3 Quick Skills to Calm Emotions in Your Body

1. Slow Down with Cold Water

  • Ice pack, cold cloth, sink, or bowl of cold water.

  • Cold water on your face stimulates the Mammalian Dive Reflex, to quickly calm the nervous system.

2. A Spurt of Intense Exercise

  • Nothing.

  • Strong emotions are body impulses that urge us to DO something (E.g., avoid, attack, withdraw). Intense exercise replaces urges to act on regrettable urges.

3. Calming Breathing

  • Nothing.

  • When we exhale longer & slower than our inhaling, the parasympathetic system is activated, which calms immediately.