Do you want to learn how to control your nerves?
Do your emotions always seem to get the best of you?
A lot of things can make one nervous.
For example, a public speaking event, first day in a new position, taking an important step towards something, taking a major decision, etc.
However, if your nerves always seem to get the best of you and stop you from taking important actions in your daily life, that could be a real problem.
This is because it can affect you in so many ways than you can imagine.
For example, it could ruin your proposal presentation for a big contract.
Consequently, making you lose a major opportunity for growth in your business.
This is just one of the few ways nervousness can ruin you if you don’t learn to control it.
So, follow us in this blog post as we share some effective techniques for controlling your nerves and being more in control of your emotions and reaction to situations.
How To Control Your Nerves
Nervousness is generally associated with some symptoms.
Also, these symptoms may differ from person to person.
Some of these symptoms include;
- Restlessness
- Increased heartbeat
- Sweatiness (sweating profusely)
- Weakness/ tiredness
- Lack of focus
- Stomach upset, etc.
Hence, controlling your nerves is all about learning to manage the symptoms of uneasiness and remain calm regardless of the troubling situation around you.
Here are techniques for controlling your nerves.
Effective Techniques on How to Control Your Nerves
Practice Taking Deep Breaths and Exhale; It’s a great relief technique in stressful situations.
At that point, when perhaps in a meeting, you are told to contribute to an ongoing discussion, and your nerves begin to jump.
You feel like running to hide under the conference table, take a deep breath, and exhale.
You could excuse yourself for a few minutes, go to a comfortable spot, close your eyes, and take about three to four long breaths and exhale deeply with each breath you take in.
This helps to slow down your heart rate and release a lot of tension in your body.
You could make this a constant practice each time you have a major presentation or feel stressed.
This will be your special technique for calming your nerves.
Consequently, helping you to control your nerves intense situations.
Talk To Yourself; It Calms Down Your Nerves
When you are about to get down into a task that makes you nervous and jumpy, take some time to calm your nerves by talking to yourself.
At that point, see yourself as another person in a similar position.
Release all the positive words you have within you to talk to yourself.
Talking to yourself directs your minds a little bit away from the tension.
It makes you forget about your worry for some seconds and pull yourself together.
When you talk to yourself, do it kindly and positively.
It will not only help you control your nerves, but it will also put you in a positive headspace and make you feel calmer about the situation.
Replace Lack of Confidence With Courage
Self-confidence is belief in your abilities as a person.
Whereas courage is the ability to take action despite your fears.
Self-confidence says, “I got this,” “I can handle it.”
On the other hand, courage says, “I know I’m scared and nervous, but I’m willing to try/do it anyway.”
When faced with a major situation/event in your life, realizing that you lack the confidence to handle it will make you feel more nervous.
At this point, what you need is courage rather than trying to build the confidence to get through that situation.
Yes, you know you’re not confident to give that speech, but you’re going to be courageous and do it anyway.
When you build the courage to face your fears and do that which you’re afraid to do, you’ll realize that it isn’t as bad or difficult as you envisioned it would be.
Hence, your fear or nervousness will slowly melt away.
Above all, this courageous step provokes a positive psychological response in the brain and makes you feel much calmer.
Thereby helping you control your nerve.
Develop Yourself
Sometimes we feel nervous when given tasks or responsibilities because we feel incompetent to handle them.
As much as you may want to challenge those thoughts in your head about your incompetencies, sometimes you have to be honest with yourself.
You need to be honest to realize what’s true and what’s false.
If you’ve discovered that you actually lack the skills in certain areas, which makes you nervous each time you’re called upon to handle the task, then accept the fact that you’re incompetent.
Also, take time out to develop yourself in your areas of incompetency.
Learn the skills you need to learn and train yourself to be better.
If you lack confidence, build your self-confidence; if you lack technical skills, learn the skills.
Above all, it’s not always easy to accept our flaws.
However, if you can be honest with yourself to accept your flaws and develop yourself to become better, you’ll feel more confident in yourself.
Thus helping you build the confidence to overcome nervousness in stressful situations.
Always Bear in Mind It’s Natural to be Nervous and that You’re not the Only One Feeling That Way
Sometimes, we tend to think that we are the only ones struggling with issues such as; anxiety, self-doubt, insecurities, nervousness, depression, etc.
However, if you have the opportunity to talk to people randomly and learn more about their lives, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll find.
So if you find yourself struggling with nervousness, know that you’re not alone.
It may even surprise you to know that someone you admire for being confident and self-assured struggles with nervousness at one point in their lives or the other.
The only difference between you and the other people is that they’ve chosen to be courageous to face their fears and take action despite feeling nervous.
In all, having this in mind each time you feel nervous will inspire you with the courage you need to overcome your nervousness.
Thereby helping control your nerves in the long run
Question Your Fears; it will Help You To Control Your Nerve
Nervousness begins with the mind and your perception of things.
You imagine a task before you as too big or difficult to handle.
Hence, the first thing that comes to your mind when given the task is how you will mess it up and disgrace yourself.
That thought alone gets you scared and begins to manipulate you.
If you allow the fear to settle in, your mind accepts it as reality.
Hence, making it difficult to control your nerves and remain calm.
