Calm does not require the disappearance of emotion; it requires room around it.

Calm is often imagined as an empty inner room, which sets an impossible standard and makes ordinary agitation feel like failure. What steadiness actually consists of is space: the feeling is present, sizeable even, and it is not filling everything. You can notice it, name it, and still perceive the rest of the room. Nothing has to go away first.

When you are trying to settle, stop attempting to remove the feeling and instead try to widen around it. Notice your feet, the sounds in the room, the person in front of you. The emotion stays where it is and gets smaller in proportion, which is all calm has ever really been.