The Calm Before The Storm
This is the best part of a hard endeavor. The calm before the storm, it is of utmost importance to preserve one’s mind when things go terribly wrong, so this moment should be used wisely. If you have a challenge ahead of you it is no use thinking, pondering about it, wondering what if it goes wrong, what if this happens or that, the best approach, whether you prepared yourself or not for that is to remain calm. And actively seek that. Several studies link a clear mind to a person’s better capacity to do desired tasks under stressful situations, either resting before a marathon, or relaxing before an exam or presentation, having chill conversations that do not involve pondering about your near future cause knowing it is both nice and scary.
But it’s easy to talk, now how does one calm their nerves? “I can’t control myself, the thoughts come all the time” well the answer to this is let them go. Look within yourself to find sources of enjoyment that actually work and not just passive activities controlled by robots trying to eat your time with more content for monetary profit. After all, that can also fill you with unnecessary stress due to the lack of control over what comes next in your screen and the amount of media you will consume. You could be seeing a cute dog jumping and next news of a bloody accident somewhere in the world, in the same way you could plan on watching short videos for twenty minutes and when you least expect you’ve been there for four hours.
So, I know it’s hard and sometimes disturbing to look at yourself but that’s something you need to do to find that out, either by writing your thoughts and then organizing them later on, or just releasing them with words, write and close the book. If you’d rather speak, record yourself talking about your current issues, listen to you, what are you saying? Do you agree with that, how to objectively make that better? Notice everything without judgment and decide taking all into account, note this isn’t easy, it’s an everyday exercise, once it becomes your routine you’ll often feel the need to unleash the words inside of you and later maybe discover something about you never noticed before.
This is power. This is how you remain calm later when the storm comes, your breathing will get heavier, the legs are now shaking, you can barely speak, stuttering words into existence, you practice, practice and practice or don’t, in any case you know it’s useless to the “monster” ahead of you, but when your hands are cold with sweat, and the mind wonders too far doubting your capabilities. You suddenly remember how things were structured into paper or notice how that was silly on the voice recorder. You’ve done this before or at least seen, something not quite the same but similar enough, by trying to remember half of it. You've been through it once, it’s inside of you, it will happen again, the hardships will keep coming but you will overcome each and everyone of them. You are stronger than you think. Much harder to break than before. As you have these thoughts and your mind gets clearer, you can properly stand now, adjust your posture, Don’t get shy now. Show them you are here. Take space.
Notice how some of the people around you are behaving, if there’s no one, look at patterns on the floor, the tables adjusted, how everything there was designed for a certain purpose or none whatsoever, how interesting things exist outside all that encompasses that moment. You are not alone and you will never be, there will always be new chances to succeed. Go on, smile now silly. With straight shoulders and stretched arms, relax and begin to trust.
Side note: if all of this motivational talk doesn’t work for you, my best advice is being delusional, de-lu-lu! “Of course things will work out cause I’m insane.” You say menacingly.
