Calming down

There are different ways to get rid of tension, anxiety and stress. Here are some physical ways to help calm your body down.

When you have chronic pain after a brain injury, it is easy to get overwhelmed by your emotions or what you are feeling in your body. It can be hard to get rid of the tension and stress in your body and this can come out as an angry outburst, yelling, worry or anxiety. Before your injury, you might have been able to rid yourself of these feelings by exercising, playing sport and hanging out with friends. It can be harder to do these activities now, so the tension and stress in your body builds up, making your pain worse and harder for you to cope with everything.

There are different ways to get rid of the tension, anxiety, and stress. Some of them are more in your mind, like relaxation and meditation. If you would like to try these, check out the Relaxation and Meditation tools.

But sometimes after a brain injury it can be hard to tap into these tools. It can be helpful to learn more physical ways to get rid of tension in your body, and this can help bring down the pressure and anxiety that comes with coping with chronic pain.

Have a look the tools Calming down guide. These tools help you to settle yourself when you are feeling overwhelmed by strong emotions, too much sensory information or your pain. They are quite simple and only take a few minutes. They help to ground you in the moment and let go of strong emotions. Some of these tools need you to move or focus on parts of your body, if this is not possible due to an ongoing injury or your pain, try the tool with another part of your body or try the next tool.

You can practise these tools anytime. Start practising when you are calm, then you can use them when you are feeling overwhelmed.

Then use the My plan to calm down to pick two tools that you can use to help you come back into your body and calm down. Think about which tools would work best for you and when you will use them. Look at the example and then make your own plan and learn to Be Pain Smart.