Calm as a Practice

Steps to build a more ease-full response to life

Calm: a perspective of mindfulness and the ability to manage emotional reactivity

When you practice calm you cultivate the ability to bring perspective to complicated situations and feel without reacting to heightened emotions such as fear and anger. Calm is a practice.

The following is just one technique that you can utilize to build your own practice toward a more calm mind and way of being:

1. Be slow to respond and quick to think, “Do I have all of the information I need to make a decision or form a response?” A panicked response is often due to a lack of pertinent facts in regards to what is truly going on. Focus on the facts, stray from gossip and hearsay, and process without rush.

2. Stay mindful of the effect calm has on an anxious situation. A panicked response incites more panic and fear, as anxiety is contagious.

“Anxiety is extremely contagious but so is calm.” -Brene Brown

Unless you’ve had parents or other mentors around that practiced emotional non-responsivenenss aka calm as a response, it’s unlikely that will be your natural response in hostile situations. Being patient with yourself as you grow in this practice is an imperative piece of the un-learning puzzle.

3. Ask yourself, “Do I have enough data to freak out, and is it worth freaking out, even if I do?” The odds are that, even if you do have enough info to concoct a response, freaking out will not benefit the situation in a healing way.

There is a lot of collective anxiety being stirred in the world right now; always and to varying degrees, really, when we step back and widen the scope of focus. The news is hard and will likely get harder and anxiety will continue to rise.

If we can each practice awareness and understand that our calm can be as infectious as the anxiety that’s swirling about, we can each start to have a more beneficial impact; in our communities, relationships with others, and immediately, with ourselves.

Ps. Find 6 simple guided breathing practice options here, also a solid focus to incorporate as you build your calm tolerance.

By Sam Jump

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