How to control your nerves? 10 useful strategies

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

And it is that almost all of us have had an exam in which we played something important, 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 concerned about the end result, our nerves make us uncomfortable and tense and they can even play tricks on us such as going blank.

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

• Related article: "Nerves and stress: what is anxiety for?"

Nervousness: an uncomfortable but useful phenomenon

Nervousness and stress are phenomena and reactions that they are usually distressing and unpleasant. It is logical to ask what use can be made of something that is so aversive to us and can degenerate into pathological reactions.

The truth is nervousness is a reaction to stimuli that we anticipate will happen in the future and it supposes a very adaptive advantage that allows our survival. The autonomic nervous system, specifically the sympathetic system. It causes the body to activate and prepare 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 occurs when said nervousness is excessive, does not yield or prevents or limits a correct action (such as the fact of going blank). On these occasions it can be maladaptive. That is why at high levels of tension pKnowing how to disconnect and control your nerves can be helpful. Let's see how that can be done.

Control your nerves: some strategies

Below are a series of ways and aspects to consider in order to manage or control your nerves. However, one must be clear: these different recommendations can serve to reduce nervousness or its effects, but they do not eradicate it at its roots.

1. Relaxation techniques

Relaxation techniques are some of the first and best known recommendations to fight and control nervousness. The techniques focused on controlling breathing and muscle tension and strain, like the well-known Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation. Also, some types of techniques take no more than a few minutes and can be done anywhere.

2. Mindfulness or meditation

Mindfulness or meditation help us connect with the present, relativize things and focus 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 it is also usually very useful.

• Related article: "5 Mindfulness exercises to improve your emotional well-being"

3. Self-instruction technique

"I can't do it" or "I'm 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 change so much our final behavior in the direction we thought (remember the Galatea effect and the self-fulfilling prophecy).

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

4. Rehearse and prepare the situation

Many times we are tremendously nervous about the fact that we do not know how we are going to act in the situation. Although obviously it will not be the same, a good way to know and improve the execution is 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 dreaded situation.

Although it is redundant, rehearsing allows us to practice the performances that we are going to carry out, to obtain a vision of our strengths and things that we should improve before carrying out the action and receiving input from possible observers. In addition, we get used to the situation, so that part of the surprise or novelty will not affect us so much in the moment of truth.

It is usually recommended that these reviews or rehearsals be given in the hours before the stimulus that causes the nervousness. However, for some people it is often beneficial and even the moments of maximum productivity when preparing.

5. Be prepared, but leave room for improvisation

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

6. Decatastrophizes

We can put ourselves in the worst possible situation that we can think of, and then ask ourselves what would really happen if what we fear happened. It is about relativizing the importance of what is feared. We fail an exam, the appointment goes awful or we go blank. They laugh at us or we miss an opportunity. Y?

I can show up next year, get another appointment with him or the person in question, or carry out another work. That is not going to kill us. The objective of this type of action 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 with normal nervousness, but also with pathological anxiety is to avoid the dreaded situation. This only reinforces the fear of what is to come and it worsens our abilities to cope. It is not about provoking fear for pleasure, but about learning to cope adaptively.

8. Consume drinks that allow you to relax and avoid the exciting ones

Coffee, energy drinks, or other exciting substances will increase the level of arousal, which will lead to even more nervousness. That is why we must avoid them especially in the moments prior to the situation that causes us nervousness. On the contrary, it can be beneficial drink relaxing drinks like linden or chamomile. In some extreme cases, some type of tranquilizer drug may also be consumed, only on medical advice.

9. Do sports

Exercise activates our body, but it can also allow us to vacate our minds and calm us down. Endorphins are generated and other substances that help reduce internal tension. It is useful to do exercises that leave us relaxed, but it is not necessary that they be done until we are exhausted. Running or swimming are usually some of the typical examples of useful exercises.

• Related article: "Endorphins (neurotransmitters): functions and characteristics"

10. Contact with the nature

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

Bibliographic 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 of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. Pan American.
• Nuss, P- (2015). "Anxiety disorders and GABA neurotransmission: a disturbance of modulation". Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat.