Meditation to Deal With Test Anxiety


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Meditation to Deal With Test Anxiety Almost everyone experiences anxiety to some degree at some time in their life, and meditation to deal with test anxiety has become increasingly popular. Regardless of how much time and deliberation you apply to studying beforehand, the morning of the exam the panic sets in. You can feel as though your mind has gone blank and you have retained none of the material you studied. Some people even experience nightmares filled with fretfulness and worse case scenarios before the day, serving only to heighten their nervousness. With meditation to deal with test anxiety, you will have an opportunity to change the way you perceive an exam. Using imagery, visualizations and affirmations, you can dissolve all threads of apprehension and concern with little consideration. There really is no need to allow panic or worry to affect the way you perform, and everyone is able to think more clearly when feeling calm and relaxed for an assessment. The problem is not actually the exam itself, but is, in fact, the whole thought process leading up to it. Right from the moment your lecturer or teacher says "This examination is worth 50% of your term mark, and is not to be taken lightly." you feel your heart rate increase. What you need is daily rumination and meditation to deal with test anxiety, and affirmations to repeat to yourself any time you are feeling worry or fretfulness. A simple beginner's meditation for test anxiety can be read onto a tape by yourself or a friend. Give consideration to a time each day when you will be undisturbed and sit or lay in a comfortable position. You can edit this where necessary to reflect the specifics of your own situation: "Close your eyes and relax, relax your whole body completely, feeling yourself becoming heavier and heavier. Now observe your natural breathing, feeling the rise and fall of your chest and abdomen, feeling the coolness of the air as it enters your nostrils and the warmth as it passes back out again. With each inhalation, visualize yourself breathing in a powerful and healing white light, more bright and beautiful than you have ever seen before. As you breathe out you are becoming heavier and heavier…. More and more relaxed… (At this point in the meditation for test anxiety recording, the reader should pause for at least a minute.)

"Using your imagination, see yourself arriving at your college campus on the morning of an important exam. You smell clean cut grass and the sun is shining on a mildly warm morning. In your hands, you have exactly what you need for the exam, and in your mind, you are feeling strong and confident. You have put in your one hundred percent best effort doing regular study, and you know now is a time for positive thinking only. You feel free of all worry and nervousness, and, as you walk towards your exam room, a feeling of excitement and anticipation comes over you. You are ready and keen to show how much you have learned this term, and you know your meditation for test anxiety has been successful. "You take a deep breath of fresh morning air before walking into the room. Going straight to your allocated seat you close your eyes and take another deep breath, feeling so calm and relaxed. In your mind you say to yourself "I am ready to do this exam, only positive thoughts will be allowed to enter my mind, I think clearly and answer all questions thoroughly. I now choose to recall all the information I have studied in relation to this subject." When you open your eyes everyone in the room is seated and the supervisor instructs you to begin. Watch yourself as you write steadily for the whole examination, seeing a look of concentration and reflection on your face. You finish writing, pick up the paper and read over your work with satisfaction, feeling impressed with what you have written and how you have written it. You walk to the front and hand your paper in and leave the room. When you step outside, you are on a big grassy oval and you run and jump with joy, ecstatic that you have overcome any panic and thankful that your meditation to deal with test anxiety was completely successful!" Try to practice this at least three times a week, but daily if you can. For people with a more serious anxiety problem, contemplation should be given to starting your meditation to deal with test anxiety early on in the year. By Uma Johnson Popular related searches: