The person breathing normally sees a different situation than the person mentally fleeing.

Your body’s state shapes what you perceive. Someone whose system is in flight mode is reading the situation for threats and exits, and the same room genuinely looks different to them than to someone breathing normally. This is why calming yourself is not a way of being nicer about a problem but a way of seeing it accurately.

Before assessing anything difficult, get your breathing settled first. It sounds too simple to matter. The reading you take afterwards is usually noticeably different from the one you would have taken while braced.