How to keep calm under pressure | BBC Ideas

Exam pressure, deadlines, job interviews and presentations can all make you feel like a nervous wreck. Just when you need to remain calm, your heart's racing, your palms are sweaty, your voice sounds strange and your mind goes blank. Well, with a little help from neuroscience, here are three easy and reliable techniques you can use to literally keep calm and carry on, no matter what. Of course, there are other things you can do to combat stress, but this trio of tips will hopefully give you instant calm.
考试压力、截止日期、求职面试和演讲都会让你感到紧张不安。就在你需要保持冷静的时候，你会心跳加速、手心冒汗、声音怪异、大脑一片空白。不过，在神经科学的帮助下，这里有三种简单可靠的技巧，让你无论如何都能保持镇定，继续前进。当然，你还可以做其他事情来对抗压力，但希望这三个小技巧能让你瞬间平静下来。

First, a breathing exercise. I want you to take a deep belly-breath through your nose for five seconds, hold it for a second, then push all the air out through your nose, slowly, counting to five. Repeat a few times and you'll feel calmer.
首先是呼吸练习。你需要通过鼻子深吸一口气，持续五秒钟，然后屏住呼吸一秒钟，接着通过鼻子慢慢呼出所有空气，同时数到五。重复几次，你就会感到更加平静。

For centuries, yogis and Buddhists have used controlled breathing techniques like this to gain the upper hand over the nervous system, and science is beginning to understand how it works. Research has identified a specific network of neurons in the brain stem called the pre-Botzinger complex that regulates breathing and communicates with other parts of the brain. Under stress, we tend to breathe very quickly as our body prepares for danger, which is useful if you need to run away, but not if you're about to speak in public.
几个世纪以来，瑜伽修行者和佛教徒一直在使用这种控制呼吸的技巧来掌控神经系统，而科学界也开始理解其背后的原理。研究已经识别出位于脑干的一组特定神经元网络，称为“前包钦格复合体”，它负责调节呼吸并与大脑的其他部分进行交流。在压力下，我们往往会呼吸急促，因为我们的身体为危险做准备，这在你需要逃跑时很有用，但如果你即将在公众面前演讲，那就不是那么有帮助了。

The good news is that by breathing deeply and slowly, you can change the message your brain's receiving from 'danger' to 'all is well'. So the next time you feel panic rising, use deep breathing through your nose to force your body into a state of calm. And the best thing is, no one will notice, not even your audience.
好消息是，通过深呼吸和慢呼吸，你可以将大脑接收到的“危险”信号转变为“一切皆好”。所以下次当你感到恐慌时，通过鼻子进行深呼吸，迫使你的身体进入平静状态。最棒的是，没有人会注意到，甚至你的观众也不会察觉。

Now, you're ready for the humming. A single note, your favourite tune, literally anything will do. Why? Well, studies in how we regulate heart rate have shown that humming can stimulate one of the most important parts of the body you've never heard of: the vagus nerve. It was named 'the wanderer' in Latin because it emerges from the brain and meanders up and down the body like a superhighway of communication, connecting the brain to organs like the heart, lungs and stomach, voice box and ears.
现在，你可以开始哼唱了。一个音符，你最喜欢的旋律，任何旋律都可以。为什么呢？关于我们如何调节心率的研究表明，哼唱可以刺激你从未听说过的最重要的身体部位之一：迷走神经。它在拉丁语中被称为“流浪者”，因为它从大脑中出现，像一条沟通的高速公路一样在身体上下蜿蜒，将大脑与心脏、肺和胃、声带和耳朵等器官连接起来。

A 2013 study of choristers showed that singing, humming and mantras all help keep the heart's rhythm in step. So the next time you feel your heart racing, sing a song or just hum a note, and let your own wanderer nerve restore calm.
2013 年对合唱团成员的一项研究表明，唱歌、哼唱和念咒都有助于保持心律同步。因此，下次你感到心跳加速时，不妨唱首歌或者仅仅哼一个音符，让你自己的“流浪者”神经恢复平静 。

The final tip is to focus. When you're busy, it's tempting to multi-task, but if you want to stay calm and actually get stuff done, don't. Scans show your brain can only do one thing at a time. When you do two things at once, it has to switch between them very rapidly and gets overstimulated and floods your body with stress hormones. By working the way your brain is wired and doing one thing at a time, you can quickly go from feeling overwhelmed to calm.
最后一个建议是集中注意力。当你忙碌的时候，很容易想一心多用，但如果你想保持冷静并真正完成任务，就不要这样做。扫描显示，你的大脑一次只能做一件事。当你同时做两件事情时，大脑必须在两件事情之间快速切换，这样就会过度刺激，使你的身体充斥着压力激素。按照大脑的工作原理，一次只做一件事，你可以从感到不知所措迅速转变为平静。

So break your task down into small parts or steps, circle the one thing you need to do next and forget about the other tasks until their time comes. This is sometimes called 'process thinking' and is used by sports coaches to help athletes focus. Doing just one thing at a time with your fullest attention keeps your mind in the here and now and is a great habit to develop.
因此，将任务分解成几个小部分或步骤，圈出你接下来要做的一件事，然后忘掉其他任务，直到轮到它们时。这有时被称为“过程思维”，体育教练用它来帮助运动员集中注意力。一次只做一件事，全神贯注，让你的思维停留在此时此地，这是一个值得培养的好习惯。

So next time you feel panic rising, stop and remember to breathe, hum and focus. Let us know how you get on.
所以，下次当你感到恐慌时，停下来，记得呼吸、哼唱和集中注意力。让我们知道你的进展如何。



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