contrast, with a calm biology it's easier to find courage.
Many of the following techniques are aimed at providing a method by which you can quieten your system by encouraging the endorphins to take over from the cortisol and other fear-induced chemicals, so as to calm your usual reactions to fear. -
Step 2: Focus on your breathing.
Breathing properly calms the sympathetic nervous system, or your "fight-flight" response.Perceived threats don't come from rabidly hungry beasts for most people anymore; they come in the form of deadlines, angry bosses, unsettled coworkers, and belligerent online users.
This can mean that we don't burn off the flight-fight response, instead allowing the stress chemicals and hormones like cortisol to become elevated and swim around our body unabated.
And the breathing becomes stressed too: short, sharp, stabs of breathing over which you have little focus.
Signs that you need to turn your focus to better breathing include a tight neck, bunched-up shoulders, shallow breathing, a tight chest, and a tension headache.By starting to breathe slowly, you will signal your brain to relax, as you slow down the release of adrenalin and cortisol, and increase the release of endorphins.
You will also fully oxygenate your brain and body, allowing your heartbeat to slow and your blood pressure to stabilize.Read Breathe Deeply, Meditate on Breath, and Breathe Like a Yoga Master for more details.
Read Do Mindful Meditation for details on how to practice mindfulness meditation, which has been shown in studies to shut down and even reprogram your body’s stress responses., Clean your room.
Run down to the store on an errand.
Try yoga, stretching, or other exercises.
Letting your body do something that uses the "fight or flight" adrenaline energy will reduce the amount of toxins building up in your muscles and helps burn out the immediate emotional reaction.A sense of satisfaction from accomplishing something physical like chopping firewood or scrubbing the bathroom can raise endorphins and your confidence in general.
Social fears don't usually have an effective physical response the way natural disasters and physical threats do.
That's what your body's prepared for, though.
So literally running around, picking up things, moving them around and doing something tangible uses the adrenaline and gives your body the satisfaction that you've dealt with the threat
- you're still breathing.
A threat to your status or long term relationships is something best handled in a calm frame of mind.
This is good for cooling off from emotional fights too.
If you have a habitual response to situations that involve fear for you, your body will remember this and repeat it each time a similar fearful (for you) situation arises.
For example, your regular response to someone yelling at you or informing you unkindly that you're wrong and responsible for damage might be to curl up under the blankets and want to hide yourself away on the emotional side, while on the physical side, maybe your mind goes blank, your heart rate starts to increase, you sweat, and feel your body turn tense, etc.
All of these biological responses seize your mind and try to take control of the situation, making it much harder for you to think straight.
They are instinct responses to physical threats, not effective ways to handle social and emotional threats.
If this becomes a standard response for you whenever anything goes wrong, however mild or major, you will probably find yourself unable to break the fear response cycle without knowing some specific techniques to work around it. , Dietary choices can provoke and increase a sense of anxiety and worry if you're lacking in healthy nutrients, have blood sugar swings, and you're fueling up on unhealthy foods most of the time.
Caffeine and sugar are culprits in fueling your flight or fight responses.
Decreasing anxiety through food can be achieved by increasing your intake of complex carbohydrates, eating smaller, more frequent meals, drinking plenty of water, and limiting the intake of caffeine and alcohol.
Be careful to avoid food sensitivities as these can heighten your sense of anxiety and fear if you have a reaction to them.Increase your intake of foods that are high in tryptophan.
Tryptophan helps boost your brain's calm mood and relaxes you.
Try such foods as bananas, soy, oats, milk, cheese, poultry, nuts, peanut butter and sesame seeds.There’s a difference between choosing healthy foods to help quell stress responses and “stress eating”.
If you notice that you’re turning to “comfort foods” to relieve stress, be mindful.Comfort eating should not become (or remain) a habit and the long-term goal must be to eat a healthy diet, ensuring that your nutrients are balanced and moving your desire to comfort eat into yoga, meditation, breathing, and other more constructive outlets.
Blood sugar swings will feed fear because you lack strength and energy as a result of them, causing you to feel physically weaker.
As your blood sugar soars, you feel exuberant but as it crashes, your sense of fear will return and leave you feeling irritable, unresolved, and worried. , When you feel fear, your body responds by tightening your muscles to prepare you to run away.
This tension can cause muscle aches, fatigue, and headaches.PMR helps relieve this muscle tension.
The technique suggested here can be used in a quiet spot in the office, at home, in the lunchroom, in a park, or anywhere that you can escape to when you feel the fear mounting:
In a comfortable position, sitting or lying down, take a few deep breaths while letting your body go as limp as possible.
When you're ready, begin by tightening the muscles in your toes... hold to a count of ten... then relax.
Enjoy the relief of tension melting.
Do the same by flexing your foot muscles, and move slowly through your entire body: calves, legs, stomach, back, neck, jaw, face, contracting and releasing each area. , Immerse yourself in hot water to relax muscular tension as soon as possible, even if this means doing it the moment you step back through the door into your home.
Some studies have shown that physical warmth is very soothing for many people and can help relieve stress. -
Step 3: Do something physical and positive that has tangible results.
-
Step 4: Look to your diet.
-
Step 5: Use Progressive Muscle Relaxation.
-
Step 6: Have a relaxing bath or shower.
