When you experience a crisis – something sudden, unexpected, and immediately threatening, your body will do its job and automatically protect you by sending you into fight, flight, or freeze mode. This can be good and useful if you’re in a situation that demands immediate physical action like jumping out of the way of a car or running out of a burning building. You won’t even have to think, your body will do the work for you.
However, let’s say you are no longer being immediately threatened and/or you’re having a difficult time calming down even after the crisis has passed. Or, maybe it’s simply no longer helpful to be in crisis mode. You’re going to need a skill to help bring the prefrontal cortex – the most recent part of the brain that evolved and which is responsible for executive functioning, planning, consideration of long-term consequences and benefits – online.
To help jumpstart the prefrontal cortex, so to speak (actually, these skills will help down-regulate the body by activating the parasympathetic nervous system). I’d recommend one of my favorite skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), the TIPP skill. But please note you should consult with a medical doctor before using any of these skills if you have a heart condition, are pregnant, or have another health condition that you’re concerned about:
- Tip your body temperature by putting an ice pack on your forehead, hold your breath, and bend forward so your head is between your knees for 30 seconds. Repeat for several rounds until you begin to notice your body down-regulating. For a more intense version, you could submerge your face (just up to your ears) in a pot of ice water and hold for 30 seconds.
- Intense exercise: if you have space, do some sprints, or try some burpees, or even just jump up and down for several minutes. Anything to get your heart rate up like you are doing some serious exercise.
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation: squeeze both feet and curl your toes in as tightly as you can without causing pain and hold for a few seconds and then release and notice the difference. Repeat at least two more times. Then do the same thing with your calves, your upper leg muscles, your core, squeezing shoulders up to your ears, clench your hands into tight fists, squeezing your face so you’re making a tight facial expression. It’s important to pause and notice the relaxed feeling after every “squeeze” round.
- Paced Breathing: try Box Breathing where you inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts, hold for four counts, and repeat. Or, try inhaling for about six counts and exhaling for eight counts (you can change the numbers as needed but just make sure the exhale is longer than the inhale). My own opinion is that it’s more helpful to aim for long, quiet inhales and exhales through the nostrils only while keeping the mouth closed.
Once the body is in a calmer state (even if not totally relaxed), you will be able to think more clearly in order to consider your next steps.
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