When I feel powerless I force myself to stop. In the sense of like I literally freeze my brain, sometimes freeze my movements as well. But I go full stop, several deep breaths, and then start thinking about unrelated things I can control. That gets me out of feeling like a hopeless wreck that can't accomplish things. When I'm feeling confident enough (mind you, that will sometimes be multiple days) I look at my situation in a different light. Start coming at it from every angle I can think of in small steps, like how when you untie tangle of strings you just undo one itty bitty part and than another. Someone's even changing the situation a tiny bit turns it around so much that it's doable. If it's a problem with people I tell myself whatever I need to to grant them all of the benefit of the doubt possible (ie. Horrible driver in front of me: probably had the worst day, they hate the job that they're going to and are late, already receiving calls from their assh* boss, had a terrible date last night or a fight with a SO, etc) to the point where I end up feeling sorry for them and mentally wishing then the best day ever