How to respond to stressful situations with calmness

Lyndon B. Johnson was known for histrionics – his usual reaction to minor pain or illness was “frenzied” and “hysterical,” wrote Robert Caro for the New Yorker in 2012. But under pressure—real pressure, as he was the day he became president after John F. Kennedy was assassinated—Johnson took on an almost supernatural composure.

As Caro writes, “Johnson’s aides and allies knew that, for all his tantrums and howls, his gloating and moaning, his endless monologues, his attitude was very different in moments of crisis, in moments of decision making – tough decisions, crucial decisions. that needed to be taken; that at those moments, as his secretary Mary Rather recalled, he became “quiet and still.”

Certain people seem designed to perform well under moments of intense pressure. As an businessroundups.org, it is certainly a skill that you can develop well. Research executed TalentSmart found that 90% of top performers are able to manage their emotions in times of stress and remain calm and in control.

While stress is an essential tool for keeping the brain alert, too much has detrimental consequences. Here are some tactics to prepare yourself to face difficult situations.

Related: 7 telltale signs you’re ready to end the rat race and become an businessroundups.org

Practice mindfulness

It works for yogis and it can work for you too.

Mindfulness is something you can develop over time, which you can then tap into when you need it most. A study of Harvard found that eight weeks of meditation resulted in both the growth of the hippocampus — the region of the brain that regulates emotions — and decreased density of the amygdala, which plays a role in anxiety and stress.

By meditating for just a few minutes a day, you can build mindfulness to the point that when a stressful moment arises, you are able to turn off the mental chatter and remain calm.

If you don’t have a long meditation practice to draw from when you need it, you can try a technique that does Forbes employee Simon Reynolds to call to action “the breath release.” If you experience a stressful event, he writes, such as an annoying phone call or a meeting that goes wrong, try to imagine the situation. Then inhale slowly and deeply and hold. As you exhale, imagine all the stress leaving you. Do this three times in a row and “you’ll be amazed at how much your stress is reduced,” he says. Don’t feel the need to limit yourself either: Let go of the breath during your workday when you feel yourself starting to spiral.

Related: How a Positive Mindset Can Transform Your Life

Avoid catastrophizing

Catastrophizing is a hard to say phenomenon that is easy to do when you are on site. Essentially, catastrophizing is assuming the worst of a situation. It’s amazing how quickly our brains can go berserk in a matter of milliseconds, take a small hiccup in a high-stakes conversation and blow it up in the certainty that your business will fail and you’ll never work again.

If you find yourself doing this, it’s important to de-escalate. Don’t forget to breathe. Getting enough oxygen into your lungs fuels your brain and circulatory system.

Now that you’ve taken a few deep breaths, the next step is to not give room to negative thoughts, because standing still only makes these thoughts more powerful. Relatedly, you don’t want to fall into the “what if” trap, life coach Trish Barillas tells Fast company. Instead, replace “what if” with “what is.” “‘What if’ causes fear because it puts everything in the future, and we know that fear likes to plant its roots in the past and the future,” she says. “However, what we can be sure of are fact-based answers that are grounded in the present moment.”

If you have a chance, try to write down all the negative and self-defeating thoughts and read them over. Have you used the words “never,” “worst,” “ever,” or anything like that? If so, your statements are not based on facts. Separating facts from conjecture helps silence negative thoughts and creates space for a healthier outlook.

Related: Why Women Are More Likely To Burnout (And 6 Ways To Prevent It From Happening)

Embrace empathy

Empathy isn’t just about listening – it’s about thinking about where someone is coming from. Practicing true empathy is a great way to put a situation in perspective and not take what is happening personally. For example, if you’re asked to explain why you made a certain decision or took a certain position, chances are the person asking the questions isn’t trying to attack you – they really want to understand.

It took me a long time to learn to think this way. There have certainly been times since I started my company, Jotform, when I’ve tended to get defensive or over explain myself. If you find yourself wrong-footed in a tense context, Harvard Business Review contributor Amy Jen Su points out that empathy isn’t about being passive or letting yourself go.

“Recognize that making more room for emotion actually helps you discharge it,” she says writes. “Allowing the other person to vent also gives you access to other important facts, assumptions, and constraints at play — all critical information to bridge the gap between you and the other person.”

Practicing empathy also means not making assumptions. There are plenty of reasons why someone may seem argumentative or impatient, and they don’t necessarily have anything to do with you. People have different styles of expressing themselves; they also have bad days. Keep this in mind if you’re tempted to go into fight-or-flight mode yourself.

Being an businessroundups.org means that you are often misled. Learning how to stay calm under pressure will make your life easier, because being constantly anxious and tense is not good for anyone. But it also makes you a more effective leader and empowers you to face any challenge with confidence.

Related: 5 key tips for successfully riding the roller coaster of entrepreneurship