Crisis Skills: 7 ways to cope quickly

Hitting your peak, hit the peak, seeing the peak in the distance or recognising the signs of peaking creeping up? Look no further than here for how you can consistently & reliably get on top of your overwhelm & back in to your window of tolerance where you can at the very least, get your frontal lobe back online, & out of the chaos.

These seven selected in this latest (not too long, but not short enough it's sh*t) blog are what we might often onsider immediate crisis skills, meaning you use them in and of the moment to get yourself out of something that''s otherwise made you feel quite out of control in it. You can't wait, won't wait - so these are some of the fastest fixes to shift your mental state, in no particular order and with your complete freedom to keep them as a shopping list but only buy into the best ones for you:

1. Temperature: change it. Splash freezing cold water on your face, put an ice pack in your face or throw yourself into a cold shower. This triggers the mammalian dive reflex, which aggressively slows your heart rate, & gets your body back in to a more neutral, calm and less panicked state.

2. Intense exercise: Burn off the adrenaline flooding your body - jump, run, sprint, walk, push against a wall for 2 minutes, hit a punching bag - just MOVE. You cannot and will not prioritise mental panic over physical movement, the body will always choose physiological survival over whatever your ruminations have dragged you. It'll task hop, and your central nervous system can reset, giving you chance to actually calm down after (not to mention to endorphins down the line).

3. Paced Breathing: You can't be in full panic mode while breathing like you've just got into the world's best bath. So breathe in deeply through your nose for 4 seconds, and exhale slowly through your mouth for 7-8 seconds. Always make the exhale longer than the inhale - this will kick on your parasympathetic nervous system, and your body will start to calm and come down. Don't do this for ten seconds, call it a day and say it doesn't work, do it until you notice you're breathing fundamentally differently, after that initial process of forcing yourself to slow down. It starts off hard, it works - but you've got to give the time your body needs to calm down relative to how ramped up it got. Guided videos and more on this here.

4. Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Take your breath work from up top, start with that and then one by one, intentionally tense a muscle group, starting from your toes, moving to your face and then ending with a full body squeeze. Each one lasting about 5 seconds to hold and 5 seconds to release. When you exhale, completely release the tension and focus on the feelings you notice as that shifts from your body. Need it guided? Type PMR guided into youtube and live your life picking the person, accent & backdrop of your choice!

5. Screaming into the abyss: I mean you don't have to, but screaming into a pillow, from the top of your lungs, or in the middle of a field, in your car mid traffic, on the sofa if no one's home (or on the sofa and see what happens, maybe Nan needs an afternoon jolt and if you're in panic, someone's going to hear about it, and that someone could help). Singing works just as well, but you might find if you're enraged or sobbing, a vocal looking to pitch match Adele might be less effective (short term only, long term singing is GREAT for serotonin).

6. Stop: don't react or speak - contradictory to the above I know, BUT, if you're in a bind where you know reacting will just be a nuke to your life and not a poetry slam level of self expression, just. Stop. Step back - literally physically step back. Observe what's happening inside you without judging it - just notice yourself for a moment. Proceed MINDFULLY, which means asking yourself what step is genuinely best for you next, ask the wisest part of you - they'll know, and listen to that voice that knows best just for a second. Once you've grasped that tangible part of your clarity, decide on the next action that helps you to keep coming down.

7. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1: Feeling disconnected, off, ungrounded, notice you're about to enter the void you find hard to get back from? Look for 5 things your can see, find 4 things to touch, 3 things to hear, two things to smell and 1 - GIANT - big breath.

   
   

These are science backed, clinically tried, tested and proven as well as anecdotally effective, meaning there is quite literally no reason for you not to do it, when any one of them short term will do the job, several in a go will absolutely seal the deal and if you do some of them as long term regulation practices (breath work, 54321, movement, temperature therapy) you'll have long term benefits with a more regulated body and a brain that would reflect less intensity in your Amygdala (fight or flight's home) and more density in your pre frontal cortex (meaning rationality and calm are at the wheel).

Try at least one, and take it seriously, try it daily, several times a day or whenever you need it - but do the work until you don't feel as intensely as you did before you started. The point is to get you down to a place where you can practice being present and capable, after something or several somethings, kicked out of it.

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