How to not be nervous? Every person has felt nervous at least once in their whole lives. When you are nervous, you suddenly can’t breathe properly, and your body adapts to very uncomfortable physiological ways.
So, how do we deal with these nervous feelings? How do we control our body’s reaction to nervousness? Read on to find out how not to be nervous!
15 Ways to Avoid Being Nervous
Before a job interview, how do we deal with twitchy feet and sweaty palms? How do we successfully avoid being nervous in a potential nerve-racking event? Following are 15 ways to avoid being nervous.
1. Cut off Your Caffeine Intake
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Caffeine is known to cause anxiety, even in people who do not often feel nervous. You must reduce your caffeine intake if you already suffer from an anxiety disorder.
People are generally observed to experience tightened muscles, high blood pressure, and a tingly sensation in their stomach when they are nervous, and caffeine can heighten these symptoms.
You can read more about how caffeine affects anxiety here: https://www.healthline.com/health/caffeine-and-anxiety#:~:text=%E2%80%9CHigh%20levels%20of%20caffeine%20can,is%20safe%20in%20low%20doses.
2. Meditate
Meditation is a great way to calm your nerves and ward off all negative thoughts. When you are feeling incredibly nervous, it is always advisable to meditate. Meditation helps you learn to focus fully on your breathing and nothing else for the moment.
While meditating, you don’t hold on to or deny your thoughts; rather, you acknowledge their presence and let them pass. This can be a very calming activity to perform if done right.
3. Practice Deep Breathing Exercises
Taking a deep breath can be one of the most useful methods to deal with an agitated nervous system. Deep breaths are a savior when you have to deal with any stressful event. A few deep breaths help you calm your nerves to a miraculous extent.
Breathing thoroughly helps in the supply of oxygen to your entire body, but most importantly, it helps in the supply of oxygen to your brain. You can think and reflect more clearly when your brain has enough oxygen to function properly.
In this video, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital teaches you the right method to practice deep breathing.
4. Focus on Your Health
Health does not only consist of your physical state; it also includes your mental state. Under too much mental pressure, a person’s physical well-being is affected as well. It is important to have a good breakfast and to exercise regularly.
Physical exercise trains you to develop a normal breathing pattern, even in situations of stress. Exercise is known to stimulate the release of certain chemicals in your brain, such as Serotonin, that can make you feel good and happy.
Read more about the effects of exercise on your mental well-being here: exercise#How-does-exercise-impact-the-brain?
5. Change Your Thought Process
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In stressful situations, we often tend to harbor negative thoughts in our minds and worry ourselves by expecting only the worst-case scenarios. That is where we make mistakes because this thinking only leads to more nail-biting and tingly stomachs.
To deal with nervousness, you need to believe in positive outcomes and give yourself a motivational pep talk. Remember that our thoughts are how we shape our lives!
6. Expose Yourself to Situations that Make You Nervous
As counterintuitive as it may sound, this method is extremely helpful in practicing handling nervousness at social events. Such situations prepare you to deal with instances where you feel nervous and anxious.
With more and more experience in such situations, you develop effective ways to learn how not to be nervous and get through daily events relaxed.
7. Listen to Cheerful Songs
An excellent way to get rid of nerves is by putting on your headphones and playing some relaxing tunes. Cheerful music can greatly help calm your nerves, and the rhythmic style of classical music can help you focus fully on developing a normal breathing pattern.
8. If the Problem Persists, Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Professional Help
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Professional advice is essential in some cases. If you feel that no matter what you do, you cannot bring yourself to behave or talk properly when you are nervous, you should not hesitate to visit a doctor.
Seeking help will not only help you avoid recklessly putting on a fight or flight reaction, but it will also do known calming exercises that can help you give off a normal reaction to certain situations. Remember that it is perfectly normal to seek help from a mental health professional.
9. Body Language Matters
Your body language is one of the most important things in your personality. Remember to maintain consistent eye contact with whoever you are speaking to. But be careful, don’t make it look like an effort to maintain eye contact, and be natural. Sit and stand upright.
This way, you will feel more confident in yourself, and self-confidence is important if you don’t want to feel nervous.
10. Self-Affirmations Are Important
You should affirm your capabilities and believe in yourself. Self-affirmations and positive self-talk help in developing confidence in one’s self. You should tell yourself that you are enough and that feeling nervous isn’t wrong, and neither is a sign of weakness.
This attitude will help you stay calm and confident in moments of nervousness.
11. Accept your Feelings
If you are feeling nervous, acknowledge your emotions. Don’t force positivity but try to help it grow in your mind. Acknowledging one’s problems is the first step in solving those problems. You cannot try to work on something you refuse to believe exists.
Therefore, it is not only constructive but essential to acknowledge your true feelings to help yourself deal with nervousness.
12. Don’t Force Yourself to Be Perfect
Nervous emotions arise in one when he thinks that only perfection is acceptable. If you force perfection on yourself, you are just paving the way for anxiety disorders. Do not try to be perfect because perfect does not exist. It is humane to make mistakes. It is said that if a person never makes mistakes, he never learns anything.
13. Think Rationally
When our mind is stressed, it tends to exaggerate situations and instances. This tends to cause more tension in our bodies and our mind. Nervousness can be caused by job interviews, public events, or as simple as something such as hanging out with your friends. To deal with nervous emotions, one has to think rationally and remind oneself not to believe in everything their brain tells them.
You have to know that under pressure, your brain may malfunction and tell you things that are not true. You need to recognize these untrue thoughts and act rationally. You should control your actions, especially in extreme stress and anxiety.
14. Relax Your Body
When we are nervous, we often hunch our shoulders, tighten our jaw and curl up our toes without even knowing it. This leads to stiffness of the body, which in turn leads to stiffness of the mind.
When you are physically uncomfortable, your mind automatically becomes uncomfortable, too, with or without your conscious knowledge. You cannot hope to calm down and relax in such a situation. Professionals advise yoga and pranayama to train your body to remain calm during nervousness.
15. Don’t Be Too Serious
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In life, we learn, experience, and, most importantly, have fun. If you are too serious about your life, you are already taking out all the fun. Great personalities often advise people to focus on having fun in life. Life can be a very good experience for people if they open their minds and look at the beauty of all the small things that make this world special.
It is important to relax and enjoy the whole prospect of existence. This mindset will help you progress in life with a happy and peaceful lifestyle. Remember, you are here to explore, and it is okay not to have a plan ahead about what you will do in your life.
Our situation in life can indeed sometimes get very stressful! But these stressful events can be handled, and they are manageable. Do not believe yourself to be lost or alone; there are thousands of people who suffer from the same things as you do.
Some people are always ready to help you through your sufferings and people you can reach out to. With discussions come solutions; therefore, it is always a great idea to connect with people who share similar experiences with you and have the same anxieties as you do; this practice can help you discover new and innovative ways to deal with your nervousness and someday, perhaps you can help others deal with their nervousness as well!
The most important thing is to have faith in yourself and believe that you are more powerful than your emotions and can conquer whatever stresses you out.
Also check out, Interesting Facts about the Nervous System
Last Updated on by Sathi
