Everyone works hard to avoid unnecessary stress, but sometimes it just can't be avoided. When your job necessitates (or creates) a certain level of stress every single day, it's important to learn how to control your responses, since you can't always change the circumstances that cause the stress in the first place. Your body chemistry actually changes in stressful situations, releasing cortisol and epinephrine which can, over time, negatively impact your health. So it's important to learn how to stay calm even when your natural response might have been more intense.

Here are a few simple tips for dental insurance brokers to keep cool under pressure:

• Quickly recognize when you begin to feel stress. It's easy not to pay attention to the signals your body sends you, but the earlier you acknowledge the stress you are experiencing, the sooner you can start to handle it.
  
  
• Breathe. Focus on taking some slow, deep breaths. Take at least 30 seconds where you think of nothing except for the breath entering and exiting your lungs. Slow breathing helps you relax, and taking a mental break from the stressful situation will help you cope.
  
  
• Be thankful. It may sound silly, but taking a few minutes to think about the things you are grateful for actually lowers your stress levels. According to the Forbes article, "How Successful People Stay Calm," "Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the ‘right’ thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23 percent. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood, energy and physical well-being."
  
  

• Get enough sleep. While you can't take a nap in the middle of a stressful situation, getting a full night's sleep every night is one of the most important things you can do to improve your body's response to stressful situations. When things get intense at work, you may be tempted to stay up late, but getting your sleep will pay off.

Keeping your cool under pressure is an important skill that will help you be successful across many areas of your life. Practicing these simple steps will help improve your ability to stay calm when things get rough.