4 Simple Steps for Staying Calm and Collected No Matter What Life Throws at You

I’ve always been a pretty calm individual (just ask my mom about that time I nearly totaled my older sister’s car at 13 years old). Whether it’s having my already enormous workload doubled, having to make sense of a chaotic and disorganized situation or having to call my mom and explain why the police officer wants to talk to her, I’m the type of person that actually gets calmer with more stress.

It pains me to see that this is not the case for most people out there.

If you find yourself thrown into a tailspin every time something goes wrong, feel overwhelmed by life, unable to get a handle on things or just plain frazzled and stressed to the max… you’re in luck. Staying calm, collected and SANE, no matter what happens, is something that you can easily master with time and practice (and these four handy steps).

How to Stay Calm and Collected, No Matter What.

1) Take a time out.

I know it’s not easy when shit hits the fan, your workload triples and everything seems to be falling apart around you, but you MUST. CALM. DOWN. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes and sit in silence. Count backwards from 10. Stop moving. Stop speaking frantically and jumping all over the place. Just pause. You can do it, I promise. Taking a moment to calm yourself down makes all the difference in how you’ll handle (and tackle) the situation at hand.

2) Don’t succumb to negative thought patterns!

I can’t handle this.

This always happens to me.

Everything is awful and life sucks.

You know the thought patterns because they’re your “go to” in these types of situations. If you’re automatically throwing your hands in the air when thing’s start to go awry, you’re never going to get anywhere. Things will never change. You will always be stressed and miserable.

You have to work at changing your thought patterns.

You are 100% equipped and infinitely prepared to handle EVERYTHING that shows up in your life. Why? Because you are 100% responsible for what has happened and therefore, you’re 100% capable of changing things for good. It all begins with changing your reaction.

Repeat after me, “I CAN do this because I’m capable of handling whatever life throws at me.”

3) Get back in the present moment.

Whatever the issue, in order to tackle it you need to get back in the present moment and out of your head. When you’re stuck in your head, you’re going to overthink things, listen to your negative thoughts and fail to move forward in a positive direction.

Breathe. Shut out the negativity. GET PRESENT.

Focus on the task at hand, the first step, the call you have to make or the email you have to send. Do ONE thing at a time and you will instantly eliminate overwhelm. You will also manage to tackle the task with ease and grace and, before you know it, you’ll be on to the next thing.

4) TRUST. Know that everything will be okay.

I know that can be an annoying thing to hear when you’re at your wit’s end and your life feels like it’s falling apart, but you have to trust that everything will be okay. Think about the last time everything seemed to go wrong… are you still here? Still breathing and living your life? Are you, in THIS moment, okay? Yes, you are. And no matter what happens, you will still be okay, life will continue on and things will fall into place exactly as they’re supposed to.

I want to hear from you!

Share your insights, takeaways or “aha!” moments in the comments section below.
And if you have any tips for staying calm and collected, please share them as well!

PS – This post was inspired by both someone near and dear to me struggling with some serious overwhelm and Marie Forleo’s most recent Q&A Tuesday video blog!

Please take a moment to watch her video now!