What's the best way to deal with stresses in meetings?

How to Handle Stress in the Moment

Based on Harvard business review

You hear a lot of advice about how to reduce stress at work. But most of it is about what to do over the long term — take up yoga, eat a healthy diet, keep a journal, or get more sleep But what do you do when you’re overcome with stress in the moment — at your desk, say, or in a meeting? Perhaps you’ve heard bad news from a client or were assigned yet another project. How can you regain control?

What the Experts SayLow pay, unreasonable workloads, and hectic commutes were the top sources of tension, followed closely by obnoxious coworkers. What exacerbates the problem is that “people walk into work already laden with stress,” says Maria Gonzalez, the founder and president of Argonauta Strategic Alliances Consulting and the author of Mindful leadership “If there is a hardship at home, you bring that to the office and it gets layered with your professional stress and — if you’re not careful — it can spiral out of control.” How well you react to and manage daily stressors “impacts your relationships with other people, with yourself, and how others perceive you,” she says. Justin Menkes, a consultant at Spencer Stuart and the author of  Better under pressure says it’s critical “to get a handle on your reaction to the stressful things that happen to you in the moment.” Here are some techniques to do just that.

Identify your stress signals

Train yourself to recognize “your physiological signs of stress,” says Gonzalez. Perhaps your neck stiffens, your stomach clenches, or your palms sweat. These are all the result of what’s happening inside your body. “The minute you start to experience stress, your pulse races, your heart beats faster and hormones [including cortisol and adrenaline] are released,” she says. “This compromises your immune system and your ability to experience relaxation.”  When you’re able to recognize the signs — instead of ignoring them — you’ll be able to start addressing the underlying cause of the stress.

Don’t think of it as stress

“Most often the reason your blood pressure rises at work is because you’re being asked to do something important” by your boss or a colleague and you want to succeed, says Menkes. “The stress symptoms are telling you: This matters.” Shift your thinking about the task causing you distress and instead try to view it as “an opportunity to move forward that you want to take seriously,” he adds. The goal is to “use that adrenaline pop” to focus your nervous energy, “heighten your attention, and really apply yourself.”

Talk yourself down

When you’re stressed, the voice inside your head gets loud, screechy, and persistent. It tells you: “I’m so angry,” or “I’ll never be able to do this.” To keep this negative voice at bay, “try talking to yourself in a logical, calm tone and injecting some positivity” into your internal dialogue, says Gonzalez. “Say something like, ‘I have had an assignment like this in the past and I succeeded. I can handle this, too.’ Or, if you are faced with an unrealistic request, tell yourself: ‘I am going to calm down before I go back and tell my manager that completing this assignment in this amount of time is not possible.’”

Take three deep breaths

Deep breathing is another simple strategy for alleviating in-the-moment tension. “When you feel anxious, your breath starts to get shorter, shallower, and more irregular,” says Gonzalez. “Taking three big breaths while being conscious of your belly expanding and contracting ignites your parasympathetic nervous system, which induces a relaxation response.” You can do this while also lowering your shoulders, rotating your neck, or gently rolling your shoulders. Deep breathing also helps preempt stress symptoms if you need to, say, get on a tense conference call or deliver bad news in a performance review. “When your mind becomes crowded with negative thoughts, let deep breathing occupy your mental real estate,” says Gonzalez.

Enlist a friendly ear

You shouldn’t have to face nerve-wracking moments at the office alone. “Everyone needs to have somebody they trust who they can call on when they’re feeling under pressure,” says Menkes. “Select this person carefully: You want it to be somebody with whom you have a mutual connection and who, when you share your vulnerabilities, will respond in a thoughtful manner.” Sometimes venting your frustrations aloud allows you to regroup; at other times, it’s helpful to hear a new perspective. This kind of relationship takes time to build and requires nurturing, and it’s likely you will be asked to return the favor. “When you do, it’s incredibly gratifying to be on the other end.”

Make a list

Creating a to-do list that prioritizes your most important tasks is another way to combat feeling overwhelmed. “The act of writing focuses the mind,” says Gonzalez. “Do a brain dump and write out everything you need to do and note whether it’s professional or personal, so you make time for both,” she says. Next to each item, indicate when the task needs to be completed. And here is a critical step: “Identify which are ‘important’ and which of those items are ‘urgent.’”  Those are the ones to tackle first.” Once those are finished, move on to the other things that are more routine. “If you spend all your time on the time-consuming mundane things, you may never get to the important things which is how we get ahead,” she says.

Project an aura of calm

Ever notice how when you’re speaking to someone who’s agitated, you start to feel agitated too? That is because stress is contagious. “When someone palpably feels your tension, they react to it,” says Menkes. He suggests “trying to modulate your emotions” when you find yourself in a tense conversation. Force yourself to “keep your speaking voice gentle and controlled,” adds Gonzalez. Talk in a reasonable and matter-of-fact manner. “If you are persistently calm, others will be too,” she says.

On sum, I advice you to:

#1: Think positive thoughts.