So, what you need to do is to challenge those thoughts by questioning your fears like this;
- What exactly am I nervous about?
- Is it my first time doing it?
- So what if I don’t do it outstandingly well?
These questions are therapy for calming your nerves.
It gives you little time to settle within yourself and identify why you are nervous.
Also, figuring out that it is your first time will help you.
If, for instance, you were called upon to perhaps propose a toast at a friend’s wedding or birthday party, you can begin with, “for first-timers like us, this is a very big honor.”
People would realize this and try to encourage you by cheering you on.
Given this, you’ll become more relaxed, comfortable and will feel your fear melt away.
Even if that is not the case, tell yourself that it is your first time.
Hence, you don’t need to be perfect; just show up and do your best.
Above all, questioning your fears puts you in a better position to control them.
Be Positive Minded; It Would Help You to Control Your Nerves
When you are afraid of doing a thing, a positive mindset can help you get started properly.
However, when you are tensed about a thing, and you begin to think of all the worst-case scenarios like;
- What if I don’t deliver the speech well?
- What if my shoe spoils on my way to the platform?
- What if they don’t like my performance when I am done?
You will end up more tense than you had been, and that is the last thing you need.
Most people get a little bit nervous even when they are about to do what they have been doing all their lives.
However, they only do it with a positive mindset.
That is the attitude you need to imbibe.
Think of best-case scenarios. That would help you to start fine and keep your nerves under control.
More so, think of the worst-case scenario and accept it with a positive mindset that anything that happens will be a learning experience for you.
Thus reducing your tension and helping you control your nerves.
Silence Your Inner Critic
One of the major causes of nervousness is this loud voice in our head that throws our insecurities at us.
It stands in judgment against us most times and makes us feel less about ourselves.
Imagine if you have a major business presentation to deliver.
Few minutes into the presentation, you start to question how you look.
Also, you start to question your ability to deliver an impressive presentation; you ask yourself if you’ve got all the right documents for the presentation.
These thoughts can mess up your confidence and make you feel nervous.
Your inner critic puts you in a position to second-guess yourself.
However, this can only affect you if you allow it.
When your inner critic tells you all sorts of negative words and makes you second-guess yourself, counter such words with positive words.
Thereby helping you calm and control your nerves.
Take Care of Yourself
Besides the difficulty of a task, your incompetence, negative thoughts about yourself, etc., other things contribute greatly to your feeling of nervousness.
These things could be the result of a lack of proper self-care.
First, one of such things is excessive stress.
When stressed, the body release, Adrenaline, Cortisol, Norepinephrine, which are the primary stress hormones in the body.
Due to the release of these hormones, you become jumpy, and controlling your emotions becomes more difficult.
Also, hunger and lack of good sleep can cause you to feel more tense emotions than you normally do.
Hence, contributing greatly to your feeling of nervousness.
This is why proper self-care is important.
When you eat, sleep, rest, and dress well, you look good, and when you look good, you feel good.
Thus, helping you feel confident and control your nerves.
Practice/Prepare Yourself
Whether you want to talk in front of a large audience, or you’ll be leading one of the weekly meetings in the office, it never hurts to prepare yourself.
For instance, if you have a public speaking event coming up, take some time to prepare yourself.
Gather as much information as you can on the topic you’ll be speaking on.
Practice speaking in front of a mirror or a close friend while envisioning yourself standing in front of your audience.
With time, you’ll find yourself getting comfortable with speaking in front of yourself.
Thus helping you feel prepared, boosting your confidence to overcome nervousness.
Indeed, you can’t always know how situations will turn out in life generally.
However, adequate planning and preparation can put you in a better position of handling the situation when it comes.
Hence the need to always be prepared so you can overcome nervousness regardless of the situation you’re about to face, either presentation at work, first-time dates, or other social events.
Final Words on How To Control Your Nerves
Being nervous doesn’t mean you’re weak, less of a human being, or a failure.
It is part of human existence.
Hence, when you try to overcome your nervousness, you realize that some things can be big enough to scare you, but you will conquer them.
This is why you shouldn’t deny your feelings of nervousness.
Instead, be honest with yourself, accept them, and look for ways to manage them better.
That is what we’ve tried to achieve with this blog post by sharing with you some techniques to help you better control your nerves.
Here’s a summary of the techniques mentioned here;
- First, practice taking slow, deep breathes in and out each time you feel nervous.
- Also, practice positive self-talk; it would replace the negative feelings with positive ones.
- Replace lack of confidence with courage; It’s easier to build the courage to face your fears on the spot than it is to build confidence.
- Work on your flaws; develop yourself to become better.
- Whenever you feel nervous, calm yourself down by remembering that you’re not the only one feeling that way and draw inspiration to conquer your nervousness from the knowledge that other people have also conquered their nervousness.
- Question your fears.
- Be positive minded
- Silence your inner critic
- Prioritize and practice self-care
- Lastly, prepare and practice to face your fears.
Overall, these are some of the ways you can learn to control your nerves amidst difficulties or tense situations.
More so, you can only see the results if you commit yourself to try these techniques out.
So, we encourage you to practice these steps and reap the benefits of a better version of yourself capable of controlling your nerves and managing your emotions.
Good luck!
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