Anxiety
3 Easy Tips to Reset Your Calm
Try one—or all of these—calming strategies for improving your day.
Updated October 14, 2024 Reviewed by Margaret Foley
Key points
- Self-care needn’t be time-consuming or strenuous.
- These three evidence-based practices prove quick and effective.
- Try a mindful breath, natural water sounds, and gazing at water. Each calms the nervous system.
Ever since the search for the Fountain of Youth, people have sought easy, quick fixes to improve how they feel. Researchers now identify simple, evidence-based strategies that can help. These might not turn back the clock, fix a broken heart, or heal clinical anxiety or depression, but they’re effective in calming your nervous system and can become self-perpetuating.
1. Extended exhales. We’ve all heard “take 10 slow deep breaths” when we’re stressed or angry. But 10 breaths take a long time! You don’t need that many. Deep, or belly, breathing, in itself promotes the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system and inhibits the sympathetic (fight or flight—or, perhaps for women, tend and befriend). Deep breathing lowers blood pressure, heart rate, and activity in the amydala, the part of our brains associated with fear.
By extending your exhalations, you get these benefits and more, also increasing heart rate variability (HRV). HRV measures vagal activity and is a proxy for general nervous system health. Even three or five extended exhales may be enough to help you feel calm. Breathing consciously in this way also helps you focus on the present moment—the definition of mindfulness.
To lengthen your exhales, simply breathe in deeply, perhaps to a count of three, and breathe out to a count of five, or whatever is comfortable. Although you needn’t do this for more than a few breaths to feel effects, if you have a bit longer, one study found five minutes of extended exhales, sighing on the out-breath, improved mood and anxiety.
2. Healing water sounds. Have you ever noticed how many therapist and healthcare waiting rooms sport water features? The sound of water has been found to promote relaxation, decreasing heart rate and even anxiety. If you don’t live near water, that’s OK. Even virtual reality works. That background “music” of waves crashing to shore really can help you relax. While other nature sounds also decrease stress and irritation, water seems to have the greatest effect. Perhaps this is because our ancestors needed to be experts at sussing out water to ensure survival. Water sounds need to be true enough for our brain to “hear” them as water, so if you do invest in a water feature, make it one that’s audible.
3. Gazing at water in motion. Less than two minutes spent gazing at water—even a swimming pool—can calm the nervous system. Watching water decreases heart rate and blood pressure while increasing our subjective sense of relaxation and calm. If a swimming pool works as well as a creek, lake, or ocean, gazing at a small water feature or video of lapping waves may work. It’s worth a try!
In summary, although extended exhales and listening to or watching water may not cure all that ails you, these are easy, helpful ways to ensure calm in your day. Put on background water sounds when a co-worker or manager irritates you. (If you listen to them all the time, your brain may tune them out). Take even two or three deep belly, extended exhales, then note how you feel. Watch moving water, in reality or virtually. It takes a moment, but may reset your entire day.
References
Komori T. The relaxation effect of prolonged expiratory breathing. Ment Illn. 2018 May 16;10(1):7669. doi: 10.4081/mi.2018.7669. PMID: 30046408; PMCID: PMC6037091.
Balban MY, Neri E, Kogon MM, Weed L, Nouriani B, Jo B, Holl G, Zeitzer JM, Spiegel D, Huberman AD. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Rep Med. 2023 Jan 17;4(1):100895. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895. Epub 2023 Jan 10. PMID: 36630953; PMCID: PMC9873947.
Chung-Heng Hsieh, Ju-Yuan Yang, Chun-Wei Huang, Wei Chien Benny Chin. The effect of water sound level in virtual reality: A study of restorative benefits in young adults through immersive natural environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 88, 2023,
Buxton RT, Pearson AL, Allou C, Fristrup K, Wittemyer G. A synthesis of health benefits of natural sounds and their distribution in national parks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Apr 6;118(14):e2013097118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2013097118. PMID: 33753555; PMCID: PMC8040792.
Richard G. Coss, Craig M. Keller. Transient decreases in blood pressure and heart rate with increased subjective level of relaxation while viewing water compared with adjacent ground. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 81,2022,101794.ISSN 0272-4944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101794.