How can I calm myself when i'm surrounded by a massive crowd of people?

My tried and true technique involves taking several deep breaths, and focusing on what I'm going to do once I'm away from this crowd. Am I going to read that book I've been excited about? Am I going to try out a new recipe? Am I going to hunker down and play my favorite video game? Am I going to bingewatch a show on Netflix? Focusing on happy or exciting activities that I get to do once I'm out of a stressful situation make the current situation a lot easier to work through.

The first thing is to realize who you are, and that you are fine. Second thing to realize is that not everyone is looking at you. Stop stressing about what people might think or how you should act, because there is nothing to worry about. Just think about who you are, where you are and with what goal you are there.

Focus on your breathing and keeping it even, while trying to breathe in deeply and exhale every few breaths until you feel more calm.

Often, when people panic, their breathing becomes rapid and shallow. One technique you can try is to consciously breathe more slowly and deeply. Try exhaling twice as long as you inhale. This helps active your parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for rest, recovery and a state of relaxation.

If you want to calm yourself down when you are surrounded by a massive crowd of people. You should focus on your breathing and you must thinking about the most embarrassing thing that you could do in front of these people. You should also not focus on the people, but look around and focus on the colours around you. Everytime you see a new colour ....register it in your mind.

When I am in a crowd of people and I get scared, I do a little breathing exercise and tell myself that these people are friends, and that they are not out to hurt me if anything they are there because we are friends.

I imagine that I'm a soft- glowing, levitating ball and as I take deep breathes I imagine the glow getting intense and covering other people, turning them into glowing balls, too. Each deep breathe makes the crowd turn into a softly humming, glowing balls. I try to smile, look around and try to smile directly into other people's eyes. Each time someone smiles back, the soft -glow of our balls connect with a ray of light and I imagine surrounding myself with the positive energy of the glow while I continue breathing deeply. If I can, I reach to my clothing or accessories, that is soothing to my senses: A soft fabric, a lucky charm, a nice smelling lipbalm or handcream can help me to transport into this "second layer" where every being is a friendly, soft-glowing light-ball. If I'm in mass-transport or where I can listen to earphones, I put a guided meditation of Stop, Breathe and Think app or a song with a soothing voice, maybe in a language that I don't know, like Dengue Fever, so that I can concentrate on the voice and not the words.

You could try CBT or mindfulness. It's difficult to go in to those in such a short space, however I can summarise. CBT looks at the thoughts that you are having. CBY believes that thoughts lead to emotions which lead to behaviours (which lead to thoughts etc). If you have a thought 'I might be attacked' for example, then you will likely feel anxious. If you have never been attacked (or rarely) and if it's a safe place then this is known as an Unhelpful Negative Automatic Thought. Start challenging these types of thoughts. What evidence is there against this thought. i.e. for the thought I gave, you might say "I've never been attacked before". Over time these thoughts in theory become less as you challenge the irrationality behind them. That was a VERY basic example of CBT. You would need to see a professional therapist to try it. Mindfulness is a form of meditation. I would recommend an 8-week mindfulness course. Good luck. You might also look in to Exposure Therapy.

You should breathe in slowly for about 8 seconds then release and breathe out slowly for about 10 seconds.

I've found that focusing on my breathing really helps when I start to notice a panic attack. I like to remain completely still and focus on slowing my breathing to help calm me down. During my really extreme panic attacks, I find that holding onto my friends, concentrating on their pulse and trying to imitate it begins to help me become less anxious :)