How to Cure Test Anxiety: 3 Habits to Break to Cure Test Panic!
What is test anxiety?
Test anxiety is the experience of feeling anxious, distracted, upset, and overwhelmed in anticipation of a test and the results that might occur. Like most other types of anxiety, test anxiety stems from a panic-like feeling that is generally future-focused and is the result of how you have chosen to think and focus over time.
What are bad anxiety habits?
Most people just think of bad habits as having to do with small actions we do or don’t do. Not brushing our teeth daily, etc… However, mental habits are the thoughts we continue to focus on over time. Like a physical muscle, our brain is also plastic and malleable. Our habitual neural signals are like sleds that follow the exact same snow tracks over and over again. Pretty soon those sleds naturally cling to it, sliding quickly with difficulty to change course.
Bad Habit #1 Indulging in what-if thinking
What if thinking consists of thoughts like “What if I don’t pass the test… What if I can’t study well today… What if I get a lot of questions wrong, etc.?” Sometimes these thoughts are mostly subconscious.
To cure this problem and avoid “negative what if thinking”, start talking to yourself inside your head and train yourself using “positive what if thinking”. Ask yourself: “What if I could study well today? What if I found a way to work hard? What if I performed well despite my stress?…”
Then talk to yourself and say “I can do this!…I’ll do this! I’m doing this!” This begins the “flip!” The power of this talk cannot be underestimated!
Bad Habit #2 Mind Bounce!
This means that you are focusing on several things instead of staying focused on one thing for a single period of time. Jumping from one topic to another happens when you panic. It’s like being overwhelmed by an ADHD juice surge!
To cure this tendency, you have to stop looking at the result as a whole. Divide your test into portions. Keep in mind that success comes from placing one brick at a time, even in difficult scenarios. If you have a lot of study material, spend 20 minutes on a single section. After that session is over, reward yourself for not focusing elsewhere. Breaking down the material is the key to curing mind rebound!
Bad Habit #3 Allowing your body to need to fall and your physiology to act stressed
When we haven’t eaten, slept, nourished enough, or drunk enough water while stressed, our body tenses up. So we tend to hold our body in positions that only cause additional fatigue and panic, preventing us from focusing properly.
To cure this, change your physiology to a maximum state! You will feel the difference! When the body changes, the mind follows!
Speak and move with power to turn your status around. Take a short walk, keep your shoulders back, focus your eyes as you would if you were in your perfect crystal clear study area. Maintaining this physiology for 10 minutes will make a world of difference!
Eliminating these three habits is a great starting point to start curing your test panic.