Have you ever been panicked, stressed-out, or really uneasy and had someone tell you, “Calm down!”? How did that work out? I’m guessing it didn’t go over very well. Telling someone who is experiencing any type of strong emotion to simply “calm down,” typically doesn’t work. Why is that?

When a person is in a situation that feels frightening, threatening, or stressful, his/her brain triggers a fight-or-flight response that the body reacts to immediately. Fight-or-flight is a natural, survival mechanism that helps a person react quickly to a life-threatening situation. The body’s response to a perceived threat might include a faster heartbeat, rapid and shallow breathing, dizziness, increased blood pressure, increased muscle tension, trembling, butterflies in the stomach, and/or tunnel vision (loss of peripheral vision).

Does a situation actually have to be life-threatening for our brains to trigger the fight-or-flight response? No. A person just has to interpret a situation as threatening or dangerous for his/her body to react. This means that a situation that activates the fight-or-flight response in one person, may not trigger the same response in another person. Likewise, there may be some who have fight-or-flight responses that are more easily stimulated. Students who are anxious, angry, overexcited, or overwhelmed, or students who experience high levels of emotions, students who have had adverse childhood experiences, autistic students, students with ADHD, or students with disabilities (and others!) are all more susceptible. These students can be affected by something that others may think is no big deal, like transitioning from one activity to another or going to a spontaneous school assembly. Because our bodies respond instinctively to perceived stressful situations, simply telling a child to “calm down” will not stop his/her body from reacting. So, what can we do?

Breathe. It sounds simple, right? We do it all of the time without thinking about it. But learning, practicing, and employing specific deep-breathing techniques can lower blood pressure, slow down the heart rate, reduce tension, increase oxygen levels, and improve concentration and focus. Because of this, breathing techniques are powerful tools that students can use to help slow down, relax, reduce their anxiety, and regain control of their bodies when those fight-or-flight responses kick in. On the following page are four deep-breathing techniques to try.