Jim Kwik explains how to use your five senses to calm down during stressful moments. He calls senses "satellite dishes" that gather information about your environment, and says you can direct them toward calming stimuli to regulate your emotions. The key is experimenting to find which sensory tools work best for you.
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But is there a quick practical tool that you recommend for managing such moments in a very high stress situation or environment? Different combinations of tools work for different people each day, which is why the real challenge I think we face is, A, identify the tools that are out there. They're not hard to use. You just need to know what they are. And then B, start self-experimenting to find the optimal solutions that work best for you given your unique emotional life. But for me, in a high performance context, and I sometimes, operate in those. I think we often underestimate the senses. So sight, sound, touch, smell, hearing are the major ones. You could think about your sensory system akin to having these satellite dishes mounted all over your body. And the function of those satellite dishes is to take in information about the world around you so that you know how to navigate that world well. And one big part of understanding how to navigate the world is to find things that you can approach and stay away from things that you can avoid. You can harness your senses to help you manage your emotions.
