How to control your nerves? 10 useful strategies

Knowing how to manage stress and anxiety is key to face decisive situations in life.

Dry mouth, sweating, shivering, stuttering, hesitation, bowel movements... all these phenomena are familiar to most people.These phenomena are familiar to most people when they are faced with a situation that causes them high emotional tension.

Almost all of us have had an exam in which something important was at stake, an exhibition in public, an appointment with someone we are interested in or a medical examination. When it is important to us and we are worried about the final result, nerves make us uncomfortable and tense and can even play tricks on us, such as drawing a blank.

How can you control your nerves? In this article you will find a series of recommendations that allow either to reduce the level of nervousness or not to affect so much our performance.

Nervousness: an uncomfortable but useful phenomenon.

The nervousness and the stress are phenomena and reactions that are are often distressing and unpleasant for us.. It is logical to wonder what purpose can be served by something that we find so aversive and can degenerate into pathological reactions.

The truth is that nervousness is a reaction to stimuli that we foresee are going to happen in the future and it is a very adaptive advantage that allows us to survive. The autonomic nervous system, specifically the sympathetic system, is responsible for this. It causes the body to activate and prepare itself to react to the situation that represents an emotional activation. Thanks to this we can, for example, be prepared and attentive in the exam in which we play to pass the course.

The problem arises when this nervousness is excessive, does not subside or prevents or limits a correct performance (such as going blank). On these occasions it can be maladaptive. That is why, in the face of high levels of stress, it can be useful to know how to disconnect from the stress.t can be useful to know how to disconnect and control our nerves.. Let's see how this can be done.

Controlling your nerves: some strategies

The following are a number of ways and aspects to take into account in order to manage or control your nerves. However, one thing must be clear: these different recommendations can serve to reduce nervousness or its effects, but they do not eradicate it at the root.

1. Relaxation techniques

Relaxation techniques are some of the first and most well-known recommendations to fight and control nervousness. Techniques focused on breathing control and Muscle tension and relaxation are usually recommended. techniques focused on breathing control and muscle tension and relaxation, such as the well-known Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation.such as the well-known Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation. In addition, some types of techniques do not require more than a few minutes and can be carried out anywhere.

Mindfulness or meditation

Mindfulness or meditation helps us to connect with the present, relativize things and concentrate on what is important. The level of tension can be greatly reduced and we can manifest a higher level of self-control. Meditation with the evocation of relaxing images is also often very helpful.

3. Self-instructions technique

"I am not able to do it" or "I am going to go blank" are thoughts that some people have when they feel nervous. This is completely detrimental, since our expectations about our own performance can modify both our final behavior in the direction we thought (remember the Galatea effect and the self-fulfilling prophecy).

On the contrary, holding positive thoughts and believing in our own believe in our own possibilities can favor our final performance.. In addition, giving ourselves self-instructions about what we are going to do next helps us not to forget key aspects.

4. Rehearse and prepare the situation

Many times we are extremely nervous due to the fact that we do not know how we are going to act in the situation. Although it is obviously not going to be the same, a good way to know and improve the execution is to rehearse what we are going to do or say. For example in front of a mirror or better yet, with other people different from those who are going to participate in the feared situation.

Although it may be redundant, rehearsing allows us to practice the performances we are going to carry out, to get an insight into our strengths and the things we should improve before carrying out the performance, and to receive feedback from possible observers. In addition, we get used to the situation, so that some of the surprise or novelty does not part of the surprise or novelty will not affect us as much in the moment of truth. the moment of truth.

It is usually recommended that such reviews or rehearsals take place in the hours prior to the stimulus that provokes the nervousness. However, for some people it is usually beneficial and may even turn out to be the moments of maximum productivity when preparing.

5. Be prepared, but leave room for improvisation.

Rehearsing is necessary, but we must keep in mind that we should not pretend to have everything prepared and planned, memorized as if we were going to recite something written on a piece of paper. In addition to the fact that the latter would be forced and unnatural in most cases, it is necessary to know what we are going to do and to have an outline of the general situation. have an outline of the situation in general, but we must be ready for the situation to have unforeseen elements.We must be ready for the situation to have unforeseen elements.

6. Decatastrophize

We can put ourselves in the worst possible situation that we can think of, and then we can ask ourselves what would really happen if what we fear were to happen.. It is about relativizing the importance of the feared thing. We fail an exam, the appointment goes badly or we draw a blank. We are laughed at or we miss an opportunity. So?

I can show up next year, get another appointment with the person in question or perform another play. That's not going to kill us. The point of this kind of performance is to give things the importance they have, no more and no less.

7. Expose yourself to the situation and avoid avoidance.

A mistake that many people make not only in the face of normal nervousness, but also in the face of pathological anxiety is to avoid the feared situation. This only reinforces the fear of what is to come and worsens our ability to cope with it. It is not a matter of provoking fear for pleasure, but of learning to face it in an adaptive way.

8. Consume drinks that allow you to relax and avoid excitants

Coffee, energy drinks or other exciting substances will increase the level of activation, which will generate even greater nervousness. That is why we should avoid them especially in the moments before the situation that makes us nervous. On the other hand, it may be beneficial to to drink relaxing beverages such as lime blossom or chamomile.. In some extreme cases it can also be consumed some type of tranquilizing drug, only by medical indication.

9. Do sports

Exercise activates our organism, but it can also allow us to free our mind and calm down. It generates endorphins and other substances that facilitate to diminish the internal tension. It is useful to do exercises that leave us relaxed, but it is not necessary to do them until we give up. Running or swimming are usually some of the typical examples of useful exercises.

10. Contact with nature

To notice the wind and the breeze, the touch of the grass or the sand, the cold of the winter or the light of the sun can be very pleasant. In addition, it has been shown that being in contact with nature can be relaxing and greatly decrease our stress levels. This recommendation can go hand in hand with that of exercising.

Bibliographical references:

• Barlow, DH. (2000). "Unraveling the mysteries of anxiety and its disorders from the perspective of emotion theory". The American Psychologist.
• Lorenzo Fernandez et al. (2013). Manual de Farmacología Básica y Clínica. Panamericana.
• Nuss, P- (2015). «Anxiety disorders and GABA neurotransmission: a disturbance of modulation». Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat.