Having A Stressful Day? How to Calm Down in 5 Minutes.

Sometimes you don’t realize how stressed you are until the volcano in your brain is about to erupt. When that happens, it’s nice to have a game plan to fall back on. While I was working in the ambulance as an EMT, I had more than a few stressful days at work.

It takes a while for long-term stress from a chaotic job to build up. I made it through about a year of emergency medicine before it was time to get proactive about staying cool. I settled on a few key tricks.

Number one is music. Nothing has a more powerful and immediate impact on motivation and mood. Music is one of the only treatments that temporarily reduce symptoms of patients with late-stage degenerative brain disease. If it can work on them, it can work for you too.

 

Number two is exercise. Exercise burns off excess stress hormones that build up throughout the day. It also releases feel-good endorphins while boosting mental clarity with the production of BDNF in the brain.

 

Number three is the sense of smell. Your nose is a direct line of communication to the amygdala, the area of the brain most strongly tied to emotions and memory recall. You can use it to ground yourself after moments of high stress.