Inner calm refers to the ability to maintain composure and respond rationally to psychologically challenging situations. In psychology, this is also referred to as composure or level-headedness, and there is an emotional and a rational aspect to inner calm.
What is inner calmness?
Inner calm refers to the ability to maintain composure and respond rationally to psychologically challenging situations. Inner calm can come into play in a restful situation, but also in a stressful life situation. In the absence of any particular stimulus or trigger, inner calm is also referred to in psychology as composure. In this state, the person is equanimous. If a trigger arises that could challenge this inner calm, people who remain largely unaffected by it are referred to as level-headed. This means the individual is still controlled by reason rather than emotional motivations and maintains calm despite mental challenge. Calmness in most cases denotes a healthy, even desirable state. It is ultimately associated with the person being inwardly calm and composed and not worrying or worrying unnecessarily when there is no cause to do so. However, inner calmness can occur even when the person could or should behave differently. If he remains calm in an emotional situation where emotions normally take over, this may also indicate an emotional disorder.
Function and task
The term “composure” originated in Old High German and at that time meant submitting to the will of the gods. At that time, most religions believed that they were subject to the arbitrariness of their god beings and could not change anything about it. The inner peace they desired in the face of strokes of fate was thus also a way of coping with events they could not influence. A certain inner calm helps people not to react to every influence in affect, but to be able to weigh up how they should react. Influences that can trigger an emotional, affect-driven response flow at people every day: Noise on the street, expectations from fellow human beings, and stress on the job are just a few of them. Thus, inner calm can also serve to protect against harmful influences to the psyche when used to view what is known to be harmful in a less emotional way. Many religions and schools of thought in philosophy have already attempted to live inner calm as a standard and to protect against possible emotional pain by detaching from emotional reaction. A well-known example of this is Stoics, for whom affected reactions were just unreflective behavior as a contrast to inner calm.
Illness and discomfort
Inner calmness is a healthy psychological mechanism in many situations. A person cannot develop an emotional stirring to every stimulus; some things must meet with disinterest for his own protection. Thus, individual fates of other people disturb us less if we do not know the person concerned. However, inner calm can also become problematic, because as a contrast to affect, it is very usable if the person develops an interest in separating himself emotionally. Often, inner calm is then no longer genuine and the person actually suffers from it because it suppresses emotional stirrings. A long-term suppression of emotions with feigned composure or even coldness is psychologically unhealthy and sooner or later results in suppressed emotions seeking another outlet. Consequences can be unkindness towards valued people, but also self-harming behavior, alcoholism or criminality. Inner calm in the sense of indifference also becomes problematic when it is genuine but occurs in situations where this indifference is unhealthy. Inner calm in situations where it is unusual can thus also indicate psychological problems in children, usually attachment disorders with causes in early childhood. Along with many other symptoms, not least, people with psychopathy are characterized by a kind of inner calm that enables them to think through their actions carefully and behave tactically in ways they know are expected of them in order to achieve a goal.