How to Help Others Calm Down

Some of you know Milo, our dog.  He's a big, handsome but goofy German Shepherd/Elkhound cross.  He gets pretty excited to walk with me in the mornings. Sometimes, especially when he spots a squirrel, he gets a bit too excited, until I am internally shouting, “CaLM dOWn!”

I had to watch my sister’s kids for a few hours.  She has really great kids that are polite and well-behaved and we had a lot of fun together running through a water sprinkler and spraying each other with the garden hose.  We were having so much fun that she forgot to pee and by the time she realized it, it was a 911 with a bit of screaming and panicking. Internally, I was commanding her to “cALm DoWn!”

I was talking to a friend who had been through a not-so-traumatic experience, but was really spicing up the drama. I heard her out, but internally, I thought “CaLm DoWn!”

It is easy to spot when others are overreacting, but harder to recognize it in ourselves. When we want to shout at someone to calm down, we really could just hold up a mirror and calm ourselves down.  In fact, we really can’t makesomeone calm down.  All we can do is calm ourselves down and let them feel our own calmness and calm themselves down.

Here’s to Conquering Stress,
The Stress Experts