When you are running low on energy, on days when survival feels like a task, your mind is running its own show.
It feels like you have no control over it.
Your thoughts are foggy. Overwhelmed, irritated, angry, frustrated, sudden bursts of tears — you experience all or some of these.
Calming your mind is important to stop spiraling.
In this blog post, I will be sharing 9 simple techniques that you can do anywhere to calm your mind.
Section 1: Regulate Your Nervous System
1. Name what’s happening without judging
One of the best ways to calm down the nervous system is labeling your emotions.
When you are experiencing strong emotions, the brain processes it as something being wrong. The brain tries to control the situation by increasing your heart rate and your breathing becomes shallow.
By labeling the feeling, your brain becomes relaxed.
Have you noticed when you don’t know exactly what you are feeling, it is like feeling all the emotions together?
This is emotional snowballing.
You can stop this from happening by identifying and naming the emotion you are feeling.
When you know your emotions clearly, you can respond rather than react.
Let’s say you are angry. When you label it as it is, you can walk away from a conversation rather than saying hurtful things you don’t mean to the other person.
Next time when you catch yourself being overpowered by your emotions, try this tiny script:
Right now I am feeling ——— because ——— and that’s okay.
Example: Right now I am feeling overwhelmed because everything has been a mess lately and that’s okay.
This simple technique helps to calm the nervous system and also helps you take control of the situation.
2. 3-3-3 Grounding Method
Once you are in the clutches of anxious thoughts, it’s difficult to get back into the present, right?
This grounding method will help you with it.
What should you do?
Identify and name three things that you can see. Observe in detail what you see — its colour, texture, size, etc.
Identify and listen to three sounds that you can hear — small or loud.
Move any three parts of your body. It could be rotating your neck, rolling your shoulders, etc.
It helps your mind to stop spiraling.
3. 4-7-8 Breathing
This is a very simple breathing technique.
Inhale for 4 seconds through your nose, hold the breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds through your mouth.
Repeat this for 3 to 4 times.
You can feel your heart rate dropping as this is very helpful to soothe the nervous system.
Section 2: Lower the Pressure on Yourself
4. Create a ‘Bare Minimum Day’ List
When you are stuck in survival mode, it is ridiculous to try to do what you do on your optimal days.
You will try this, fail, and start feeling low about yourself.
Create a ‘Bare Minimum Day’ list — a tiny list of things that you do on survival days.
It could be something like this:
- Drink 8 glasses of water
- Make your bed
- Brain dump for 1 minute
- Respond only to urgent emails, messages, and calls
- Walk for 5 minutes
These are things that you do on full shutdown or crisis days.
When you are in survival mode but have some capacity to do things, you can include a few other things that will keep your habits or goals alive.
It could be:
- Reading one page
- Stretching or exercising for 10 minutes
- One-sentence journaling
- If you are doing any online courses, listen to 10 minutes of the class
5. The 2-Minute Task Rule
When you are low on energy, you don’t feel like doing anything, right?
Even simple tasks feel like moving a mountain.
So, instead of trying to do the entire task, do it for 2 minutes only.
Give yourself permission to stop after 2 minutes if you don’t like it.
This simple rule helps you reduce paralysis and helps you get started. It helps you stay in motion.
The difficulty of getting started reduces.
The shame and guilt associated with not doing the entire task also disappear with this rule.
6. Reduce One Sensory Input
When you are overwhelmed, even small things can irritate or frustrate you.
It just makes things worse.
Reducing sensory input can calm your brain.
You could:
- Turn off your notifications
- Stay away from loud noises
- Dim your lights
All of these help to reduce the load on your nervous system.
SECTION 3: SOOTHE YOUR MIND THROUGH SELF-AWARENESS
7. Brain Dump for 5 Minutes
Unload all your mental clutter onto paper. This is what a brain dump means.
Whatever you are feeling — things you have to do, random thoughts, ideas — anything that is taking up space in your mind, you write it down.
Free up the mental space.
This helps you stop carrying everything in your brain.
You will feel light and will be able to think clearly once your mind is free.
Related Post: How To Do A Brain Dump To Declutter Your Mind
8. Ask Yourself One Check-In Question
This is the simplest way to honour your needs.
Ask yourself simple questions like:
- What do I need now?
- Where am I feeling tension in my body?
- What can I do to relax?
These simple questions have immense power.
SECTION 4: REDUCE CHAOS AROUND YOU
9. Clean a Tiny Space
When the environment is clean, the mind follows.
You don’t clean the entire room.
Just a tiny space.
It could be a chair that is overflowing with unfolded clothes or a drawer of the table.
That’s it.
Conclusion
These simple, low-energy techniques that take less than 5 minutes are super helpful in calming down your mind.
When you are calm, you can think and function better, make better decisions and choices.
It helps you from spiraling down into the depths of despair.
Survival mode doesn’t last forever.
These techniques help you survive without breaking into pieces.
You might also like:
➡️10 Signs You Are on the Right Path (Even If You’re Not Feeling It)
➡️10 Powerful Life Lessons I Learned Through Tough Seasons
Leave a Reply