Irritability: With these 5 tips you will become more calm

Irritability affects our well-being and also puts a strain on our social environment. Here you can find out what causes irritable behavior and how you can counteract it.

When we are irritable, we react much more sensitively to social factors or environmental stimuli. We often get annoyed more quickly by noises or interpersonal interactions. The reason for this lies in our brain: We receive stimuli via our sensory organs, which are carried to the brain by nerve fibers. The brain then has the task of processing the stimuli. However, if the nerves are overloaded with too many stimuli, we can react more irritably and aggressively.

Irritability: Possible causes

The causes of irritability are varied. It is often due to persistent stress and the resulting factors. These include, for example:

• Sleep disorders and fatigue

• Overwhelm
• exhaustion
• Headache

Possible environmental and social stimuli that can lead to irritability include:

• certain weather conditions or changes in the weather
• Relationship problems
• heavy nicotine or coffee consumption
• Hunger (for example in diets and malnutrition)
• Hormonal changes in the menstrual cycle (for example PMS)
• persistent noise

But irritability can also hide serious illnesses. If it occurs together with other symptoms (such as anxiety, pain or fatigue), it may also be the first sign of depression. If you feel that your irritable nature is increasingly affecting you, you cannot get it under control yourself, or if it occurs along with other symptoms over a longer period of time, you should seek medical advice.

Tip against irritability: sleep hygiene

If stress is the main cause of your irritability, you should take a closer look at your sleeping habits. When we are stressed, we often suffer from sleep problems and are therefore tired and exhausted during the day. To prevent this, you can establish a consistent sleep routine in the following ways:

• Make sure you always go to bed and get up early at about the same time. This way, your body gets used to routine sleeping patterns and doesn’t have to keep adjusting to new times.
• We tend to work late into the night, especially when working from home or during exams. If we then go to bed, our thoughts may continue to revolve around work, university or school for a long time and prevent us from falling asleep. To prevent this, set a specific time for each day to mark the end of your workday. The time should be at least three to four hours before your bedtime.
• Spend your evening doing things that relax you and have fun. For example, you can go for a walk, read, cook or play board or card games with your family or roommates.
• Avoid bright lights and especially screens in the evening. The blue light from laptops, televisions, smartphones and other devices inhibits the release of the sleep hormone melatonin and thus prevents us from sleeping.
• You can get more tips here: Evening routine: Sleep better thanks to 12 tips for sleep hygiene.

Mindfulness for more serenity

Mindfulness means that we perceive moments in the here and now more consciously. In everyday life we ​​often think about the next to-do list, rush from one appointment to the next and rarely take a break to pause. Increased irritability is therefore inevitable. Meditation, yoga and other mindfulness practices can help you stop ruminating and face your everyday life with more calm. You can find inspiration here:

• Mindfulness: The difficulty of being in the here and now
• Mindfulness: 3 recommended meditation apps
• Learning meditation: tips for beginners
• Guided Meditation: These are the benefits
• Yoga for beginners – these tips will make it easier for you to get started

Relaxation exercises against irritability

Exercises and practices that promote relaxation can also prevent and counteract irritability. These include, for example, breathing exercises, massages or specific psychological methods such as autogenic training. For more advice and guidance, see these articles:

• Relaxation exercises: These techniques slow you down
• Breathing exercises: You should know these exercises
• Progressive muscle relaxation (PME): This is how the method works
• Autogenic training: effect, areas of application and exercises
• Back massage: tips and tricks for a relaxing massage

Healthy food, herbs and teas

A healthy and balanced diet promotes your well-being, provides you with all the important nutrients and prevents symptoms such as flatulence or a feeling of fullness. This makes it an important component for counteracting irritability. Also make sure you take enough time and rest to prepare and eat your meals. This also helps you to become more mindful and pause in everyday life. You can find more information on this topic here: Eating intuitively: How to become more mindful when eating.

A calming tea made from medicinal herbs can also promote calm and relaxation. For example, read:

• Valerian: Effects and side effects of the natural sedative
• St. John’s wort and its effects – that’s what you should know
• Lavender tea: effects and how to make it yourself
• Lemon balm tea: effects, application and recipe to make yourself

Exercise against irritability

Finally, physical activity also helps to clear your head, let your thoughts wander and thus prevent irritability. It is important that you find a sport that you enjoy and that you look forward to. You can get tips in this article: Do sports: How to find the right sport.

Read more on Techzle\.com:

• Practice patience: tips for more calm
• Overwhelm: 6 tips that help
• Resilience: This is how you train your mental resilience

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