#2: Vent to someone who will help you recover and move on

Do

• Identify what your physiological signs of stress are so you can work to alleviate the tension
• Counteract stressful situations by taking deep breaths
• Find someone whose judgment you trust who can listen and provide counsel

Don’t

• Forget the reason you feel stressed in the first place — you are being asked to do something important and you want to succeed
• Let the negative voice in your head spiral out of control — talk to yourself in a logical, gentle tone
• Project your stress onto others — speak in a calm, controlled way and others will too.

Presenting yourself as a creative professional comes with a special kind of pressure. You are representing, not only yourself, but yourself plus the work you’ve done. Not only is your appearance and performance examined, but things that you create with your hands, heart and mind are judged as well.

This aspect of being a creative professional comes with a heady combination of highs and lows. The thrills that come from the process of creation come with a big dose of anxiety over how our work will be received. We creatives undoubtedly get into this business because of the thrill of doing the work and getting recognized for it. The flip side is the vulnerability that we experience over how our work is received.

We don't like to admit it, but sometimes the pressure gets too much. In which case, what can you do?

In this article, I'll try to offer some honest advice based on my own experience. But first, let's look at why we feel overwhelmed...

01. Reasons for stress

Sometimes during a stressful interview, negotiation or presentation, we feel overwhelmed. And although it's not something we tend to talk about, but it's not really surprising that it happens.

These meetings are important. They are critical for our future. In extreme circumstances you may find your vision narrowing, a pounding sensation in your ears, stomach upset or any number of sensations. These 'out of balance' feelings can happen to anyone. Or you might find yourself with nothing to say, and that’s bad enough. It’s happened to me.

Continuing the meeting - trying to suppress the feelings - it's likely that the discomfort will return. And simply 'getting past it' just doesn’t work. At least, in my experience it never did.

02. Taking action

What works in my experience is taking direct action. The easiest action is to take a break from the discussion.

You may feel awkward about this, so here are three examples of things you can say to facilitate the break:

·         "I'll just take a moment to think about this." Rise from your chair and leave the room. "I'll be back in a minute." Don't allow your opposite to stop you.

·         "I need just a moment to compose myself." This just might get the other party to rethink their approach.

·         "Could we pause for a few minutes? I need a break."

03. Dealing with anxiety

Whatever course of action you take, the important thing is to be aware in advance that you can excuse yourself. That's important because when you're in the room and feeling pressed you must recognize that these anxious feelings are a signal to take action. If you're not aware of this option and are prepared to take it, the anxiety could take over and reduce your ability to deal with the situation, or worse a breakdown.

It's important to remember that to do your best for yourself, and your client or potential employer, you must be at your best. In fact, taking a break honours the importance of the meeting. You're doing it in the spirit of doing your best.

04. Regaining control

Once you are heading for the restroom, you'll feel much better. The simple fact that you took action to regain control will make you feel better. With your confidence returning, think of a few questions to use once you’re back at the table.

Questions are another method of maintaining your confidence. Questions will help you gain more control of the situation and demonstrate your interest. The break gives you a chance to restart and regain control of the encounter.

05. Re-joining the meeting

Returning to the meeting you need to restart the conversation. So what's a good way to do so?

·         You could say, "I was surprised to hear you say_____. Could you explain further?"

·         You can enlist their help in getting past the situation with: "Is there a way we can work together to solve this?"

·         Try one of my all-time favourite sentences: "Help me to understand why it creates difficulty for you."

·         Or "Let's try to think of ways to meet both our needs."

Importantly, all these questions use neutral language and are used in a spirit of mutuality. You are showing your spirit of collaboration. All are in the best interest of you and your opposite.

Best of all they put you back in control. With control, you'll feel stronger, better and worthy of the consideration of your opposite.

Best way to deal with stress in meetings is better preparedness.

If we are well prepared with proper inputs, feedback, answers, expected questions etc., we may easily deal with the stress.

Also better preparedness will give us confidence to take on the abnormal situation more positively instead of getting stressed.

Everyone of us have either Coffee or Tea everyday both at home and work. Do we know why empty saucer accompaines to that cup of Coffee or Tea? From here I learnt a lesson how to over come STRESS. When the cup of Coffee or Tea is so hot that you can't drink so quickly when you are in hurry, you can make use of it transfer so that heat dissipate.

I vacate the scene with prior consent when suh situation arise. This will prevent the relationship straining, while the stress getting built up dissipate by relocation to another scene. If someone has a room to calm down, pl enter to meditate.

According to conflict management strategies if you over stressed during any meeting, the stress management is on this way, stop discussion for a while, walk for a few minutes and do deep breathing many times, try to be more calm and be more patient  and it would be okay soon.   

Even after all these activities if you are not Okay then need to visit your family doctor , might be in need of medications.

I agree with professional answers, thanks for the invitation. 

before it make ur thinking to visit island or sea and drink ur favorite juice to be relax

1. Try not to take any comments to heart
2. In between breaks, drink water and do some deep breathing exercises
3. White down things you disagree with and challenge them professionally if you must

Thank you the invite, I agree with the answer given by experts