7 unexpected things that can help you calm down

In this article, Stephanie Vozza, tells how to savoring chocolate and enjoying the aroma of grapefruit, you can stop worrying about what you can not change .

What makes you not sleep at night? Economy? Disagreement in the government? Job? Health? Ebola virus?
According to a public opinion poll conducted by the Gallup Institute in October 2014, Americans are experiencing on many occasions. But most of them are not subject to control, and excitement only aggravates the situation.
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According to a study conducted by the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, excitement can have long-term chronic medical consequences, such as cardiovascular diseases.

How do we stop being nervous? Although exercise is usually prescribed to reduce anxiety, which is actually better than using Xanax (the commercial name of the depressant Alprazolam), because sport triggers the release of good mood hormones - you still do not have to sweat to calm your anxiety.

Here are seven alternative measures you can take to distract from problems:

1. Change your sleep time

The one who likes to stay up late should know that this is an increase in inner anxiety. Researchers at Binghamton University in New York found that people who go to bed very late, while not sleeping much, are more inclined to negative thoughts than those who follow a healthy sleep pattern. The one who doesn’t get enough sleep tends to worry about the future, to re-experience the events of the past. Such people are prone to anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“A healthy, full-fledged sleep at the right time is an inexpensive and easy way to affect one’s condition for people who have obsessive thoughts,” says one of the researchers, Jacob Nota. (We recommend reading a useful article about how many hours we should sleep .)

2. Feel the smell of grapefruit.

Inhalation of certain flavors reduces stress. As part of a study conducted at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, scientists tested the effect of pleasantly smelling essential oils by decomposing oil tanks in a central medical station. Oncology nurses, who often suffer from work-related stress, fatigue from compassion and burnout, reported a significant improvement in their condition, a decrease in tension, anxiety.

One of the essential oils tested during the study was grapefruit. This smell refreshes and revives, and also helps to enhance the feeling of energy in the body and happiness.

3. Breathe slowly

Deep breathing, also called yoga breathing, is known to reduce stress and anxiety. In his book Spontaneous Happiness: A New Path to Emotional Well-Being (Little, Brown & Company; 2013) (Spontaneous Happiness. A New Path to Emotional Well-Being (Little, Brown and Company, 2013)), Andrew Weil offers as a tool for sedation and dealing with a bad mood, use a technique that he calls "breathing 4-7-8."

To begin with, exhale completely through the mouth, then at the count of four, inhale through the nose. Hold your breath for seven seconds, then exhale through the mouth at the count of eight. It is not possible to breathe deeply and worry, says Vale. He recommends using the “4-7-8” breathing method at least twice a day or every time tension is felt.

4. Eat chocolate

While sweets can significantly increase blood sugar levels and cause severe health damage, researchers found that some dark chocolate helps to reduce anxiety. According to a study published in the Journal of Proteome Research, dark chocolate can help calm nerves. Participants who ate one and a half ounces of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced the level of stress hormones. (We recommend reading a useful article on how caffeine gives you maximum energy .)

5. Practice forest therapy.

Walking through the woods and enjoying the sounds of nature can reduce stress. The term shinrin-yoku (Shinrin-yoku) in translation from Japanese means "to absorb the atmosphere of the forest", "take a forest bath". This practice helps to relieve stress much more effectively than walking in an urban area.

“Studies have confirmed that spending time in the woods can ease psychological stress, depressive symptoms and hostility and, at the same time, improve sleep, increase activity and give a feeling of fullness to life,” write Eva Selhoub and Alan Logan in their book Your Brain on Nature ( Collins; 2013) ("Your brain is in nature" (Collins; 2013)). "Japanese researchers have found that 20 minutes of shinrin-yoku practice, compared to 20 minutes spent in an urban environment, change the blood flow of the brain as it happens during relaxation."

6. Describe your alarms on paper.

It seems unthinkable to reduce the heat of emotions with the help of paper, it seems that in this way passions flare up even more, but according to a study by the University of Chicago, published in the journal Science, fixing your thoughts and emotions on paper can help to cope with them. Students who took part in this study were asked to write about their fears of the exam, in order to check their level of anxiety. Those who agreed to the experiment increased their examination results by almost one point.

“Perhaps this is a paradox, but the effect of the process of reflection of thoughts and emotions on paper can be compared to freeing the mind from fear,” says Siansky Beilock, associate professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, USA. "You sort of reassess the situation, and it bothers you less because it’s already experienced and thoughtful."

7. Get Knitting

By taking your hands with something, you are automatically distracted from disturbing thoughts. As part of a study conducted by the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England, volunteers watched video of car accidents. Participants who were asked to type on the keyboard while watching the plots suffered less from memories of what they saw. However, verbal distractions , such as counting out loud, had no effect.

Researchers have found that by holding your hands, you impede the process of storing and encoding visual images. This explains why embroidering with beads or knitting soothes us.

PS We recommend another article on the topic - How successful people cope with their toxic opponents .

Translated by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult