One becomes nervous in various situations. Most of us become anxious and nervous before an important event, when waiting for someone special and also when communicating with people. It is unpleasant, but natural. However, if you learn how to stop being nervous, you could improve your performance, sharpen your focus and keep your nervousness controlled.

How to Stop Being Nervous

It can be difficult to stop being nervous, as it involves managing your nervous emotions and thoughts. Psychological research studies have proven that it is impossible for you to stop yourself from not thinking about something. Some studies were successful in showing that if you try hard not to focus on something, then you’ll think more about it as you will trigger your memory of that thing while reminding yourself to stop thinking of it. Therefore, you need to look for a strategy to control your thoughts and not eliminate them.

Here are some ways that can help you to stop being nervous.

1. Write Down Your Thoughts

Often, you become nervous at the thought that your brain will forget something important. This makes you concentrate on these things more, making you nervous. However, when you pen down your thoughts, you take out information from your brain and make it permanent on paper. This reduces your brain’s need to force you into remembering things, thus decreasing your nervousness.

2. Go for a Jog

Physical tension is a sign of anxiety and an issue experienced by people suffering from intense nervousness. Nervous thoughts give birth to physical tension. Both physical tension and nervousness can be resolved by jogging. Running exhausts your muscles that helps in reducing the symptoms of anxiety and consequently reduces your nervousness.

3. Mentally Distract Yourself

Most people aren’t easily able to concentrate on one thought in particular. This is because their mind is focused on numerous things at the same time. You can relax your mind and improve your focus by distracting yourself mentally. Do some creative writing, or watch television to give yourself some mental distractions. These distractions divert your attention away from the nervous thoughts.

4. Practice Calming Exercises

For how to stop being nervous successfully, you need to try some relaxation exercises. They won’t be too helpful at first, but if you continue exercising them, you will notice a marked improvement in your nervousness. Some of the best calming exercises include deep breathing, visualization, mantra meditation, yoga and progressive muscle relaxation.

5. Discuss Your Nervousness with Someone

Therapy is great for controlling your nervous thoughts and it fights the faulty thinking patterns. However, not everyone can afford psychological therapy. These people can mitigate their nervousness by talking to a person who cares about them, or whom they trust. By discussing your negative thoughts, you bring them out in the open, which makes you less scared.

6. Rehearse a Lot

Rehearsing a script or speech repeatedly helps you in memorizing it and when you have learnt it completely, the chances of you forgetting it are minimized. When you know you won’t be forgetting something, your nervousness consequently starts reducing.

7. Convert Nervous Thoughts into Positive Affirmations

Try converting your nervous thoughts into positive affirmations as this reduces pressure on your mind and positively influences it, which will definitely help you to know how to stop being nervous. For instance, if you are nervous that you won’t be able to speak in front of people, then you need to give yourself a positive affirmation by saying "I can speak in front of the public."

8. Accept Your Level of Skill and Yourself

You need to tell yourself that you completely accept yourself and whatever skill level you have. This is a means of encouraging yourself and telling yourself that you are proud of whoever you are. When you are happy about yourself and your skills, your nervousness starts reducing.

9. Shift Your Focus from Yourself to the Content

Try shifting your focus from yourself to the content of your speech or whatever it is you are trying to remember. You need to make yourself understand that it is this content that matters and once you realize that, your focus will be centered on it.

10. Focus on the Situation's Objective

A certain object or goal is attached to everything. You need to think about the objective of the situation that is making you nervous. That goal will motivate you and encourage you to become calm and improve your performance. This will help in eliminating your nervousness.