Detailed Guide
When your body senses stress, it responds with a “fight or flight” stress response.To short-circuit fear and turn off this stress response, you'll need to train your brain to send chemicals to counteract them.
Otherwise, fear and its hormones will keep you feeling crazed.
In contrast, with a calm biology it's easier to find courage.
Many of the following techniques are aimed at providing a method by which you can quieten your system by encouraging the endorphins to take over from the cortisol and other fear-induced chemicals, so as to calm your usual reactions to fear.
Breathing properly calms the sympathetic nervous system, or your "fight-flight" response.Perceived threats don't come from rabidly hungry beasts for most people anymore; they come in the form of deadlines, angry bosses, unsettled coworkers, and belligerent online users.
This can mean that we don't burn off the flight-fight response, instead allowing the stress chemicals and hormones like cortisol to become elevated and swim around our body unabated.
And the breathing becomes stressed too: short, sharp, stabs of breathing over which you have little focus.
Signs that you need to turn your focus to better breathing include a tight neck, bunched-up shoulders, shallow breathing, a tight chest, and a tension headache.By starting to breathe slowly, you will signal your brain to relax, as you slow down the release of adrenalin and cortisol, and increase the release of endorphins.
You will also fully oxygenate your brain and body, allowing your heartbeat to slow and your blood pressure to stabilize.Read Breathe Deeply, Meditate on Breath, and Breathe Like a Yoga Master for more details.
Read Do Mindful Meditation for details on how to practice mindfulness meditation, which has been shown in studies to shut down and even reprogram your body’s stress responses., Clean your room.
Run down to the store on an errand.
Try yoga, stretching, or other exercises.
Letting your body do something that uses the "fight or flight" adrenaline energy will reduce the amount of toxins building up in your muscles and helps burn out the immediate emotional reaction.A sense of satisfaction from accomplishing something physical like chopping firewood or scrubbing the bathroom can raise endorphins and your confidence in general.
Social fears don't usually have an effective physical response the way natural disasters and physical threats do.
That's what your body's prepared for, though.
So literally running around, picking up things, moving them around and doing something tangible uses the adrenaline and gives your body the satisfaction that you've dealt with the threat
- you're still breathing.
A threat to your status or long term relationships is something best handled in a calm frame of mind.
This is good for cooling off from emotional fights too.
If you have a habitual response to situations that involve fear for you, your body will remember this and repeat it each time a similar fearful (for you) situation arises.
For example, your regular response to someone yelling at you or informing you unkindly that you're wrong and responsible for damage might be to curl up under the blankets and want to hide yourself away on the emotional side, while on the physical side, maybe your mind goes blank, your heart rate starts to increase, you sweat, and feel your body turn tense, etc.
All of these biological responses seize your mind and try to take control of the situation, making it much harder for you to think straight.
They are instinct responses to physical threats, not effective ways to handle social and emotional threats.
If this becomes a standard response for you whenever anything goes wrong, however mild or major, you will probably find yourself unable to break the fear response cycle without knowing some specific techniques to work around it. , Dietary choices can provoke and increase a sense of anxiety and worry if you're lacking in healthy nutrients, have blood sugar swings, and you're fueling up on unhealthy foods most of the time.
Caffeine and sugar are culprits in fueling your flight or fight responses.
Decreasing anxiety through food can be achieved by increasing your intake of complex carbohydrates, eating smaller, more frequent meals, drinking plenty of water, and limiting the intake of caffeine and alcohol.
Be careful to avoid food sensitivities as these can heighten your sense of anxiety and fear if you have a reaction to them.Increase your intake of foods that are high in tryptophan.
Tryptophan helps boost your brain's calm mood and relaxes you.
Try such foods as bananas, soy, oats, milk, cheese, poultry, nuts, peanut butter and sesame seeds.There’s a difference between choosing healthy foods to help quell stress responses and “stress eating”.
If you notice that you’re turning to “comfort foods” to relieve stress, be mindful.Comfort eating should not become (or remain) a habit and the long-term goal must be to eat a healthy diet, ensuring that your nutrients are balanced and moving your desire to comfort eat into yoga, meditation, breathing, and other more constructive outlets.
Blood sugar swings will feed fear because you lack strength and energy as a result of them, causing you to feel physically weaker.
As your blood sugar soars, you feel exuberant but as it crashes, your sense of fear will return and leave you feeling irritable, unresolved, and worried. , When you feel fear, your body responds by tightening your muscles to prepare you to run away.
This tension can cause muscle aches, fatigue, and headaches.PMR helps relieve this muscle tension.
The technique suggested here can be used in a quiet spot in the office, at home, in the lunchroom, in a park, or anywhere that you can escape to when you feel the fear mounting:
In a comfortable position, sitting or lying down, take a few deep breaths while letting your body go as limp as possible.
When you're ready, begin by tightening the muscles in your toes... hold to a count of ten... then relax.
Enjoy the relief of tension melting.
Do the same by flexing your foot muscles, and move slowly through your entire body: calves, legs, stomach, back, neck, jaw, face, contracting and releasing each area. , Immerse yourself in hot water to relax muscular tension as soon as possible, even if this means doing it the moment you step back through the door into your home.
Some studies have shown that physical warmth is very soothing for many people and can help relieve stress.
About the Author
Janice Richardson
A passionate writer with expertise in creative arts topics. Loves sharing practical knowledge.
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