Home » Highly Sensitive Person » 14 Ways To Stay Sane When Life Gets Crazy

When life gets crazy and you feel out of control, finding the right grounding techniques can help you stay sane in any hectic environment you may find yourself stuck in.

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Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Highly sensitive people often take the chaos in from around them when life tends to get out of their control. They might scramble to regain their control by taking on multiple things at once. Certainly, overwhelming yourself with tasks in order to stay productive is not what is going to ultimately help you.

In fact, it takes stepping back from your situation or problem in order to begin the process of becoming grounded. There are an extensive array of ways to be calm and sane when life gets too crazy. However, we will share with you fourteen techniques you may or may not be familiar with to aid you with staying sane.

1. Stay Sane By Recognizing Your Breath

When you actually implement breathing techniques into your daily routine or your grounding practices, you will find that you feel lighter and stress less. Fortunately, there is a breathing practice that works wonders for me as a highly sensitive person.

Namely, most people know it as the 4-second box technique. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, let go for four seconds, and pause for four seconds.

While taking your breaths, imagine yourself building a square in your mind. The more you focus, the stronger your box and the more you stay sane.

2. Place Yourself In The Moment

Especially when you are in a chaotic environment or under a lot of stress, you might feel attacked and react poorly to your situation. Be it a panic attack induced by anxiety or isolation from the outside world, you can avoid the negative reaction by noticing your six senses.

If you need some grounding from the life around you, begin to notice what you see. Then what you hear, and listen intently. After, do the same with the sense of touch, taste, and smell.

Most importantly, avoid making judgments on your observations because it can lead to overthinking. After you place yourself at the moment, think about what you feel internally as this is your “sixth” sense, or rather, your intuition. Notice that you have control of your environment, and you are safe and sane.

3. Take Away One Of Your Senses To Remain Sane

On the contrary of realizing all of your senses, try taking one or more senses away from yourself. It may seem counterintuitive, but if you remain overstimulated, you will need to take a different approach.

By taking away one of your external senses, you allow your body to relax and focus on where the real cause of anxiety is coming from. You can focus on trusting your intuition and your emotions for what they are. Validate yourself to stay grounded.

4. Staying Sane From Practicing Gratitude

Thoroughly, remind yourself of the love you are capable of sharing and feeling. Showing your gratitude for the people around you is widely known to inspire feelings of appreciation and other forms of positive energy.

This skill is simple. The more you realize what you have, the more you accept the privileges you maintain. Acknowledge that you don’t need to have control over the chaos because you already have everything you need to stay sane.

5. Take Away Small Things That No Longer Serve You

Granted, this step is not meant for copious amounts of decluttering. It is simply about taking any small step towards getting rid of things that no longer serve you.

For instance, deleting apps on your phone that you don’t use anymore. If you find yourself with more motivation, then you can do an entire digital declutter. This is not as daunting as throwing away physical items, but it can provide you with just as much mental release.

6. Avoid Spending Too Much Time On Social Media

Notably, you can set time limits on your phone for particular apps you have addictions to. You could also set alarms and reminders to get off your phone. Also, it could prove beneficial to instead follow people and accounts that add something to your life be it inspiration or entertainment.

Avoid spending too much time on social media to avoid becoming an addicted and jealous person. Social media has a habit of enforcing other negative emotions like depression and. anxiety. If you already struggle with these mental states in your daily life, it’s unreasonable to escape your current reality by feeding into a false one.

7. Stay Sane With Healthy Alone Time

Do something you love by yourself. A mini-date party of one. Think about treating yourself in the manner you would want others to treat you. Yes, this is a form of self-care but also self-love.

When people say to love yourself before loving others, it truly means filling up your cup first, so you can handle the hectic reality of external problems. Stay sane, and remember to love yourself first.

Here is a technique that you can try when you are scheduling your next alone moment:

8. Listen And Become Grounded

Listen to music, a podcast, or even just white noise. The music can be classical, jazz, or the soundtrack from your favorite movie. Personally, I recommend the movie soundtrack to the Harry Potter film franchise. White noise also includes soothing sounds like rain sounds and ocean waves.

By focusing on the calming sounds, you can close your eyes and imagine being in a world with less chaos. Put your mind someplace untouched by stress or anxiety. A half an hour of listening can effectively ground your mind and keep you sane.

9. Feeling Chaotic? Stay Sane By Reading A Book

Another form of healthy escapism is the well-known practice of reading your favorite book. Try reading a book that you have read before or a part of a familiar series or author.

This sense of familiarity can release stress or anxiety about whether or not you can actually finish the book you picked up. Stay sane and grounded by avoiding that extra weight and find comfort in something you already know you will love. Surprised to no one, my favorite series to reread happens to be Harry Potter and other fantasy books.

Comment down below your favorite book series to give some recommendations to your fellow sensitive.

10. Meditate In Nature And Feel Sane

Meditation is another widely known grounding practice for when life gets a little crazy and you need a moment to gather your thoughts and feelings. Preferably in grass or next to a constant flow of water, meditation in nature can add another layer of mental release.

Become connected to the earth to not only be a part of something larger than your personal matters but also to remain sane and grounded. If you know a few things, you know that you are an important part of nature and a valued member of your family from ancestors to the present.

11. Write To Find Your Sanity

Journal about your emotions, write down your dreams or even transform your thoughts into entire novels. The final tactic helps you to view and dissect your own emotions as though you are narrating someone else’s feelings. You are not separating your mind from your emotions, you are connecting them.

Most highly sensitive people find that journaling their own emotions without judgment is in itself therapeutic. But entire world-building can be your own personal form of expression and grounding. Write for just your eyes and hold on to your own reality.

If you are looking for a nice journal, try bullet journaling. It is perfect for highly sensitive people and empaths who like to be creative. For instance, discover this bullet journaling set, which will cover all your creative needs.

12. Avoid Unnecessarily Adding Things

When going through a chaotic time, adding a significant amount of extra things into your life can be overwhelming and suffocating. Although providing temporary comfort, it will leave you wanting more. This includes extensive shopping trips and the hours you spend late at night online shopping.

It might feel nice at the moment where your packages arrive and you have your own personal Christmas. However, extra stuff takes up extra space. It’s more to clean and tended to. Oftentimes, it is more to stress about so avoid the extra things altogether and work on managing the things you already have to stay sane.

13. Eat Healthier To Feel In Control And Sane

Eating a good meal with healthy foods may seem unrelated to your levels of stress and chaos. However, when we eat better, it makes us feel like we have a little part of our life together. You get to control what you eat and remembering your power can help your mind find ease and stay grounded.

Eating healthier helps your physical body just as much as it helps your mental state. Treat your mind and body to regain control of your external environment when life feels a little crazy.

14. Who Makes You Stay Sane To Carry On?

Even though it may be easy to isolate yourself, or you feel like you are protecting others from your personal life’s chaos, you may actually need your loved ones at this time. Maintaining your friendships and relationships with people can prevent you from feeling lost when everything around you seems to be out of control.

Try not to avoid or push away people who are close to you. Sometimes, quality time is all you need to bring you back down to earth and help you stay sane.

Find The Courage To Stay Sane And Welcome The Calm

These techniques and tips are a blend of easy and more time-consuming habits to incorporate into your calming routine. However, all of them require some amount of effort. So choose to stay sane amidst the chaos of daily life, and cherish the moments where you can pause and smell the roses.

What is your ultimate way to keep calm and stay sane in tough times?

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