5 Ways To Go From Overwhelmed To Calm Quickly

When we feel overwhelmed, anxious, or upset, our bodies have a physiological response to these experiences. This is why when we feel overwhelmed our hearts may race, our palms may sweat, and we may struggle to control our breathing. Our breathing often becomes shallow and rapid.

While this can feel scary when it happens to you, it is a very normal experience.

Think of a time you gave an important speech or attended a first interview for a job you wanted. You were likely quite nervous and perhaps your body responded in one of these ways. I know I certainly have!

Also, think of a time you had an argument with your partner and struggled to self-soothe during this hard time.

At any point during those experiences were you actively trying to calm your body down?

If you were not, maybe because you didn’t know how, there are several ways to transition from feeling overwhelmed to calm quickly.

The way to do this involves checking in with your body’s response to stress.

I recommend these simple strategies:

Complete An Environmental Scan

Taking a quick inventory of your surroundings can be very grounding and calming.

This is a mindfulness practice where you must identify at least five things you can hear, at least five things you can see, and at least five things you can touch. Perhaps you can also smell something during this scan.

Engaging the senses in this way allows a sort of distance between a person and what is making them feel overwhelmed.

It can also be fun to notice things you wouldn’t otherwise notice!

Do Something You Enjoy

People tend to be the most calm when they are participating in their preferred activities.

What do you love to do?

If it is yoga, then practise yoga!

If it is reading, then schedule time every day to read.

Whatever you love to do should be included in your life as often as possible, because if you do become overwhelmed you can calm yourself by identifying how soon you will be doing something that you love.

Or you can simply abandon the scenario that’s making you anxious to do something you love instead, and then come back to it when you are ready!

Fact-Check

The process of fact-checking allows you to identify if whatever scenario is causing you to feel overwhelmed is based in logic.

This means that there is factual evidence for you to feel overwhelmed.

To use fact-checking, you must say to yourself, “What is making me feel this way?”, and “Are my feelings consistent with the factual evidence for the scenario?”

Typically, if a person identifies that their feelings are not based in facts, they have interrupted the situation to which they became overwhelmed and are then able to begin to calm down.

Additionally, if they find their feelings of being overwhelmed are actually logical and fair, they can then choose to take a break or practise any of the other strategies listed.

This process is not meant to shame anyone, but rather to practise emotional regulation.

Simply Breathe

Breathing is one of the easiest strategies to quickly calm feelings of being overwhelmed.

It is very easy to forget to breathe when you become flooded with emotions.

To take back control, there are several breathing techniques that can help.

The first technique is to get into a comfortable position where you are preferably seated with your feet flat on the ground. Take five deep breaths in through the nose and exhaling through your mouth. Count to five as you inhale and count to five as you exhale.

Another technique is four-square breathing. This involves exhaling all air out of the lungs and then inhaling for four seconds, holding the breath for four seconds, and exhaling for four seconds.

During each breathing activity, notice how your breath feels entering and leaving your body.

Remember that it is working to fuel you and take care of you, despite feeling overwhelmed!

Take A Break

Walking away from whatever scenario is causing you to feel overwhelmed is extremely effective in some situations, although if this is the scenario of a job interview, this may not be effective, of course – assuming you want the job. 🙂

So you can simply practise your breathing and do the best that you can, recognizing that it will soon be over.

However, if this is the scenario of an argument with a partner, it is a great idea to tell your partner you need a break and will be back to resume the conversation in a specified amount of time – before either one of you says something you’ll regret for ever.

(Fun Fact: When the great Harry Houdini had an argument with his wife, Bess, he would go for a walk. When he returned home, he would throw his hat into the room where Bess was. If the hat came flying back out again, he knew he needed to go for another walk.)

What is important with this strategy is to only abandon the situation long enough to calm down but not abandon it entirely.

Avoiding tasks altogether because they cause you to feel overwhelmed typically creates more feelings of stress than previously.

So, take a break and come back to it- you can do it!

Conclusion

In order to be as successful at calming yourself down as possible, you may have to practise a combination of the strategies above.

This is sometimes called “skill stacking”.

If you start with practising your breathing and still do not feel calm then you should perform an environmental scan.

If that is not helpful to you then you can fact-check yourself to then identify how to move forward.

We need an arsenal of skills to be able to manage our feelings in many different situations.

And it is best to be able to practise these before we become overwhelmed so that when we are overwhelmed, it is easier to use them.

So, I challenge you to do a breathing exercise and environmental scan every day!

I challenge you to notice your feelings and identify if they are based in facts.

I challenge you to do more activities you love and schedule breaks for yourself!

Half the battle is doing the task that will help us calm down because our body is having a response to our feelings.

I am confident that everyone will do a wonderful job calming down when overwhelmed if they simply practise – and starting with these five strategies will help.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Guided Breathing Exercises